Painting with Golf Balls

So this is an art activity that I've only ever done with marbles in the past. I was sure I had marbles somewhere but I couldn't find them anywhere. I found some golf balls in my husband's golf bag and I knew they'd be better for Monkey right now... We still have to watch him closely because he still wants to put random stuff in his mouth. Will he ever grow out of it?

Supplies: golf balls, paper, tape, bucket (or a cardboard box), paint

Before we started with any paint, I had Monkey practice rolling the golf balls around in the bucket. While he was doing that I noticed that the paper was moving around a lot too so I taped it down inside the bucket. 

Next, we added the drops of paint. Monkey told me where to put each colour and helped squeeze the bottles. One day I'll let him do this part all by himself... I swear... maybe... 

Then Monkey threw the golf balls into the bucket and started painting!

This was hands down the longest Monkey has ever been engaged in an art activity with me. We even added a second drop of each colour of paint so he could keep going. 

Here is his masterpiece:

Mar

Magic Moving Milk

Here's an easy science experiment you can get together quickly with supplies you already have at home. 

I saw the idea here: http://laughingkidslearn.com/2014/08/magic-milk-science-experiment.html/

Supplies: shallow bowl or dish, good colouring, dish soap, milk

First, pour milk in the dish. You don't need too much, as long as the bottom of the dish is completely covered. Next, take the food colouring and drop a bunch of each colour into the milk. I recommend aiming for a finished product with 1/4 of the surface white and 3/4 of the surfaced coloured. 

Monkey wanted to use the neon colours of food colouring today because it has both of our favourite colours in it, pink and blue. So thoughtful!

Now the best part! Take your dish soap and squeeze one drop into the middle of the mixture. Pay attention, the reaction happens really fast! Here it is after dropping in the dish soap:

The scientific explanation for this reaction is a little above Monkey's head (see the link above for more information) so we just watched how cool it was when the colours mixed all together. Here it is after about one minute: 

After a minute of watching, Monkey waned to shake the dish. It made a yucky purple-y brown-y colour. Definitely better before it's all mixed up!

Mar

Earth Day Art

Happy Earth Day!

This is a really simple, easy to set up art activity. When I told Monkey we were doing Earth Day art he said, "I love the Earth!" I'm not sure where he learned that, but perfect. 

Supplies: coffee filters, eye droppers, two containers of water, green and blue food colouring, baking tray

First, put a few drops of food colouring into each container of water, one blue and one green. Monkey helped me with this part. 

Flatten out the coffee filters as much as possible. It's not easy. It might help to do it the night before and let them sit under a big book? I wasn't that prepared today. Then put the coffee filter on the baking tray. (This is just to contain the mess.) 

Then the fun part! Using the eye droppers, grab some of the coloured water and drop it onto the coffee filter. The water will spread on the filter while soaking in. Be careful not to use too much water. 

I decided to make one too. 

Find somewhere they can dry. Ideally, you don't want them lying directly on a flat surface. I laid them on my baking cooling rack - it was all I could think of for drying them well inside. If it was a little warmer today I would have strung them up outside with a clothespin. 

They look funny with the wire all underneath but luckily it didn't affect how they turned out! We put them up on the wall for display.

This activity can be done a lot of different ways. You can use different colours to do more abstract art, and hang it in the window. You can scrunch the middle together with a pipe cleaner to make a butterfly. You can add googly eyes and a black mouth to make a monster. You can stack a few on top of each other and twist them into a flower. So many possibilities! 

Mar

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a book written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. It is a great book. Right now we read the board book version, Chicka Chicka ABC, which is a little bit shorter and more appropriate. I highly recommend both.

I like these books for many reasons. The rhythm and rhyming are very catchy. There are so many activities you can do after reading, from preschool to kindergarten level. I found this particular activity here: http://lalymom.com/2014/06/chicka-chicka-boom-boom-tree-activity.html#_a5y_p=2012626

Supplies: green and brown construction paper, magnetic alphabet letters, book

I cut out and mounted the coconut tree last night. When Monkey came down in the morning he noticed right away and was very curious. Later on when I got out the letters and the book, he knew right away that it was the coconut tree.

We dumped out the letters and I flipped them all over so Monkey wouldn't be too confused. Then I started reading the book. As I said each letter - really, as we said each letter together, Monkey knows most of the words - he found the magnetic letter and put it up on the door. 

I tried to convince him to spread them out and put them on the leaves of the tree but as you can see he wasn't interested. Obviously he felt it was necessary to do it this way. I'm working on letting go of control and letting him do things his way. He will learn more that way because its more meaningful to him. 

This was done very carefully and methodically, constantly adjusting and perfecting the placement of each letter. Hmmmm, I wonder who he gets that from? Some of the letters are sideways or upside down - I think that was because he wanted them to fit as close together as possible. 

By the end of the book, all the letters have made their way into the coconut tree. Or in our case, beside it...

Then, of course, as the name suggests, BOOM, BOOM!! They all fall down.

All that hard work thrown to the ground in a second. But isn't that the best part?

Mar

Shaving Cream and Foam Blocks

Another really messy sensory play activity for Monkey today. 

I got the idea here: http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/building-with-foam-blocks-and-shaving-cream-fine-motor-skills/#_a5y_p=2212247

Supplies: bucket or bowl, baking sheet, shaving foam, foam blocks 

I got the foam blocks at the dollar store. I love baking sheets for this sort of activity - they're nice and flat and they have the lip around them which contains the mess or activity. We use them for all sorts of things! 

I didn't tell Monkey what the shaving cream was. I just started filling up the bucket. Looking back, I could have used about half as much as I did. I ended up throwing a lot away, and I hate being wasteful. 

Monkey was a little skeptical to say the least. He doesn't love having his hands dirty. He cautiously stuck a finger into the shaving cream. Even after I scooped some up with my hands and started stacking the blocks he was still very apprehensive. So I figured he needed a tool. I grabbed his child's knife and showed him how to use it to spread the shaving cream onto the blocks. 

This did the trick! He still wiped his hands on the towel every ten seconds just in case, but it seemed to be just what he needed. 

I was sort of hoping he would start stacking them up like bricks with the shaving cream in between. He didn't really care for that and just wanted to stick them onto the baking sheet. 

I stacked a few on my own and he took notice and started helping me. At his point he commented that they looked like buildings and skyscrapers. (Yay!)

It was really interesting to watch Monkey do this activity. I didn't intend it to be a fine motor activity but using the knife to spread the shaving cream takes a lot of coordination. One thing I noticed is that he held the knife with both hands and could spread the shaving cream with both of them. 

Here is the finished 'city' using all the blocks:

After making this beautiful work of art he finally felt brave enough to stick his hands right in the shaving cream! It may sound silly but this was a big step for him... even if it only lasted for thirty seconds!

I tried to save the shaving cream by putting the lid on the bucket, but by the end of the day it was too sticky and gross to use again. Oh well, lesson learned!

Mar 

Car Wash

Here's another great sensory play activity. I do this at school in our water table and there are soooo many things you can throw in for a wash, such as dolls, cars, animals, etc. It's a sneaky way to get toys clean without doing it yourself!

Monkey has a set of rubbery plastic trucks that have been a favourite since he got them. They're good for getting wet because there aren't many metal parts that could get rusty. 

Supplies: cars, towel, bucket of water, bubble bath, toothbrush, wash cloth 

Monkey jumped right in, giving his cars a good scrub! He washed their faces, arms, legs, tummy... just like we do when we give him a bath. Kids always pull from their own experiences. 

Mar

Finger Painting

Okay, I know you're probably thinking, why write a post about finger painting... right? Well I just want to express how strongly I believe in sensory play. The benefits are numerous: language development, fine motor skills, observational skills, just to name a few! Kids learn by touching and doing, so it's very important to let them dive right in. And they're going to get messy... and that's good! It's all in the name of learning.

Supplies: finger paints, finger painting paper, table cloth, cardboard

I picked up our finger painting supplies at the dollar store. I got paper specific for finger painting because it works better, but regular paper would be fine. I used the cardboard for two reasons: first to keep the paper as flat as possible on top of the table cloth; second, as an extra place to catch paint! Just because it's messy doesn't mean you have to spend too much time cleaning up. 

You also may have noticed that we do most art, sensory, and science activities with Monkey in his underwear or with no shirt on... Again, easier clean up - I can throw him right into the bathtub! 

For now Monkey's pictures will just be giant, amazing blobs of all the colours mixed together (...see, colour mixing - more learning!) but once he's developmentally ready he'll be able to use one or two fingers like a paint brush and make pictures. 

Mar

Alphabet Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Easter!!

Once again, my poor children growing up with a teacher mommy. I swear, I can't help it! 

This was the first year that the Easter Bunny visited the house for Monkey. We knew that he'd be getting lots of goodies from other family members so it was important to us that his Easter egg hunt was not all chocolate. I needed to find something that was small enough to fit inside the plastic Easter eggs and that was numerous enough to fill a decent number of them. I realized the foam alphabet letters we already had would be perfect (I got them at the dollar store). Monkey has been really excited about the alphabet for the past few weeks. I knew he'd love pulling the letters out of the plastic eggs. 

Since the letters were made of foam they squished into the plastic eggs very easily. 

How much fun is it to hide Easter eggs around your house?! 

Monkey was excited in the morning - like every other kid on the planet I'm sure! 

After he had all the eggs we sat at the coffee table to open them. A few weeks ago when he way playing with these letters he had a really hard time naming them if they were upside down or backwards. Today he knew almost every single letter as soon as he took it out! 

I already can't wait until next year!

Mar

Do-a-Dot Alphabet

Bingo daubers are so much fun!! My Kinders love them. There are lots of activities you can do with them. And you can buy them at dollar stores. Lots of positives! 

On the downside... they are messy! At a minimum kids are going to get the ink on their hands. So for this activity we use a table cloth, an apron, and constant supervision. I've heard of washable daubers for kids but they are more expensive. 

Our activity with the bingo daubers today is some do-a-dot uppercase alphabet letters. I found the pages here: http://totschool.shannons.org/do-a-dot-letters/

Supplies: bingo daubers, uppercase alphabet do-a-dot pages

Monkey knew what to do right away! He's so smart :) We started with A, B, and C only so we'll finish the other letters when we have time here and there. Then I'll bind them into a book that Monkey can look at whenever he wants. 

Mar

Yarn Easter Bunny

Easter is coming up this weekend so our craft today was to make a decoration for our house. I found this craft online at: http://katiescrochetgoodies.com/2014/04/easy-easter-craft-for-toddlers-bunny.html

Supplies: yarn (cut into pieces the size of the bunny), glue, bunny tracer, construction paper

It's really easy to do. First I printed out the bunny from the computer and used it to make the outline on the construction paper. Then, with the help of my husband, I cut the yarn into pieces that would fit across the bunny. 

With Monkey, we started by putting glue all around the outside of the cut out. Then, starting at the bottom, we laid the strings on and pushed the edges down on the glue. 

Because I'm me, I wouldn't let him put down two of the same colour pieces of yarn beside each other... After about a third of the way up Monkey was growing a little bored with it - looking back, a smaller bunny would probably have been better - so I just had him help by telling me which colour to do while he drove his cars around me. 

We think it turned out great! 

Thanks for all the yarn Mama!!

Mar