The Simplest Toddler Activity E.V.E.R.

5 / 6 / 125 / 6 / 12

Today I introduced Gracen to mess-free sidewalk painting. She loved it so much that she’d finally set down her brush, go running towards her sandbox, suddenly shout “More! More!”, and then turn right around and head back to painting.

I’m always surprised by how many activities from my Kindergarten teaching years can be adapted to entertain and engage my one year old (yay play-based learning!) This activity is something I did with my students to practice number and letter printing and recognition, but it is just as great when done simply for fun. It’s incredibly simple, requires only two things, and has virtually no mess / clean-up. What’s not to love, right?

The trick to mess-free sidewalk painting is that there is absolutely no paint involved. All you need is a paint brush of some sort (I find bigger wall painting brushes work better than artist’s brushes, and rollers are fun too) and a container of water to act as paint. The water will mark the sidewalk, and slowly disappear, leaving a blank canvas ready for more painting fun.

With summer just around the bend, I think this activity will be in regular rotation very soon… Bring on the heat!

Side note: We tried painting the sidewalk in both the sun and shade today and found a significant difference in how long our pictures lasted, so that could be something fun for older kids to explore.

Toddler Painting

4 / 24 / 124 / 25 / 12

After a long string of beautiful days spent outdoors, today’s rain brought on a welcomed change – a day indoors filled with hide-and-seek, books, baking, and arts and crafts. Gracen LOVES painting, so while she napped, I gathered a few materials in preparation for a messy paint-filled afternoon.

We started out by using straws. (Have I mentioned that this girl has a thing for straws? Naturally, it was her first choice.) I plopped a few little drops of paint on the paper and demonstrated moving the paint by blowing through the straw. You should have seen her gorgeous little eyes light up! Although she was able to do it, I would definitely try to have a much longer, larger straw next time as it took a lot of effort and aim to really be effective. (Do they still have those giant Slurpee straws at 7-11? Because if so, they would be perfect!)
Eventually, she moved to just dragging her straw through the paint, which gave a just as good (if not better) result. As you can see, she was pretty thrilled with it all:

With our straw painting up on the drying rack, we moved on to using Q-tips. I dropped little splots of paint on her paper, handed over the Q-tips, and let her go. She set to work without a moment’s hesitation, and announced, “More!” as soon as each paint blob had been smeared.
Next, we tried sponges. This one was especially fun because she ‘jumped’ her duck and rabbit-shaped sponges from one paint splot to the next, leaving a rainbow-coloured trail behind them.

After A LOT of jumping, we moved on to painting with a golf ball (marbles work well too!) I trimmed our paper slightly so that it could fit into a deep baking pan, splattered some paint on top, and placed the ball inside.
With just a couple of instructions, Grae figured out just what to do. She gently tilted the pan back and forth, running the ball through the paint splots. The result was really cool – little multicoloured tracks all over the page.

With our paper fully covered in tracks, I decided to grab a pinecone (a rare case when having little bowls filled with collections of things stored in your kitchen is actually convenient) to use as a brush of sorts. Since we were nearing the end of our painting afternoon and we’d already used a lot of the paint, I handed over the entire tray and let Gracen go to town. She dipped and stamped and dipped and drug her pinecone until there wasn’t much left of it.
Haha! I know that this would be some parents’ worst nightmare, but I’m a fan of getting messy once and a while. Plus, what are you going to do? Let all that leftover paint go to waste?! With the go ahead from Mama, Gracen cautiously tipped the tray of paint over onto the brown packaging paper we were using to protect the table.

No painting afternoon is complete without finger painting, is it?
And here are the finished masterpieces:

I’d say it was a successful rainy afternoon. ☺

Grae’s New Favourite

4 / 22 / 124 / 22 / 12

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up this cute little crab sandbox for Grae on sale for half price. Big score – she loves it. I think we’ve spent every nice afternoon in it since we filled it up.

Chocolate Playdough

4 / 11 / 124 / 11 / 12

Everybody loves play dough, but chocolate play dough?! Now that’s what I’m talking about. I actually meant to make this with Miss G over Easter weekend, but we were so busy hunting for eggs and spending our days outdoors, that we didn’t get around to it. So this morning we whipped out our ingredients and got busy in the kitchen. And I’m so glad we did. This play dough is so much fun. Not to mention that it smells delicious and is easy to make. Here’s what we did…

First, Grae helped me gather our ingredients – all-purpose flour, salt, cocoa, cream of tartar, oil, and boiling water (which is safely stored on a counter on the opposite side of the kitchen).

We decided to use our mixer this time around, but you could just as easily use a bowl, wooden spoon, and some elbow grease instead. Start off by adding your flour to the bowl.

Then dump in the salt. Close your eyes while doing so for an added challenge.

Next up -the magic ingredient… Cocoa!

Then add a little bit of cream of tartar….

And mix it all together.

When your dry ingredients are fully blended, add some oil.

Then mix again.

Now for the ‘mommy only’ job… Slowly pour your boiling water into the mixture.

Then mix until everything is well blended and the dough begins to come together.

At this point, the dough might appear to be a little goopy, but resist the urge to add flour just yet. Stop your machine and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure to incorporate any loose flour.

Now give it one more quick mix.

Dump the dough out onto the counter and pat everything together into a nice ball.

Voila! You’re ready to have some fun!

Mmmmmm… Smells so good too!

For some added fun, we took out a box of chocolates we’ve had around since Christmas, dumped the contents, and made some yummy play dough chocolates of our own.

Here’s the recipe (which I originally found here):

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 tbsps cream of tartar
2 cups of boiling water

Combine all of the dry ingredients. Add in the oil and mix well. Then stir in the boiling water until fully combined. Dump out the dough on a clean surface and knead if needed. Enjoy!

The original recipe gives you the option of adding 4 drops of glycerine for added stretch and shine. We didn’t have any on hand, but I would definitely give it a try next time around. The dough is plenty soft as is, but not quite as stretchy as our purple “cooked” play dough is.

Glittered Easter Eggs

4 / 6 / 124 / 8 / 12

I chickened out. I bought styrofoam eggs for decorating rather than real ones. *cringe*

But here’s the thing… Poking holes in shells and blowing the contents out of eggs is difficult and time-consuming work. Then giving those fragile egg shells to an excitable toddler? Well that’s just asking for them (and all your hard work) to be crushed. …And hard boiling eggs and then leaving them out at room temperature for the weekend so that they become smelly little balls of bacteria? Yuck. So fake eggs it is this year. Ugh. Note to self: Must come up with a better plan for next year.

Of course, Gracen didn’t mind in the least. She was just as pleased with styrofoam craft eggs as she would have been with the real thing.

Instead of my usual wax resist dyed eggs, this year I opted to try something different {and slightly risqué when your partner in crime is an enthusiastic one year old}… Glittered eggs! Grae was up for the challenge and applied glue to the eggs like an old pro.

Shaking on the glitter was fun, but at least half of it got on the blanket and Grae rather than the egg… Not to mention that it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

So we opted to try out a different method! We started by dumping out our glittered into bowls…

Then plopped the gluey eggs into the glitter bath and gently rolled them around. This was definitely the way to go. Quick and efficient. Just the way I like things.

The eggs definitely didn’t turn out perfectly and we had a bit of a glittery, gluey disaster on our hands afterwards, but it was fun.

Pretty!

Grassheads

4 / 3 / 124 / 3 / 12

Poor Bradley… Lately it seems as though his days off have been rainy, cold, and windy and today was no exception… What can you do? Embrace it with a family crafternoon! And that’s just what we did. We covered our kitchen floor in plastic, gathered our materials, and made one of my teacher favourites – grassheads! I think I’ve made these with my students ever single year. So far, every class, whether it was Grade Four or Kindergarten, loved them. Hopefully Grae does too. Here’s what we did…

We got started by gathering our supplies – a nylon sock, grass seed, soil, empty yogurt container, jute, googly eyes, a red permanent marker, scissors, a spoon, and a glue gun.

Tip: Don’t put the nylon sock over your head robber-style. It may scare the socks off your little one.

Lesson learned and ready to go. Put the toe of your nylon sock into your container and roll the top portion over the container. The toe should be dangling just above the base of the container.
Scoop a few spoonfuls of grass seed into the toe of your nylon.

Make sure all of the seeds get down to the very bottom of the sock (otherwise your grasshead will be a grassface also).

Fill the sock with soil, pushing it down every now and then to create a nice round head shape.

When your head is the shape and size you desire, make a knot as close to the soil as possible in order to keep the contents of your grasshead nice and tight.

Next, using a permanent marker, draw your grasshead’s mouth. Remember that the nylon’s toe will be the top of your grasshead’s head, and the knot will be the bottom.

Next, pinch a little bit of soil, along with the nylon, up from the centre of the face to create a nose. Tie it off with some jute. (An elastic or pipe cleaner works just as well for this job.)

Your grasshead should now look like this. If you want to give him ears, this is the best time to do it. Use the same method as you did to create his nose, but this time on the sides of his head.

Now choose some googly eyes.

Put eyes into a couple of dabs of hot glue and apply pressure to ensure they’re secured well.

Voila! You have a hair-less grasshead!

If you’re feeling silly, you can celebrate with a grasshead kiss.

Bathtime! But first, chop off the excess nylon leaving about 3 inches of nylon dangling from your knot. This will serve as a straw of sorts later, helping your grasshead slurp up water from its jar. Fill a sink with lukewarm water and fully submerge your grasshead for about 1 minute. Afterwards, gently squeeze the excess water out of the grasshead, being sure to keep the seeds at the top. This is a good time to mold your grasshead a little if you wish.

Fill a cup or jar with lukewarm water, place the grasshead’s ‘tail’ in the jar, and rest the head on the rim of the jar. Add water as needed and watch your grasshead grow a wild head of hair! Once the grass hair has really come in, you can cut and style it as you wish. Mohawk anyone?

I’ve never tried it, but several of my students’ parents have told me that come late spring / early summer, they set their child’s grasshead in a little well in the garden, the roots took, and the grasshead lasted until fall. Might be interesting to try… We could have a garden supervisor of sorts.

Finger Paint Fun

3 / 12 / 123 / 12 / 12

Today was a freezing cold, wet, windy day in Vancouver. It was miserable, really. But it couldn’t have been more perfect. Gracen and I had a wonderful day. We stayed in our pajamas until afternoon, played games and acted silly, read book after book, ate a delicious lunch, and got messy with some serious finger painting action. I don’t know what’s taken so long… We’ve painted her hands and feet and stamped them, we painted with brushes, we’ve done mess-free finger painting in zip-close bags, but we’ve never done full-on finger painting. My poor girl’s 18 months old and she’s never finger painted before! Bad mommy. So today we got started. And Grae loved it.

Ready and waiting.

Cautious in the beginning.

Getting into it.

Woohoo! This is fun!

Amidst a masterpiece.

Tie-dyed hands.

Le pièce de résistance.

So proud. (It turned out so beautifully that we headed out to Ikea to pick out a frame for it. There’s something special about having your little one’s artwork up on the walls…)

I told Grae she could choose its spot and showed her several potential places on her bedroom walls, but she simply shook her head at each suggestion. She took the frame from my hands and placed it on top of her little shelf where she insists on keeping all three of her other frames (I’ve tried moving one to a new location while she’s in another room on several occasions, but I always come back to all three back on the shelf).

I see much more finger painting in our future…

Homemade Bird Feeders

3 / 1 / 121 / 6 / 14

Despite the incident we had at Granville Island a couple of months back, our little lady remains a dedicated bird lover (unlike her mama). So today we headed out into our sunshiny backyard, supplies in hand, to make a couple of simple, toddler-friendly bird feeders. Here’s what we did…

Seedy Bagel Rings:

For this project, we used wild bird seed mix, some wholewheat bakery bagels, some ‘just peanuts’ peanut butter, some jute (it’s biodegradable and can be repurposed by birds when building their nests), a spatula, and some scissors.

First things first, cover one side of the bagel with peanut butter.

You want it nice and thick so that the seeds really stick.

Then plop it, peanut butter side down, into the seed mixture.

Really push it down into the seeds to collect as many as possible.

It should look something like this.

Next, spread peanut butter on the other side.

And cover it completely with seeds.

Almost done! While you tie a loop of jute through the middle of the bagel, have your little one wash the gobs of peanut butter off of her hands.

Tada! Here’s the finished product.

Now tie them up in a tree and wait for hungry birds to flock your way.

Toasted O Loops:

For this feeder, we used jute, scotch tape, low-sugar toasted O cereal, and some scissors.

First thing, cut a piece of jute, tie a triple knot at one end, and wrap a small bit of tape around the other end so that it doesn’t fray.

Next, string the o’s onto the jute, one by one.

It’s a slow process… Especially if your munchkin eats five o’s for every one she strings!

When you’ve got a nice long string, make a loop and tie it at the top.

Then knot it onto a tree branch. It doesn’t get any easier than that!

I’m sure we’re inviting all kinds of scary crows and seagulls into our yard with these tempting treats swinging from our trees, but if it provides some entertainment for our little bird watcher, it’ll be worth it.

Play Dough Day

2 / 29 / 128 / 11 / 13

Today I had barely finished mentioning making play dough and my little Lulu had already retrieved her apron.

Now, I have always been a fan of the 2:1:1 recipe (2 parts flour to 1 part salt and 1 part water). It’s fast, it’s easy, and it really only requires having two ingredients on hand. I’ve used it through many, many years of babysitting, nannying, and teaching without even considering giving another recipe a try. That is, until I decided to give this “fussy” recipe a go this Christmas. Yes, it requires both oil and cream of tartar – not to mention cooking – but if you’ve got the ingredients, extra time, and patience to let it cool, it’s totally worth it. It’s soft, super pliable, and lasts for a ridiculously long time. Plus, it’s really not that hard.

Here’s what you need: Some flour, salt, cream of tartar, vegetable oil, water, food colouring, and a cute little sous chef to help you along the way.

First things first, pour your water in a large pot.

Next, add your salt. Preferably into the pot. But hey, whatever works.

Then, add your cream of tartar.

And your food colouring. (Of course for this little one, purple was the colour of choice.) Give everything a little stir.

Then, over medium heat, warm the mixture until hot, but not boiling.

When hot, add your oil and your flour, cup by cup.

Don’t worry if it looks all chunky and gross. We’ve used this recipe several times and we’ve always experienced this stage. It’ll all work out in the end.

When you’ve added all of the flour, give the dough one final stir and plop it out onto a well-floured counter. Sprinkle some extra flour on top if the dough appears sticky. Be careful – it’ll be very hot still.

Once it’s cooled, kneed the dough well, incorporating all of the extra flour.

Then give your munchkin a chunk and let her go to town.

Fun for hours!

Here’s our slightly tweaked version of the recipe if you want to give it a try:

5 cups of water
2 1/2 cups of salt
3 TBSP of cream of tartar
5 TBSP of vegetable oil
Food colouring
5 1/2 cups of flour

Mix water, salt, cream of tartar, oil, and food colouring in a large pot. Cook on medium heat, stirring regularly until mixture is hot.

Add oil, then stir in flour a cup at a time, mixing in between each addition. Mix until playdough pulls away from pot and is no longer sticky.

Dump dough on a well-floured counter, let cool a bit, then knead.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container for several weeks.

Enjoy!

Homemade Finger Paint

2 / 13 / 125 / 22 / 13

In preparation for Little G’s Valentine’s Day tea, this morning we experimented with making our own finger paint. I found the recipe on Pinterest a long while back, and knew it would come in handy one day soon.

Gracen carefully added all of our ingredients into a large measuring cup first…

And then enthusiastically mixed it up!

Then we warmed the mixture on the stove…

Separated it into small bowls, added a few drops of food colouring, and stirred it well. It looks pretty, right?

We’ll have to use the paint a little more (right now we’ve just got in zip-close bags for mess-free painting), but I’m not sure that I’m sold on this recipe. Although it’s very quick and easy to make, uses ingredients that most people already have in their kitchen, and has a great texture while warm, ours turned out like Jello when cooled. It did soften up again when stirred well, but I think next time we’ll try cutting down the amount of corn starch a little. The other important thing that the recipe doesn’t mention is that the mixture needs to be stirred constantly while heating. We didn’t do that the first time around and ended up with a clumpy, bumpy mess! We’ll have to see what it looks like when we actually put it on paper…