Simple Summer Fun: Paint Finger Nails

Oh yes, this is a beloved activity of my girls. This is great--no prep, learn colors, practice fine motor skills, and practice sitting still skills! You can also get into the science of the painting. This would be a fun one for your color of the week every week. On your color day, paint your nails that color. Then you have a couple of days of pointing out what color is on the finger nails before it wears off.

Surviving Winter: Dress Up and Imaginative Play

Dress up and imaginative play are fun any time of year, but they are a great way to pass the time while stuck inside. Dress up and have fun!

Acquiring dress up clothes does not need to be expensive--though I do think in most cases it will take you time to build it up. One way to get inexpensive dress-up clothes is to shop the sales right after Halloween. Even pre-sales--a lot of Halloween costumes will be cheaper than it is to buy "dress-up" clothes.

The crafty among you can sew and make dress up items.

Never underestimate the power of a simple accessory. Brayden often uses a sword, a hat, and a bag when playing pretend. He uses simple accessories more than he does a full-out costume. Hats, jewelry, bags, scarves...accessories.

You can give your kids things you were going to get rid of. One great example is purses. Rather than tossing or donating all of your old purses, save one or two for your kids. One of Brayden's favorite clothing dress-up items is a khaki vest my mother-in-law was getting rid of. I knew he would love it for his safari adventures.

We have a large rubbermaid tote that holds all of our dress up clothes. They are easy to access and easy for kids to clean up.

So encourage your children to play dress up and take themselves mentally to a different place full of exciting adventures!

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. 

Surviving Winter: Go Outside Anyway

During the winter, if weather permits, you basically need to just go outside anyway. Don't let snow stop you from doing things. Take the picture above for example. Snow everywhere, and yet swinging is still fun. Don't think the only things you can do in snow are sledding, building snowmen, snow angels, snow sculptures, or snow forts, etc.

There will also be times the weather changes for you for a day or two and you can do something like go for a walk! This year was literally the first time I have taken a child of mine on a walk in January. The winter before Kaitlyn was born, it would have been possible, but I have this mental block in my head for certain temperatures so Brayden and I never went for a cold winter walk. After a long, cold winter last year, I decided this year I would take advantage of any glimpse of nice weather I could get. 

It warmed up to the high 40s, which a few years ago would not have been walking weather in January in my opinion. But the day was sunny with no wind, so I dressed my girls up and we went for a walk! The sun shining on me felt so good, and I felt this renewed energy! I was ready for anything that day! I also ran into other moms out with their kids who had the same idea I had: get out while you can. 

So if you are like me and get a mental block in the winter, try to step out of it. Play with your outside toys when you can. Go for those walks. Fresh air and sunshine are so good for you physically and mentally. 

Spring time is approaching (faster for some than others). I suggest you decide now that you will be flexible and get out on any nice day you can. Just be ready to spontaneously put things off to get that outside play in when that nice enough day comes along.

For those of you surviving rainy seasons, think of ways to get out and play in the rain. Get appropriate gear so you can be comfortable and have fun outside! Outside play does not have to be reserved for 60-80 degree weather. 

Surviving Winter: The Easel

The easel is one of those sweet blessing from heaven. This thing keeps my children happy for hours, upon hours, upon hours (not in a row, just in general). Our easel is from IKEA--it was 20-30 dollars. Amazing. It can have paper, has a white board, and has a chalkboard. That means writing with markers, crayons, chalk, paint, pencils, pens, etc. We like it so much we got the Melissa & Doug Easel Accessory Set for Christmas. It is about as much as our easel was alone, but well worth it if you don't have the supplies. And those paint cups are fabulous. Oh, and by the way, the Melissa & Doug Deluxe Standing Easel is only $43 and has a tray on both sides of the easel, so that is a nice feature. It is very, very well rated.


Anyway, this is a great activity to have for indoor play. I highly recommend it. It is great for creative art projects and gross motor as well as fine motor control.

Surviving Winter: Dancing

One of the major problems with being stuck in the house is a lack of exercise. Exercise is good for the body, but also good for the brain. Okay, the brain is part of the body...but you get what I mean. So an important element to surviving winter is getting exercise in. A great and easy way to do that is with dancing.

There are many ways to get dancing into your day.

The simplest and most basic way to do this is by turning music on and dancing with your child. Back when it was just Brayden and me at home, this is what we did. I did everything from children's music, to modern tunes with a beat, to big band swing music. We just danced and danced. We of course still do this today, and it is even more fun with a group of children :)

Another fun element you can add in is dress up. You can see in the picture that my girls love to wear tutus to dance in.

Many children's CDs have songs that you can play that offer some guidance for how to dance. Examples are The Hokey Pokey, The Ants Go Marching, and If You're Happy And You Know It.

You can also get DVDs that are interactive about dance. The only ones I have that I can speak to are the Prima Princessa Ballet DVDs. I reviewed one on my babywise blog last year and liked it so much I ordered one for Kaitlyn for Christmas.

Another idea is to take dance lessons. You could either do a parent/child dance class or a class just for your child.

A final idea from me is the many interactive dance video games. A good one is Just Dance Kids. These really provide good exercise and are a lot of fun.

Do you have any fun ways you dance with your children? Any great DVDs? CDs? Video games? Please share!

Playing Just Dance at a friend's house

Surviving Winter: Bath Play

Last summer, we ran a popular series on simple summer fun ideas. I live in a very wintery climate and have had questions both from friends here and from readers on one of my other blogs on how to entertain children during a long winter. So I will be doing a Surviving Winter series this winter! Hurray for surviving winter!

We can easily have snow on the ground from October until May. Last "winter," we ditched the snow around the end of March/beginning of April, but it literally rained and rained and rained until Father's Day (which is odd for us because we live in a desert climate). So we can get a little house-bound and need to come up with ideas for keeping our children (and therefore ourselves) sane.

First up...Bath Play!

At my house, bath time has ALWAYS been just another playtime. This is true year round. A couple of months ago, my neighbor asked me for ideas to keep her almost four year old occupied in the day. He is the fourth child in their family, and his older brothers are all at school. I listed off things I do with Kaitlyn, and playing in the tub stuck out to her. She started doing that with her son each day and says he LOVES it. He loves to play in the tub and will stay occupied for a long time.

My kids also love the bath. The bathtub is one giant water play activity. You can easily get at least 30 minutes out of a bath. Oftentimes, I have to force my kids out after an hour! 

So what do you play with in the tub? Anything you would use with water play and more. We have several posts on water play on this blog. Here are some ideas:

• Bubbles
• Spoons/measuring spoons
• Cups of various sizes
• Pitchers
• Measuring cups
• Washcloth (my kids like to wipe the walls)
• Squirt bottle
• Goggles 
• Paint brushes
• Tub Painting

There are also a whole lot of bath toys out there!

• Bath Letters are great for adding some fun letter learning to bath time
• I have written a Toy Review on Bath Toys
• I have also written a Best Toys For Children on bath toys, and it includes care guidelines of bath toys

And what about you? What will you do during this loooong bath play each day? Here are a few ideas:

• Play with the kids
• Sneak extra learning in there (like with the alphabet letters--"What sound does A say?"
• Sit and quietly read a book. This is very relaxing! It is nice and warm and humid! 
• Clean the bathroom
• Call a friend if you can still focus on the kids
• Take pictures--enjoy these sweet moments
• Get ready for the day
• Sit and do nothing! How fun does that sound?

Hide-and-Seek in the Dark

Ignore the not-so-great picture. It was dark...using the flash defeats the purpose. We taught our 18 month old how to play hide-and-seek in the house, but this time turned out all the lights. She and her sister each had a flashlight (18 month old used a head lamp) and went searching for Dad. They'd have to use their limited sight and listen very closely for quiet noises my husband would make to give them clues. Then we switched and let the girls hide. They had a blast, got to practice counting to 10 about a million times, and got really good at looking for subtle clues.

We did this activity on a rainy day to burn some energy and have some family fun together. Even the dog played. :)

Do you dare?

Kids in mom's makeup drawer doesn't usually sound like a learning activity...more like a "where is my toddler....Oh NO!" kind of activity.

For the older toddler or preschooler, makeup can be a fun learning experience in the right environment.

Our rules: No touching makeup without mom around, clean up messes when we are finished, ask permission before trying something new (like lipstick on the eyes...yikes).

Here's how we do it:

I keep a drawer/bag of makeup she is allowed to use. Not everything is for munchkins. For example...mascara....I'm not ready to go there yet.

She pulls out an item, like eyeliner. I explain to her what it's for or what I want her to do with it. In the picture above, I said "You can use this to draw a circle around your eyes." The tip is a soft tip and I knew this is something she could handle. Then she pulls out another piece, like lipstick. I'll say something like, "Color in your lips." or "Make dots on your cheeks."

She can have fun playing and also practicing shapes and following directions. The beauty part of it is that she is willing to happily follow every direction just for a chance to play makeup.

Rainy day laundry sort

Ever been stuck inside the house with a mountain of laundry and kiddos that need energy burned off? Me too! Ever tried to sort laundry with a toddler? Me too! (insert groan and fear here). My daughter's idea of helping usually means unfolding what I just folded or rolling around in the fresh pile of laundry, still warm from the dryer.
So let's make it a learning and burning time, shall we?

Materials: Heaps of laundry. Munchkin that needs to run around.

Have your toddler or preschooler locate one piece of his/her clothing. A sock, shirt, pants, bib, whatever. The idea is for them to grab one piece of laundry as fast as they can and run it to the desired spot. For me, that was off my bed and into her room.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Whoa! Look at all this laundry! Let's have a racing game!! Do you see anything that belongs to you in this pile?
C: (nodding)
M: (in a hurried voice) When I count to three, I want you to grab something that belongs to you and run to your room and throw it in a pile on your bed.
C: Okay! I'm so fast!
M: One, two, three!

She grabs a piece, runs it to her bed. While she's running, I'm continuing to sort the other things. She runs back, sorts through to locate something of hers and repeats.
This was a fun way for her to sort, follow directions, and burn off a little energy. And I got my laundry sorted without any pile disruption. :)

For the younger toddler, you can give them a piece that you found and have them run it to the desired location. My 15 month old had a great time with this too. Yay for lots of giggling, sorting laundry, and tired kiddos.

Bowling time!

I recently purchased a mini plastic bowling set for my girls for some fun indoor/outdoor play. My youngest is 14 months and oldest is 2. This is a great activity to practice coordination, balance, aim, crossing the body line, and gain arm strength. It's easy to set up, the concept is simple, and could be great for a rainy day as well. The girls love it and it only cost me $5 at Wal-Mart. Yay!There are lots of fun variations you can play as well: spinning/twirling and throwing, counting before rolling, tossing instead of rolling, using the opposite hand to roll/throw, etc.

Definitely worth the $5 around here! If you don't have them at your local Wal-Mart, Oriental Trading also offers them for $5.99.

Tub Painting

When you've been trapped inside due to weather or for whatever other reason, sometimes you need to liven the routine up a little. We've been known to throw in an extra bath time during the day. Nothing like a little body painting to chase away the midwinter stuck-inside-too-long blues. At least that's the motto in this house. :)

An easy (and cheap) way to make bath time, day or night, a little more fun is to make bath finger paint.

I let Charis help mix it together using measuring spoons. The measurements don't have to be exact. I add more or less of any ingredient to get the consistency of finger paint.

Recipe:

1 T cornstarch

2 T liquid soap (shampoo, body wash, etc)

food coloring

Mix cornstarch and soap together. I usually double or triple the recipe. Then add a few drops of food coloring to get the desired color. Last time I did it I did 2 T cornstarch and 3 of soap and it turned out fine.

So far it hasn't stained anything and washes off the walls perfectly. Great time to work on colors or cause and effect from mixing colors!

Snowball Fight

I was going to try to do all of my snow ideas in one post, but I won't. Why? I live in a cold climate with lots of snow, so we will be learning about snow all month long. If I wait until the end of the month for it all, it will A) make for one very, very long and overwhelming post and B) be too late for those of you living in warmer climates to possibly apply...and I am jealous of you :)

I got this idea from my children. They come up with lots of fun ideas on their own--two heads are better than one :)

AGE RANGE
Old enough to enjoy being a bit crazy...probably about 1 or so. It goes on up to adulthood if you are willing to be crazy.

SUPPLIES

• People
• Tissue paper

ACTIVITY

1. Take your tissue paper and crumple it up into lots of balls. Let the children help with this part--they will love it! This could be a fun activity to do following a big present unwrapping day.
2. Throw them at each other. You can make forts to hide behind using couch coushins.
3. Once they are all thrown, gather them up and start all over again.

Color Scavenger Hunt

All credit for this activity goes to the awesome author of 1+1+1=1 blog, the home of Tot School. This is a fantastic way to reinforce colors with any age child and to allow older and younger siblings in on the fun. I did this with a 5 year old and a 3 year old.



Materials:
-sheets of paper with each color word written on it in crayon
-camera

Preparation:
-write the color words on each sheet of paper in the appropriate color of crayon

Activity:
-Explain that we're going to do a scavenger hunt for colors.
-Tell the child(ren) to search all over the house for things that are blue. If you want you can set a timer for 2 minutes so they search more quickly.
-Collect all of the objects and place them around the paper with the word BLUE written on it.
-Take a picture of the items all together. If your children are responsible enough you can allow them to each take a picture of the items. The kids I did this with loved the idea of using the camera :)
-Repeat with all colors. You can even spread this out over several days or weeks if you'd like to do a more in-depth color theme.

Extension:
Create a Color Book out of the pictures. The kids will enjoy being able to see their favorite blue, yellow, or red toys in the pictures and can practice recognizing both the colors and words. This can work as a good quiet activity for church or the car, especially if the pictures are put into a scrapbook so the pages can't be bent easily.

ABC Dog Food

When I was teaching elementary school, I attended a conference by Dr. Jean Feldman. One of the activities that I especially loved (as does my toddler) is Who Let The Letters Out?

This is a great way to teach letter recognition, to review letters that your child knows, and to teach letter sounds.

Materials:

*Bowl (I used a plastic bowl that resembles a dog food bowl)

*Stuffed animal (dog works well)

*Magnetic letters/numbers

Prep:

*Glue a magnet or magnetic tape to the nose of any stuffed animal.

*Pour desired letters/numbers into the food bowl

Activity:

*Let the dog "sniff" and dig his nose around in the bowl. His nose will grab the magnet on the back of a letter.

*Pull his nose out, with a letter stuck to his nose.

*If an "s" comes out, sing "Who let the S out? /s/ /s/ /s/ /s/(make /s/ sound)" to the tune of Who Let the Dogs Out? "M" would be "Who let the M out? /m/ /m/ /m/ /m/!!"

*Repeat for each letter.

*After we finished, my daughter enjoyed having the letters dive back into the bowl, yelling their name or sound. "Here comes O! O! O! Here is the T! /t/t/t/t/"

Extension:

*This can be done with anything you are teaching. Just find a picture of that skill (colors, numbers, shapes, animal names, foods, family members) and put a magnet on the back of it. "Who let Aunt ___ out? Who? Who? Who? Who?"

*For older children, you can extend it and have them sort. For example, if you are working on letters, sort vowels and consonants or capital and lower case letters. Animals, sort by covering (fur, scales, feathers). Family members, sort by side of the family or male and female. The list could go on and on!

Fall : Do-A-Dot

Do-A-Dot Art! is a pack of sponge tip paints/markers that are washable. There are multiple packs, multiple colors, and different coloring books designed especially for these markers. I found our set at Michael's, our local craft store. Here's how we started talking about Fall with our 2 year old.

Ages: As early as they can pound on a piece of paper with these markers. :) I just found them recently, but my daughter would have been able to handle them much earlier.

Materials Needed:
*Book about fall (We read When Autumn Comes by Robert Maas)
*White paper
*Do-A-Dot markers (green, red, yellow, orange)


Prep:
*The night before I painted a bare tree for her to put leaves on
*Choose an appropriate book to teach about fall (or apples).




Activity:
1. Read the story, talking about what happens in the Fall/Autumn.
2. Make sure you point out the changes in the trees.
3. Show your child how to dot on the leaves.
4. Let them stamp away! Try not too be too involved. I have a tendency to want crafts to look a certain way (like actually looking like a fall tree when she's done) but sometimes that takes the fun and creativity away from your child. I just try to keep on on the paper (rather than hands, clothes, or tables).




To do this activity with apples:
*Read an apple book. We read Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. It's a great story about a bunny family that goes to an apple orchard to pick apples. There are graphs that older children would understand, and diagrams of an apple. The farmer explains how apples grow, and at the end of the story there is a recipe, a song, and a painting craft. Apple tasting (red vs. yellow vs. green) is very appropriate with this story.
*Use Do-A-Dot markers to make an apple tree.
*We also talked about the parts of the apple (since there is a diagram). We cut open an apple and used the terms in the book to talk about what each part does, which part we eat, etc (skin, flesh, seeds, stem, leaves).

Extensions:
* For older children, you can fold a piece of paper into 4 squares. Paint a bare tree in each square. Label Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Read Arnold's Apple Tree, a great book about the progression of an apple tree through the seasons. Use the Do-A-Dots or a Q-tip and washable paint to dot the leaves, buds, flowers, and snow on the trees.

*For any age group, use animal stamps or stickers and add the appropriate animals to the pictures. You can make it a counting activity as well "Let's add one squirrel. Let's add 2 birds. Let's add 3 blossoms, 4 red apples, etc."

*You can add pictures of people (from a magazine, stick people, real photos) and dress them appropriately for the season. I took pictures of family and just asked her what they should wear to pick apples ("Should Mommy wear a bathing suit in the fall? Should Daddy have gloves? What is the weather like? So since the weather is ____, then he should wear ___.")

*We went to the grocery store and chose one of each kind of apple to taste. She had a great time helping me choose good apples from each display. We later took them home and tasted. I let her take a bite out of each apple to see which she liked the most and to talk about different flavors and textures (sweet, sour, hard, soft, etc). Then I chopped them up and we used the recipe in the book (Apples, Apples, Apples) to make applesauce.

Bean Bags

This is a good activity for any age child so long as the bags are securely sewn and the beans won't fall out. You can do colors for toddlers and practice counting the bean bags. For preschoolers you can make or purchase alphabet bean bags and practice letters.

Supplies
-4.5 inch squares of fabric in various colors (2 of each color)
-Basic Sewing supplies (machine, thread, etc.)
-small beans or lentils
-or purchase bean bags

Prepping
-Sew 3 sides of the 4.5 inch squares together to make a pocket
-Fill with beans (don't fill too much, your fingers should barely be able to touch if you pinch the middle of the full bag)
-Sew open end closed

Activities

Colors: Place the bean bags on the floor near your child and as him/her to give you the blue one. Start with just 2 colors and progress to picking out one color out of 4 or 5. Infants and Toddlers also enjoy putting them in and out of boxes. An old shoe box with a hole cut in the top is very useful for this purpose and lets them take the lid off to get the bean bags back out. (supervision required for children under 3)

Gross Motor: Set out a laundry basket at one end of the room and ask children to stand at the other end and toss the bean bags in. They can also do a relay race with 2 cushions between them and the laundry basket. They must run and jump over the cushions, place the bean bag in the basket, and then come back to get a second bean bag for the basket. To reinforce colors and reading for preschoolers you can use different baskets/boxes, each with a different color word on it and they must get the correct bean bags in each labeled basket/box.

This can be a wonderful rainy/snowy day activity to get the kids up and moving.

Photo