Put a Lid On It

This past weekend, we had lots and lots of cold, stormy, rainy weather.  A pure delight for us Arizonans.  If only there was no school and other obligations to attend to, so that we could have indulged in a lazy day with pj's, hot cocoa, movies and blankets.  I was loving the rain, but my littles were sorely disappointed that play day at the park, or even in the yard, was cancelled.  What to do with two house-bound kiddos?

I had a bit of cooking to do during the day, and I tried to enlist their help.  They typically love helping to measure and dump things into the mixer.  This time, they lost interest quickly.  Mr. Three went and found some cars and motorcycles to run along the walls and floor while Mr. Four managed to pull out a opened container of oats to keep himself entertained.  Luckily, it was only about 1/4 full, so it didn't bother me too much when it quickly ended up spilled onto the kitchen floor.  Mr. Three was all too willing to help clean up (and by clean up I mean mostly spread around) the mess.  It was actually a nice activity to keep them busy while I finished up my dinner preparations.

After cleaning up the kitchen mess, I had a light bulb moment.  The oatmeal container would make a great toy.  Mr. Three and Mr. Four are really interested in sorting and pouring all sorts of items.  Good thing I have been saving(hoarding) the lids off of the squeeze baby food pouches for some time.  All I did was cut a rectangle in the oatmeal container lid just big enough to push a squeeze pouch lid through, popped the lid on, gave the boys the container of squeeze pouch lids and let them play.  Best rainy-day-free toy ever!

Besides filling the oatmeal canister with lids, they also poured the lids back and forth between the containers.  I had Mr. Three tell me the color names as he pushed each lid through the hole.  We counted lids and then discovered that they are stackable and make great towers to knock down (Mr. Four loved the destruction aspect.).

Earlier in the week, with the cub scouts, we had taken the lids and tried to flick them off the side of our hands into a box, as a simple gathering activity.  The scouts and my little boys loved this game.  Here's a video, if you want a (not so great) demonstration, with a little motorcycle action thrown in for interest.

I have also pinned some other great uses for these squeeze pouch lids that we may have to try soon.  So, if you have been saving (hoarding) these lids like me, here are several good reasons to keep them in your stash of useful stuff.  You're welcome!


It would be fun to make bugs on a sticky table.

I found these rolling truck and car toys.  This could be a fun cub scout activity as well as something for the preschool set.

This build a bug busy bag is on my to do list for the spring.

I love this color wheel matching game, and you could easily use the squeeze pouch lids in place of the wooden wheels.

In case that's not enough, a few more ideas:
use them to make patterns
count the lids
stack and compare towers
graph with them
make a batch of playdough and use the lids as stamps, monster eyes, wheels, etc.

Loads of rainy day (or any day) fun!

If you're still reading, here's the boys playing with their toy, adding their own great sound effects.  Anyone with little boys knows that sound effects are mandatory for pretty much any activity.  Enjoy!

Mr. Four's First Flight: Toddler Travel Tips

Our family just returned from our adventures in Washington D.C.  It was a crazy, busy, fantastic week.  I don't think I can do just one post and get it all in, so my intent is to break it up into several parts.  I'll give you the highlights, along with some travel tips for those who, like me, think of long flights with little kids and get a bit apprehensive.

I have been prepping for this trip for months, picking up things here and there, pinning ideas and tips, researching places of interest, sewing, crafting, worrying...

The one that I was most concerned about was little Mr. Four, who is 15 months old.  We flew with Mr. One when he was about 4 months old, and it was just horrible.  He had plugged ears and cried and cried, on the plane and the whole weekend we were away.  I did not want to relive any of that headache this time around, nor have a miserable little guy on our hands for vacation.  After a lot of research, reading and asking friends for advice and this is what I came up with for Mr. Four.

*I read several comments from seasoned travelers that a backpack made the best diaper bag, hands free, easy to pack and get into.  This was a great tip.

*Lots of snacks and a few bottles to fill once inside the airport.  I chose things that would take time to eat, but weren't too messy, no sticky or gooey items (well the suckers were sticky, but a good last resort with a fussy toddler).  The Teensy Fruits (Plum Organics) and yogurt and fruit and veggie bites were an especially big hit.  The bottles were good for when the plane was ascending and descending to relieve the ear pressure.  Pack more than you think you need, variety helps with the frustration of sitting in one place for so long.

*I also read that books were a waste of space, since toddlers typically only look at them briefly and quickly become bored, but I did pack two.  They were small and light, the ABC book had lots to point to and talk about, and the Chicky book had very singsong, rhythmic language that I thought might be soothing to a tired baby.

*The homemade fill and spill toy was a favorite on the flight.  I chose items that wouldn't make too much noise and were large enough to gather up easily and light enough to reduce any problems should he throw any of them.  The fabric pieces are just rectangles of cut fleece (about 3" by 8") that I shoved into the Parmesan cheese container.  He loved pulling them out and stuffing them back in.  The circles are just the mini play dough container lids and spice jar lids that fit in the large opening of the container.  The pipe cleaners are folded in half with the ends twisted together to eliminate sharp edges, and can be poked through the smaller holes in the container.

*Finger puppets, which the older kids liked to play with to help keep the baby happy

*A shakey egg (just a plastic egg with rice, taped closed with electrical tape) was light and made very minimal noise to people sitting close by

*The Color Wonder markers and sketch pad were originally for the older boys, but Mr. Four loved coloring with them, and I didn't have to worry about him making a mess, since they only work on the special paper.

*My diaper clutch, with three diapers, a plastic produce bag for dirty diapers and LOTS of wet wipes

*Another necessity was a large blanket.  It was nice to have something that smelled like home to cover him up when he got tired, cold, or just grumpy.  Added bonus?  It was a great to play peek-a-boo with.

*A change of clothes, just in case

*A no spill cup to put snacks, like goldfish crackers, in to help reduce mess

Armed with my diaper bag, I felt much better about flying with a little one.  It also helped that so many people on the plane were kind and would smile, wave and talk to him to keep him interested and happy.

He cried and fussed and threw a few items, but overall, we were able to keep him content.  He even napped a bit on each flight.  A huge victory in my book.

Pom Pom Size Sort

Here's a simple and inexpensive little toddler activity that I made for my Mr. Three (who is almost two years old).

Pom Pom Size Sort

I recovered an empty frosting container with scrapbook paper then clear contact paper for my label and cut two holes in the frosting lid, one large and the other small.  I then gave Mr. Three two sizes of pom poms to poke through the holes.  (The holes will be smaller than the actual pom poms, but the smaller hole will only fit the smaller pom poms.)

He loves playing with this, and can open and close the can and sort independently.  (Obviously, you need to closely observe any toddler when using small objects, like pom poms.)  It is especially nice for my church bag, since it's a quiet activity.  Even better?  I made this all with items already on hand, so it was a free toy.  Hooray for free!

Play Dough, Legos and Doctor Visits

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and took Mr. Two and Mr. Three along.  Thank goodness my office loves kids (I guess they should, considering they make a living delivering babies...).  In order to keep them entertained with something other than the biohazard garbage cans and various medical contraptions, I brought a big bag of little things for them to play with.  Here's the contents of my bag for this visit:  Color Wonder coloring book and markers, a plain notepad and package of stickers, crayons, some little cars for Mr. Three, and Mr. Two's "purse" of little animals, and two fruit roll ups.  They scattered the contents of the bag all over the floor in the room, but they kept busy and out of major trouble, so I consider that a victory.


Good news:  My labwork from the blood glucose test came back normal.  Hooray!  Even though I don't have gestational diabetes, it was good for me to be a little scared so that I could examine what I was eating and try to make better choices.  Now I just need to kick some nasty lingering cold/allergies so I can breathe better and stop coughing.

The rest of our day consisted of thrift store and grocery store shopping.  No real luck in the thrift stores, but I filled my fruit and veggie bin again.

At home, the boys entertained themselves with Legos and we made homemade play dough for Mr. Two's preschool class.  I don't think I've posted my favorite recipe for play dough here, so I'll share it with you now.  This came from Mr. Two's preschool teacher, and it is almost the same as the dough I made growing up, but you add Kool-Aid for color and a nice scent.

Favorite Play Dough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 package unsweetened Kool-Aid

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium pot.  Mix water and oil together in a seperate bowl, then add to your dry ingredients.  Stir well.  Put on stovetop and heat mixture on medium low to medium, and stir for three to five minutes until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball.  Remove dough from pan and knead until the dough becomes soft and smooth.

One of the nice things about this recipe is that it fits perfectly in an empty frosting container for easy storage.  Gotta love that!  So there's our day so far.  Now I'm off to start dinner and clean the house a bit.

Miscellaneous Pre-Thanksgiving Items

This weekend, the fall baking bug bit hard.

I made Baked Pumpkin French Toast for Sunday morning breakfast.  Yum!

I also found some beautiful ripe pomegranates at the store and couldn't resist getting one.  Mr. One loves pomegranates.  I had to try out this recipe for double dark chocolate pomegranate cookies.  They were even better than the gorgeous pictures showed!  I won't admit to how many I've eaten in the last few days.  I'm eating for two, so a few extra are warranted, right?

A little hint about getting the seeds out of the pomegranate:  After cutting your pomegranate open and into large sections, try pulling them from the peel under water, then you won't spray juice all over yourself and your kitchen (or at least it will minimize the damage).  Trust me on this one.  I have a purple stained white tee and a purple-pink speckled kitchen to prove it before I figured this out...

I also printed, laminated and cut out some of the activities from this Thanksgiving preschool pack for Mr. Two to use.  He and I especially liked the puzzles and the pre-writing trace pages (I laminated them so that he could use a dry erase marker on the pages and wipe them off).

Here are two of the cheapest toys (and by cheap I mean free because they were made from things around the house) I've made to date.  Mr. Three loves both of them almost as much as our cell phones, remote controls and car keys...

The first toy was an idea I took from my sister in law Jenny.  She had made one for her two year old and I loved it.  Clean an empty Parmesan cheese container and grab a handful of pipe cleaners.  If you fold the pipe cleaners in half and twist them around each other, folding the ends in (so your kiddos don't poke their hands), it is the perfect size to fit into the container.  It also makes them sturdier to handle.  Then your child can poke the pipe cleaners into the container through the holes in the lid.  If they struggle to poke them into the small holes in the lid, open the other side with the wide opening and they can put the pipe cleaners in the container this way.  They can also shake the pipe cleaners out by opening the wide side of the lid to play again (or just unscrew the lid...).  

The second toy is just an old wipes container with an oval slot in the lid.  The oval is just the right size to fit the mini playdoh lids through.  I also had some small foam blocks that another sister in law found in the Target dollar spot that fit perfectly as well.  (Thanks Carla!)  Mr. Three loves putting his shapes into the container and dumping them out again.

Don't you just love toys that don't cost a thing?

Hooray for two more activity bag ideas for my toddler.  These are great to throw in my church bag as well.

Now I need to get off the computer so that I can work on Thanksgiving pies and other preparations.  Oh, and maybe actually mop my floor...

Activity Bags, Continued

Yesterday morning, Mr. Two was really interested in using some of the activity bags that I have made.  He started digging deeper into my box and pulled out a few that I had forgotten about.  I thought I'd share two that were big hits.

Silly Putty Treasure Hunt

In the bag:
silly putty with small tri-beads hidden inside

Mr. Two found this and started to play with the putty, quickly realizing that there were things inside of the putty.  He excitedly declared, "Pirate treasure!" and spent a good amount of time digging for treasure and re-burying it to play again.  I am finding with him, anything pirate-ish helps increase interest as of late.

I got this idea from a friend who worked with special needs children, many of whom had fine motor skill challenges.  This simple activity strengthens the small fine motor muscles in fingers and hands as the pull and stretch the putty and pick out the small beads.  Exercising these muscles is critical to improving writing skills. 

This was a favorite of Mr. Three (who is 19 months)

Egg Carton Sort

In the bag:
one egg carton (I happened to have an 18 count egg carton, so there were more pockets to fill)
small plastic items (I used soft plastic farm animals)

Mr. Three loved placing one farm animal in each carton pocket.  It was funny to see him start out by grabbing a handful of animals and cramming them into the carton.  With just a little guidance, he began to place each animal in their own pocket.

This was a great introductory activity to develop one to one correspondence.  You could extend this activity for older children by having them make patterns with the animals in the rows, organizing by color or type of animal, or even having them place matching pairs in each pocket.

I am excited to see that my toddler is interested in some of the learning activities I have made for my older boys.  Now I need to think more actively about activities to engage both Mr. Two and Mr. Three.  Let the fun begin!

Color Sorting Mat

When I saw this mat on Frugal Family Fun Blog, I knew I wanted to make something similar.

Here's what I came up with:

Fold-up Color Sorting Mat with Pocket

I found fat quarters in the basic colors and cut 6" squares of each of the 10 colors.  I sandwiched in a layer of felt between the muslin backing to give it a little more structure, and added a simple side pocket and ribbon closure.

It folds and ties for easy storing and carrying.

I love the pocket at the end to store sorting treasures.  I think when I make another, I'll opt for a full zipper instead of velcro.  If I post a full tutorial, I'll be changing that.

Mr. One had a good time sorting beads on our new mat.

My boys had fun sorting our tub of frogs and turtles using the mat as well.

Have fun sorting!

Another Sticker Activity

One more sticker activity to add to your little bag of tricks:

Write your child's name (or sight words, letters, etc.) with a bold marker.  Have them use stickers to cover the letters, making a sticker name. 

Happy sticking!

Sticker Counting

Here's another simple thing for your preschooler to do with all of your little chart stickers:  Sticker counting.

I used to make these sheets for Mr. One when he was a preschooler, and it would keep him occupied for large amounts of time.

Just use a marker or pen to draw boxes with numbers, and let those little fingers get to work sticking and counting.  Throw a sticker pad and several of these sheets in a baggie, and you have another easy activity bag!

Puzzle Blocks

Mike's parents had a set of puzzle blocks in their toy chest.  I have wanted to make a set for years, but never got around to finishing this project.  For Easter, I wanted to add something new to our church bag for the boys to play quietly with.  I came up with the idea to make a set of puzzle blocks with pictures of Christ.  I tried to pick pictures that told a story.  Christ's birth, sitting with his mother Mary as a child, his baptism, blessing the children, Christ as the good shepherd, Christ calming the sea.  I figured, if they were going to play with something in church, I could at least make it something that would remind them of why we are at church in the first place...

Here's what I used:

one set of 1 inch wooden blocks (you can find them at most big craft stores)
Mod Podge and sponge brush
6 small cardstock prints (I found mine at Deseret Book and they were about 4"x3" each)
ruler and pencil
paper cutter, or scissors

First, the pictures I found were slightly larger than 3" by 4", so we trimmed each picture to those dimensions.

Mark lines on the back of one picture 1 inch apart to indicate where to cut.  You will end up with 12 1" squares.  Use paper cutter or scissors to cut squares.

Mod Podge the squares onto the 12 blocks.  Work on one picture at a time, gluing one piece of the picture onto each of the 12 blocks. (That way you won't glue two pieces of the same picture onto one block.)

Repeat process with remaining 5 pictures.  When you are done, you will have one set of puzzle blocks to build six different pictures.

Let dry completely.

Mod Podge a thin layer over each block the to seal your puzzle.  (Make sure that the side you are placing down is completely dry before setting down.  I speak from experience.  I have nearly ruined many a project because of impatience...)

A few tips for a better puzzle:

Choose pictures that have different coloring and/or backgrounds from each other.  The more unique each picture is, the easier it will be for kids to find the correct pieces.  One picture had a light sky background, another had a dark sea, another a dark interior background.

If you have two pictures with very similar colors, try and mix pieces on individual blocks to make it easier to identify which picture each side goes with. 

Here are pictures of each side of one block to help you better understand what I mean (sorry for the blurry picture quality).

The busier the scene, the easier the puzzle will be to put together.  Find pictures with lots of color, lots of details to the scenery (people in the background, animals, brick walls, instead of just dark color).  If you choose pictures with lots of solid background color and little detail, it will be much more difficult to assemble.

Now you will have a great small activity to put in your bag for your kids to enjoy.  Have fun putting your puzzle together!

Nerdy Activities

Mr. One and Mr. Two love Nerds.  In fact, I discovered that Nerds are Mr. Two's currency.  I used them to encourage him to use the potty (one small handful of Nerds for using the toilet) and it worked like a charm.

Here's another fun way to use Nerds with your tot.

Nerd Sorting.

I put a small amount of Rainbow Nerds onto a plastic plate and gave Mr. Two an ice cube tray.  We then placed one Nerd of each color in a compartment of the ice cube tray.  Then I let him sort away.

This activity is great sorting practice, color recognition and an exercise in patience.  It takes longer to sort them one at a time.  Because of their small size, this is also a perfect activity to strengthen those fine motor muscles in the hands and fingers.

After sorting, I asked him to compare each compartment and tell me which color had the most and least.

The best part?  Eating them when finished!

After eating his Nerds, he asked for more.  I initially said no.  Mr. Two thought for a minute, then said, "I need to go potty."  He quickly went into the bathroom, "took care of business", then asked for his Nerds for using the toilet.  Smart kid!

*Want to make this an activity bag?  Just throw a box of rainbow Nerds, plastic ice cube tray and small plastic bowl or cup into a gallon ziploc, and you have another ready-to-go activity.

linking here:

ABC and 123 Show and Tell
Delicious Ambiguity Tot Tuesdays

Winter Fun and Games Links

I wanted to share a few new links to more winter preschool activities that we have been enjoying at our house (besides the ones already under my winter tag).

 

Confessions of a Homeschooler's S is for Snowman post has lots of great printables.  Our favorite?  The prewriting skills printables.  I laminated, cut them into strips and hooked them together with an o-ring.  After adding a marker to the bag, I have a great activity bag activity, for home or on the go.

This winter fun packet from Musings of Me has lots of ideas.  My favorite?  The winter colors book.  This one is on our to do list for the week.  Also on the to do list, the Snowball Fight game.

We love penguins and goldfish crackers at our house, so the penguin fish cracker count from Making Learning Fun is a great fit.

Here are two more snowman activities from Making Learning Fun.

Collecting Snowballs was a big hit with my preschooler this week.  I love that there are two sets of playing cards to choose from, depending on your child's age and ability.   I would recommend using smaller counters for this game (the cotton balls are too big).  We used small florist stones as our "snowballs" or for a fun snack, use mini marshmallows.

This emergent reader, The Snowman Melting, is a fun little rhyme to teach your preschooler.  I plan on putting this story together with some o-rings, so the pages can be separated.  This would make it a great sequencing activity after reading the story.

Today's a half day for Mr. One, so I'm off soon to pick him up and have some fun together this afternoon.  

Toothpick Activities

This activity is a variation on something I found on 1+1+1=1's tot tray link.  If you haven't checked this site out, there are so many great ideas here.

I purchased an inexpensive Parmesan cheese shaker and some colored toothpicks at either Wally World or the Dollar Tree.  The object of the activity is to have your preschooler use his fingers to poke the toothpicks through the holes in the top of the shaker.  This strengthens the finger muscles, improving the fine motor skills they need to write.

Mr. Two (my preschooler) loves to use his pincher fingers to poke the toothpicks into the container's holes.  Mr. One (my kindergartener) liked using the toothpicks to make pictures.  Together, they also sorted the toothpicks by color and took turns poking them into the container.

If you want to go really crazy, give the kiddos some marshmallows with the toothpicks and let them create three dimensional works of art with them.  Fun times.

More Activity Bags

I am always on the lookout for new ideas for activity bags.

Don't know what an activity bag is? Basically, the idea is to create a ready-to-go activity that will fit inside a gallon ziploc bag.  I love having a stash of them so I can grab one or two for keeping my young children occupied.  I throw them in my purse/diaper bag for doctor office visits, church, or even to use when I'm getting dinner ready.

I realized that I have amassed quite a collection of my own, yet I have only posted one or two here.  Oops!  Lately, I have come across some new wonderful ideas around the web.  Here are a few activities I've made for my boys (and the links so you can make some too). 

Magnifying Pictures:

My boys love looking through magnifying glasses.  As soon as I saw this awesome idea and printable, I printed this baby off!  Basically, you look at the cards with a tiny picture through a magnifying glass to determine what the picture is and match it up to the large picture on the game mat.  Genius!

Mr. One really examined the pics with the magnifying glass, and enjoyed trying to use it correctly.   Mr. Two didn't really understand the magnifying glass concept, but he enjoyed the prop and used his extra sharp preschooler eyes to figure out what the tiny picture was on his own.

Shape Sorter:

I found this activity in this post (along with some other great ideas).  The 3D shapes were in the dollar bin at Target (thank goodness they weren't sold out when I got there).  I used a Pringles can instead of an oatmeal can to hold the shapes.  (I was pushing Pringles for lunch to all family members because I wanted to finish this project asap!)  I used my exacto knife to cut the shapes on the lid, and mod podged some scrapbook paper onto the outside of the can.  If you want all three bags of foam shapes to fit in one container, use the oatmeal canister.  If you want something a bit smaller, use the Pringles can, just know you can't fit all 150 shape pieces into it (I figured I'd use the extra shapes for other projects).

No joke, my two and a half year old LOVES this!  He played with it for hours the first day.  His older brother (who is five) enjoyed it too, but he had more fun building objects with the little shapes. 

Are you getting excited about activity bags like I am?  I'm going to post more as I get to them.  In the meantime, here's a great resource of activity bag ideas over at Delicious Ambiguity.