Playing with "Snow"

I've been trying to do more sensory type activities with Kadin and thought this would be a fun one. The idea came from Play at Home Mom. They are amazing! <3 them, definitely check them out if you haven't yet. 

I gave him the bucket of poly-fil pellets and he asked to put them on his light table. He played with it with his hands for a few minutes and then used the cups to pour it. 

Then decided his blocks wanted to play in the snow too. He buried them in the snow and used them to make imprints. The dinosaur got to play lots of hide and seek too. 

Then he asked for his "purple" light. The black light added a great new aspect to it. 

Lots of fun and it will be fun to incorporate the "snow" into other activities this winter.

Pre-School

Sort of preschool anyway. ;) Kadin has started showing more of an interest in going to school. Mainly because he know all of his uncles go to school so he probably thinks he gets to hang out with them all day. :) Anyway I decided to make parts of our day more preschool-like. So each week (or most weeks) will have a theme and projects, books and any trips will be based around that theme. Each week will also have a letter or number and a color.

This weeks theme is cows. By the end of the week his board will be completely filled up. We went to the library yesterday and he picked out books about cows. And then today he colored a picture of a cow and an A. We also have poems and songs about cows. 

Cutting out and coloring his cow picture. 

 

Gluing his pictures to his board.

 

Such a goober.

  

Playing with his dyed rice.

Painting

The kids are always asking to paint. It's kind of our go to activity if the weather's bad or they're cranky. I decided to change up their painting a little bit. So they used a couple long sheets of paper and tempera paint.

Rather than just using paint brushes I gave them a few different things to see what they would do with them. In addition to paint brushes they used apples, q-tips and of course their hands (and then feet). 

They were both pretty intrigued with being able to paint with different things. The apples were a hit and they liked being able to make different designs with them. 

And then they started painting the apples. And ended up with some great designs and colors. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the feet painting. They were quickly making a huge mess and needed to be thrown in the tub. ;)

Glow Play doh

So I'm kind of in love with the black light. It adds a great new dimension to something that can get somewhat boring. So first we made playdoh using this recipe (from Play at Home Mom):

1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
Food coloring of your choice
Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

I subbed 2 T of white vinegar for the cream of tartar and I used neon tempera paint instead of food coloring so it would glow with the black light. I made 2 batches. The first I made all blue and the second I split in half and made pink and green. 

Very easy. You mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients to it. Then you heat it over medium high heat (or very high as my stove only has 2 temperatures that it will cook at :P). Stir it constantly. It only takes a few minutes and it will form into a ball. Knead it for a few minutes when it's done and it's good to go. Oh and definitely use a non stick pan ;)

Here  it is divided up so the 2 kids could each have their own. It does make quite a bit and each batch could easily be divided to make at least 2 different colors.

I purposely didn't bring them any toys to play with the play doh with. They are far more creative than I am and I wanted to see what they would come up with on their own. They didn't waste any time and ran and got themselves toys. So fun to watch their minds work. 

Some of the favorites were duplo blocks, a wooden knife, a bouncy ball, a hammer, a screwdriver, trains and plastic animals. All way more fun than the cookie cutters I probably would have handed them. ;) They had a blast and already have plans for the next batch of play doh. I believe I heard glitter was going in the next one.

September Beach Trip

I love the beach. I could honestly spend all day every day there and not get bored. Luckily for me Kadin feels the same way. We had some gorgeous 80° September days here last week and we decided to take advantage of them. It was fantastic! Warm, summer-like weather...without the summer-like crowds and tourists. You could actually move around on the beach and do things. I had forgotten how much more fun the beach was in the fall. 

Kadin had a blast playing soccer with Daddy and playing in the sand. For some reason he hasn't been a huge fan of the waves this year. Hoping that will be better next summer. :)

Right after kicking the ball.

 My super happy boy! <3

Dying Rice

I seem to be getting this face a lot recently when I tell K to smile so I can take his picture.

We dyed rice today. It's something I've been meaning to do for awhile, but there was always something more fun to do. I am glad that we finally got to it though. Kadin really enjoyed it. Probably because he could do most of it himself. Very simple and it can be used in so many different ways.

All you need is rice (I had some that had expired, which is very odd for us, but I was happy I could use it for something), food coloring, rubbing alcohol and baggies/bowls/containers. I chose to use baggies. I think it's easier to contain what could be a very messy activity. ;) Add rice to the bag, add a few drops of food coloring (although we almost always end up with more than a few) and a few drops of rubbing alcohol. You really don't need much. A little goes a very long way when dying rice. 

Add food coloring and then rubbing alcohol.

And then shake it all together. The best part about using the baggies is they can do this themselves.

I was going to use sandwich bags, but K wanted to use his very special goldfish bags. So we went with that. I wasn't sure if it would make enough because the bags are small, but it's plenty for what we're  using it for. 

He was very excited about making "his own" green. For some reason I have no green food coloring so we decided to try to mix yellow and blue and it worked perfectly.

We ended up with 6 colors.

Laying them all out to dry. I recommend putting plastic bags (or something) underneath them in case you get a little extra color that bleeds through. The black had already bled through 3 layers of paper towels by the time I finished dying the rest.

These are great for learning colorings and making pouring and sensory activities more fun. I'm sure the colored rice will be appearing at least a few times over the next couple of weeks. :) 

Cooking

Some people don't like having their kids help them cook. It takes too long, they make a mess, they won't do it "right". Probably all true. I am not one of them. Yes, it does take longer. Do they make a huge mess most of the time? Yep. They're learning. They're just figuring things out. My thoughts? Let them. Let them try. Let them learn. Let them help you. Trust me if you do you will learn just as much from them as they do from you. Probably more. 

 Ask them next time if they want to help. And when they do find things they can do. My 2 year old loves pouring and measuring, cracking eggs, mixing and "helping" things thaw in the sink. He also likes to help me load and unload the dishwasher and set the table. 

Just because you can do it faster yourself doesn't make it the right way to do it. Most young kids genuinely want to help and be a part of whatever you're doing. Next time try to let them be involved with something you find mundane. Making dinner, doing a load of laundry, vacuuming can be quite intriguing to little ones. And having them involved will make it more fun for you too. :)

Kadin (over) salting our dinner. ;)

He made us some very yummy smelling chicken and pepper pasta sauce in the crock pot for tonight. I'm sure it will be delicious! :) 

Just a song that has been on my mind and makes me think a bit of my sweet baby. It's amazing! My favorite of theirs I think.