Travel Laminated Quiet Book

I needed something easy, light, and reusable for our flight with my ever active toddler. I had seen many quiet books and they are WONDERFUL!! However, they come with small pieces that can be dropped, lost, felt that would be stuck to other things, etc. I wanted something contained.

I bought one 1/2 inch binder, laminating sheets, binder pocket sheets, dry erase markers, dry erase crayons, and LOADS of stickers. 

This binder was first used when he was 20 months old and we have "reloaded" it several times since!

        

We decorated the front, little man helped to make it his own, and I let him help fill some of the pockets. 

I printed letter sheets for him to help recognize his name and the sounds the letters in his name make. 

I tore pages out of coloring books that he loves and focused on things he could do with us and on his own. Little man picked out some of the animal pages and I chose some as a surprise. These pages were laminated so we could reuse them or use as doodle pages. 

Using the dry erase crayons, we were able to wipe the laminated pages off and recolor them. 

He loves mazes so this was a fun one to include! 

I have several pockets of stickers and blank white paper. He could sticker the paper, color, draw, write, etc, etc, etc! Stickers are a must as they love to put on and pull off. Plus, it's GREAT dexterity practice for their little fingers. 

Both of our kids are great travelers and I believe that they travel well for a few reasons:

1. We plan things out (snacks, treats, toys, activities, etc)
2. If we can get it at the airport, we buy it there (water bottle, pretzels, etc) yes, I know it is expensive but it's much easier!!!!
3. I pack ONE bag for the kids and me! 
4. Pack suckers, mints, gum to suck on and chew for take off and landing - eliminate ear pressure
5. Give ibuprofen to the kids prior take off to help with air pressure issues
6. A surprise toy to give them about half way through the trip or closer to the last hour when the other things have started to wear off

THE bag (in my case a backback) I had my littlest one in my ergo baby on in front, back pack on my back and my older one was in our travel stroller (city mini) or walking with me.

Contains: 

• two diapers for each hour we could be on the plane - in case of delay, accident, etc. (now both are potty trained - so extra undies)
• back up outfit for each kid  
• iPad for the kids as back-up and for me (loaded with games and movies)
• my phone with games for children and adult - again a back-up
• quiet binder: coloring, hangman, games, stickers, crayons
• crayons and blank paper
• snacks that require chewing and swallowing for take off and landing for ear pressure (gummies, suckers, mints, water)
• kids ibuprofen for headaches and ear pressure
• Secret NEW toy for each kiddo

***BEST advice I EVER got*****  

secret NEW toy for each kiddo, they have never seen this item or know that I have it! It's something they want or would love to help them get through the last bit of the flight. I gave my daughter a Rapuzel doll (barbie like doll so she could brush her hair) and small hair brush and my son got Ryder from Paw Patrol and his ATV. These were only a few bucks each and well worth it!!!! It gave them something to play with while we were on vacation, traveling between locations, or sitting with family (in grandma's house full of breakables) 

Beans! Sorting, Counting! Busy Bag Idea

Grab an old sheet and let's get started! 

We use this old blue one for everything! I'm sorry if you have seen it in other posts and upcoming posts! It's just so handy to have around the house! 

I purchased three bags of dried beans at our local store. Buy whatever colors strike you as fun. I also focused on getting different sizes. 1 bag of large white beans, 1 of black beans, and 1 pinto beans. 

I get out just about anything that can scoop or move beans. 

We gather containers, funnels, measuring scoops, table spoons, everything that's fun! 

Let them scoop and dump, make piles, spread them around (within reason).

This is a great sorting activity! Help provide your kids with vocabulary such as largest, smallest, big, bigger, biggest.... 

please excuse the yucky picture, I bet you can get the gist

We got silly and starting making food troughs for our animals and pools for them to swim. 

Do whatever your kids want with this, just talk with them. It's so important to teach conversation skills and teach them the vocabulary by modeling it for them!!! I can't tell you the number of 5th graders I teach that lack, what we think is basic vocabulary, and the ability to hold a full conversation. Many don't even respond "How are you?" if they are asked the question first. 

All I can stress is TALK with your children! YOU are their first and MOST teachers!!!!

Reading Picnics

A great way to get out to the house and still have some quiet time:

Book Picnics!

My two love the read and this is when they have some great individual think time. Little man begins reading to himself and our little lady normally sings to her favorite books or starts to point out characters! Both are wonderful comprehension strategies. Letting kids revisit books helps them think about what they have read, helps to introduce strategies for retelling (a great way to read a book), and point out parts of the picture that tells the story!

If you know anything about The Two Sisters, CAFE or DAILY 5 (most educators do, for those who don't it's a great way to help children learn to use reading strategies independently and begin thinking about literature), they encourage children to read books three different ways: read the words, read the pictures, and retell the story.

We began inside, however both children were having a hard time sharing books this day. So I gave each a book blanket that they could use to spread out and have their own space to read.

 That didn't last long and both were reading on the same blanket, but sharing the books.

We have a ton of different books. I try to rotate them throughout the house, stacks will end up in her room then move to his, down to the play room, and in the book box in our car - keeps them entertained while on our way. This way we have many times to revisit them, during the day or for bedtime.

We love all sorts of books! Try the BabyBug magazine (made by Cricket) for little ones. It is built with durable pages that are hard to distroy and cute poems, songs, and stories to do with your little ones. We also love sharing various languages with our kids, try grabbing a few books from other cultures. Babies love to look and read about other babies - there is quite a bit of research behind that thought, not just me chatting. Add some books to your collection that have babies as the main characters. My two are drawn to those! Don't forget some of our favorite authors and titles. Expose your kids to your childhood favorites and soon they will love them also!

 As children revisit text, they are able to tell us more, connect illustrations to text, and pick out important details that make the story. 

I took a step back and let them have their space. WOW, they really know how to enjoy a book. I need to learn to let them and not always get involved or "in the way". Both kids were telling me or pointing at things me in their books that was memorable or exciting. 

Remember, after kids are exposed to books repeatedly only will they have the stamina to read and THINK about they are reading independently. Talk about the books with your kids so that they build their vocabulary and have the words to retell stories to you. 

Homemade GAK!!! Busy Bag Activity

Who doesn't remember playing with GAK as a kid!!! 

 

Found an easy recipe, of course on Pinterest, and had a blast on our rainy day creating a fun activity. 

http://simplykierste.com/2012/05/oh-what-do-you-do-in-the-summertime-featured-guest-lil-luna.html

 

Little man had the job of squeezing the glue into the bowl. He loves to make a mess and it was great to have permission to do so. 

 

He chose the colors. We made the first batch green. It was definitely a Pinterest Fail. We got it the second time!!! It's AWESOME!!!!

 

The Pinterest fail was just too dry I used a bit too much Borax. 

 

He was in charge of mixing or stirring the color into the glue. 

 

It took a few minutes to mix in all the water and it was soooooo much fun massaging the mixture. 

 

He walked around with his container of GAK for the next ten minutes so proud of his mix and showing daddy and his sister how he made it. 

 

Keep it in an air tight container for use later. 

A fantastic idea for a busy bag is to make a batch and split it into smaller portions. Put the portions in baby food jars to pass out at your next exchange. 

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!

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.

Lacing

Fine motor skills are crucial as kiddos grow into writers and crafters. 

Here is an easy (and SUPER cheap) homemade lacing activity!

Cut out any shape you want from construction paper, we have an apply. Use a hole punch to put a few holes around the edge of the shape. Use yarn to lace through the holes. (Extra shoe laces work well, although, I not sure who have a ton of those around:) )

** one trick to help with lacing: wrap the end of the yarn with tape to make it more similar to a shoe lace***

Color Collages

CP is one smart little man but needs so practice with his colors. We have a ton of books, coloring books, crayons, markers, and toys that we use to teach color. (Basically, everything we see) 

Today, we had a wonderful day where mom and son could send a few quiet hours just playing and being crafty together.

 

We chose a few pieces of construction paper together and decided which colors we would focus on today. I used an old house decor magazine that we could rip apart, or destroy without hesitation :) We turned the pages together to find yellow, blue, or green. 

*** Be sure to stick with one color at a time in the beginning to secure each color.***

We would rip then glue and repeat. 

 

Ripping pictures and letters out to match was a blast. We used a nontoxic glue stick that I use for scrap booking so really who cares how messy we got! So much FUN! 

-For me this craft was TOTALLY free!!!-

Stacking

We have a ton of cars and trucks. Some of our favorites are the wooden ones from Melissa and Doug. Instead of running them around his race tracks, he realized that they can be stacked on top of each other. Very clever. He was so proud of himself!

We also have a set of Melissa and Doug road signs. He quickly realized that he could stack his signs. We talked about the shape of each sign and if it could be stacked. We also talked about which is the best for the base and which could go on top. We saved the triangles, circles and rhombus shaped ones for on top.

Window Markers

I loved the moment I found these! Rainy day activities....here we come........ 

Crayola window markers that wipe off with a baby wipe, windex, whatever works for you!!!!

This was an activity that kept daddy and CP busy for several minutes while I made dinner.