Button Play

7 / 3 / 127 / 6 / 12

As much as I love setting up little play invitations for Grae, many activities are initiated by Gracen and come about organically. This morning, as I was answering birthday calls (hello, 31), Miss G found a box of craft goodies we had carried in from the car and left in a heap at the front door (we got in late last night and after what’s supposed to be a 5 hour trip turned into an 8 hour trip, there was little energy left for unpacking things) and immediately gravitated towards the many little pouches of buttons I had stowed away. Having been given the okay nod from me, she started slowly unzipping the pouches one by one and emptying the contents into the bamboo dish that normally houses our remotes.

Such fun. The colours, shapes, sizes, and zipping kept her happily busy for a good portion of the morning while I slowly worked on unpacking things.

Later in the day, as I began gathering dinner ingredients, she came across a couple of clean ice cube trays waiting to be filled and frozen on the counter. I’m not sure what inspired her, but she quickly left the kitchen and returned with her bowl of buttons and the creamer cup from her tea set. Brilliant. I don’t think I could have come up with a better ice cube tray activity on the spot if I tried. I retrieved a blanket, she spread her things out, and happily played until dinner was ready.

I may be discovering new runaway buttons around the house for the next week or two, but having an hour to cook and wash dishes while my girl happily plays independently is well worth the pick up.

♥

Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

6 / 20 / 123 / 24 / 14

Today we gathered up some supplies, transferred the rice we dyed yesterday into a bin, and headed out into the backyard for some fun.

Gracen helped me pick out the items to add to our rainbow rice sensory bin. We kept things pretty simple today… Spoons, containers, cups, and a teapot (hmm… I wonder whose selection that was!)

First job – take everything out and get those colours mixed together!

The result? Rainbow rice!

Soooo beautiful!

Next job – filling up every single container in sight.

And then things got wild. For a while, it was raining rice, and shortly after the whole bucket tipped over, Grae still inside. The good thing was that Miss G found picking it all up and putting it back in the bin just as fun as dumping it in the first place.

♥

You can see Gracen’s other sensory bins here.

Making Vibrant Dyed Rice

6 / 19 / 129 / 12 / 13

I’ve had dyed rice in my bank of sensory box ideas for a long while now, and since we had a giant bag of Kokuho Rose in our kitchen (the hubby’s favourite… yummy, but white rice) and our dyed pasta turned out pretty well a few days back, I figured we’d give it a go this afternoon. I knew I wanted the colours to be really vibrant, so I decided we’d use gel dyes and something a little more potent than vinegar (hence the jars this time instead of plastic bags). While searching bloggyland, I found that several people suggested using hand sanitizer in place of vinegar or rubbing alcohol. It couldn’t have been more perfect actually. While we didn’t have rubbing alcohol on hand, I did have some yummy-smelling hand sanitizer that’s just been sitting around as I’ve been working on getting my germaphob tendencies under control.

With gel dyes and fruit-scented hand sanitizer involved, I decided I’d get our project started before enlisting the help of Miss G. I collected some jars, put a couple of squeezes of sanitizer in each, and then added gel dye, toothpick and all.

With the sanitizer and dye bottles safely tucked away, I filled a big bowl with rice and invited my little lady to help with the rest of the process.

She was quite thrilled with the giant bowl of rice, so I gave her a few minutes to play with it before getting started on her first job. When good and ready, Grae added about 1 cup of rice to each jar, which turned out to be the perfect amount.

First step complete. I’m just glad you can’t see how much rice is on the floor… Next time I would probably have a wide-mouth funnel on hand just to make the pouring part a little easier / less messy.

With everything inside the jars, I sealed the jars tightly and the shaking began!

Grae and I switched off, giving each of us little breaks and the chance to watch the rice slowly become coloured and more vibrant with time.

Not going to lie… It took quite a lot of shaking. We probably could have stopped earlier, but I wanted the colours to be consistent, so we shook a little more.

This was the end result.

Do you think Grae was happy with the results?

Next, we headed out into the solarium, industrial-sized baking sheet in hand. I poured the rice out, removed the toothpicks, and got rid of a couple of little rice/dye clumps while Gracen oohed, ahhed, pointed, and smelled her newest sensory bin filler.

Just look at those colours! And the perk to using fancy shmancy sanitizer? Deliciously nectarine mint-scented rice (slightly reminiscent of high school nights plagued by cheap, 2 litre coolers, but shhh… Don’t tell Grae.) Now all we have to do is wait patiently enough to let our scented rainbow rice dry!

♥

If youre worried that your little one may put the rice in his/her mouth, try using vinegar instead of hand sanitizer. It should have similar results and will be much safer.

Baby Bath Station

6 / 18 / 123 / 24 / 14

I was beyond thrilled when I stumbled upon Happy Hooligans a couple of weeks ago. Jackie, the woman behind the blog runs an in-home daycare and is all about old-fashioned play, open-ended exploration, and letting kiddos get down and dirty. My kind of gal! Upon scrolling through her posts, I immediately knew that this activity would be a huge hit with Miss G. The only problem was that I wanted to surprise Grae with it on a sunny day.

Well, today that day finally arrived! I laid a blanket out in our backyard, filled a bin with some warm, soapy water, added a couple of drops of blue food colouring, and we had a bath. Next, I collected a couple of wash cloths, hand towels, a tooth brush, a hair brush, a bath poof (that’s my technical term), a water-filled mister, and a couple nearly empty soap bottles topped up with water. Gracen’s contribution was her naked and nearly 50 year old baby doll that used to be mine and was Grandma Sue’s before that. Voila – a baby bath station!

On a side note, have I ever mentioned the fact that there are 7 people living in the basement suite of our house? Because there is. Well 7 permanent residents, plus a few of extended family members that are around A LOT. In a suite that is probably fit for 2 or 3 college students who don’t care to cook. And while they’re quite nice, having that many people living below us can be quite challenging at times… The constant come and go, picking up after 5 children other than our own (in a yard that is supposed to be entirely ours), and the noise… Oh, the noise!

Why am I mentioning all this in a post about a baby bath station, you wonder? Well, because the middle child of the 5, a sweet little girl who is 6 years old, has taken quite a liking to Gracen and the activities I set up for her. For the past month or two, it seems like the moment we head out into the yard, she comes running up the stairs to join us. And while I really don’t mind including her and watching her for an hour here or there, it sometimes makes new activities fall a little flat. Because she’s several years older, she dives into new activities without a thought. But Grae, on the other hand, needs a little time to cautiously explore and figure things out before really getting into some things. The result is that Gracen sits backs and watches, doesn’t get involved, and then moves on to something else entirely.

Needless to say, today’s sensory bin got off to a bit of slow start. Gracen was really excited to get started, and had some fun, but once it became difficult to get her hands on any of the goodies, she sat back, watched, and soon decided she’d rather do something else while her little friend enjoyed her new baby bath.

I felt bad, but after a little while, I politely dismissed us from the backyard and shifted our things over to the solarium. The perk with having to move? The solarium was so nice and warm that the little lady was able to don her tankini. With a little more space to move and explore, Gracen really got into it.

There was washing, scrubbing, hair brushing, and grooming… And before long, our little fishy went for a bath of her own. It was inevitable, really.

Soon it became a bath a tooth brushing station for two.

Probably the favourite part of the whole station though, was this little one dollar purple spray bottle.

Somehow, over an hour in, our little bath station shifted gears a little…

With baby’s hair groomed just so, Gracen wanted her hair done too. She asked for a ponytail, quickly changed her mind to two ponies, and by the time she was done with the pack of elastics, she wanted eight. This was the result. She thought it was pretty hilarious and asked me to take photo after photo, just so she could see herself on the camera’s display.

Overall, this new sensory experience was a huge hit. When all was said and done, Gracen was clean, smiley, and sufficiently pruned.

♥

You can see Gracen’s beach, ocean, gardening, moon dough, construction, and bird -themed

bins by clicking on the links.

Dyed Pasta Jewellery

6 / 14 / 126 / 16 / 12

This morning our dyed rigatoni noodles were perfectly dry and ready to be put to use. And thank goodness. Gracen’s been asking about our “pretty papta” since the moment I put it out in the solarium to dry.
We chose to use pipe cleaners this time around as this was Grae’s first real time stringing ‘beads’. Of course, any sort of string will do (wrapping one end with tape makes it easier), but I find that the rigidity of pipe cleaners makes it a lot easier, especially for munchkins who are just learning.

To start off, I strung on one noodle and folded the pipe cleaner up around it to secure it (much easier than making a giant messy knot).
For the first couple of noodles, I held the pipe cleaner for Grae while she did the stringing and sliding.

And then she was on her own. Easy peasy! She was a pro.
We ended up making all kinds of pretties – bracelets, crowns, and necklaces, and Gracen very happily modelled them all.

Of course, if you’re not into stringing them, rigatoni noodles make gorgeous rings too.

♥

Simple Fun: Pipe Cleaners Paired with a Strainer

6 / 13 / 121 / 4 / 14

On the one and only afternoon I need to get ready for an fancy evening event, my ultra routine 2-hour-nap-every-single-day girl wakes up after 50 minutes, ready to get up and get busy playing again. Ugh. I had only painted my nails in that time, let alone prepped dinner, had a shower, done my hair and make-up, or selected a purse to bring along. With some serious mommy time needed, I pulled out a little independent play idea I’ve had in the back of my mind for a long while now… Pipe cleaners and a strainer. Now, if you’re on Pinterest, you’ve most likely seen this idea circulate dozens of different times. And rightfully so. It’s ridiculously simple, it requires only two very basic supplies, it’s super engaging, and it is great for fine motor skill development. Just what the doctor ordered for a day like today (well that and some hot water, because when I went to have a shower I discovered we had not a stitch). I set Grae up in her room, gave her the brand new bag of pipe cleaners she’d picked out at the store a few days ago, along with our kitchen stainer, showed her how to put a pipe cleaner through a strainer hole, and let her be.

Let me tell you, she seriously loved it. There was probably about 25 to 30 minutes of silent, serious play that followed. In fact, it was so quiet, that I kept peeking around the corner to see what she was up to, and there she’d be, sitting in the middle of her carpet adding more pipe cleaners to her colander masterpiece.

♥

Dyed Pasta

6 / 13 / 129 / 12 / 13

I’ve been wanting to get Miss G a wooden beading set for a while now, but had a little idea when passing through the pasta aisle the other day… Why not just dye some rigatoni noodles bright, fun colours like I used to do for my Kindergarten students? I love old school art projects and the macaroni necklace is just that. Old school. Not to mention that dyed noodles aren’t only good for making necklaces… They’re great for sorting, patterning, crafting, and counting too. In the past, I’ve always used a combination of liquid food colouring and rubbing alcohol, but since I wanted Grae to be able to dye the pasta with me, I decided we’d try using vinegar instead. And I’m happy to report that it turned out just fine. Plus, Gracen loved the whole process. Add that to the fact that it’s super easy and cheap, and what do you have to lose? Here’s how to make your own coloured pasta…

Add about a sixth of a large bag of rigatoni to a zip-close bag already prepped with 1 teaspoon of vinegar and about 10 drops of liquid food colouring.

Shake like crazy to evenly distribute the colour and absorb all of the moisture.

Then dump the noodles out on a baking sheet and allow to dry. (If you order your colours right, you can minimize the number of plastic bags you use. We started with yellow, then did orange in the same bag, and then did the {more orange than anything} red. I had planned to just rinse out the bag and then do the cool colours, but by that time my little monkey had really taken a liking to the shaking bit and our bag was toast. We started fresh with a new bag, and did green first, then teal, and then blue.)

By the time we’d moved on to the cool colours, I realized it was a smart plan to double bag. Good thing, because Gracen went crazy.

In the end, this is what our pasta looked like. As you can see, I got a little carried away with the vinegar when dyeing the blues, but I think they’ll be just fine. We set the out in the solarium to dry, and hopefully we’ll be able to do something fun with them tomorrow. By then, I’m fairly certain Miss G will have said, “Papta (pasta) – pretty, pretty, pretty!” and “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiyeee pretty papta” about a million times.

♥

Bird-Themed Sensory Bin

6 / 12 / 123 / 24 / 14

Always looking for new, fun sensory bin ideas, I stumbled upon this webpage last week. Since Grae is such a little bird lover, I knew that a bird-themed sensory bin would be a total hit. We already had huge bag of bird seed on hand for our feathery friends who live in the backyard, and throughout the week, I went about collecting little extras. Everything needed was very inexpensive and was found at our local dollar stores, but would be available at craft stores too. The little birds are called ‘Mushroom Birds’ (I have no idea why, but they are) and can be found where fake flowers are sold. The nests are formed with faux moss (also found in a fake flower section), the flower branches are held in place by folding the branch over and anchoring it in the seeds, and the pinecones were borrowed from one of Gracen’s many collections. The little wooden bird house was painted by the little lady a few days ago, which was a fun activity in itself. With all of our items collected, I assembled everything during today’s nap and had it ready to go as a fun little afternoon surprise.

Gracen literally couldn’t get out the door fast enough when I told her I had something fun for us to do outside. And when she saw the birds? There was a serious squeal of excitement. She immediately set about exploring the nests, moving the birds from place to place, and filling the bird house with seed.

Shortly after, the birds started flying! Accompanied by little ‘whooshing’ sounds, they zipped through the air doing dives, spins, and figure eights. Hilarious.

Then it was time to empty the bin so that there was plenty of space for hand burying.

After selecting the very best peanuts from the mix, Gracen took the time to hand feed each bird. She tapped the peanut onto the birds’ beaks, and naturally, each responded with an enthusiastic “nom-a-nom-a-neh”.

With all of the birds properly cared for, it was time for the real fun. Gracen’s sensory bin finale of sorts. Off came the shoes, and in went the munchkin! Needless to say, we had seeds everywhere.

And then this happened. Perhaps she’s working on a new grand finale? I don’t know, but all I can say is that I’m happy she chose to break me in with this new maneuver on a bird seed day instead of a cloud dough day.

♥

Feathers, small pretend eggs, and anything found around the yard (sticks, leaves, flowers, etc.) would make great additions to this sensory bin.

You can see Gracen’s beach, ocean, gardening, moon dough, and construction-themed bins by clicking on the links.

Construction Sensory Bin

6 / 5 / 123 / 24 / 14

After our grasshead hairstyling session this afternoon, we headed out into the warmth of our solarium to explore something else I had set up during nap time… A new sensory bin! Truthfully, I wanted to create a construction sensory bin, but didn’t really have the materials I needed. I improvised and included some ‘building cups’, a shovel, a rake, a pumpkin scraper, and the one and only actual construction thing I could find – a little front loader. Of course, Gracen didn’t mind a bit that there wasn’t the variety of construction vehicles, workers, and signs that Mama had wanted. She got busy taking apart the towers, rebuilding them, scooping up pebbles, dumping them, and driving her little front loader up and down the rock hill. She did of course get into the bin and even tried laying down and rolling around in the pebbles this time around… Silly girl!

♥

Moon Dough Sensory Bin

5 / 27 / 123 / 24 / 14

I’d been waiting a long time to show Gracen the magic that is moon dough, and today was the perfect day. It just so happened we had white flour in the house and I randomly came across a half bottle of baby oil when organizing the bathroom cabinets… So it was kind of meant to be. Plus, it was plenty warm to be outside doing something messy, but not so beautiful that you wished you were sitting on the beach or beside an outdoor pool. Gracen helped me make the moon dough first, and then I transferred it into one of our empty sensory bins, gathered some fun stuff from around the kitchen, and brought everything into the backyard.

Gracen had wanted to get her hands into the dough from the time we started mixing the oil into the flour, so she was more than ready to get started.

She began by filling up the bowl and silicon baking cups one spoonful at a time and patted each one down when full, just as she does when making sandcastles at the beach. She quickly decided that the straws were the perfect ‘cake’ toppers. She’d carefully place them in one container, take a sideways glance, then move them to another, as if she were trying to get it just right. Turns out, the big bowl was the best place for all of them.

And though filling up the containers was fun in itself, she was extremely pleased with the discovery that she could tip them over to make little moon dough castles. (While the plastic bowl was harder, the silicon baking cups were perfect for this because she could give them a little squeeze and the castle would pop right out.) Of course smashing the castles was just as much fun as making them.

Next, we tried making some balls. She loved the finished product, but got frustrated with the fact that she couldn’t make them independently.

It didn’t matter too much though because in no time, she’d pushed all of the moon dough over to one side of the bin and started playing one of her very favourite sandbox games – ‘Where are Gracen’s hands?’

While the dough was all over on one side, we tried something else too – making imprints. Gracen pressed in the spoons and cups, and then we tried the same with our hands.

The best part though, happened when she got busy with the cookie cutters. She was fully enjoying pressing them into the dough and seeing the outlines they created when this happened… Puzzling! It took her a second, but she figured out. She tried to make it happen again afterwards, but sadly, no luck.

Of course, she ended the sensory box experience in her usual way… You should have seen the look on her face as the silky smooth dough smushed up in between her toes. Pure delight!

This sensory bin was ridiculously fun. Grae played with it for almost an hour and I can see us revisiting it very soon. The only thing I might do differently next time is either add more moon dough or use a smaller container so that there is a thicker base in the bin. And although I may be brave enough to try it indoors on a very rainy day (on a giant blanket in the kitchen), I think I’d rather keep this one outside as it’s just as messy as it is fun.

You can see Gracen’s beach, ocean, and gardening-themed bins by clicking on the links.

♥

Making Moon Dough

5 / 27 / 1211 / 25 / 13

This is something I’ve been planning to make with Gracen for a long while now and I’m so glad we finally tried it today. Moon dough, often also called cloud dough, is a silky, mouldable mixture of just two ingredients many families probably already have on hand. Fun and easy – love it!

To whip up your own batch of moon dough, all you need is some white flour, some baby oil, a mixing bowl, and a whisk.

Start by adding 8 parts flour into your bowl.

Then add 1 part baby oil.

Mix well, ensuring all the large clumps are broken up and the oil is evenly distributed through the flour.

When you’re done, the mixture will be light and fluffy and the clumps should be minimal. That’s it – so easy! Transfer it into a large bin and add some cups, moulds, straws, spoons, and cookie cutters for your little one(s) to use while exploring.

Cloud Dough

8 cups of white flour
1 cup of baby oil

Put the ingredients into a large bowl and mix really well. Store in an airtight container or bag for several months.

Enjoy!

Beach Sensory Bin

5 / 16 / 123 / 24 / 14

During our afternoon in the backyard, I brought out another one of the sensory bins I recently put together for Gracen to explore. This one was beach-themed and included all of the beach treasures Gracen’s worked so hard to collect, as well as a few fancy shells from Grandma Charlotte and a mini shovel and rake.

After exploring both her ocean and gardening-themed bins, she knows exactly what these bins are all about now. She oohed and ahhed for a minute, and then got busy.

The first thing she did was scoop up sand and fill her bowl.

Then she flipped the giant shell and filled it up too.

When she was done with that, she decided it was time to take all of the shells out.

And once she had sufficiently patted the sand down, she placed each item back into the bin just so.

She was sure to place the driftwood pieces upright and called them her “trees”.

When she was all done, this is what her reorganized masterpiece looked like.

While she certainly enjoyed this beach sensory bin, it wasn’t as big of a hit as the others. Maybe it’s because we have a full-sized sandbox in the backyard, or maybe because we spend so much time down at the beach, but either way, it’ll be a great addition to the growing sensory box collection we have in our solarium and perfect for those times when Mama needs a few minutes and can’t be in the backyard with her girl.

Gardening Sensory Bin

5 / 11 / 123 / 24 / 14

With today’s gorgeous weather and all of the fun Miss G had with yesterday’s sensory box, I decided to pull together another one this afternoon.

Gracen helped us plant our first ever garden this year and really loves checking in on it. She smells the flowers, strokes the leaves, and plucks out things that don’t belong, but she can’t do much more than that without disturbing the plants. So today I decided to give her a little “garden” of her own in the shape of a gardening sensory bin.

We headed to the garage and collected a few items, all of which we already had on hand. We started with a good amount of soil, then added some eco-pots, herb and strawberry tags, gardening tools, and a couple of pinwheels (Grae’s favourite part of our current garden). Grae’s contribution? A little fistful of rocks.

Let me tell you, this sensory box was a HUGE hit. Without a word of a lie, she played with it for nearly two hours. She was so into it that I even got to lay on the grass and catch up with emails on my phone for a few minutes. She filled pot after pot of dirt and I was hugely impressed by her ability to get heaping scoops of soil into her pots without spilling much. My favourite thing was that in between scoops, she would tap the excess dirt off her shovel by tapping it on the side of the container like I’ve taught her to do when we cook. When she’d filled a pot, she’d pat down the dirt with her hand and then top it with a cluster of plant tags or a pinwheel.

She also quite liked finding clumps of soil and breaking them up with her fingers.

Of course we eventually reached the point where she decided it was time to get in the sensory bin. I mean which sensory bin isn’t better when seated inside?

What she wasn’t overly impressed with, however, was having dirty feet. After meticulously brushing them off, she carefully climbed out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon.

Here’s a little video of serious sensory box play in action:

♥

Water Sensory Bin

5 / 10 / 123 / 24 / 14

I love the fact that we have a little solarium out back. Unfortunately though, for us, it’s not just a place to grow pretty plants and relax… It’s our laundry room, shoe closet, tricycle riding corral, and recycling depot, all in one. And today it became a play room on top of all of that.

I’ve been squirrelling away little things for some sensory bins I’ve wanted to put together for Miss G for a while now, and today Gracen and I finally found bins that are the perfect shape and size. As soon as we got home, we gathered our materials for a super simple water sensory bin, changed Miss G into a bathing suit, and headed out into the solarium for some fun.

We laid a blanket down first to minimize potential flooding and slipping, filled the bin halfway full of water, added a couple of drops of blue food colouring just for fun, and plunked in Grae’s collection of shells, rocks, and driftwood.

She was a little unsure of what she should do at first…

But in a couple minutes time, she realized that this was going to be fun!

Naturally, all of the ocean items came out of the water and were put onto the blanket.

Then she used a strainer to help her “wash” her treasures.

And before long, she was gathering her own items and adding them to the bin.

But her favourite thing? Putting things into cups and then dumping them into the water.

She liked doing this so much that she began retrieving containers from the recycling bin to fill up.

Inevitably, this happened…

And this…

And this. (She’s kissing the water.)

And by the time we were through, her hands were freezing cold, her suit was dripping wet, and our ocean bin had gained several new items.

Here’s a little video…

♥

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.