My girls love to paint, and to play in the water. Combining the two is always fun because it means easy clean up and they have lots of fun. This was no different.
To get the paint all I did was put washable paint in a muffin tin then put shaving cream in and mix together. Once this is completed you will have a foamy bath paint that the kids will love. When your children are done playing with the paints all it takes is water to wash it off.
I have seen this done with food coloring as well, but I don’t know if you will get as vibrant as colors. We also have the washable paints so I thought why not use them.
My girls just painted with their hands and fingers but you could do paintbrushes as well. We don’t have paint brushes that would work so I opted for fingers. Either way it will be a lot of fun.
My house was a disaster! I needed to vacuum, but there wasn’t enough space to even push the vacuum around! I always start with the same area of the house, it’s usually the cleanest, so it’s a good way to get the ball rolling, so to speak. And I progressively move to the toy room, which, consequently is my front room while we are trying to remodel the basement (aka two rooms of stuff in one room. Not a good lifestyle vibe. Not ever to be pictured in a home magazine or Pinterest board). By the time I got one room clean and moved onto the next, the previous room was in shambles! I’ve got 3 little tornados following me and undoing everything I’ve done. I was exhausted! I just needed to catch a break! I needed to vacuum, so I couldn’t just wait until naptime for fear of waking babies up. But cleaning while they’re awake is like, as my mother loves to say, “shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.”
Sound familiar?
I was at wit’s end! I don’t like messes. My brain is a direct mirror of my house. If my house is crazy, my brain is, too (And I am not a neat freak. I’m not really good at cleaning, so my brain is often crazy). I needed this place clean and I needed it clean days ago! I needed clarity. I needed a way to keep my kids wrangled. So, I buckled my kids in their high chairs, raided my kitchen for something safe to ingest (though that wasn’t the point) but fun to play with, and landed on my oat bucket. I grabbed the paintbrushes that still weren’t put away from Halloween activities, poured a handful of oats on the trays and walked away.
Did I have a mess to clean up afterwards? Definitely yes. But a) it was dry, so the vacuum took care of it (and I had to vacuum anyway… yes, I have carpet in my kitchen. I am currently typing this while sitting on the lifeproof flooring that may eventually get installed…. I hope. I plead with my to-do lists to eventually have time) and b) it was in one spot instead of every room of my house.
But furthermore, I could give myself a little pat on the back because while I was obviously just trying to keep them busy, I was also being a good mom and giving my kids sensory play. I’m teaching them the basics of holding writing devices. I’m letting them explore taste, texture, little items to squish in their little hands. And, oats are totally good for your skin! Score, lol.
After I had the rest of the house all clean (which was surprisingly fast when I didn’t have kids undoing my progress; though it was still a little hampered because I demanded that older sister got involved and she needed coaching on how to stay on task and where things go, and oldest sister needed reminded to speak nicely and not worry about dictating and just clean up for herself while she was being “forced” to clean, as well – we’ve all been teens before. We remember), I gave the girls a drink (figured dry oats needed some moisture in those little tummies), sent them to watch a show with everyone else, wiped down their trays and vacuumed below their high chairs and celebrated my victory!
As a 2 year old my toddler is beginning to learn about different shapes. In order to help that along I decided to try this activity.
On a piece of paper I drew different shapes that she should know or be able to learn. She knew the circle, square, and the triangle but wasn’t sure on the name of the star. It is just a simple find the shape and place a matching sticker on the shape.
As you can see she didn’t always make it directly on the shape but she was able to get it near the shape. As she pulled off the stickers from the sheet she was working on her pincer grasp as well as learning her shapes.
If you would like to see how to adapt this activity for Preschoolers see this post: Sticker Letter Match.
I have been wanting to take the girls to the zoo for a while now and just never got around to it, but since our zoo closes for the season in the middle of the month, I decided we had better go before we have to wait until the next year. I have always felt like there is something magical about toddlers and the zoo. There is something so charming about preschoolers absorbing the experience. Animals are such a novelty at that stage, it’d be a shame not to take them to see some.
I know that normally, it’s better to go see animals first thing in the morning, but we didn’t make it there until mid-afternoon. We had one of those spin-your-wheels kinds of days that we just couldn’t get going! Honestly, though, I felt like that was the best time to go! Sure, in the summertime, I can see the benefit of morning, but in the fall, I think the animals were cool enough they weren’t conserving energy and hanging out in the shade. They were all pretty active. We got there right before the lions were anticipating an afternoon meal. They were pacing by the gate. Which was right by a great vantage point, so we spent a long time watching them. The pelicans are usually in the middle of the pond when we come, but this time, they were hanging out by the bank, right next to the trail! They’re *much* bigger in person than I anticipated. They were much taller than our kiddos – almost as tall as me!
Furthermore, in the morning we would have been racing naptimes. But mid-afternoon, our littles were fully rested from their mid-day nap, and not “starving,” having just had a snack (and lunch before naptime), and not needing more food until dinnertime.
Another perk to going in the fall that I never realized before: not only is it not super hot in mid-afternoon, it’s not super crowded either. Although we passed other families, and even had to wait at some popular exhibits (with Covid, we wanted to give plenty of space between us and everyone else), for the most part, we had each animal viewing area to ourselves. I could definitely get used to that!
Toddlers really eat up animal sounds. They roar when we roar at them. they’re currently obsessed wit howling because a book we read frequently has a coyote in it and we make the sound, so they do, and they love that first little line of communication. Plus the animals in the zoo are new to them! the only giraffes they’ve seen are in books. Books are great, but a real animal in front of them is a totally different experience. The same is true for preschoolers, though! Animal sounds haven’t quite lost their charm, but more importantly, they see an animal move and act and react. It is right there in front of them! And it creates questions and conversations, and expands their understanding in a way a show or a book couldn’t capture.
The travel dough has been a hit with my kiddos when we have to wait in the car for long periods of time, like when we are waiting for grocery pick-up or sister to get out of therapy.
I decided to put a little twist on the travel bags though. All you need is shaving cream, food coloring, a Ziploc bag and tape.
First fill about a third of the bag with shaving cream. Second place a few drops of the food coloring. Next fill the another third of the bag with more shaving cream. Finally seal the bag closed and tape it shut (I put a lot of tape on there knowing shaving cream is not the best thing to have spill out in the car).
The girls loved it, though we did have one mishap. My oldest likes to twist the bags until what is inside squishes out from the pressure. My suggestion to combat this is to make sure to get the bags that are thick and maybe even tape down the sides to strengthen them.
I mentioned a while ago that I wanted to focus on finger isolation with my toddlers, so I went on a pinterest search for activities with poking being involved, and when I came across this activity I got kinda excited because it is also a fun halloween activity! There aren’t many specifically Halloween activities for toddlers.
It took them a while to get the hang of poking the tissue paper. They weren’t quite sure it was okay to tear it at first. And then they were afraid to press hard enough to break the paper. Maybe if I had propped up the pumpkin, it would have felt less awkward to them; leaning over and poking made them unsure of their balance. But every time I tried to glue the cups to the veneered wood, it just slipped off! Maybe duct tape rolls or a real poster board would have been a better solution. But I forgot to grab the poster board and this veneer wood was just so cute when my husband was helping me come up with better solutions than running back to the store.
To make the activity, you need orange tissue paper (I only used 2 sheets), plastic cups, glue (hot glue if you have poster board, other glue and maybe rubber bands for each cup, if you need to be creative), and green paper for the stem. Optionally, you can use pipe cleaners to make a curly vine. You will also need some prize or token in each cup (or at least in 1 cup so they have to find the prize, but for toddlers it’s definitely better for the prize to be in each cup). And whatever you want to attach it to (because I forgot that, myself). You’re gonna want to use the stuff poster board, I think. Because the veneer (and I think even regular wood, but I don’t know. It probably depends on how heavy your cups and prizes are) wasn’t worth the fight, but a regular poster board will be too flimsy.
Arrange the cups so you have an idea on how you want the pumpkin to look, cut the tissue paper to cover the cup (use at least 1 inch extra on each side if you intend to use the rubber bands instead if glue), 1 square for each cup. Place a prize in the cups and then glue or rubber band the tissue paper to each cup. Glue the cups into place. Add the stem and any decoration. Then, just set it up and let them play.
I have to say, between the preschooler (you know she wanted in on that action) and the toddlers, it got kinda crazy, but I think everyone enjoyed it. And it was easier than I suspected to practice taking turns.
Sorry I’m so late posting tonight, but today we went to the corn maze! Our corn maze, as many others, has a corn pit. It makes sense to me, all the corn – works just as well to play in it and then use it for feed or for planting. Our toddlers were split on this one. Mostly because it was cold tonight. One just wanted to snuggle where it was warm, but the other loved the corn so much she bawled as we pulled her out to head home! The funny thing is, she didn’t even really play in it. For the most part she just sat there, occasionally she would take a kernel or two in her hand and watch them drop. But apparently that was pretty awesome, given the reluctance to leave.
We stayed out way past the girls’ bedtime and they protested quite a bit on the ride home. I wish they would set up times earlier for families of littles. Most don’t open until later in the afternoon or even the evening here. We got everyone tucked in and snug in bed, so I wanted to get it all posted before I went to sleep.
Today I tried to experiment with my rainbow foam recipe. Instead of using water I decided that I wanted to see what would happen if I used Vinegar. Would it foam more if it is already foamy from the soap?
What happened was unexpected, but fun. To make it more Halloween like I decided to theme this sensory play around a Witches brew. The bowls held the potion (the foam) and I had some bone powder (baking soda) and eyeballs (cotton balls).
In a blender mix 1 cup of vinegar with 2 Tablespoons of dish soap and around 5 drops of food coloring. I added more because I thought it wasn’t enough, but as I will explain later start with 5 your first time… I added way too much. This is good for around 4 small cauldrons (the bowls) so if you wanted to do less, or make it more than one batch for other colors you could do that too.
When I mixed all the ingredients together the color just wasn’t showing. The potion was a really pale purple, an almost unnoticeable purple by the time I put 10 drops in. But I gave up.
I don’t know how well you can tell from the photo, but when you add your bone powder (baking soda) it brings out the color. By the time we were done with the potions my girls hands (and shirts) were purple too. Thankfully the purple wasn’t permanent.
I tried to contain the mess a little by using cookie trays or pans. While this worked for the most part, my girls wiped the potion on their shirts. This may not be too much a problem if you don’t use a lot of food coloring, but I would probably provide some protection for their clothes if I were you.
The girls loved it and it was a cool learning experiment for me too. I forgot to mention though that the potion did not fizz until it had settled from a foam into colored vinegar. Oh well, it still turned out pretty cool.
I have had the idea of putting small objects in ice cube trays for quite a while, but I couldn’t find the pompoms I have somewhere in my craftroom-mess-that-is-now-storage. I did, however, come across a box of halloween trinkets! That discovery is both helpful now and will save me a ton of trouble in a few weeks, when I can hand them out to trick-or-treaters. I thought for sure our city would follow all the neighboring cities and ban festivities, but they’re still allowing trick-or-treaters.
The spiders are bigger than I wanted for this activity, so I’ll probably still do it again with the pompoms when I find them, but it’s still a good activity for finger control and hand-eye coordination. And it’s festive!
In case you need instructions, get an ice cube tray and a pack of plastic spiders. Place the spiders in the tray, and hand them to your toddler!
I gave the trays to the girls first thing this morning, while I was making breakfast. It kept them pretty distracted, actually! I had time to finish breakfast and come sit and play with them!
When they started getting bored with that, I turned the trays over and showed them that the spiders could fit between the trays, too! Truth be told, I think these spiders are much more entertaining with the back of the ice cube trays, because they’re thin so they fit between and can slide around the little mounds for the ice.
One twin played with the spiders and trays until naptime, eagerly coming back after her breakfast was all gone. I’m glad she enjoyed it, but it goes to show that even the simplest things that you don’t think will entertain a toddler can hold such mystery and exploration. I think that’s my favorite thing about toddlerhood – the general fascination with and ability to learn from anything.
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