Christmas Wreath Ornament

Kaitlyn brought this home from preschool last week and it was one of those things where I thought, "Why have I never thought of that?"

Supplies

• green foam
• red ribbon for bow
• string for hanging
• glue
• desired decorations
• scissors

Prep

1. Gather supplies
2. Cut out wreath (you can use straight scissors, but decorative scrapbooking scissors will add some character)

Activity

Have your child decorate as desired! A simple and cute ornament!

Gingerbread Alphabet

We just finished up a fun week of Gingerbread activities. This was our alphabet activity. I got this idea from here: http://www.pre-kpages.com/gingerbread/. She had a free download of the pages, but it only had letters A-F, so I quickly made some of my own. You can download them here.

To prep this activity, I created the pages, printed them, then laminated pages and letters so they will hold up from year to year.

For my older children (4 and 6), I simply gave the child all of the gingerbread men pages and all of the letters (upper and lowercase) at the same time and told them to match them up. They put the upper and lowercase letters on the same man. This is something that helps them work on letter recognition and keeps them occupied for a good chunk of time. They don't need any assistance from you.

For my 2.5 year old, we did things differently. We did one sheet at a time. I gave her the upper and lowercase letters for the letters on that sheet. She could do the uppercase all by herself, so if you want a younger child to do this activity independently, you might want to just do uppercase letters. She needed help with the lowercase letters.

The way I helped her understand grouping the letters together even if they looked different is I told her the man on the page is the "daddy letter," the uppercase letter was the "mommy letter," and the lowercase letter was a "baby letter." This worked for her because she is obsessed with babies. It helped her grasp that the letters can go together even if they don't look the exact same.

I had her hold a letter up and tell me what letter it was, then match it. She could get all uppercase, and knew some lowercase, but didn't know them all. It was a great exercise in getting her to think about lowercase letters.

For younger toddlers, I would recommend doing just uppercase. For a pre-toddler or baby, you might hold the letter up and say what it is and then put it on the page or have your child put it on the page if possible.

Prayer Book

Started around 17 or 18 months, J and I read a Bible story and then pray together before starting our day.  A friend of mine had the best idea that I’ve adopted into our routine (thanks mamanickles!).  I made a prayer journal to help J through our prayers each day. It’s basically a notebook of pictures and names. It starts with the thankfulness page and then is divided into five categories (separated by colored dividers), family, friends, government officials, ministers, and military servicemen/women. I covered each page with page protectors so that J could handle the book himself without fear of tearing the pages. 

Every morning we pray for one person from each side of the family and then one person in each of the other categories. So we are praying for 6 people a day which turns out just right for his attention span. He really likes it. After using it only a few weeks, J would immediately fold his hands to pray when I picked tup he notebook.  If I don’t pick up the notebook quick enough, he would point to it. This became his way of reminding me.

It’s so easy to add new friends or replace pages with newly elected officials.  When I recently added new friends to the notebook, he had a few days where he only wanted to pray for them. He also likes to just flip through the book afterward. He learned President Obama this way. Another benefit is that it’s helping him become more comfortable with the pastors at church.  He used to shy away from the children’s pastor every time we saw him (which is often since I work with them during the week), after introducing the prayer book and praying for Pastor John a couple times, J is suddenly friendly in person too! If your little one is cautious or deals with separation anxiety, this would be a great way to help them grow more comfortable with caregivers (Sunday school teachers, babysitters, distant family, etc.).

Becca also blogs at Fun and Engaging Activities for Toddlers 

Family Board Book

I made these board books for J when he was 12 or 13 months old. It was SO easy to accomplish and well worth it.  J has always loved them.  I think these would be great from infancy on.  Just keep your little one’s slobber away since the ink will bleed… or better yet, seal the pages beforehand.

I bought a board book kit from Amazon; I’m pretty sure this is the link. The kit included the books, blank labels for each page and a computer template to download.  Of course you don’t have to use the labels.  You can draw on the books or even have your toddler create their own book.

The family book I made is very simple.  I included parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We don’t live anywhere near ANY family, but I really wanted J to learn who all his relatives were.  This way when we are able to see them, he was already familiar with their pictures at least.  Each page in the book has just one labeled picture so it’s very clear who is who.  I used to read this book a lot to him before we took a trip to visit family to refresh his memory.  After each trip we’ve taken to visit family, J tends to return to the book a lot on his own too. I do think if I were to do it again, I would try and include photos that were a little more fun… like Grandpa playing with a ball or Aunt Jenn riding a bike (whereas I just have a photo of each one smiling).

“My Dad Loves Me” was actually a Father’s day gift (from J to daddy).  This is his favorite of the two board books, probably because Daddy is J’s favorite person in the world!  I included lots of pictures of J and dad from birth, on. I added a rhyming story to go along with the photos.  J loves that he sees them playing the guitar or playing with a ball in the pictures.  When we’ve taken a few trips without dad, I brought J’s daddy book along with us to read which he really likes.
Here’s the text of J’s daddy’s book:

Right from the start, Dad was my biggest fan. 

We share kisses and cuddles and lots of big grins.

My Daddy is teaching me to play the guitar.

I’m teaching him to take care of the car.

We work out together.

We act silly together.

We walk and we ride and we explore together.

We splash around in the pool.

We eat ice cream ’till we drool.

Whether we’re playing ball or just hanging out,

My Daddy loves me. You can’t get better than that!

Another side benefit of the board books is that when J has experienced a little separation anxiety and hesitant to play alone, I have kept the books within his reach so he has pictures of those he loves close by.  I got this idea from an online group I’m in.  I’m honestly not sure how much this helped since any bout of separation anxiety was very short lived for J.  It certainly didn’t hurt though!

Sticker Sorting

We do a lot of sticker sorting in this house. It is a great way for J to practice categories and also helps him with fine motor skills (getting the stickers off really works those pincher muscles).  It requires little prep on my part and the only supplies necessary are paper and stickers! These activities also work really well on airplanes (easy to pack and keeps them occupied for a long time!).  We travel a lot and I always have some type of sticker sorting included in our carry-on bag.

Prep: I printed out pictures of a road, the water and the sky. You could definitely just draw these as part of the activity on the plane.  I then cut out stickers of things that were found in each location.  I placed the stickers in a zip-up pencil bag.  J pulled out one sticker at a time and decided which setting it should be placed in.  This worked really well and kept him occupied for awhile (he had a lot of stickers to place).

 

We’ve also done a similar activity in a hotel room.  I drew a train track, road and lake on some paper and he found stickers to place on each.  He was then quite content to drive his cars around the tiny road for quite awhile!

Finally we’ve done something similar at a restaurant.  I have a random assortment of items in my purse at any given moment.  In this case stickers and index cards.  We drew a setting on each one and he sorted the stickers.

These type of activities would also work well for long doctor appointments and car rides too or at home of course.

Here are a couple other examples I’ve posted on in the past:
Sorting Colors with Stickers
Counting with Stickers

We’ve also done shapes, seasons, letters and animal homes.  The possibilities are limited only by your sticker collection.

Hunt in the Dark

This was one of the first “games” J ever played (when he was 16 months old).

I brought a flashlight, plastic cup, and 10 pompom balls into his room.  I “hid” (in plain sight) the balls throughout his room, we turned out the light and used the flashlight to try and find them. As we found them, he would put them in his cup. So simple and such a winner! It took almost 20 minutes to get all the balls in his cup. He kept accidentally dropping one (or more) out of the cup while reaching for another one. He would bend down, pick up the ball (while the last one fell out of the cup), put the ball inside the cup then look down and see ANOTHER ball right there too! Or he would manage to get 5 or 6 balls in the cup, bend down to pick up the 7th, put it in his empty cup, turn around and find 6 more right there behind him. When he finally finished, he was happy to play again and again.

My basic teaching goal going into this was to encourage him to finish what he started.  To me that’s the requirement of a “game”.  You’re given a task, told what is required to win and you play until the win/end is achieved.  True, he had no competition in this game (unless you count the sneaky cup that just kept tossing out all those balls!), but at his age the task itself is competition enough.

As he's gotten older, I can hide items in more difficult spots or even hide in the dark myself and he has to use the flashlight to find me. Since all toddlers seem to love flashlights, this just adds extra fun to the traditional hide and seek.

(This is cross-posted, here) 

Homemade Highways

During the summer, we do a lot of learning with sidewalk chalk outside.  During the winter, I turn to painter's tape.  I love painter's tape!

This activity is really just a fun way to add a little variety to your day, especially these long winter days.  I set up a highway system on the kitchen floor using painter’s tape.  This took me about 5-10 minutes. This is even something your little ones can help with. J later made 2 requests that were easy to add on.  1. A garage to park some cars (my version is on the bottom right side of the pic) 2. Destination states (he’s VERY into states and geography. I definitely accomodated him on this one since it’s educational too.  I let him choose the states and just cut them out of construction paper and taped them down to the end of each roadway.)

Add buildings and bridges with Legos or blocks, stop signs, railroad crossings, etc.  It could be as simple or extravagant as you want.  This picture is fairly basic, since it was honestly meant to keep J busy and focused in the kitchen while my husband and I moved furniture for new floors (woohoo!).


I'll admit, painter’s tape is not cheap.  While you really only use a small amount of the roll, I tend to leave these up for awhile to get lots of use.  I also reuse the tape to make other things later (letters, shapes, numbers,…). One reader adapted this idea by placing tape on a blanket that she could then put away any time she wanted.  Since the tape isn't permanent, you can change the road map easily or remove them completely for cleaning. 

Pre-Toddlers/Early Toddlers and Coloring

I don't think there has ever been a child to love coloring more than McKenna. From a very young age, she started bringing me the box of crayons with a coloring book and babbling something (surely about coloring) with that look on her face. That look you can't say no to.

With Brayden, I would try coloring every so often, but he was more interested in lining the crayons up in a row than coloring. This actually didn't make me feel bad because I don't much like coloring myself. I know, I am weird right? Kaitlyn loves to color, but is perfectly content to do so on her own.

And then there was McKenna.

She loves to color, and more important than the coloring is that Mom is on the floor coloring with her. Most days, coloring is our learning activity for her. This is how we do it.

We put the book on the floor. We lay on our tummies on the floor and color together. McKenna mimics me in every way, so she is right on her belly with me. Then we both just color. She helps. She watches. She loves every moment. The above is a photo of one of our joint efforts.

What if your child doesn't like to color? I don't know how right this is, but my inclination is not to worry about it. Brayden didn't like coloring until he was in preschool. Now he loves it. So my approach was to try it once a week, but I didn't press the issue. I tend to really run with the things they are interested in at the young ages, then start to require some things every so often as I feel it is age-appropriate. Hence the constant coloring with McKenna.

Maybe her enthusiasm will rub off and she will teach me to love it. I may not love the coloring, but I do love the tender time spent together as we color a picture.

Chalkboard Letter Drills

I sat down with McKenna (20 months) the other day determined to make some progress on her telling me what letter I wrote on the chalkboard. As we got started, I really noticed that she couldn't say many of the letters well. So I changed my goal.

I wrote each letter of the alphabet--one at a time.

I started with A. It doesn't matter what you start with. Going A-Z works for me.

I said, "This is an A. Can you say A?" She would then do her best to repeat whatever I had just said. Some letters she got perfectly. If that was the case, I told her, "Good job! A!" then erased it and wrote the next letter.

If she didn't get it right, however, I repeated the letter. "L." I then pointed to my mouth while I said the letter so she could get a visual on what her mouth should be doing while she said the letter. Sometimes, like with the L, I said, "watch my tongue" in which case she of course started trying to grab my tongue.

As we did this, she became better at mimicking my sounds. I also noticed that there were certain letters she said very wrong but in a very certain way. This helps me know better what she is trying to say when she "babbles."

Sitting at the chalkboard for this was a nice setting. We could turn and look at each other and turn and look at the chalkboard. It gave her a focal point, and it also was interesting to her. She wouldn't have enjoyed it much if I had just sat in front of her. The chalkboard is a fun item.

You can take the same idea and extend it to be appropriate for whatever your child is working on--right on up to writing words.

Math Activities

MATH
You know how your teachers always said you would use math a lot in life? Wasn't that so true! Math is all around us--whether we realize (or like) it or not ;). Math is much more than simply adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. It is about shapes, patterns, relationships, and more. The good news for those who don't love math is that means you can have a lot of fun with math. To teach your child math skills, you don't have to just sit down and count and do addition worksheets. Here are some fun ideas that teach math skills.

• Stacking Rings: For younger children, the Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack is teaching them math by allowing them to become familiar with patterns and spacial relationships.

• Bead Stringing: I make jewelry and Brayden is always fascinated and desirous to help me out. They sell Bead Stringing kits for kids. You could also go to your local craft store and buy big beads and yarn. A benefit of any of the bead stringing kits from the company Melissa and Doug is that they replace lost pieces for free on their products (including with puzzles). So if and when your pieces get lost, you can get them replaced for free!

• 
  
  Pegboards: These also teach patterns: Pegboard Toys. We have this set, which we love, but it is unavailable right now. Pegs and Pegboard Set with Pattern Cards
• Pattern Blocks: Pattern Blocks teach, well, patterns. We have this set from Melissa and Doug and love it. Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

• Calendars: Calendars help your child develop math awareness. It also helps your child come to understand days of the week and terms like "tomorrow" and "yesterday." You can buy one or make your own.

• Counting: Count everything. I like to count when clipping fingernails ("Let's see how many clips it takes to clip your fingernails this week"). Not only does it teach counting over and over, the child holds still and counts with you.
• Number of the Week: Have a number to focus on each week. Give your child that number of Cheerios to eat or something like that. Count to your number over and over.
• Math Worksheets: You can create or find and print off addition pages and beyond once your child is ready for it. Start simple with the number zero. (5+0=? etc.).
• Board Games: Many board games require counting. Some include Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, and Cootie.

• Geomag: Geomag teach geometry. Brayden, Kaitlyn, and my husband all have hours of fun with our Geomags. They are magnetic.

• Magformers: Another fun magnetic toy that teaches geometry. that is hugely popular in my area right now are the MAGFORMERS.  We just got some last week, and so far the kids are liking them.

Brightly Beaming Resources

In a discussion in a Yahoo! group I run, blog reader Kristy shared that she uses ideas from Brightly Beaming Resources. I have heard of them, but haven't ever studied their website in depth, so I went and checked it out.

It has great, simple ideas! Something I thought would be of particular interest is their curriculum for babies and for pre-toddlers. Those are two ages that are hard to really do "learning activities" with. They have simple ideas to help enhance what you are doing every day.

They have a baby curriculum that starts at three months. There are two "lessons" per month, but each lesson has lots of ideas.

They also have what they call the toddler curriculum for age one. This is also simple and had two lessons per month.

They have ideas for what book to read, what scripture to study, nursery rhyme to focus on, how to teach concepts during every day activities, classical music, foreign language, sign language, exercise, and arts and crafts with the older toddler.

They do also have ideas for ages 2-11. See this page for links to these ideas.

And this is all free.

Hopefully you can find this resource helpful to you! Thank you, Kristy, for pointing it out!

Hearing, Understanding, and Talking: Birth through 5 Years

When I went to my son's Kindergarten orientation, they gave us this paper with milestones to watch for at different ages so far as hearing, understanding, and talking go. I thought it was a simple list and thought I would share it. As you look at this list, you can think of activities to do to help build and exercise these skills. I will share some of my own ideas in further posts.

Remember that children reach milestones at different ages. A nice thing about this list is that after one year old, it covers one year at a time. So if your child is 12 months old and you are looking at the 1-2 years list, then don't stress if she doesn't meet everything--she likely won't. These are things she should develop over the course of this year.

If you are concerned about any of these, be sure to talk to your pediatrician.

BIRTH-3 MONTHS

 

Hearing/Understanding

• Startles to loud sounds
• Quiets or smiles when spoken to
• Seems to recognize your voice and quiets if crying
• Increases or decreases sucking behavior in response to sound

Talking

• Makes pleasure sounds like cooing and gooing
• Cries differently for different needs
• Smiles when she sees you

4-6 MONTHS

Hearing/Understanding

• Moves eyes in direction of sounds
• Responds to changes in tone of your voice
• Notices toys that make sounds
• Pays attention to music

Talking

• Babbling sounds get more speech-like with different sounds like p, b, and m
• Vocalizes excitement and displeasure
• Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when playing with you

7 MONTHS-1 YEAR

Hearing/Understanding

• Enjoys games like peek-a-boo
• Turns and looks in direction of sounds
• Listens when spoken to
• Recognizes common words like "cup," "more," "drink" (whatever words you use often with her)
• Begins to respond to requests like "come here" and "are you done" and "do you want more"

Talking

• Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such as "tata upup bibibibi"
• Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention
• Imitates different speech sounds
• Speaks one or two words, though they might not be clear. Words include Dada, Mama, bye-bye...

1-2 YEARS (the one year old)

Hearing/Understanding

• Points to a few body parts when asked
• Follows simple commands and understands simple questions (Roll the ball, Kiss the baby, Where is your shoe)
• Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes
• Points to pictures in a book when named

Talking

• Says more words every month
• Uses some 1-2 word questions (Where's kitty?, What's that?)
• Puts two words together (more please, mommy book)
• Uses many different consonant sounds of the beginning of words

2-3 YEARS (the two year old)

Hearing/Understanding

• Understands differences in meaning (go/stop, in/on, big/little, up/down)
• Follows two requests at a time (get the book and put it on the table)

Talking

• Has a word for almost everything
• Uses 2-3 word sentences to talk about and ask for things
• Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time
• Often asks for or directs attention to objects by naming them

3-4 YEARS (the three year old)

Hearing/Understanding

• Hears you when you call from another room
• Hears television or radio at the same loudness levels as other family members
• Understands simple "who, what, where, why" questions

Talking

• Talks about activities at school or friends' homes
• People outside family usually understand speech
• Uses a lot of sentences that have four or more words
• Usually talks easily without repeating syllables or words

4-5 YEARS (the four year old)

Hearing/Understanding

• Pays attention to a short story and answers simple questions about it
• Hears and understands most of what is said at home and in school

Talking

• Voice sounds clear
• Uses sentences taht give details (I like to read my books)
• Tells stories that stick to topic
• Communicates easily with other children and adults
• Says most sounds correctly except a few like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, th
• Uses the same grammar as the rest of the family

Cupcake Letters

This is a fun and tasty way to teach your children about letters and reading words.

AGE RANGE:
You can do this as soon as you want your child eating cupcakes.

SKILLS TAUGHT:
This activity focuses on letters. You can make it as simple as letter recognition on up to spelling and reading words.

If you want to include your child in making the cupcakes, you can also turn this into a math and baking learning activity.

SUPPLIES:

• Cupcakes (from scratch or from a box)
• Frosting (from scratch or from a can)
• Ability to write letters on the cupcake using frosting. I used a cake decorating tip. If you don't have one, you can try putting frosting in a baggie, cutting one corer, and squeezing it out.

PREP:

• Make cupcakes
• Make frosting if needed
• Write letters on cupcakes

ACTIVITY:
There are lots of possibilities for this activity. For the Baby/Pre-Toddler crowd, you can simply show your child the letter on the cupcake and say the letter along with the sound it makes.

For the Toddlers, you can do the same as for the baby/pre-toddlers, but as your child starts to know the letters, ask her what letter it is. Some toddlers will also be able to tell you the sound of the letter.

For Preschoolers, do the same as above, but quizing the letter and sound it makes. As appropriate, you can make words. Put the C, the A, and the T together and help your child read it. Then remove the T and put an R in its place.

You could also spell your child's name and show him what that looks like.

When learning time is over, eat the cupcake if desired.

Plant a Seed

With the weather finally warming up around here we've been spending a lot of time outside. While I am working on a large vegetable garden I also wanted something small that Tobias could take part in. So we got some small planter boxes for flowers and put them on the porch.

Planting seeds is such a wonderful, simple activity for any age kid. The child gets their hands dirty (which coincidentally can help with building a strong immune system), gets some sun (gotta get that vitamin D), and learns about the world around them. You can take this activity as far as you'd like to take it, depending on your child's age and interest level. For a 4-5 year old you could even print some coloring pages about the life cycle of a plant and make a chart showing what plants need to grow. For a baby it's enough to get out in the sun and hear your voice as you explain what you're doing. A pre-toddler and toddler will mostly be interested in the physical activity of planting and will enjoy seeing the changes as the seeds sprout and come up through the soil.

Age Range: any age

Materials:

• seeds
• soil
• pot
• water

Activity:

1. Allow your child to choose a type of flower/plant he'd like to grow.
   
2. Pour soil into pot
3. Have your child poke 3 holes into the soil
4. Help your child drop a few seeds into the holes
5. Water with watering can
   

(Our supplies)

(Tobias chose the orange flowers, but it was a close call between those and the pink ones)

(after we'd planted the seeds Tobias decided we needed to plant more so he started planting the entire packets, lol!)

Counting With Eggs

This is a fun activity to do in conjunction with Easter to focus on math learning. One skill teachers look for when screening for kindergarten is the ability to touch and count objects, and this activity helps teach that.

AGE RANGE
You can do this anywhere from two and up. Some children sometime between 18 months and up could do this. You could also do a variation of this with children younger than 18 months to expose the child to counting.

SUPPLIES

• Egg carton
• Plastic Eggs* Note: You can do this activity without eggs if you want to
• Marker
• Items to fill eggs

PREP

• Write a number on each egg. The photo above shows a pound sign (#) before the number. That isn't necessary, and I think just the number would be best. Write the numbers 1 through 12. *If you are doing this activity without the eggs, just write a number in each egg spot directly on the carton.
• Fill the eggs with something. You can use snacks such as raisins, candy, or small toys if you have some that will fit 12 in one egg. Put as many items in each egg as the number on the egg. So if you were doing raisins, you would put one raisin in egg one, seven in egg 7, etc.

ACTIVITY

For Preschooler
Have your preschooler identify what number is on the outside of the egg. Have your preschooler open each egg and count the items inside. Have him take each item out as he counts it so he will get practice touching and counting items. Many preschoolers can count from 1-12, so it might be more of a challenge to do the numbers out of order.

For Toddler
Work in number order 1-12. Before you open the egg, have your toddler identify the number on the egg. Most won't know; tell you child what the number is if she doesn't know. Then open the egg. The next step will range based on toddler's ability. Younger toddlers will most likly need you to pull the item, count it, and hand it to her. The benefit of this is she will hear counting, feel the counting, see the counting, and if it is a treat/snack, taste the counting :). The older toddler might be able to pull the items out herself and count, and some might pull out, but need some help counting. Complete the activity at your toddler's ability level with offering some challenge to help her grow.

For Baby
As soon as baby is old enough to eat finger foods, you can put your favorite finger food in the eggs. Work in number order 1-12. Show baby the egg. Point to the number and say what it is. Then open the egg. Count each item as you take it out. Give it to baby as you count and let her eat it. You aren't going to have your baby start counting one day as a baby, but this will expose her to counting. Don't underestimate the power of simple exposure. Children are eager to learn and learn from all they experience.

If you are eager to do something with a baby who is unable to eat finger foods yet, you can still do something. You can put items in the eggs, pull them out, and count them. Keep these items out of reach of baby because they will be too small to be safe for her.

Learning Colors

You don't always need to do an official "activity" to teach about colors. I think a fun and simple thing to do is to incorporate it into your day. I started this with Kaitlyn when she was about 18 months old, and I was shocked at how quickly she grasped it and how well she understood what I was teaching her. Doing these things are great for the little pre-toddlers, and it is still fun for the older preschoolers.

Color Hunt
Start the day off with a color hunt. As I type this, St. Patrick's Day is approaching, so let's use green as our sample color. You tell your child, "Today, we are learning about the color green." Then hold up something green, "This is green. Can you see anything else in the room that is green?"

Then go on a hunt through the house looking for green items. You might have pictures, pillows, paint, plants...you will be surprised at how much you have. You can take your hunt outside...if you live somewhere with green outside right now. Boo.

Color Fashion
I always have the whole family wear our color we are learning about that day if possible. Wear green shirts, socks, underwear...be sure to point out as your child is getting dressed everything with green on it.

Color Food
I also like to try to eat food that is the color of the day. So for green, we might have broccoli, a salad, or celery. If you like to dye food, you could have pancakes colored green. You could make cupcakes and dye them green and/or dye the frosting. Dye your milk green and make green cookies. Have green Jell-O and green pudding.

The point here is to point out to your child that the color of the day/week is all around her. Show lots of excitement about it, and she will to!

Texture Bags

Super easy and fun! Great for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Materials:
Double zipper sandwich bag
Hair gel, pudding, applesauce, yogurt, washable paint....basically anything gooey. :)
Glitter (optional)

Activity:
Put 1/4 - 1/2 cup of gel/pudding in a sandwich bag and zip tightly, removing most of the air. Flatten bag so that it's a drawing surface.
Let your child play!

Ideas:
Babies will enjoy just squishing. I have to keep an eye on my baby because she's a fan of chewing on these bags.
Toddlers: Play guess the shape/letter, let them try to draw with their fingers, decorate the bag, make dots and have them count them. Hand prints were a winner with my girls. She even figured out how to do a face print. :)
Preschoolers: Great for practice writing letters and drawing shapes. Bigger bags seemed to be more fun...larger drawing/writing surface. You can also make a letter sound and have them draw the appropriate letter, call out a word and they can try to write the beginning consonant, etc. Be creative!
You can also mix colors of paint for a swirl effect in the bag. It's also a good change to talk about what happens when you mix colors like blue and yellow!
If using pudding, yogurt, applesauce or some kind of food, I would really recommend hanging on to the bag for long. If you choose paint or gel, the bags are good for some time! I keep a few bags stored in my activity cabinet.

Clay Hearts

Kids love to make stuff. This is an activity where your child can make something, and you can have a cute memento to hang on to forever. I love memento . I got this idea from the Sibling's Busy Book.

AGE RANGE
You can make this work for all ages.

SUPPLIES

• rolling pin
• baking sheet
• marker
• butter knife
• oven
• zip-lock baggie if doing with baby
• homemade clay (recipe below)

METHOD

1. Make clay. If your child is old enough to help with this process, let him!
2. Grease baking sheet
3. Have your child flatten the clay out on the baking sheet until it is 1-2 inches thick
4. Draw a large heart on clay using marker
5. Cut heart out with knife (this is for you)
6. Have your children decorate the heart with other clay or making designs in the clay. This represents how each of them are in the gift receiver's heart. Awww. Cute
7. Make a hole in the top of the heart with a pencil so you can put a string through it later
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 300 degrees until exterior has formed a crust

For Baby
You can put clay in a baggie for baby and let her squeeze it. You can press her hand into the heart to make an impression.

CLAY RECIPE

• 1 1/2 cup salt
• 4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cup water
• food coloring

Mix the salt and flour in a bowl with a spoon. Add water gradually. When dough forms, knead it well, adding water if it is too crumbly or flour if it is too sticky It should be firm. If you want more than one color of clay, divide into separate bowls for adding food coloring.

Teaching Baby Letters

This idea evolved over a few days. We have these Sassy Counting and Spell Bath Appliques. McKenna (9 months old) likes to play with them during her bath. After bath time, I let her hold on to one as I take her to her room and get her dressed. She has eczema, so I spend at least 15 minutes just on lotioning her after a bath, so I really have to provide her with things to keep her happy and still while I do so. And thus, this activity was born. It can be done anytime, but I think just at each diaper change will give you plenty of practice time.

AGE RANGE
I would start this as soon as baby is old enough to hold on to these letters. Activities are hard with babies because you don't see results as quickly as you do with toddlers, but I promise the day does come when you see the fruit of your labors. This would be appropriate for as long as your child is in diapers, and perhaps at times even beyond that.

SUPPLIES

• Sassy Counting and Spell Bath Appliques (or any letter that is safe for your baby to hold and suck on--you know she will suck)
• Baby
• Parent

ACTIVITY
I am going to assume you are doing this at the changing table, but you can do it anywhere.

1. Choose a letter to store at the changing table/station. Choose a letter your baby can possibly say. For example, most baby start babbling consonants such as "d", "m", and "n"--not "q", "v", or "t". Choose a letter appropriate for your child.
2. Place baby on changing table.
3. Hold up the letter. Let's say you are doing B. Hold the letter so baby can see it and say, "This is a B. The B says "Buh." One of my favorite letter movies--okay, my absolute favorite--LeapFrog: Letter Factory has a catchy tune for what each letter says, "The B says, "buh" the B says, "buh." Every letter makes a sound. The B says, "buh." I sing this song.
4. Then give the letter to your child.
5. As you are changing the diaper, say "Buh-buh-buh" over and over as your child shows interest.
6. Change the letter as desired, but don't think you need to do it often. You can stay on the same letter for as long as your baby shows interest in it.

After two days of doing this, McKenna started to purposefully say the letter sound I was saying. We only did it at diaper changes.

EXTENSION
As your baby grows into a pre-toddler, you can add things like what the letter stands for. "This is a B. The be says 'buh.' Be is for Bear, and Ball, and Brayden."

As your pre-toddler starts to talk more, you can ask her to repeat a word B is for.

As your pre-toddler moves to toddler age, you can give her a few words and ask her which on starts with B. You can also ask her to think of a word that starts with B.

CONCLUSION
This is a simple activity that can both make diaper changes a little easier for you and teach your child about the letters of the alphabet!