Activities

Activities, Art, Parenting

To Bead or Not To Bead

It's a rainy day here, so we are stuck inside. I've been trying to find things to do to keep Rosebud occupied. First, Rosebud helped me make breakfast. She loves to mix badder whenever I bake, but today I made French toast. She loves to beat the eggs and then mix it with the milk and sugar. I always have to tare her away from this and I have to explain that it's time to cook and cooking on the stove is hot.

Sticker collage.After breakfast, we decided to make another sticker collage. This time with fish and flowers. Less than ten minutes later, I was scrambling again to find something to do.

Beads and shells.Rosebud loves to go through my drawer of craft supplies which mostly consists of beads, shells and other jewelry making items. I had some string and larger beads so I thought, why not try some beading. It's a great fine motor activity and Rosebud loves to wear necklaces. I cut the string and put a little piece of tape on the end. We often do that for the kids at work to make it easier to pull the string through the beads. However, when we started beading, the tape was making the string too big to pull through the beads.

The few beads we put on the wire.I had to go to plan B. I was hesitant to use the wire, but I was supervising her and knew it would be easier to get the beads on. I showed her how to string the beads which she was having trouble with. I expected this, as it was her first time. I decided that I'd put the beads on for her, but she had to pick out her beads and hand them to me. She picked out a couple of beads and then lost her train of thought. When I'd ask her which bead she wanted next, she'd say, "making a necklace." Then just scattered the beads around.

Small cup of macaroni with the string above it.

This was turning out to be a failure so it was time for a plan C. After a couple of good loud screams and plenty of tears, I packed up the beads and returned to the kitchen with the original piece of string. I thought we could try macaroni. Rosebud was excited about this, but the first thing she did was put a piece of raw macaroni in her mouth. I immediately picked everything up and tried to explain why we don't eat uncooked macaroni. We tried again and of course, the macaroni I have is too small to get the string through. There were more tears until she realized that she wanted to eat lunch.

A toddler wearing beads and putting a necklace on her bear.What did I learn?

1. Have the appropriate materials on hand.

2. Remember how young she actually is.

3. Plan better for rainy days.

4. It's not a failure, it's practice. She was introduced to a new activity and we'll both do better next time.

5. The answer to today's question, is not to bead.
For Practice:

For jewelry making:



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Activities, Art

It’s About the Process, Not the Product

Here is another simple painting activity. All you need are some paints, paper and pinecones. Rosebud and I went over to the playground yesterday where she found a pinecone. I immediately thought we could use it for a painting activity.

We were trying to stamp with the pinecone because using it like a brush was too hard on the paper. As the title says, the process is more important than the product with this activity. My only suggestion would be to have more paints and more pinecones. I would put each color of paint in a container large enough to dip the entire pinecone so it could be stamped or rolled across the paper. I’d also suggest having one pinecone for each color of paint. I didn’t think of this until we had already gotten started.

Different colored paints with a pinecone

Eventually I had to just dump the paints on the paper because trying to dip the pinecone wasn’t working. I had little containers of paint from the dollar store. Although this didn’t work as expected, I’m interested in trying to paint with other natural items to see what we come up with.

Pinecone painting creation

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Activities, Art, Parenting

Flower Painting

Yesterday Rosebud and I did another simple painting activity. I set out several colors of paint in a bowl. A flower fell off one of my plants and recently we painted with flowers in my preschool class so I wanted to do the same with Rosebud.

I grabbed the paint, paper and the flower and headed outside. We sat at Rosebud’s picnic table and painted. That was after Rosebud smelled the flower and decided it smelled good. After a few minutes, the flower started to fall apart so we stamped with the petals instead of using the flower like a paintbrush.

I want to try this with different flowers and other natural items throughout the summer. This is how her picture came out. We are waiting for the next flower to fall so we can work on the next master piece.

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Activities, Memories, Motherhood, Parenting

5 Reasons To Cook With Kids

5 Reasons to Cook With Kids pancakes pin.
I’ve been cooking with Rosebud since she could sit in her high chair. Back then she wasn’t directly involved with the cooking, but she sat in the kitchen observing everything I was doing. I put spoons, measuring cups, a mixing bowl and pretend food on her tray which kept her occupied as I chopped vegetables, mixed cake badder or mashed potatoes. I’d show her the foods and let her sample them as she got older. I remember times when I’d read a recipe, tell her the ingredients we needed to add and she’d repeat after me. Now that she’s a toddler, she’s an active participant. She counts and takes out the eggs, mixes cookie dough or fills the measuring cups and spoons to scoop and pour the ingredients. Her favorite saying these days is, “I try it.” She wants to do and try everything!

1. Cooking builds vocabulary

Kids can learn names of foods, spices and and the equipment and utensils we use to cook with. They can learn opposites. Hot and cold, wet and dry etc. You can talk about foods being sour, sweet, salty or bitter. You can talk about colors, shapes and textures of the food. If your child is older, reading the recipe can help build vocabulary as well. Yesterday as we were mixing together some sugar, butter and eggs for cookie dough, Rosebud told me, we need to hatch these eggs. At first I didn’t know what she was talking about, but then it hit me that to her cracking the eggs is hatching them.

2. Cooking teaches math and science

Kids can learn about temperature. Hot vs. cold. What happens when ingredients warm up, boil or are frozen? They can learn about measurement by using measuring cups and spoons. They can learn about consistency. What happens if we add water or flour? They can learn about plants and where food comes from. What is inside an apple or a pepper? The possibilities for teaching concepts and experiments in the kitchen are endless.


3. Trying new things

When kids help make choices about their food, they are more likely to try new things. In the preschool class where I work, we participate in this program where a nutritionist comes in to teach the children about healthy eating and where food comes from. There is a garden where she takes them to get vegetables and it is surprising how many new vegetables they have tried because they have picked the vegetables themselves. We’ve also done a bit of baking in preschool. The kids help add ingredients, mix badder and once we even allowed them to help us with cutting up fruits for fruit salad. This makes them so excited about afternoon snack. They can’t wait to try what they’ve made and share it with their families. Rosebud loves to try bites of vegetables or fruits when I chop them up for salads. I also ask her which fruits and vegetables she wants when we are grocery shopping. She loves seeing the food and pointing out what she wants. I’ve never seen another kid get so excited about broccoli.

Food collage

4. It’s healthier

When you are making a home cooked meal, you know every ingredient that is in your food. This is obviously healthier than a frozen or fast food meal. Even if you are baking treats, that is healthier than the prepackaged snacks. Not to mention trying to decode the nutrition labels. For many families there is little time to prepare a meal so frozen may be the way to go on nights when you have to be in several places at once or do a million things. Nothing beats the convenience of prepared meals. However, I try to avoid those meals when I can especially for Rosebud because I like knowing what is in her food. I also want her to like the taste of foods that don’t come in a can or box. She enjoys fresh fruits, veggies and home cooked food.


5. Cooking can be together time

I like when Rosebud stays in the kitchen with me while I cook. If she’s helping me, she’s learning about food and having fun. We can spend the time talking or sometimes she will pretend to cook with her play foods or sit in her chair with crayons and a notepad. I don’t get to spend much time with Rosebud on week nights so I try to find ways to include her in what I’m doing. On other nights, she prefers to have screen time while I make dinner and wash dishes. It’s not the greatest option, but sometimes it’s the only way to get things done. I try to maintain a balance and create ways to spend time together even when I have endless chores to do. I find that cooking usually interests kids and great memories can be made from it. I have happy memories of baking with my grandmother when I was little and hopefully one day Rosebud will remember cooking with me.

5 Reasons to Cook With Kids Chef baby pin.

Do you like cooking with your kids? What are your favorite kid friendly recipes? Tell me in the comments.

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Activities, Art

Rolling Pin Painting

Here is another simple painting activity you can do with toddlers.

All you do is put a couple globs of paint on a piece of paper and fold it in half. You can use two or more colors and see how they mix or you can stick with one. Then have your child role the rolling pin back and forth over the paper. Open the paper and see the surprise painting. It’s that simple. Rosebud could’ve done more, but we only did two and each of them came out totally different.

The butterflyJust a design

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Activities, Education, Parenting

Five Benefits of Playing in the Sand

I think I can officially say spring has finally come here in the northeast and I’m so excited that we’ve been able to spend plenty of time outside. Just last week, I bought some new sand for Rosebud and refilled the sand box. I threw in some buckets, shovels and molds. It keeps her busy for a while. When I was a kid, I spent hours in the sand box so it’s no surprise that she likes it as well. There are so many reasons to encourage kids to play with sand. Here are five of them.

5 Benefits of playing in the sand pin

1. It helps with fine motor skills.

Scooping, pouring, sifting and sculpting the sand helps build strength and is practice for skills they will need later. Not to mention scooping, pouring and measuring can be connected with math concepts.

2. They can be creative.


Sand can go with almost any theme. You can use it for a beach theme with shells, toy fish and rocks. You can use it for an animal theme with logs, toy animals and other natural items. Sand goes with cars and trucks, in an outside kitchen and even in art. Yesterday, Rosebud was pretending to serve ice cream one minute, building a sand castle the next and then decided to look for rocks and other treasures.

3. It’s a sensory experience.

One of the things I hear a lot when people talk about going to the beach is their feet on the sand. It’s part of being connected with nature. I think that urge for kids is even stronger. I work with a lot of kids with special needs. I’m not a big fan of that term, but I’ll use it here to keep things simple. Many of these children find playing in the sand calming. Some children that cannot stay put for even two minutes will stay at the sand tray or sit in the sand box for 20 minutes plus. They are able to immerse themselves into the activity because it is open ended. There are no expectations for what is right or wrong. They can experiment as they wish.

4. It’s scientific.

Sand can be experimented with. It doesn’t always remain in the same state. Rosebud discovered that her sand in the sand box is dry because we keep it covered at night. The sand is fine. It slips through your hands and you can’t sculpt with it. However, we also have this wagon that is full of last years sand that was very wet. It has dried out quite a bit, but it is still wet enough to sculpt with. Rosebud and I were having fun seeing what we could make. We filled buckets and discovered that the sand could be dumped out and keep it’s shape. We could build sand castles that would stay together. We didn’t need a mold. This sand was heavier and stickier. Experimenting and investigating the results is what our little scientists do every day.

5 Benefits of Playing in the Sand pin

5. It’s fun.

Playing in the dirt is fun. Being in nature is fun. Making a huge mess is fun and the best part is most of it stays outside so I don’t have to clean it up. Watching Rosebud enjoy herself was the most fun for me. I think making a mess and seeing what she can do with the sand is the most fun for her. Why not see what happens when we fling sand outside of the sand box? Why not fill the wheelbarrow and dump it in other parts of the yard? Never mind that I just refilled it. Why not try dumping the water bottle in the sand box and see what happens? I drew the line at flinging the sand and dumping the water, but the important thing is spending quality time together. That’s the best thing about our outside time. We are not distracted by the normal things that distract us inside. Do your kids like playing in the sand? Let me know in the comments.

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Activities, Art, Education, Parenting

Bubblewrap Painting

Here’s another simple painting activity. I had Rosebud paint the bubblewrap.

Then we put the paper over it to get the prints. Rosebud didn’t understand and just wanted to paint on the paper, but here’s what we ended up with.

This bubblewrap has different shaped bubbles than what you usually see which is why I wanted to use it. I’ll be ordering some new finger paints in different colors so we will probably try this activity again later.

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Education, Parenting

Rosebud’s Top 5 Books

I've been reading to Rosebud since she was born and it has paid off. She now loves books and will often sit either with me or off by herself looking at them and pretending to read. She loves looking at the pictures and pointing out the objects she knows. It has become a game to her. I'll ask her what each picture is and she excitedly says the words. Sometimes, she'll purposely tell me the wrong word and bursts into giggles because she knows she's messing with me. I buy a lot of books with interactive features like touch and feel, scratch and sniff and lift the flap to make things more interesting.

Mother and daughter reading a book.When I was a kid, I hated reading. Since I couldn’t read many of the books other kids were reading, I wasn’t interested. Reading back then was a slow process for me and I hated every minute of it. To this day, I can’t remember most of the books I read throughout my childhood because I’d forget much of the story. I didn’t like reading until a few years ago when I started listening to Audible books and discovered the Kindle app for the iPhone. Now almost any book I want is at my fingertips. It was like a whole new world opened up for me and it was exciting. I want Rosebud to be excited about reading from the beginning and for now I have achieved that. She looks forward to our, “book time” every night before she goes to bed. She tells me, “book time before bed” and run to her bookshelf. Here are some of her favorite books right now.

Bathtime Peekaboo
This is one of her all time favorites. She loves lifting the flaps in the peekaboo books and the bath time version has been her favorite forever. She hasn’t been looking at it as much lately because she’s getting into stories more, but this was one of the first books she was really interested in. In this book, you lift the flaps to find the bathtime toys. Her favorite page is the one with the penguin because he has a squishy belly.

Bunny and Bee
She loves this simple story and has started to memorize the words. Bunny and Bee live in the forest and come across many animal friends.

C is For Coco
She has been asking me to read this one to her since before she turned a year old and it is still one of her favorites. It’s a cute book that features Coco the chick who does something for each letter of the alphabet. She has memorized the words to this and reads aloud with me.

First 100 Words
Rosebud is obsessed with this series of books. She looks at this book every night. On each page, she points out all the pictures she knows the words for. If it’s animals she’s looking at, she’ll say the name of the animal and then make the sound. If she’s looking at bedtime related objects, she’ll point out objects in the room that match the objects in the book. We use these books to talk about shapes, colors, counting etc.

Quiet Loud
Rosebud has recently become interested in this book and learning about opposites. She has been doing a lot of screaming and banging on things to test how loud it will be so it is fitting that we’ve been reading this book. Just last week, she picked it up and started reciting the words. She has memorized what is on each page since the text is so short and repetitive. Yummy Yucky is another book by this author written in the same style.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This classic book by Eric Carle is a must have. Rosebud loves looking at all the food the caterpillar eats and of course the end when he emerges as a butterfly. there is a Very Hungry Caterpillar video on Netflicks that she likes watching too. It’s a reenactment of the story, but Rosebud loves seeing stories from the books she loves on tv.

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Activities, Parenting

Ducks in a Row Sensory Tub

Ducks in a Row Sensory Tub pin

I put this one together several weeks ago. It's very simple, but it was a big hit because of the water. You can put anything in water and kids will enjoy it.

What’s in the tub?

Small rubber duckies,

Mini rubber duckies,

Small cups and scoops,

Water and that’s it.

We scooped, poured, compared the sizes and colors of the ducks, squeezed them to get all the water out and of course there was some splashing to. I put towels down on either the kitchen or bathroom floor so I don’t have a huge mess to clean up.

There are many more sensory bin ideas I’ll be posting in the upcoming months. Happy playing.

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Parenting

Learning to Slow Down

This past weekend, the weather was nice for a change so Rosebud and I spent lots of time outside. When we go for walks, Rosebud usually likes to go in the stroller, but I asked if she wanted to walk without it and she did. We walked down our street and found a side path that takes us to our mailboxes. that path is sort of in the woods, but it connects our street with another street in the neighborhood. It is also connected to a small playground nearby. There is only a large climber with a slide there, but if you get bored in your own backyard, there is another option. Anyway, it can be slow walking with a toddler. She likes to stop at each yard and point something out or pick up random stuff on the side of the road.

Mother and daughter walking outside.This started to get old and I found myself getting frustrated at stopping every two seconds, but then I thought this is her walk and normally I’d encourage exploring and looking at the details so I started asking her about everything we were seeing and hearing. She saw leaves blowing in the wind, different decorations in people’s yards, big trees, dogs, cars driving by and kids playing. We heard wind chimes, airplanes, dogs barking, a baby crying, animals moving around in the trees and birds singing. She stopped to pick up rocks, acorns, pinecones, leaves and sticks. She wanted to put everything in her pockets. A couple of times, she even stopped to pick up trash. I’m all for picking up the trash and can’t stand it when people litter, I don’t want her doing it because of her tendency to put everything in her mouth. You never know where that comes from and what kind of germs it could be carrying. I’m always worrying about what she’s putting in her mouth and that’s one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of outdoor time.

Little girl picking up flower.I love being outdoors. I love nature and getting fresh air. It’s good for both of us. Outdoor time is great for burning off energy and doing activities that Rosebud can’t do indoors. I know how important outside play is, but I get anxious about her possibly swallowing a rock, eating mouth fulls of dirt which she did today or if she tries to run off. My yard is fenced in, but there are lots of places to escape to if we go walking or if we go to the playground that is not fenced in. I know some of this will get better as she gets older and maybe I’ll enjoy outside play more. For now, I will do my best to enjoy these moments outside even if we’ve stopped for the fiftieth time while walking down our short path to the mailboxes because Rosebud is learning and appreciating the world around her.

Our next adventure is filling the sand box. Rosebud loves to dig in the dirt so I know she’ll love it.

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