After putting together our ‘Will you be my Valen-slime?’ favours this afternoon, Miss G and I got out a few things and put together a really simple Valentine-themed slime sensory tray.
Slime is just one of those things that never gets old. Miss G’s spent quite a lot of time playing with it in the past, but was every bit as thrilled to play with it again today.
Her favourite part of today’s set up was definitely the heart-shaped cookie cutters. She’d imprint a bunch of hearts, watch them slowly melt away, and then loudly exclaim, “MAMA! THEY DISAPPEARED!!” before making more.
My favourite part was that because this batch turned out just a tad firmer than our last, there was zero mess. It didn’t stick to her hands, it didn’t goop up the bowls and kitchen utensils, and it didn’t cling to her clothes. (A seemingly messy activity sans the mess = win!)
We left this out for most of the afternoon and evening, and Miss G came back to it again and again before it finally had to be sealed up just before dinner. But before that happened, she wanted a guarantee that her tray and container of slime would be left out and ready for her to enjoy first thing the next morning.
♥
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After making a few batches of ice cream dough this afternoon, Gracen and I set up a simple little ice cream shop in the living room. We used an old wooden apple crate for her table top and made sure the floor was protected with a large bath towel.
Then we went around the house to collect a few other items. First up – ice cream cones. Yes, the real ones… We had them on hand from her 2nd birthday party and they’d never be used otherwise, so may as well use them for some fun pretend play, right?
Of course, for customers not partial to cones, you need to have a bowl option. These silicon baking cups did the job perfectly.
Next, we gathered up some spoons and an ice cream scoop…
As well as some buttons, beads, and straw pieces for candies and candy sprinkles.
And with that, our little ice cream shop owner got to work.
There was plenty of scooping, touching, smelling, and exploring to be done.
Of course the ice cream treats rolled out of the shop one after another too. A hazelnut ice cream cone for Papa…
And a strawberry ice cream cup {with extra candy sprinkles!} for Mama.
This was such a simple set-up, but I can already tell that she’s going to get hours of fun out of it. Of course, it’s more than just fun… This little ice cream shop incorporates pretend play, a sensory experience, and creativity too.
First off, I have to say that I just love setting up fun play invites for Gracen to discover. The way her little face lights up when she finds something new just melts me. And she dives in so enthusiastically that I seriously could just stand back and watch her play forever.
I set up this little cooking station on our butcher block tonight while Miss G was having an early bath. I knew I’d be making dinner once she was out and that Brad would probably want to get some dishes done, so having a fun activity right in the kitchen where we’d be would allow for some family time while all working on our own projects.
Gracen got all kinds of really cool cooking and baking supplies for Christmas this year, so I made sure to include them, but you could easily just use regular-sized bowls, pans, and utensils.
For the ‘food’, I filled up some small jars and bowls with dried goods from our pantry and added in a couple of spice shakers, one filled with rice and the other with some of the coloured epsom salt we used as a sensory experience before Christmas.
Of course our observant little girl noticed the cooking station within 10 seconds of exiting the bathroom, long before she had completely dried off or put clothes on. After retrieving a shirt, some underwear, and a hat (weird doodle!) it was time to play.
Pie anyone?
She whipped up concoction after concoction, offering us tastes along the way. ☺
She had so much fun that at the end of the night I simply tidied things up a little, made them looking inviting again, and left them out for her to explore again tomorrow.
♥
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Recently, Gracen has become borderline obsessed with all things searching-based. She loves a good game of hide-and-seek, she adores playing ‘I Spy’, and there’s nothing better than a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ book. So this afternoon, after a busy morning filled with a morning walk, a first attempt at skating, and an impromptu hair cut, we decided to pull together a low-key searching activity indoors.
First, we rounded up some coins (aka treasure) and gave them a good scrub in hot soapy water {because money grosses me out}. (Of course you could always use something different as treasure…plastic gems, tiny toys, play money, etc.)
After drying off the coins, we spread them out on a plastic serving tray…
And hid the treasure with the coloured rice we made months ago(plain rice, sand, flour, dry pasta, beans, and cornmeal would all be good alternatives).
Voila – treasure hidden.
Next, we gathered a few treasure finding tools.
We laid our tray down on a towel for easier clean up, retrieved one of Miss G’s piggy banks for treasure collection, and the search began.
Searching…
Found something… Jackpot!
Clink! Into the piggy bank (cue Miss G’s ‘money, money, moneeeeey’ song and dance).
Grae had so much fun with this little game that I’m certain it will sit out in our living room for the next few days being enjoyed by our little search-obsessed girl time and time again.
♥
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Since returning home from vacation last week, we’ve been in a bit of a ‘getting back on track’ mode… While we’re pretty good at maintaining Gracen’s overall schedule while away, some things are harder to control. While on vacation, the time Grae’s left to find and engage in activities on her own is minimal – and for good reason as there are cousins and grandparents to play with! The trouble is, mix the lack of time to practice independence with a whole lot more media exposure (I’m learning that our television is on for, perhaps, an abnormally small fraction of the day), and by the time we return home, I’ve got a stage five clinger on my hands. And don’t get me wrong – I love having my little sidekick right next to me most of the time… But sometimes a mama has just got to do something on her own, without a little pair of hands in the mix. Not to mention that I think independent play is a very important skill for kids to learn.
So tonight, as I was whipping together some dinner, I thought of a little game that would allow Miss G (my purple dinosaur) to be right there in the kitchen with me, while allowing me a wee bit of space. Flipping some chicken using tongs caused me to remember the mini tongs we’d put in Grae’s Christmas stocking. I added two bowls and some shell pasta to the mix, and we had a game on our hands.
The goal? Simply using the tongs to pick up the shells from one bowl and transfer them to the other bowl.
Now this may sound ridiculously easy, but for a toddler who’s had minimal experience with tongs and whose motor skills are not yet fully developed, it’s quite a challenge at first.
But not for long. After successfully transferring all of the pasta pieces twice, Gracen asked for something new. I quickly scanned our kitchen and came up these honey mandarins.
I could already see that her tong transferring skills had improved this time around.
After a couple of rounds with the oranges, Miss G wanted to try something new again, so we dug these bells out of a craft box to use.
It is such a simple activity, but this little ‘game’ certainly kept my clingy monkey happily engaged until dinner was ready. And sometimes that’s just what a mama needs.
♥
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A couple of days ago as Gracen was emptying and restocking Grandma Charlotte’s pantry shelves just for fun (obviously), she came across a can of condensed milk. GC had no idea why she had it or what she’d ever do with it, but I had an idea… Shiny homemade paint!
I’ve made this paint tons of times to use at the painting station in my Kindergarten classrooms, and it’s always been a hit. It’s bright and thick and glossy, and when used on an easel, it doesn’t drip. The best part is that when it dries, it maintains its sheen. Plus it’s super simple to make… In fact, Gracen made it mostly on her own – it’s that easy.
Here’s what you need to start with… A can of condensed milk, some food colouring, some small bowls or cups (muffin tins work well too), and some teaspoons.
To get started, we poured a little bit of condensed milk into each cup.
We went with 5 separate cups this time around, but you can choose to do more or less.
Next, Grae squirted in about 5 drops of liquid food colouring (more for an extra vibrant finish and less for a more pastel look).
We stuck to the basics and added purple, but obviously you can create any colours you choose.
Then my little helper gave each a good stir.
Here’s what we ended up with.
With our new paints made, it was time to get creating.
I’d say she was pleased with the results, wouldn’t you?
The other fun part about these paints is that they drizzle really nicely due to their thickness… And who doesn’t love some messy fun, right?
Here’s the end result. A beautiful masterpiece created by our beauty. ☺
The parts that were just painted on regularly took a few hours to dry, while the puddles took about a day and a half to lose all of their stickiness, but it does eventually dry and it does stay very shiny. Because of the milk and sugar content of this paint, I can’t say how long it will last for, but it looks lovely for now.
♥
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Miss G was so spoiled at Christmas that we’re still slowly pulling out new treasures, removing the packaging, and playing with them for the first time. Early this morning, she went down to her room {here at Grandma Charlotte and Poppop’s house}, retrieved her little wooden Melissa & Doug mailbox, and asked me to play “mail” with her. We exchanged the reusable postcards for the mailbox, taking turns being the sender and the recipient, for a full hour before we decided to turn the game into a little station that can easily stick around a few days.
In addition to the mailbox, we collected a few different envelopes, some paper (both lined and coloured), a notepad, some pens and pencils, and some stick on labels.
Miss G got busy writing letters, stuffing envelopes, and adhering labels right away.
Once a letter was done, she’d either pop it in the mailbox, deliver it straight to the recipient, or place it in the ‘to mail’ pile…
So far, she’s absolutely been loving writing letters and drawing pictures for all of those she loves…
Even Bella’s received mail. ☺
♥
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Though it feels like we’ve had a good, long winter vacation already (because we have), we’re lucky enough to have one more week to spend in the Okanagan before Bradley’s return to work. And while we’ve been doing more than our fair share of relaxing (and indulging – oy!), we’ve also been trying to make the most of our time with the snow, because before you know it, we’ll be back to our city of rain, rain, rain.
Today we tried something new – snow spray painting!
In order to make the paint, all I did was pick up a couple of cheap spray bottles (I made sure to give the triggers a little squeeze in store first – some are little hand-friendly, and others are not) and filled them with some cold water and food colouring.
Then we headed outside {in pajamas} to decorate the freshly fallen snow.
We played with the nozzle on our spray bottles to get the flow just how Miss G liked it – in a steady stream in order to achieve maximum distance. ☺
Her goal? Covering as much of the snow in snow spray paint as possible.
“A new spot now!”
Though using a fine mist is a little trickier (because you need to be quite close to the snow for it to show up well), it makes pretty cool results…. Pink snow anyone?
Of course when you’ve painted your little heart out and you’re ready for a break, you can always topple over in a snowbank and have a rest. ☺
Snow Spray Paint
3/4 cup of cool water
10 drops of food colouring
Pour the water into a small spray bottle and add the food colouring. Repeat for multiple colours/bottles. Spray the snow. Have fun!
♥
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I loved this simple variation on the usual cloud dough, and today I simplified it even further for some messy morning sensory play with the cousins. To create some “snow dough” of our own, I simply made our usual cloud/moon dough and dumped in a couple of small bottles of silvery light blue glitter. A fun way to kickstart the New Year, right?
Though I could have added more festive / wintery items (mini evergreen trees, plastic animals, snowman accessories, etc.) to the sensory bin, I just stuck to the usuals this time around… Plastic cups, bowls, spoons, and cookie cutters and the kiddos loved it.
Three of the four munchkins were very eager to join.
Let the fun begin!
The sparkles are hard to see, but if you look closely, you should be able to spot them.
Kinslee digging in.
The fourth monkey just couldn’t resist the fun.
Snow dough toes. ☺
Korbin was a master moulder.
A girl who isn’t afraid to get messy.
Snow dough smoothie, anyone?
Experimenting with snow dough snowmen…
A safer building site.
Snowballs stacked.
Ummm, Grae… What happened to your hair?
Who says the snow dough has to stay in the bin?
Mission accomplished!
This explains things.
Sparkly Snow Dough (we doubled this recipe for a group of 4 children)
8 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of baby oil (or other oil)
1 small container of white/silver/blue glitter
Mix with your hands or a whisk until ingredients are evenly distributed. Play!
♥
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Gracen is absolutely loving hanging out with her cousins. We woke up this morning, had some breakfast, and pulled out our play dough gingerbread people supplies for the kids to play with. In addition to the original supplies, this time we added some miniature baking pans, tiny rolling pins, and more cookie cutters to the mix.
All of the kids really enjoyed creating their play dough masterpieces and the activity provided a great start to our day.
♥
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In addition to the play dough, I set out several things create gingerbread people with, including a rolling pin, cookie cutters, buttons, straw pieces, jingle bells, ribbon bits, and toothpicks.
Gracen dove in as she usually does and the play dough gingerbread people began rolling out of the kitchen.
She came up with so many fun ways to decorate them, some more traditional, and some a little more abstract…
The best part is that this dough smells so amazing that you sometimes forget that it’s just play dough and not actual gingerbread baking in the oven. ☺
♥
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One of Grae’s favourite quiet indoor activities is playing with her felt board. It’s a good thing, because I love making new felt board games for her just as much as she loves playing with them. This is a super simple “game” that takes no time and very little skill to make, and is perfect for munchkins who are interested in letters or ready to begin learning to spell their names.
But before I begin, a few questions I’ve been asked about felt boards recently…
Where can I buy a felt board?
You can buy them at almost any teaching supply store (and even some toy stores that carry educational games), but it is very, VERY simple to create one on your own using a large sheet of felt (purchased at a craft or fabric store), a frame with with glass removed, and some glue. Making your own also means that you get to choose your size, felt colour, and frame colour, plus it’s a really inexpensive project – win! Here is asimple tutorial on how I made Miss G’s.
Dumb question, but do the felt pieces just stick onto the felt board without glue or velcro or anything else?
Yes! The beauty of a felt board is that felt sticks to felt, making felt board games good for hours of interactive fun. No glue, tape, or velcro needed. ☺
What kind of felt do you use for your projects? Is the cheap stuff found at dollar stores okay?
For felt board games, the inexpensive stuff made of recycled bottles is perfect. It costs about 30 cents per sheet, comes in tons of different colours, and can be purchased from dollar stores and craft stores.
Do you cut out every shape freehand or do you have a website where you print out shapes to trace onto the felt for cutting?
To be honest, I cut out many of the shapes freehand just because for me, it’s easier than finding a template online, printing it off, and using it as a cutting guideline. That being said, if I’m creating something more complex, I sometimes draw on the backside of the felt (the slightly shinier side) with chalk (it’s easy to wipe off afterwards) before cutting. For letters, I always print them off using a word processing program first and use them as a guide (as I did for the name game below) because I find them trickier. If you’re not a super drawer/cutter, you can always use Google images, search for your desired shapes, print them off, and use them to make the cutting process easier.
Okay, so here’s how I made Grae’s new name game…
First off, I gathered the materials… Some felt, straight pins, scissors (smaller sharp ones work best for felt), and the letters of her name printed in 300 point Illuminate font. (See some of my other favourite fonts below.)
Next, I quickly cut out around the letters, getting rid of the extra paper.
With the letters prepared, I pinned them onto my felt pieces using a single pin per letter. (Pinning right on the letter as seen in the case of the ‘r’ and the ‘e’ makes life easier… do it that way instead of pinning in the centres of the letters.)
Next, using my small, sharp scissors, I cut the letters out, cutting through both the paper and the felt at once.
The last step involves taking the pins out and removing the paper.
Voila! Easy felt letters. Now it’s time to play.
Depending on the age and interest level of your child, you could add in the letters for their middle and last names, or cut out all of the letters of the alphabet, allowing them to experiment with making other words too.
To see more easy to make at home felt board activities, click here.
Another thing I’ve been asked about a lot lately is about the fonts I use regularly here on Mama.Papa.Bubba., so I’ve put together a little collection of some of my current favourites, including Illuminate, the one I used for this project. All of them are free and Mac-friendly. Simply click on the links below to download them.
This morning I woke up to this post from Kiwi Crate in my inbox, which turned out to be a perfect afternoon activity for Miss G. The moment I nonchalantly mentioned a ‘sticker matching game’, she was ready to go.
Luckily, this little activity takes very little prep work. Miss G helped me gather some paper, some dot stickers, a Sharpie, and some scissors.
To get started, I folded a green sheet of construction paper in half, and cut out a tree shape freehand.
Next, I used the Sharpie to draw 15 unique shapes onto the dot stickers (the original post uses letters instead of shapes, but I thought this would be a better starting point for Miss G).
Next, I drew matching shapes on the tree. And that was it. The game was ready.
Then I let Miss G go. All I said was “Do you want to try this sticker matching game?” and she started peeling stickers off of the backing. I wasn’t sure what she’d do, but she automatically placed the polka dotted circle sticker on top of the polka dotted circle drawn on the paper. Smart little cookie! ☺
And from there, she powered through the rest of the stickers.
Let me tell you, Miss G adores matching games. Mix in stickers, which she also adores, and this game couldn’t be more perfect for her.
Done!
Of course, the second she finished her tree she tilted her head to the side and said, “Grae Grae does anover sticker matching game, Mama?” And really, how can you say no to that? This time, we went with something a little different… I cut out a quick gingerbread person and used the stickers as body parts and decorations.
She loved this one too and pleaded for another.
This time I decided to try the letter idea.
I wasn’t sure if it would be too much for her, but off she went and carefully started making matches.
It definitely took her a little more time, but she happily worked on it on her own as I tidied the house.
“Mama, Mama! All done!!!”
This was such a fun and simple activity that we’ll definitely be doing it again soon (VERY soon – as in tomorrow – if it’s up to Miss G).
♥
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For the last few days, Miss G has really been enjoying the new set-up she has happening at her creative table (for a little bit of background info on the whole idea behind her creative table, click here). While it would probably be more appropriate to call this a beading and lacing station, Gracen saw it and immediately cheered, “A sewing station!” To her, needles equal sewing, so a sewing station it is.
The sewing station consists of things we mainly already had on hand… Two types of beads (pony beads and meltable beads like these), a couple of plastic yarn needles strung with wool, a few steel yarn needles strung with embroidery floss, some Wikki Sticks…
And some homemade lacing cards (simply made by cutting shapes out of card stock and cardboard, and punching holes around the edges).
When Grae originally discovered her new sewing materials, she was by far most excited about the needles and thread, and got to beading right away…
After a couple of days, she had completed not only a bracelet for herself (I helped with the tying of course), but one for her Mama too!
After that, she begun working on the lacing cards. Right now she’s working on a lacing circle that has beads woven throughout. She works on it a little each day, moving onto something else when she feels like it and returning when the urge returns.
Something that often happens when it comes to her creative table {and sensory play} is that Grae adds to the materials as she goes. These mini cupcake liners were all her idea.
This is her most recently completed project… A bracelet for Papa! He couldn’t be left out, now could he?
To see some of Miss G’s other recent creative table set-ups, click here.
♥
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Today, Miss G and I did a great big deep clean of her room. During the tidying, down came the epically successful styrofoam structures station. It was time. It had been played with every single day for nearly three weeks and was starting to become a giant mess of styrofoam dust and building junk . Luckily, I had been preparing Miss G for the change for the last few days, so everything got taken apart and tucked away without any issues.
What I wash’t prepared for however, was the fact that as soon as her toy box top was cleared off and wiped down, she said “Mama tells Grae Grae ’bout da NEW toy box prajet (project)!” Uhhhh… I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Oops. I explained to Gracen that I wasn’t sure what would replace her beloved building station, but I would think of something FUN, get it ready during her nap time, and surprise her with it when she woke up. No pressure.
Since I had about a gazillion other things I had planned to get done during my baby girl’s nap time, I knew the new station had to be something quick and easy to put together. I dug through our little living room toy box in search of inspiration, came across her bar magnet, and that was that…. A magnet station it was. I gathered up all kinds of small things from around the house – some magnetic and some not – and placed them on a tray along with the magnet. At first, I thought I’d just leave it at that, but then I decided it would be fun to add a sorting element since Miss G loves sorting/matching games so much. I remembered coming across this post on Pinterest a long while ago, and though adding ‘magnetic’ and ‘non-magnetic’ jars into the mix felt a little bit too “academic” or teach-y (we don’t really do planned learning activities yet), I decided to give them a shot. After all, they could always be removed if they were too much. I retrieved 2 mason jars, drew 2 quick sketches (one illustrating magnetic, and the other one non-magnetic), cut them out, and washi taped them onto the jars. Done!
When Gracen woke up, she asked about her new project immediately (this girl doesn’t forget a thing). I brought it in, explained that it was a magnet station, and let her jump in.
After a couple of minutes of exploration, I explained the jar drawings to her. Without hesitation, she started placing things in the appropriate jars.
She was so into it that it didn’t feel like too much at all.
Before long, she’d sorted every last item into the jars and announced, “All done! Dump ’em and do it again!” (A sure sign of success, I’d say. ☺)
♥
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