Category: 2-Year-Old

Cloud in a Jar

Leave a comment

Cloud in a Jar (5)

Turn a rainy day into a science lesson with this cute experiment! With thick rain clouds covering the sky, it was the perfect day to test out the craft (care of Parents magazine), and to ask Travis he thought would happen when our cloud become too heavy with water.

To demonstrate, fill a jar or clear bowl with water until almost full, then add a layer of shaving cream.

Cloud in a Jar (1)

Fill a second, small cup with water and dye it blue for your rain. Travis definitely needed to help with the drops of food coloring.

Now it’s time to make a rain storm! I wanted Travis to use an eye dropper so we could saturate our cloud gradually, but he was much too impatient so we started pouring on our rain instead.

Cloud in a Jar (3)

Needless to say, we soon had a monsoon! Travis loved seeing the blue color swirl down beneath our shaving cream cloud.

Cloud in a Jar (4)

And then this happened of course! A stormy good time.

Cloud in a Jar (6)

Color Mixing Sensory Table

3 Comments

color-explore-1

With a little food coloring and an ice cube tray, you can start to teach your child all about how colors mix to form new ones. If you’re in a warm climate, play this game outside at a water table or empty sand table! Truth be told though, I’m glad we did it indoors since the clear glass containers we used made it easy to see the colors we created.

For my indoor winter set up, I laid out a few spoons and three glass containers on a towel in the bathroom, each filled with a little bit of water (use a towel that you don’t mind getting dirty!). I brought in the ice cubes I had frozen ahead of time, with drops of food coloring added in the 3 primary colors – blue, yellow, and red.

First, we simply dropped individual ice cubes into the containers – Travis loved seeing the water instantly turn a beautiful hue.

color-explore-2

It didn’t take long before he was mixing. Seeing yellow and blue make green was a big hit for Travis.

color-explore-3

Our red and blue made a very muddy purple, but even this was fun to stir around for a while. Whenever our containers got a bit icky in color from over-mixing, I poured them down the tub and refilled with clean water to begin again.

color-explore-4A big hit!

Glitter Volcano

Leave a comment

glitter-volcano-7

Travis has been obsessed with volcanoes ever since we made one a couple of weeks back… so much so that if he sees me cooking with vinegar now, he asks if we’re about to make another. The only problem? We ran out of playdough!

No playdough? No problem! Set up this neat “volcano” in any old plastic container. If anything, the bubbles are even more spectacular, even though you don’t have an exact volcanic shape for your “lava” to run down.

First, fill a baking pan with cornstarch (about 1 to 2 cups) and set aside.

In your container, have your child help you combine 1/3 cup water, 6 teaspoons baking soda, and 2 teaspoons dish detergent.

glitter-volcano-1

Next we added pink glitter for a fiery and sparkly effect. Isn’t every project better with a little glitter?

glitter-volcano-2

Now for the explosion! Carefully pour 1/2 cup vinegar into the mixture – and watch it erupt.

There were lots of bubbles:

glitter-volcano-4

First we had fun scooping off the foam, and mixing that into the cornstarch around the pan.

glitter-volcano-5

In fact, as the lava mixture combines with the cornstarch, you’ll get something pretty close to… ooblek!

glitter-volcano-6

Then we had to do it a second time; luckily we had just enough ingredients for round two. If you like, keep repeating until your vinegar runs out!

glitter-volcano-3

D Week!

Leave a comment

D week (20).JPG

Only three weeks remain in our Letter of the Week journey! Travis has come to love discovering which letter I’ve posted to our wall, and asks all week if a song, food, or game is “special for ___ week.” I love the way this curriculum has built his understanding of the connection between letters and words. Without any further ado, here was our D week.

d-week-2

Dinosaur: What didn’t we do with dinosaurs this week? I pulled out all our dinosaur toys, which meant magnets, punch-out paper dinosaurs, miniature dinosaurs, dinosaur puzzles, dinosaur stickers, dinosaur coloring books, and dinosaurs stories to cuddle up with like That’s Not my Dinosaur (while wearing dino pj’s of course!)

d-week-3

Dino crafts included a rather awesome Dinosaur Egg which merited its own blog post, and then we dug for “dinosaur bones” (i.e. popsicle sticks) in a mixture of flour and salt that looked a lot like desert sand.

d-week-5

After digging, glue your “bones” together into a dino skeleton!

d-week-6

Dominos: Children will delight in the chain reaction of dominos if you set them up, and manipulating the tiles is great practice for little fingers. You can also help tots line up dominos with pips that are alike for an early math lesson.

d-week-12

Dogs: Travis played with the stuffed animal dog toys we have, but then I decided we should visit real dogs at a local animal shelter for our field trip of the week. Even though we can’t currently adopt, it’s nice to spend time with animals who may have been caged for quite some time. Ask if there are older, gentler dogs who might like a little playtime in a room with a family. Your child will love the interaction, and get an early lesson in compassion!

d-week-18

Doctor/Doll: I’m combining these two words, because if a doll comes out in our house, it’s probably going to get a doctor’s checkup. To keep things novel this week, we made a doctor’s hat for Travis! Fold two pieces of white paper into thirds lengthwise, then glue them together so you have one long band. Cover a circle of cardboard with foil, and glue this to the center of the hat.

d-week-17

Dr. Travis was so proud to wear it!

little-white-duck-1

Duck: There are so many darling duck books to choose from (starting with Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, and Little Ducks Go by Emily Arnold McCully). We read those stories and followed up with a little white duck craft.

d-week-14

Dance: We dance a lot in this house, but we played two games this week to make things different. First, I gave Travis a stuffed animal and showed him how to dance with a partner – he loved it! You can also play a game of dancing statues, freezing the music on occasion and seeing who can hold still until the music starts again.

D week (9).JPG

Disappear: Here’s a sleight-of-hand trick that might not fool older kids, but tricks a toddler! Press a piece of foil over a coin so you leave the coin’s imprint; carefully remove the coin. Place the foil in your hand and say you’ll make it disappear. Hold a piece of paper over your palm with a magic chant or two, but then “fail” to make the coin disappear. Repeat again. On the third try, get frustrated and crumple up the paper; the foil gets crumpled too and voila – your coin has disappeared! “Again!” Travis requested.

Some extras…

Fine art: Our art this week was simple: I have yet to meet a kid who doesn’t like dot markers, so we made lots of dots. You can have your child dot at random, or draw outlines for them to fill in, like flowers, shapes… or the letter D!

d-week-24

Food: Travis dined on dates and dill pickles, and then we made a special excursion for a vegan donut at a local bakery.

100-happy-61

Books: In addition to dinosaur and duck books, we read I Love My Daddy by Sebastian Braun, My Pet Dragon by Christoph Niemann, James the Dancing Dog by Linda Maybarduk, and Give That a Dog a Bone by Steven Kellogg

d-week-19

Songs: Little Baby Bum has cute dino songs, like Ten Little Dinosaurs, and Travis loves stomping to Laurie Berkner’s We are the Dinosaurs. Hey Diddle Diddle features lots of great Ds, beyond the title; don’t forget the dog laughing and the dish running away.

Math: Ambitious: I taught Travis that one dozen equals twelve. He still gets a little muddled counting objects higher than eight, but when I ask him how many are in a dozen now, he knows the answer is twelve!

We will “C” you next week…

Paper Plate Sheep

Leave a comment

paper-plate-sheep-4

We made one final animal this week to cap off farm play (see my previous posts for our Koala Farm Crate and Little White Duck). Full disclosure: Travis wasn’t very into crafting this sheep, but he loved playing with it!

First, glue cotton balls (or white pom poms) all over a paper plate. It was hard to coax Travis into this step, only because he much preferred throwing the cotton balls all over the living room!

paper-plate-sheep-2

Once the glue dries, you can add two popsicle sticks as legs. Travis helped color them black, although I had to guide his hand to make sure the thin popsicle sticks received enough marker! Paper towel is just so much more fun to draw on, of course.

paper-plate-sheep-1

We glued on the legs, and then added a rather abstract-art eyes and smile with black marker. Then it was time to trot the sheep around the house!

paper-plate-sheep-3

Peanut Butter-Topped Bananas

1 Comment

peanut-butter-banana-3

It’s National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, so we topped our bananas with peanut butter frosting, almost like cupcakes!

Travis loved helping to slice a banana. Give your child one banana to practice on, while you cut another into pieces about 1-inch wide.

peanut-butter-banana-1

Place peanut butter in a zip-top bag and cut a hole in one corner of the bag; squeeze like frosting onto the banana pieces.

peanut-butter-banana-2

Hint: Fill a second bag with peanut butter for your child to squeeze all over the cutting board, just for fun!

We topped our “cupcakes” with a sprinkle of shredded coconut and a raspberry.

What peanut butter creation do you love to make? Please share in the comments!

Dinosaur Egg

1 Comment

Dinosaur Egg (8).JPG

We found dinosaur eggs in our apartment this weekend! Okay, maybe not really, but these giant balloon-sized eggs are sure to get your kiddos excited, even if they helped make them and remember that they started out as balloons!

To start, slightly inflate a balloon (large ones work best for this game) and insert a small toy dinosaur into each – be careful not to tear the plastic of the balloon with any spikes i.e. t-rex works better than stegosaurus here, folks. Inflate the balloon the rest of the way.

dinosaur-egg-2

At this point, I told Travis we had baby dinosaurs that would be hatching soon, but that we needed to help the eggs incubate. It was time to get to work with our papier-mache!

If you’ve never made papier-mache at home, don’t be intimidated; it’s just one part flour to one part water. We mixed together our goop in a baking pan, which I set out along with a stack of torn newspaper.

dinosaur-egg-4

Travis had way more fun simply throwing the newspaper into the goop…

dinosaur-egg-6

…and stirring it with a spoon…

dinosaur-egg-7

…but I managed to cover our balloons in the meantime. Set them aside overnight to dry.

dinosaur-egg-5

Now came the magic. The next morning, I popped the balloons inside with a sharp pin. This cracked the papier-mache coating perfectly, so the eggs looked like the babies were just starting to hatch.

dinosaur-egg-9

Travis had so much fun opening the eggs the rest of the way to reveal the dinos inside!

dinosaur-egg-10

Note: If you like, you can paint your eggs before “hatching” them, but Travis was too excited to rip them apart, so we skipped that step!

 

Toddler Science Experiment

Leave a comment

Toddler Science (5).JPG

This game involved a simple introduction to the scientific method, with Travis needing to make a hypothesis. Although I thought the answer would be obvious, even I was surprised with our results!

To set up, place ice cubes in one bowl (with a little water) next to an empty bowl. If you’re inside, it helps to have a towel under the bowls to contain any spills… or save the game for when you can play outside on a warm day!

toddler-science-1Next I presented Travis with three options for moving the ice from one bowl to the other – a regular spoon, a slotted spoon, and kitchen tongs. Which one would be the best way to move the ice, I asked him. He immediately grabbed the regular spoon and started transferring.

toddler-science-2

What happened next was quite interesting though. The spoon worked great, but as the ice cubes began to melt and grew smaller, they slid off the spoon. The best tool for the job turned out to be…the tongs, which I hadn’t thought Travis had mastered! So the result surprised us both.

toddler-science-3

The slotted spoon, which I had surmised would be his favorite, was a bit of a dud. He was so into the regular spoon and tongs that it didn’t interest him to see the way the water slid through the slots as he scooped up a piece of ice.

toddler-science-4

The fun lasted until the ice cubes all melted!

Earth Exploration

Leave a comment

earth-explore-5

Since Travis loved volcano play so much recently, this week I took him deeper inside the Earth, to discover all the layers that sit under and produce that molten lava.

In perfect timing, we just received Usborne Books & More’s Children’s Encyclopedia, which not only had a section featuring the Earth’s layers, but is also QR linked. That meant we could further explore neat (and quirky) videos describing Earth’s layers: from inner core to outer core to mantle to crust to oceans/land.

earth-explore-3

Now it was time to model that out for Travis! I used play dough, starting with a tiny red ball for the inner core, wrapping that in orange for the outer core, yellow for the mantle/crust, and then blue ocean and green continents.

earth-explore-1

Travis was busy playing with play dough on his own while I worked, but then got very excited when I asked if he wanted to slice into the Earth.

earth-explore-4

We used floss to neatly slice it open, so Travis could point to all the different layers.

earth-explore-6

I will confess that it wasn’t long before our planet Earth looked like this:

earth-explore-7

He then wanted to make many mini planets of his own though, and sliced them open with a plastic knife. Although the topic was a bit advanced for a 2.5 year old, it’s never too early to introduce the idea that the Earth isn’t flat, right?

earth-explore-8

Continue your exploration with other kids’ books, including Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, or Usborne’s Shine-a-Light Secrets of Our Earth and See Inside Planet Earth.

IMG_0026.JPG

Farm Crate

2 Comments

koala-farm-15

Our latest kit from Koala Crate was all about the farm – not just animals, but also the  vegetable growing element of farming, which I loved since it’s not as common to find toys in this category. Overall, the kit was fantastic for play – not as much of a crafting one – which suited Travis just fine. In short, he loved this one!

The first project was to create pipe cleaner-and-bead vegetables, which could then be planted in the provided vegetable patch (a cardboard base with form “dirt” cut outs).

koala-farm-2

The materials were great for Travis to practice bead threading in any order he liked; when he tired of that, I then assembled the veggies “correctly” so the beads wouldn’t get lost.

koala-farm-3

From there, he couldn’t get enough of the game! He loved poking his fingers through the dirt, planting the veggies, pulling them up and seeing if he had a “match” or a “mis-match,” and then starting all over again.

koala-farm-8

As we planted our veggies, he so eagerly asked, “When will they grow up?” I loved how he understood the concept of veggies growing in the earth.

koala-farm-7

The kit also had stickers to decorate the base of the garden, including cute ants and worms, so we talked about how these itty bitty helpers help a garden grow!

koala-farm-9

I put together the barn that came in the kit – a cardboard frame with adhesive Velcro dots – only because misaligned Velcro wouldn’t have held the barn together; however, preschoolers should be able to tackle this step on their own no problem!

koala-farm-10

Finally, it was time to assemble our felt animal finger puppets, and I was impressed with Travis’s craftsmanship on these (already an imdprovement over the stickers he placed willy-nilly on last month’s Safari crate animals!).

koala-farm-14

Ok, not all of our animals looked exactly “right”, but he really thought about where everything should go before adhering – eyes up top compared to noses etc. When I gave him the pig’s curly tail, he even said told me it should go on his back, using both sides of the puppet.

koala-farm-13

Later in the week, we continued the gardening fun with a final, at-home project. I cut up a bunch of celery, a bell pepper, an apple, and mushrooms, and laid them under a blanket (brown for “dirt” of course), and let Travis loose in his own “vegetable garden”! He loved unearthing the real veggies.

vegetable-prints-3

To get crafty with it, I laid out plates of paint, and Travis dipped the cut sides of the veggies into the colors.

vegetable-prints-6His own creation turned into a very smooshy painting…

vegetable-prints-7…so I also made a print of my own to show him the different patterns that each fruit or veggie could create. The celery almost looks like a rose!

vegetable-prints-9In sum, we adored this crate. Thanks Koala!

koala-farm-11