Simple Summer: Mind Blowing Science

My mom got a Mind Blowing Science Kit for my son for Christmas. He has enjoyed it over the months and has especially enjoyed it this summer. This kit comes with everything you need to do do 11 different experiments. The instructions include prompts on making hypothesis as well as an explanation as to why things happened the way they did. This is a great kit to get for days you need something simple that is already prepared for you. It retails on Amazon for 20 and right now is on sale for 15.

 

Simple Summer: Face Painting with Colored Pencils

At a recent birthday party, my girls had their faces painted. But the mom at this party did it the genius way--she used colored pencils. Just regular old colored pencils. What you do is take your colored pencil and dip it in water until it is soft enough to write easily on skin. Then you paint away. Not messy! So much so, that I let my girls do it to each other at home, which thrills them. Give it a try!

Play Doh Fine Motor Work

Play doh is a great activity for working many learning areas. You have sensory, art, creativity, colors, and fine motor work. You can easily add in even more.

When I had only one child who played with toys and made messes, I thought play doh was such a huge mess and cinged when that activity came to the forefront. Now it is my favorite! The children sit in one spot and play for an extended period. Sure, little bits of play doh get stuck to the counter and spread on the floor, but the reality is that it is so much easier to clean up than toys spread around the toy area. 

Right now, we are loving using toothpicks with our play doh. You flatten out the play doh, take your toothpick and practice whatever needs to be practiced. You can write letters, write names, do math problems, draw shapes, and draw pictures. We love play doh! 

Letter Tracer Pages

DLTK-teach.com is a great resource for learning activities. I recently ran across their tracer pages and had a great idea. I have been printing them off and laminating them. I print them double sided--so A and B are on the same paper, C and D, and so forth. Then I laminate. Then my girls can use either a dry erase or a wet erase marker and practice letters. You can also use a permanent marker and erase with finger nail polish remover, but I am not the type to hand my kids  permanent  markers. 

This is a great thing to have on hand for learning time. It is also great when you are cooking something in the kitchen and your child needs something to do.

Simple for Mom: Do a Dot Letter

Since I have a newborn at home, I need activities that can be fast for me to prep yet fun for my 3 year old to do. She loves do-a-dots right now. One day, I quickly wrote this block letter M out on a paper, gave her the do-a-dots, and let her decorate the M (the first letter in her name). She fully loved it!

Simple Summer Fun: Watercolors Outside

A fun activity for summer is to paint watercolors outside.

You can paint on the driveway, paper, or on each other (as my girls decided to do). It all washes away very easily. All you need is a brush, watercolors, and a cup of water. When the cup of water gets spilled, there is no clean-up because you are outside! 

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.

Simple For Mom: Magnet Set

I bought this set from Amazon a few months ago (Learning Resources Classroom Magnet Lab Kit). This set comes with all the magnetic items you see as well as activity ideas for teaching about magnets.

This has been a great activity for the children to explore and play with when I needed something simple and easy to just pull out and do. Magnets are fascinating to children, and just playing with them allows a lot of exploration. We have been very happy with this purchase. When I bought it, it was about 30 dollars and as I write the post, it is about 37 dollars. So you might try to find it cheaper if you like, or wait for the price to lower on Amazon. You never know what the prices will do :) At least I don't.

Straw Flowers

This is one of those simple crafts that are low mess that your child will still love to do. 

Supplies:

• Paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Straw
• Crayons, markers, glitter, etc. as desired

Depending on the age and skills of your child, either you or your child draw a flower on paper. Decorate if desired. Then you or your child cut out the flower. Draw petals and cut out. Tape pieces to the straw. You can make a nice bouquet or just give out single flowers. This could be a fun gift your child could create for moms, grandmas, or anyone else they want to give it away to.

Simple for Mom: Stamps

The other day for our learning activity time, I got out a pile of paper and our tote full of stamps. I just told the girls to make whatever they wanted. They completely loved it. McKenna (2) was so proud of her pictures that she literally carried them around for hours--and that wasn't just at our house. She showed everyone she saw her picture. 

Stamps are great for working the muscles in hands, which is great for fine motor development. 

This activity took no prep time and was fast to clean up! Very simple for mom!

Simple For Mom: Toothpicks and Fine Motor Skills

One day at Dollar Tree, I found these toothpicks in these little jars. They have different sized holes in them--perfect for various age groups to use for fine motor activities. This is one of those things children find fascinating for some reason. You could use any variety of salt shakers for this activity, also. Simple for mom and fun for kids!

Simple For Mom: Workbooks

One day while at Dollar Tree, I stocked up on workbooks they had. While we rarely use these, it has really come in handy during this pregnancy with my older two children (6 and 4). They both go to school, so they are used to having things to do. When I don't have a learning activity lined up, they love to do these workbooks. They will typically complete one workbook in one sitting, but they spend about an hour doing so. 

These workbooks are great for children who are older who want some sort of stimulation even when you are not feeling so hot :)

Simple for Mom: Foamies Kits

Foamies are great for the day you need a simple craft project. The kit comes with all of the foam pieces pre-cut for you so that you just add glue! My kids love to make these.

I have always bought mine at Joannes Crafts. You could get them at just about any craft store I am sure. Joannes will have them go on sale. You can also sign up for their mailer that will give you 40% off regular priced items if you don't want to wait for the sale. I love to buy several packs when they are on sale so we can have something simple to do when I need simple!

While completing these kits, your child will learn about gluing skills, how small pieces come together to make a whole, will practice fine motor skills, and will have some interesting texture with the foam pieces.

Simple for Mom: Oriental Trading Magazine

I typically do learning activities that require a fair amount of prep work on my part. I am currently 13 weeks pregnant with my fourth child, however, and most days find it pretty hard to do the work I usually do. I got thinking about ways to still do learning activities when you are on a time budget--whether it is because of sickness, business, taking-care-of-a-newborn-ness, or pregnancy-ness. 

My first thought was Oriental Trading Magazine. They have a whole lot of fun activities you can do with your children. The activities come ready for you to do--you just open it and get started. It is also quite inexpensive per project.

There are a couple of tricky things about going this route. 

One is that you are buying in bulk. The mailbox you see pictured above came in a kit of 12. I have three children, not 12. There are a few ways to resolve this. One is to save the extras for next year. Another is to give them to a friend. You could also invite friends over and have a little craft party. Finally, you could ask a friend or two if they wanted to go in on it with you before you ordered.

The other tricky thing about this is that you have to order in advance if you want the item by a certain time. Shipping doesn't take long, but longer than it takes you to run to the dollar store. They do have plenty of activities you can get that are not holiday specific, so you could either go that route, or go order today and just get everything you want for St. Patricks Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, etc. Shipping is usually free if you order $50 dollars worth or more, so I usually get things for several holidays at once anyway. 

Just so you know, I was not asked to promote this company and I don't get anything if you buy anything from them. I just think it is a nice solution for the mom wanting to do activities but unable to spend the time getting them ready--for whatever reason. It is also a fun place for parties.