Apple Picking & Apple Tree Abstract Painting

This past weekend we planned to go apple picking. We were super fortunate because just that week on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood we watched the "Fruit Picking Day" episode, so Ethan was really excited when we told him that he was going to go pick apples like Daniel Tiger (Do your kids watch it? Ethan LOVES Daniel Tiger).

Apple picking was awesome. Ethan loved it. It was a real confidence boosting activity because the apples were low enough for him to pick by himself. He was really proud of his apple picking abilities. I would definitely suggest the activity. So fun. We ended up with a 25lb bag of apples...one of the apples weighed a whole pound by itself! 

After we got home, Ethan sorted and "played" apple for awhile.

Later that night we broke in our new "studio" in our basement. (I'm so excited to have an art space to work in!) One of the projects that we worked on was an abstract apple painting. We did something inspired by this Scrubber and Cork Stamping Apple Tree on Putti's World. I knew though that I wanted to limit how much direction that I gave, so the project became a bit more abstract. (Because this is an awesome way to discover your artistic self when you're two!) Ethan painted the tree with the dish scrubber. Ethan used a cork to paint the apples. Then I painted his hands brown and we smacked down handprints to represent the tree trunk and branches. I'm pretty sure that the handprints were his favorite part.

The painting was a lot of fun, and was a great wrap-up to our fantastic apple picking day!

In case you're wondering..this is how you "play" and sort apples. I think it's a bit of an art installation myself...What do you think?

Recognizing Chalk Shapes

There's a funny thing that happens when you're child is in a daycare or preschool program-- Sometimes you think you're going to work on a skill, and you find out that it's one that they've already mastered, without you ever knowing it. And then you're surprised--and proud--all at the same time.

That happened to me yesterday with shapes. I knew Ethan had a basic understanding of shapes. He was playing with sidewalk chalk and I decided to draw up some shapes on the ground and see if he could name them for me. Just the exercise of drawing shapes (letters or numbers) and asking if they can identify is great practice. Of course, because it's chalk on the driveway (or sidewalk), it's suddenly a bit more fun. To my surprise, he named them all, except the oval (I was especially surprised when he came up with diamond). By the time we got to oval though, his general answer was "I don't know." He was done--the activity had come to its natural end. So who knows. The moral of that story is that it's a great activity, but don't expect it to be a long one! I think next time we're going to focus more on letters or numbers.

Shortly after, Ethan abandoned the chalk to collect seeds that had fallen on the driveway. Made me chuckle and reminded me an expereince that Becky over at i'm going to make it (after all) had with a similar chalk and shape activity.

Have you had success with a similar activity?

Collecting Petals

I was given a lovely bouquet of sunflowers as a housewarming gift. So pretty, but now they are past their prime. Ethan however, was not impressed that I was throwing them away. From there, collecting petals was born.

We took them outside where I gave him a plastic bag and let him collect the petals. Believe me when I say, it was a serious hit. Like many toddlers, he really enjoys collecting, dumping and pouring. After the petals were collected he carried them around proudly in his baggie. He talked about how he was going to save them to show to his grandparents and uncle. He was so proud.

What did we do then?

• We counted them (some of them)
• Looked at how some petals were yellow and some were orange
• Piled them high on the table
• Looked at them closely
• Carried them around proudly
• Took them in and out of the bag multiple times
• Learned the words "petal" and "stem"

The whole experience was a great tactile one and a good science related project. 

Ethan liked the project so much that the next morning he begged to have the petals off of our one remaining sunflower, and brought his bag of petals to daycare to show his teachers and share with his friends. Long story short, toddler life is rough, and Ethan was told he could get more petals when he got home. But we had no more petals. SO after much lamenting the lost petals, we went to the grocery story and bought a few BOGO flower bunches from the scratch and dent floral section. Really though, I shouldn't have had to pay for them at all..they were in ROUGH shape. Regardless, he thought they were wonderful and spent yet another night picking and
organizing petals.

Round two. He thought it was funny that I was taking a picture of "the mess."

It was nice to see the flowers enjoyed for one last time. Being such an important part of a toddlers day is a great last hurrah for a flower,
don't you think?

I'd love to use the petals to make a craft. Iron them between wax paper or put them between contact paper sheets, but he insists that their purpose is to be in the bag--fine by me! 

Just a warning, you could be in danger of creating a flower petal removing monster...proceed with caution (and fun)!

Multi-Purpose Label Collage

This multi-purpose label collage is actually something that Ethan made at daycare. I just had to share it because it made him so happy to make (he was finishing it when I picked him up) and just turned out so well. They look quite awesome on the red paper too! I especially love the idea of using these labels because they're much cheaper than regular stickers.

I have a ton of similar labels left over from when we created a sombrero for Cinco de Mayo this past spring. Thinking some of these label collages could be perfect for an upcoming road trip that we are planning. 

What other uses do you have for multi-purpose labels? 

Toddler Paper Plate Obstacle Course

Toddler obstacle courses are great for gross motor skill development and also for practicing problem solving skills. This weekend I made a quick obstacle course for Ethan using a stack of paper plates as the base for the course. 

I placed them in the yard and wove them around some upside down sand pails and some plastic cones (left over from our Construction birthday party). I showed him to follow the plates, stepping on each one along the way. I put a hula hoop on the ground at the end of the plates and instructed Ethan to jump into it and jump back out. Also part of the course was his climber (the starting point) and a tunnel made out of a small slide and a blanket (a blanket over a chair would work great too). 

The highlight for Ethan was stepping on the plates and following the plate trail. He loved that. After he jumped into the hoop, he decided that he'd wear it on his next lap around the course. Way to go! He also moved the blanket to another location on his climber where he preferred to have the tunnel. It was a lot of fun, although we didn't really get to play for long before the heat and bugs brought the course to a natural end.

We saved the paper plates so we can play again later. Maybe next time we'll create a crawl tube using a cardboard box.

Have you had any experience with toddler obstacle courses? Any other good obstacle ideas for our next course??

Toddler Bike Wash (Small Space Edition)

Bike washes aren't unique. I washed my bike when I was a kid, and if you look on Pinterest, you'll probably see a ton of bike washes. 

Washing a bike is a great summertime activity, and a good excuse to play in some water and soap suds.

We did this bike wash activity at our old house where our space was limited and we didn't really have an outdoor hose. I filled up a container with water and a touch of dish soap (not having a driveway, we didn't have any car wash solution). Gave Ethan a sponge and a towel and let him go to town. We sang "This is the way we wash our bike" to the tune of "Here we go round the mulberry bush" which he thought was hysterical.

Instead of a hose, we rinsed off the bike using a squirt bottle. Just be careful, leaving soap on the bike could cause it to rust, so make sure you rinse well. The spray bottle is a great solution if you lived in an apartment, town home, or other small area like we did, or if you'd rather stay clear of the hose that day (yup, I can understand that...)

We had fun..and since our bike was a yard sale score, it was nice to see it all clean and looking "like new."

Do you bike wash? 

Thanks Dad for taking a great photo while my hands were wet! :)

PS- At our new house Ethan has found he loves to help wash the car too. What kid doesn't like to be in control of the hose?!

Playing with Rhythm Sticks (or straws!)

My son takes classes at The Little Gym every week and one of the activites that he's always enjoyed is using rhythm sticks to practice motor skills and hand-eye coordination. It also helps reinforce body part names (and even some letters). And of course, you can also practice music and rhythm. It's also a great opportunity for toddlers to listen and mimic.

The activity can be done with both babies and toddlers. Babies who are unable to hold the sticks and sit in your lap while you tap this sticks, or you can help them hold the sticks while you tap them. I remember Ethan enjoying this activity even when he was only a few months old.

Daddy helping

We actually have a pair of rhythm sticks at home...they are relatively inexpensive. But what if you don't have a pair?

Enter Daddy's great idea to use straws! The straws are great because I can leave them accessible in the toy box. They also don't hurt as much if the tapping gets a little crazy! Of course, they don't make the same great sound that the rhythm stick do!

Sorry for the photo quality here- I had a camera attacker on my hands!

Here are some of the activities we do:

• Drum them on the floor
• Tap on your...toes, knees, belly, hand
• Put them on your head like bunny ears
• Make letters...T, X, L, V
• Roll them between your hands...under your hands...under your feet
• Tap them together
• Tap your stick on my stick. Now I tap yours.
• Tap one like you're hammering a nail
  

Rolling on his leg

Of course, I'm sure you can come up with more--maybe even your little one will add to the list!

Masking Tape Sculpture

Toddlers (and babies too) really enjoy the sensory activity of playing with masking tape. In looking for a crafty activity that we could do with minimal prep time and mess, I pulled out a piece of cardboard, some crayons, and some making tape. Initially I thought we'd place the tape on the cardboard and color on it, next to it, etc. (more like these masking tape paintings)

The project morphed a bit. Ethan wasn't really all that interested in coloring (he was more in the mood for paint), but he was very happy to pull off pieces of tape and stick them to the cardboard. Sometimes the tape would be flush against the cardboard. Sometimes the tape would arc off of the cardboard. Sometime the tape was a knotted mess. Other times the tape was only sticking to other pieces of tape. 

"Rip it Mom!"

The end result was a curly tape sculpture that the little guy really enjoyed making (and had negligible amount of clean up). Total cost was approx 50 cents worth of tape.

Win-win!

What fun have you had with masking tape?

Yummy Guacamole

I can't begin to count how many people have been turned into
"guacamole-lovers" after trying this guacamole recipe. (I think the secret is to be generous on the amount of lemon and lime juice.)

Now that summer grilling season is upon us, we've been making a ton of guacamole. It's so refreshing in the summer heat and awesome on hamburgers. Of course, avocado is full of heath benefits for the whole family-babies and toddlers included! 

Special Kitchen Helper

If you have a "Special Kitchen Helper," this is the time to recruit them. Smashing avocado with a potato masher is a great job for a toddler!

Yummy Guacamole

3 ripe avocados

1/4 c. red onion

2 T cilantro, finely chopped

Approx 1 T lime juice

Approx 1 T lemon juice

½ teaspoon coarse salt

Grated black pepper

½ ripe tomato, remove seeds and pulp

Mash avocado in bowl.  Add onion, cilantro, lime, lemon, salt, and pepper.  Mix.  Add lime and lemon juice to taste.  If not serving immediately, cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the guacamole to keep air from reaching it.  Refrigerate.  Add tomatoes just before serving.

The guacamole is pretty forgiving. We often omit the cilantro when we don't have any on hand. Sometimes we leave out the pepper or reduce the amount of salt.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

More Rock Painting

Our rock painting project last month has quickly my most popular blog post. I was also so excited to have the craft featured at The Imagination Tree!

But the best tell of a good project? When you're little person specifically asks to do it again.

Can't wait to move these to our new house later this summer!
Thanks for reading! :)

Pouring Practice

"Ethan do it."  

Yup, we're in the thick of the "I do it" stage. In most cases, I welcome the desire for independence. With a little patience, it can actually be very helpful. One independent task I don't always embrace is pouring liquids. Practice is important, but practicing with the gallon of milk is not my favorite idea!

Here's the situation: We recently had one of those days where the little guy was so excited to put out the pool that he could hardly wait for us to inflate it and lug the water out of the house a gallon jug at a time (No hose! Ugh!) Don't get me wrong- I really don't mind getting out the pool, but this was one of those days where all excitement was lost after two glorious minutes of water time. Bummer!

Thinking quick, I ran into the house and grabbed two plastic cups and suggested that we have pouring practice. It was an absolute hit. We started with me holding the empty cup and Ethan pouring the water. Then we would trade cups-- I'd give him the full cup and he'd give me his now empty cup. It was also a good opportunity to practice the opposites "empty" and "full," and also learn the word "trade." The pool made such a great place to practice...but of course, the bathtub would be great too!

The end result was fun and great practice. I'm still not ready to let him pour the milk, but we'll work on it. :)

Learning Colors- Color Match and Sort

The way that we learn is absolutely fascinating to me; the way we learn colors is no exception.

 

There are 3 steps to learning colors:

• Color matching- "This ball is red. Can you find me a red ball?"
• Color identifying- "Which ball is red?"
• Color naming- "What color is that ball?"

Cool, right?!?

The ability to color match usually begins around 2 years old, but there is no reason that you can't start practicing earlier...you could be surprised!

SEE! This is serious FUN!!!

Enter Goldfish crackers. Our little guy loves Goldfish, and he's recently taken to the Space Adventures crackers (although this works real well with the Goldfish Colors too). 

All you have to do is take one, for example, a purple cracker, and ask your little one to find you another purple cracker. Continue until all your crackers are sorted (or eaten)! After Ethan was done, he directed "Mommy eat the orange ones." (See how the orange crackers are way off to the side like that--clearly those are the boring "regular" Goldfish). Priceless.

I admit- it'd be better to sort on a table or plate,
but sometimes learning activities magically happen
 in the moment, and goldfish on the carpet is the happy result.

Not only is this great for learning colors, but any type of sorting is a developmental milestone and gives toddlers a great sense of accomplishment.

This particular day we were playing by the seat of our pants, but I've seen on Pinterest where some crafty folks have made color matching boards that correspond with the Goldfish colors, and that's a great idea too!

So what are you waiting for?? Time to play with your food!

Painting Garden Rocks

One of Ethan's favorite things to do outside is to help with the garden and I wanted a way for him to put a piece of his personality in the garden too. I decided that a good sunny afternoon project would be to paint rocks. (Ethan is 22 months old, but I think this would work out well for any age. Also a good sensory activity for an infant using finger paints.)

First, we took a bucket to collect rocks. If I had to make a guess, this was probably his favorite part. He loves rocks--I am always finding piles of them in the house or in the car--so why wouldn't collecting them be fun?!

We painted the rocks outside with acrylic paints and q-tips. We did a lot of the painting together. Ethan would paint his own rock, and he'd add paint to my rocks. It was really relaxing to sit together in the shade and create together, even if it only lasted as long as a toddler attention span! 

After the rocks dried, I sprayed them with a coat of glossy acrylic clear coat to help preserve them and add a bit more shine. I'm not sure how they will hold up long term against the elements--I suppose we'll have to wait and see!

I love the way they turned out. My favorite part was the clear acrylic sparkle paint. I love seeing the rocks sparkle and shimmer in the sun! 

Aren't they a cool addition to the garden?!?  Even their placement (all lined up along the left side of the path) reflects a bit of Ethan's personality!

Have you and your little person painted rocks or created other garden decorations?

Dancing with Jack Vettriano

Inspiration from art

Source: Wikipedia

I always enjoy "The Singing Butler" by Jack Vettriano. I welcome it's romantic spirit coupled with a sense of curiosity. I have a print hanging in our powder room. This weekend we were washing hands and my toddler pointed to the painting and asked to look at the people dancing. 

I asked if he wanted to dance with me, and of course he approved of the idea. He thought it was really funny when I held his hand and lifted his arm in the air. He wanted to see us dancing in the mirror and I decided that was a decent time to snap a photo (from the hip of course). Sorry the photo is a bit lack luster...we were dancing, not taking photos!

Fun activity for a special Mommy and Baby day. Hope today grants you with the luxury of time to dance!

Coupon Clipping

Part of our Sunday morning routine is pulling the paper off the front porch (unless of course it landed in the flower bed) and clipping coupons. Ethan was about 8 months old when he started to "help" me with the weekly chore.

Playing with the Ads

Don't underestimate how fun it is for a little one (baby or toddler) to play with the glossy ad inserts--it's a blast! He'd look at them, throw them, tear them, and overall just have a good time. The best part is that it kept Ethan busy while I was clipping. :)

Playing "coupon"

Now a toddler, Ethan prefers to play with the clipped coupons. Every week I clip out some extra coupons for him and he throws them around. He likes to throw them from up high (usually climbing up two or three stairs) and with a bit of awe and excitement, watches the effect of gravity and air resistance on the little scraps of paper. After a few weeks, I got smart and stashed away his old coupons in a ziploc bad so I didn't have to cut him quite so many every week. I've since given him a small plastic accordion folder to keep them in like Mommy does. The folder has been a big win! A lot of times he asks me to cut out pictures from the advertisements--a dog from the pet store ad or a photo of a favorite toy. To him, they are ALL coupons, and they all contain a little secret piece of joy.

As always--it's the simple things...

(PS- I got a new comment plug-in to make commenting easier and better for you--let's try it out!)

Cinco de Mayo Sombrero Craft

This toddler approved Cinco de Mayo sombrero craft turned out to be pretty quick and easy. It also uses supplies that you probably already have on hand. 

You'll need:

Plastic disposable cup

Desert-sized paper plate

Stickers (we used round dot stickers that cost about $2)

Packing tape

Scissors

To prep the project, I taped the cup to the plate using packing tape and cut a hole in the paper plate below the cup. I originally tried to glue the cup to the plate, but the first thing my toddler did was rip the cup right off the plate. Then hand it over to your toddler and add the stickers!!

I was lucky enough that this was a project that Ethan wanted to do with me. He wanted me to help him put stickers on the cup. We've been adding stickers a little at a time over the last day, and I bet we add more by the end of the week. 

Ethan always enjoys stickers, but I think in the end, he liked putting the hat on the stuffed frog better! (They played quite an exciting game of "peek-a-boo!")

So, Happy Cinco de Mayo! If you need more holiday projects, be sure to check out the Footprint Chili Pepper!

 

Planting for Spring

When I first suggested to Ethan that he help me plant seeds, he was so excited! He went on and on about seeds. Truth is, I don't think he even knew what seeds were- I'm not sure if he quite knows even now- but he sure knows what to do with them! Chances are, he was just excited by the opportunity to help.

My hope was to have Ethan dump the seeds into my planters and then I would cover them with soil. I got them all ready to go and it started raining! Ugh! Downpour. He was heartbroken. So I put down some newspaper, brought one of the planters inside, and gave him a sand shovel.  He loved dumping the seeds into the pot, and used his shovel to help me cover the seeds with topsoil. He enjoyed the activity so much that he cried when the seeds were all gone.

Trying to mend his broken heart, I promised that we'd try it again outside soon. So we did. Same thing- he loved it! This time I dumped them into a cup and let him sprinkle them on the dirt. Again, he thought it was great. He was devastated when they were all gone. As a backup, I gave him some grass seed and pointed him to some bald spots in the grass. He could have planted seeds all day, luckily we ran out of daylight!

The takeaway is this: Planting seeds is a super fun activity for toddlers, inside our outside!

Hope you get some time to plant and that you're flowers are beautiful this summer!

Do you have any good experiences planting with toddlers?

Intro to Glue Stick, aka Spring Daffodil Project

The Spring Tulips we made for a gift last spring have been such a hit that I couldn't wait to post this similar project.

There is minimal prep time involved, but it was a quick and easy craft to introduce using a glue stick, and the result made a great gift.

Materials:

Construction paper

Small cupcake wrapper

Glue Stick

Pipe cleaner

Tape

Prep:

Cut out two flower shapes from construction paper. (I drew one with pencil first, and then used that cutout as a stencil to create the other.)

Construction (the toddler part!):

• Use a piece of clear tape to attach the pipe cleaner to one of the flower cutouts.
• Use glue stick to adhere the other flower on top- sandwiching the pipe cleaner between the two flower forms.
• Glue the cupcake wrapper to the center of the flower.

That's it! It's quick and easy, but makes a great presentation. As I mentioned before, it was a great way to introduce (or practice) working with a glue stick to your toddler. Ethan really enjoyed "playing glue" and of course, he was impressed that he had a flower to proudly hand his teacher when he was all done.

For the gift presentation part, I tied two of the flowers together with curling ribbon. I also added construction paper leaves that I curled a little (by wrapping them around a pencil). I also added a leaf shaped gift tag.

Enjoy!

(PS- If you use the project, I'd love to hear from you!)

Exploring Painting Techniques with Toddlers

Toddlers naturally learn though exploration. This project is a great way to use the art process as a way to learn and increase fine motor skills.  
  

I went for a laid-back type project for Easter this year-- painting on cardboard cut-out eggs.

What happened next was really cool. After the he had painted his third egg, I noticed Ethan was painting each egg using a different painting method. When he asked me to help him paint the fourth and fifth eggs, I took a cue from him gave him suggestions for other ways we could apply the paint. 

Here are the painting techniques we tried:

1. Paint with a brush

2. Dab with a dry brush 

3. Fingerpaint

4. Make dots with a q-tip (Bonus: He loved saying "dots" while he was dotting the paint. "Dots" is a great vocab word)

5. Draw lines with a q-tip (Bonus: "Lines" is also a great vocab word)

Of course, we were using our Easter eggs, but you could paint anything. The idea is to look at alternate ways we can apply paint to the paint surface, encouraging that the toddler pay attention to the painting task in a new way.

There's an unlimited number of methods that you could try. The techniques we used were very basic, but the result was that every egg looked very different.

The activity turned out so well that I can't wait to try this again. Special thanks to my little guy for the inspiration. :)

What are some of your favorite toddler paint techniques?

Cookie Time Magnets

I've seen cookie sheets used as magnet playboards in a number of different ways. It's really easy to print clip art or photos, cut them out, laminate them (clear contact paper on both sides works great too), and stick a magnet to the back. In the past I've made them with letters, number, animals (shapes would be good too!)

Then I got to thinking- it is a cookie sheet after all. Maybe I should make cookies.

So I found what I thought was the perfect chocolate chip cookie clip art and printed out 10 cookies. As a toddler who loves cookies, he thought it was pretty cool to have cookies for on his cookie sheet. It also makes a great addition to his play food. He plays. We can count the cookies as he places them on the tray. Can you tell he likes them?!

Toddlers love magnets, they're inexpensive, and can be a great learning tool. What creative ways have you found to use cookie sheet magnets?