Painting with Marshmallows

I wanted to give my little one a different painting experience this week. I took a few marshmallows (not mini-size) and plastic straws from our Take and Toss sippy cups. I stuck each marshmallow with a straw. Once the marshmallow stamps were done, I put a dab of glue on a paper plate, and we painted!

I demonstrated for my son, and he picked it up very quickly. This was a great painting experience!

He dotted and brushed and stamped. He tried a few colors and painted for about 20 minutes. When he was done with the marshmallows, he fingerprinted for a couple more minutes before telling me "Ah Done."

I will definitely repeat this craft. My little one enjoyed it, and it wasn't too messy. Preparation was about 5 minutes, and it's an out-of-the-box painting activity. The only drawback is that the marshmallows break down after about 10 minutes, so we had to replace the marshmallows halfway into painting. 

Do you have any painting projects that your little ones love?

Trip to the Zoo

We have a zoo within an hour's drive from us.  A few months ago, we signed up for the annual membership.  We've been a handful of times already, and it's been worth every penny of the investment. 

 

My little guy loves animals.  This started with Go Diego Go!  Now, we play with the dinosaurs at the library every trip, check out animal books, and look for age-appropriate animal toys.  He can say many animal names and duplicate about 20 animal sounds. 

 

The very first time we went to the zoo, he learned the flamingo sound.  They make this honk/grunt sound, which surprised me since they are such graceful-looking animals.  This trip to the zoo, however, we got a little too close to the flamingos.  In this picture, they're all sleeping and looking peaceful.  One minute after the picture was taken, one flamingo decided to get closer to the water and started honking and flapping his way to the water.  This, of course, frightened my little guy, and he started shrieking!  After some comfort from Mama, he was better and we moved to another exhibit!

 

We also really like the giraffes and elephants at the zoo.  We have both of these in toy form, and my little one enjoyed seeing them up close and moving!  We watched the elephants take a walk with the zookeeper, and we saw the giraffes eating leaves way above our heads!

 

Ok, I saved the coolest part ... Our zoo just opened a kangaroo exhibit.  In this exhibit, you can actually walk around IN the exhibit.  You have to stay on the path, but you're within 10 feet of most of the kangaroos.  If they hop onto the path, you can pet them!  So... we got to pet a kangaroo!  Seriously!  How many people get to pet a kangaroo?!  That was our favorite part of the zoo trip! 

 

What's your favorite zoo animal?

 

Playing With Cars ... Painter's Tape Edition

We play with cars every day.  We have a basket full of random kid's meal cars and garage sale finds.  While my little one is content with just cars, I try to introduce some variety into playtime. 

Enter a roll of painter's tape. 

I love this stuff. I taped several boxes and lines on the carpet. 

My son is still very young (19 months), so he is still learning the wide world of imagination. I tried to show him how to drive on the lines, line the cars up in a parade, and create a "garage" for the extra cars. 

My little one?  He was content to "vroom" as usual. :-)

We left the tape on the carpet on the floor for a few days. Each day he interacted more with the taped roadways. This is probably an activity that he will appreciate more when he is a little older, but we had fun with it anyway. 

I think the best part for him was pulling up all the tape at the end. He twirled and threw tape pieces around the room for about 20 minutes before we cleaned it all up. 

One roll of painter's tape stretches a long way to create hours and hours of toddler playtime. 

What's your favorite playtime creation?

Story Hour: Things That Grow

Our library has story hour four days a week. Me and the little mister have been twice in the last month. Each week is a different theme, and the same stories are repeated each day that week. 

The first time we attended story hour, there were so many kiddos that we didn't stay for craft time.  

This time, however, we stayed for the whole thing. They started with stories and songs about "Things That Grow."  Trees, fruit, animals, and people were the themes of the books we read and songs we sang. My little one enjoyed shouting out animal sounds as familiar animals appeared on pages. He even braved the circle mat for a few minutes with the other toddlers and preschoolers. 

For craft time, he got to make a fall tree. 

Step One: With a brown or black crayon, he drew a tree and branches. (Mama helped a little).

Step Two: Paint clear glue all over tree branches. He loves to paint, so this was easy-peasy for him!

Step Three: Stick pre-cut tissue paper squares on the glue. 

As you can see, some squares are neat, and some squares are squished. This was due to the creative freedom of the 19-month-old artist. :)  The fine motor requirements of this craft are a little advanced for a young toddler because the tissue pieces were clumped together.  I separated the pieces for him once I saw this problem.  Older toddlers repeating this craft would find this step a little easier than a 1-year-old.

 

Here is the finished product. 

 

Great outing for mama and son - can't wait til next week!

Busy Boy!

We've already had a busy morning. My sweet boy has played with Legos, cars, animals, and puzzles. 

He's settled in for a few minutes with his books. He really enjoys looking at books. Winnie the Pooh books are among his favorites right now. I love being near him when he's having fun, and we've had a lot of fun in the three hours he has been up!

Cherishing these moments because I know they pass too quickly!!

Toddler Painting

We've done pudding paint for several months.  I love that it's edible!  My son really enjoys eating the pudding and painting with it.  I've been holding out on watercolor but finally decided to try it today. 

Why did I wait so long?  I was a little concerned that he would try to eat the paint.  I also anticipated paint in his hair, on his face, and all over the floor.  I need to give my son more credit.

After I showed him how it worked, I let him loose.  He did fairly well for his first watercolor painting.  It was pretty comical, even.

Here's the play-by-play:

Paintbrush to water
Paintbrush to paint... several colors at once
Paintbrush to water
*Mama - Paint on your paper, honey*
Paintbrush to paint... again, multiple colors
Paintbrush to water
*Mama - Hey baby, paint Dora*
Paintbrush to paint
Paintbrush to paper
*Mama - YAAAAAAAY  Good job!
Paintbrush to water
Paintbrush to paint
Paintbrush to water
*Mama decides to give it a rest and let him have fun!*

He had a blast!  Dora eventually got a sufficient amount of paint, as did two additional coloring pages. 

Being that this was his first time painting with watercolors, there is a certain amount of teaching and guiding that I needed to provide.  While I didn't expect him to color in the lines and have a perfect paper, I did find myself intervening too much.  He can't learn this for himself if I'm hovering!

Once I remembered that his toddler painting is about discovery and learning, I was able to relax and watch him have a great time.  He knew I was there to support him and help when he needed it, but he also had fun trying his own ideas. 

Pudding Paint

We have been up since 5am!

Usually I'm the only one up that early, and I love my quiet moments before the house wakes up. Lately, my little guy has been getting up around 5:30.  Today he woke up at 5:00 and would not go back to sleep. 

So we have played with his zoo play set, eaten breakfast, climbed up and down the stairs, and had three diaper changes... Now we are painting with pudding. 

He loves this activity. We don't do this often (sugar overload!), but it keeps his attention for quite a while when we paint. Imagine how long it would take you to eat an entire pack of pudding with your index finger!

Currently, he has turned the pudding upside down, and he is drumming to the beat in his head. I love watching him in these moments of exploration and creativity.  Many times, these creative moments are accompanied by a little song or new "words."  His sweet, little voice always makes me smile. 

While I may wish that he would sleep longer in the morning, I am blessed to be part of these fun moments. I know they will end way too soon. 

Ok... The pudding container just became a snowman's carrot... Time to clean up!