Car Book

July 29, 2020Leave a comment

Car Book (8)

Veronika is obsessed with cars and trucks right now, so today I made her a picture book about cars of her very own!

First, we sat down to go through an old car magazine together, which was half the fun, talking about each vehicle as we came to it. I then tore out pages with clear, complete pictures of cars and trucks. You can also add pictures of tractors, motorcycles, or other favorite vehicles, if you find them in a magazine’s pages.

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Glue each picture onto a square of poster board. Line up the pages and punch holes, then secure with two pieces of string.

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Veronika instantly loved flipping through it at home…

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…but of course there’s no better place to read her car book than in the car!

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I love that I catch her “reading” this book to herself in the backseat. “There’s truck! There’s green car!” We’ll get a lot of mileage out of this one.

The Sandbox Scene

July 29, 2020July 29, 2020Leave a comment

Sandbox Scene (1)

We’ve made a lot of at-home sandboxes in miniature this summer, but today we needed the real thing! To keep things fresh, I made sure we brought along toys that would add novelty to Veronika’s sand play. Because many public sandboxes encourage at-home toys these days, it was also the perfect excuse to mix things up!

First up: empty frozen juice containers. These are great because unlike other metal cans, they have no sharp edges. They are perfect for stacking into towers.

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I also brought along construction vehicles…

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Toy figures…

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And shovels of course.

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Measuring cups are great if you want to toss in a little learning, like concepts about size or volume. If you don’t want your real kitchenware getting sandy, bring along a few cups from a set of stacking cups.

It turned out the afternoon was really hot and the sandbox was in direct sunlight… but wouldn’t you know it, all those toys were just as great in nature’s other great play space: the grass box!

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We got silly trying to stack our frozen juice containers here since the grass made things uneven.

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Then of course, there’s the option of using the biggest “sandbox” of all: the beach! Here, we have a few extra options thanks to wet sand.

We could stack up a hill and then try to dig through to each other’s hands; we could bury toys and then unearth them; and of course we could bury our feet!

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It’s also fun to dig a trench or hole, fill it with water, and watch what happens.

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Veronika was amazed with how quickly the water was absorbed.

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What’s your kids favorite thing to bring to the sandbox? Please share in the comments!

Object Matchup

July 28, 2020Leave a comment

Object Matchup (6)

Veronika loves spotting her own outline in her shadow, so today I thought it would be fun to teach a bit about how objects have shadows too, not just people. Recognizing shadows and outlines can help with skills like puzzle-solving down the line; plus this game is great for vocabulary!

Simply trace a variety of household items onto index cards. I used things that were familiar to Veronika, including: a key, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, scissors, and a crayon.

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If you want this game to be more permanent, cover each card with contact paper for durability.

I then laid the cards out in front of her, along with the pile of objects. It was time to see if she could match them up! At first she didn’t quite understand, because she wanted to color the crayon’s outline with… the crayon.

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But then she looked at the scissors in her hand and the outline of the scissors on the card, and declared, “Scissors!”

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Soon she was matching up the spoon to the spoon card, the heart to the heart card, and so on. A simple but nice activity for cognitive development.

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Toddler Toothpicks

July 27, 2020Leave a comment

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While big brother was busy making a big kid craft involving toothpicks, Veronika wanted in on the action. Luckily I knew just how to keep a toddler busy with toothpicks in a safe way! Note: You will still want to supervise this activity a little more closely than most, since the ends of the toothpicks are pointy.

Give your toddler an empty spice jar with small holes in the cap, along with a pile of toothpicks. Chances are you won’t even have to demonstrate!

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The holes are like a magnet for toddlers, begging to be filled up with those little toothpicks.

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This activity was great for Veronika’s fine motor skills, since she had to pinch up the toothpicks from the floor. Then it became an exercise in hand-eye coordination to find a hole.

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Once the jar was filled, she loved taking the lid off to dump it and start over again!

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At a certain point, she realized that the closed jar made a shaky sound when the toothpicks were inside. An instant maraca, and an instant way to keep a toddler busy.

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Clothespin Colors

July 27, 2020Leave a comment

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I had two goals for this simple activity: to review Veronika’s color knowledge and to hone her pinching skills. She’s just old enough now (at 21 months) to pinch a spring-type clothespin, but I realized quickly that it’s still a struggle for her. So you may want to wait until your toddler is a little older before setting up this activity.

Still, we made it work! I put colored dot stickers at intervals around the rim of an empty coffee can.

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Then I put corresponding dot stickers on the clothespins.

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For each one, I asked her, “What color is this dot?” Once she answered, I had her hunt through her pile for the same color on a clothespin.

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Since the pinching was hard for her, I helped her secure the clothespin to the dot, then moved on to the next one. “What color is here?”

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“Green!” she said proudly.

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We worked our way once around the coffee can one time, though she did then lose interest and wanted to play with more dot stickers instead. Luckily there’s lots to do with leftover clothespins and empty cans if you leave them lying around.

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Colored Ice Cube Bath

July 26, 2020Leave a comment

Colored Ice Cube (4)

Veronika has loved playing with ice this summer, so tonight we brought the fun inside. If she thought ice melted fast on the patio, just wait until she saw how fast it would melt in the warm bath tub!

To make everything more fun (plus more obvious visually), I froze water in the compartments of an ice cube tray with a little food coloring added to each. Dark colors like reds and blues will work better here than soft yellow.

Once Veronika was in the tub, I popped out the ice cubes one at a time. Be prepared for fast action, because that ice isn’t going to last long!

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She loved watching the food coloring swirl out into the tub as the ice melted almost instantly. She also enjoyed taking the cubes from my hand, a momentary shocking sensation of cold.

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When we had about half the ice cube tray left, I dumped them all in at once for a grand finale. This game was – obviously! – quick, but made for a joyful end to a hot day.

Patio Fun with Water

July 26, 2020Leave a comment

Fun with Water (1)

Veronika has played with various kitchen utensils to keep busy in the past, but today we added a few twists to this classic toddler activity.

The first change was that we moved the whole game outside. I laid a towel on the patio and filled a large kitchen bowl with water, then added measuring cups, a whisk, a pastry brush, measuring spoons, and a few sieves.

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The sieves were great for pouring water into and instantly watching the water trickle back out!

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The other big novelty here was adding a funnel. I showed Veronika how we could place a funnel over an empty sparkling water bottle and fill it, then watch the water trickle down. She concentrated so hard on reaching way up with a measuring cup to fill the funnel.

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Then she loved dumping the water bottle out!

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She also enjoyed brushing water onto a strainer with a pastry brush.

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Whisks were fun to swish in the bowl.

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And of course there was the obvious appeal of pouring water right onto her skin, since the morning was already hot. Knowing this would be tempting, I’d dressed her in a bathing suit, so you might want to do the same!

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At the end when we had a big puddle of water on the patio, it was time for a splashy puddle dance.

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Puppet Pop-Up and Theater

July 24, 2020Leave a comment

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Puppet play is always fun for a toddler, but here are two ways to specifically involve an older sibling in the action!

For the first game of the day, we made a proper puppet theater. Decorate the outside of a large box, big enough that an older sibling can crawl inside. After the kids were done coloring with markers, I cut a large “window” in one side.

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Veronika wanted to be the first one inside with our set of puppets! She loved that it was like a little house.

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It was fun to trot the puppets along the ‘roof’!

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It only got better once I hot-glued fabric along either side of the window as curtains. Now she could peak through with delight.

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Then it was big brother Travis’s turn to crawl in and put a puppet on his hand… for a real show! Veronika delighted in seeing the puppets perform.

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Plus she loved peeking inside the box to see what Travis was up to!

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For a simpler version, you can nix the big box and just play puppet pop-up at the highchair. Because kids can’t see over the rim of their highchair tray, it’s the perfect spot for a game like this.

Simply have a big sibling (or grown-up) hold a puppet just below the tray.

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Then pop up for a performance. Hello!

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This one is sure to elicit giggles every time.

Animal Sort

July 23, 2020Leave a comment

Animal Sort (2)

Veronika loves playing with her stuffed animals (a favorite lately has been simply to climb in the crib with every single “stuffie” and have a blast in there). Today when we pulled out the stuffies, I decided to make it a little educational, too.

I encouraged Veronika to make two piles. Could she divide the animals into big and small? The idea of sorting is still tough for a 20-month-old, but she can identify whether a single stuffed animal is big or small.

So I started the two piles for her as an example, and then held the others up one at a time. “Where should this one go?” I asked her. “Is he big, or small?”

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She made a little effort at this, but she was honestly more interested in making the sounds of each animal – hoots for owls, growls for bears, etc. So we decided to sort them differently: loud animals versus soft ones! Again I had to help with much of the sorting, but it was fun to make the noises for each animal as our piles grew larger.

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Older toddlers and preschoolers will love this to, and maybe think of other ways to sort the animals. And of course, you’ll have a giant pile of stuffed animals to play in at the end.

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