Dyed Pasta Busy Bag Activity

Our Mommies' group did a busy bag exchange. 

It was wonderfully successful!

 

One fabulous mommy (I was able to join up with a great group of mom's who are all extremely helpful, supportive, smart, and all absolutely fabulous!!!), spend so much time dying pasta and cutting colored circles for muffin tin sorting.  

Great site to get instructions on dying pasta for kids activities :

http://www.manylittleblessings.com/how-to-dye-pasta-for-kids-crafts/

 

Cut colored circles to match whatever colors you decide to die your pasta. 

Tape or glue them on the bottom of a muffin tin. 

  

 Spend time sorting colors. Talk about colors. Discuss how different noodles can have the same color even though they are different shapes, sizes, widths, or lengths.

 

The mom who created this busy bag for us also gave us cups with each type of pasta attached (hot glued) to the top for sorting types of pasta.

 

Again: This is an opportunity to increase your child's vocabulary. Discuss how the same pasta can be different colors. Practice sorting styles, see if your child can focus both colors and type.

 

I also let my 1 year old (oh my goodness, she just turned one, where did the time go!) also play with noodles, however, she is a mouther so I have an eye on her constantly. She does love to feel the various textures and spread them around her tray. 

Tangrams

Tangrams are a wonderful activity to help children learning spacial awareness, shapes, colors, and above all problem solving. 

 

Melissa and Doug produce a great set of wooden pieces that are durable and easy to practice beginning skills.

 

This activity helps create an independent learner. Be sure to model with your child first before you can expect them do to it on their own. (We started do this when little man had just turned two, older children will be able to follow the patterns without modeling). 

 

Remember: every activity is an opportunity to increase vocabulary and spend meaningful time with your little ones. 

Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks/ Tangrams

 

Sweet Letters

Cooking or Baking with kids is such a great activity.

This provides so many opportunities to talk with your kids about what you are doing, helping their vocabulary grow, practice measuring/reading recipes/learning fractions, and bringing out the creativity in your child. 

 

We made simple sugar cookies (our recipe was from Betty Crocker, a classic)  and then made an easy royal icing frosting to decorate. 

It was amazing to practice patience! He had to practice waiting his turn to help and taste test. We would frost a cookie and the little man could have a little 'extra' frosting on his finger. Repeat.... needless to say he had a little 'extra' several times.

 

We opted to practice letters and numbers. He loves talking about letters for mommy, daddy, and his sister. So we spent time practicing specific letters! It's always a good idea to focus on a few letters or numbers with your young toddler so they become more familiar and secure with those without over loading or over stimulating. 

Plastic Egg Color Busy Bag Matching Game

Easter Egg Coloring Matching

We have a blast pairing up different tops and bottoms.This busy bag activity is easy to create, reproduce, and very inexpensive!

I created small cards for small fingers to draw and use.

Easter Egg Coloring Matching Game Cards

 Since we have extra eggs we layout the matching with the cards. However, when I gave this away as a busy bag activity, I only gave one egg per color. When the eggs are stacked (tops and bottoms separately) the activity fits perfect in a sandwich Ziploc bag.

Have your kiddo pull a card and see if he can find the two pieces that match the card.

 C. has more fun pulling cards for me to match and telling me if I am correct or not.

Super Kid!

My kiddo has been tearing apart our chair and couch cushions to create jumping platforms. He saw the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode with super Goof. That's all he has been talking about since that morning.

I found a great tutorial that shows us how to make one easily. I haven't sewed since I was in high school (10 years ago). It took me about 2 1/2 hours to make and I know that it's really a 1/2 project.

http://crazylittleprojects.com/2012/05/personalized-superhero-cape-tutorial.html

This is one great mom!!

Clean Mud/Play Snow

This is something that I have had the supplies for after seeing on a Pinterest post months ago.
I have seen it labeled Clean Mud or Play Snow

1 Bar of Dove
1 Roll of Toilet Paper
about 1 Cup warm Water


1. Grate the soap with a cheese grater. (It makes it dissolve more quickly) Grate it into a 9x13 pan. Makes for easy clean up and a "one pot wonder"

2. Let the kids tear up toilet paper! It's a blast!!!!

3. Pour the warm water over the soup and allow to melt for a minute

4. Put the torn up paper over the soap and water mixture and massage/kneed/mix the paper in, make sure the paper is torn into smaller pieces as it will dissolve a little quicker. 

5. Mix and enjoy! 

We brought it out after dinner so my husband and I could clean up. It was a blast. Our son then went straight to the bath. It made for a few happy campers. :)

 

Keep it in an air tight container to use later. 

Mr. Director

CP became Project Manager. 
We repainted our dining room and my husband is building the most amazing shaker style wainescoating! Well, someone woke up hard from his nap so he needed to be with daddy. I set him up in his sister's highchair (keeping him contained while paint was drying) and he had his snack. 


While sitting there, he started telling daddy where to paint and what he needed to be doing. He had a blast. I realized, quickly, that he was practicing such wonderful vocabulary and building complex sentences. We started using the "manager" game to do different things around the house. 

-  Have your child tell you where the toys go as you are picking WITH them! They have to pick up too otherwise, they don't get to be "the manager". Kids start to learn vocabulary for different places around the house and learn nice ways of telling people information without being bossy. 

- Try doing dishes together. 

- Feeding animals/pets

- Fold blankets or clothes (depending on the age)

    

- Sorting animal toys/ different balls/ blocks/ letters/ pictures/ numbers into categories. - Teach them how it looks to think about how to sort things. 

***Remember**** Demonstrate to your kid what it looks like to give information and not be bossy. No matter what the age (I see this with fifth graders daily), you need to show them what the expected behavior looks like and vocabulary sounds like. It will help create a very thoughtful kid! I promise!!!

Video Monitors

Our play group is expanding! We have welcomed three new babies so far, one will arrive any day and three more to arrive after the first of the year.  With all of us having a toddler in one space of the house and a new little one in another (attempting) to sleep, we may need a second set of eyes. 

My mommy group friends have asked about video monitors. My husband and I thought it would be fine with our original sound only monitor from Graco. We quickly found out that we were driving our selves crazy figuring out the needs of our two little ones. 

After many requests, I have come up with a conclusion on a great monitor. 

We use the Summer Infant Sleek and Secure. We have found that it works well in our home and will travel to the neighbors' yards with us (only next door). We have one camera in our son's room and the other pointed on our daughter's crib. 

  
Things we love about it:
- Can have the sound on very high!
- Can have the picture on without the sound (Motorola does not offer this)
- Can scan between cameras with the sound rotating between rooms as well
- Can see up to four cameras on one screen (we choose the room to have the sound on)
- No extra light put out that competes with the night light or adding extra unwanted light 
We travel a TON! It is extremely easy to pack, travels well, and sets up EXTREMELY easy! We don't have to reset it. Just plug it in and let it go! 

 Non Deal Breakers :
- Size of the screen 
- Wireless range

Things we wish we could upgrade:
- There's no vibrate mode like on the Gracos
- The farther the camera from the bed, the grainer the subject/picture


Overall, we really do like this camera alot! We have used it for 8 months now and have had not problem with recharging the battery or power.   I would recommend this product to friends and family.

Thanksgiving Cards

I know that I am a little late on this, however, if I posted before the holiday it may have ruined the crafty surprise to family. Now, feel free to pin this one for next year! 

  

I spent some time painting with CP and his little sis. His palm is painted brown and each finger is painted a different color coordinating with feathers on a turkey. When the paint dried, I used a black sharpie marker to draw a neck facing forward with two eyes and the orange marker to make a beak and "gobbler". It was a blast to make a full set of cards for our family.

Easy Baby Food

I LOVE making my kids baby food! It is so extremely easy! You don't need to be crafty, handy in the kitchen, or have a ton of time. It's great to have a full freezer of healthy goodies!!!

Here's the easiest set up ever: 

1. slice and dice your veggies

2. microwave in a Pampered Chef steamer until tender and cooked through

3. Puree in blender or food processor until smooth

Today, in less than 30 minutes I made 10 -2 oz jars of sweet potatoes, 10 - 2 oz jars of peas, and 11- 4oz sweet potato, apple, banana mixed pouches. 

I love these easy containers to send to school with my infant and as carrying cases for snacks and formula, when necessary. These containers were cheap and easy to clean. Since they are cheap, I don't mind if they get lost at school or not returned to me right away. They do break easily under pressure but the benefits outweigh the cons.

I bought a Freeze Squeeze system this morning and love it so far. I am looking forward to trying reusable storage for my toddler and mid-aged infant.

Thinking about how much our family loves and enjoys Plum Baby pouches, I want to see if this is a better deal than the 10 for $10 at various stores :) 

1 lg sweet potato 1.10

4 med apples 2.50

1 lg banana (paid about a $1 for 4 bananas earlier in the week)

So..... for about $4 made 11 pouches. The system costs about $30 and $17 for 50 extra pouches. 

Doing some extra math the pouches are $.34 a piece and depending of the cost of food each filled pouch will cost about $.65-$.75 each. Saving money for those families who are on the go and want homemade food for their little ones. 

Special Paint

We spent time painting our new8 dining room and of course he wanted to help paint the room. 

I gave him a cup of water and a paint brush and he painted parts of the wall that were "out of the way". 

 

This led me to an amazing idea!!! I taped construction paper to the dishwasher while I made dinner and TaDa!! An awesome canvas with  "special paint". It kept him busy for a good 20 minutes!

Displaying Children's Work

Ikea has some great finds!

  

Here we used a wire curtain rode and a few "s" clips to display kids' work. 

 

 Now to add a great quote above the wire rod. I believe that I may use Pablo Picasso's "Every Child is an Artist" We'll see! :)

Homemade PlayDough

This is one of the best play dough recipes that I have found. It has a great texture. I have tried the "no bake" or no cook doughs and I think the doughs that require heat last longer in young hands. 

 

We had a blast making play dough this weekend! We chose to make orange and green for Halloween fun. 

It's a blast and EASY! If you have 5 minutes, you can make cheap, fun! 

1 cup flour

1/3 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 cup water

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

food coloring

 

Add flour, salt, and cream of tarter to a warm pan on the stove. Have your heat on medium low. Once mixed add the food coloring. It is easier to mix in at this point. Stir until mixture comes together in one large lump. 

 

Pour it out on to wax paper and let it cool. 

Painting with Toys

 

Cut sponges into pieces and allow kids to feel the different textures as well as what happens when they get to use different sides and textures to paint with. 

 

Try using scrubbing sponges as a paint brush. Kids will love seeing what happens to paint as it is dotted and smeared. 

 

We are using a small textured basketball to roll in paint and roll around the paper. It was great to talk about the bumps on the paper and then had fun washing the basketball off to use to slam dunk in our mini hoop. 

 

Try dipping cookie cutters in paint and making different sharps and stories. 

 

One of our favorite! Use a car or truck that you can run or race through paint and then "race" across the pages. Have fun with it!! 

Try This: 

Use animals to paint tracks across the page

Borrow some craft stamps and practice stamping

Cut an apple or potato in have and use as a homemade stamp

Baseball

Hand-Eye coordination is so important for kids.

 Allow your kids to practice various types of sports. Here we purchased a basic tee and bat for CP to practice. We demostarted to him out to set up the tee with the ball. It's now his job to put the ball on the tee.

 

We spent a bit of time showing him out to hit the ball of the tee instead of hitting the tee itself. This took time since he likes to do everything by himself. 

 

Now he does everything by himself and loves 'running' the bases in the background.