Tot Trays

It seems like summer is just flying by, doesn't it??  We've had lots of fun hanging out at the pool, visiting with family and checking off things from our Summer Fun List!! 

I've been a little lax when it comes to setting out tot trays....mainly because we always seem to be on the go and also because Little Man is crawling alllllllllllllllllllllllllll over the place!!  And he gets into everything!!  I definitely don't remember Sweet Girl being like that, but it's likely because I was able to stay on top of what was on the floor. 

Anyhoo.....I decided to finally throw together some trays (or "plates" as they are called in our house!!).  Sweet Girl has been asking for some for a while and I think she missed having little activities to do!!  My plan is to try to re-incorporate trays into our weekly routine (as long as I can find a safe place to keep them away from Little Man!!). All of these trays she can do on her own, so that makes for some nice independent play time!!

Here are our trays for this week!!

Pouring marbles

Sorting animals by color

Matching transportation counters

Open and close activity

(This is from a great Time for Tots set I got months ago!!)

Tonging pom poms

For those of you have little crawlers/walkers, how do you keep your tot trays out of reach???

 

Toddler Approved Art Supplies

We love doing everything "artsy-craftsy" at our house!  We typically do some sort of art or craft almost everyday!  I love how art allows Sweet Girl the opportunity just to explore the different materials and to "make" whatever she wants!!  One of my all time favorite toddler art books is Mary Ann Kohl's First Art.  I try to incorporate her quote "It's the Process, Not the Product" into our art experiences.

Here are our ten favorite art supplies!!  All toddler approved!!

1. Crayola Twistables Slick Sticks 

These fun little crayons are probably our favorite art supply at the moment!!  They are thick enough for little fingers to hold.  They don't break.  And they mark soooo smoothly!!  The only downside is that they are a little on the pricey side for toddlers (but I still think they are worth the money!!).

2. Tempura paint 

You just have to have tempura paint if you have a toddler!  We use the Colorations washable tempuras from Discount School Supply.  For finger painting, I add liquid soap to our tempura paint for easier cleanup!!

3. Crayola Pip-Squeak Markers 

Like the Crayola Slick Sticks, these are also chunky and allow little fingers to hold them with ease. 

4. Sidewalk chalk 

We have a large bucket of chalk in our garage that gets pulled out almost every time we play outside. 

5. Liquid Watercolors 

Our watercolor paints are from Discount School Supply.  I usually diluate the watercolor paints so the bottles last quite a while!!

6. Do-A-Dot Markers
We use these when Sweet Girl wants to paint, but I don't want to clean up a big mess.  They are perfect for little hands.

7. Sticky tape and white glue

Sweet Girl loves this little dispenser of tape because she can do it all by herself!  And what toddler doesn't love glue?

8. Stickers 

We use all kinds of stickers for simple collages.  I pick up most of my stickers at the dollar store, dollar section at Target or the craft store. 

9. Art Easel 

Sweet Girl uses our art easel almost every day!!  I love how it has a dry erase board, chalk board and a roll of paper.  I frequently move our art easel throughout the house to keep it "new" to Sweet Girl.  Jean from The Artful Parent wrote a great entry about encouraging continued interest in your child's art easel.

10. Household odds and ends

You know...toliet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, bubble wrap, styrofoam, cardboard.

DIY Recycled Crayons

One of the activities on our Summer Fun List is to make homemade crayons.  Sweet Girl and I tackled this project over the past week and had a lot of fun!  There are tons of tutorials out there in blog-land so I read a few and followed the basic directions.

First, you peel off all those little pesky wrappers.  This took quite a few days.  It was actually quite relaxing.  Sweet Girl helped a little, but I did most of the work since it was a little tedious.

Then, we broke up all the crayons and separated them by color.  

We baked them in the oven at 225 degrees for about 15 minutes until they were melted.  Once the pans cooled, I popped them in the freezer for about an hour.  The crayon blocks came out very easily once they were completely cooled. 

We made both small and large crayon blocks (using a regular muffin tin and a mini muffin tin).  They have been great for crayon rubbings and just drawing in general.  They are very easy for little hands to hold!!

Homemade Beads

Sweet Girl and I made homemade beads following the recipe from MaryAnn Kohl's book First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos.  We had a lot of fun making them and then painting them.  The recipe is pretty simple and I had everything we needed in our pantry.  Basically you make a playclay using flour, salt, cornstarch and water.  Sweet Girl helped me mix up all the ingredients (she LOVES helping in the kitchen).  And then once they were dry (which took several days)....she painted them and decorated them with glitter. 

We ended up making our beads a little on the large side so they would be easy for little hands to handle.  And they did start out round, but Sweet Girl enjoyed "squishing" them all to make them flat.

After they dried, Sweet Girl made a pretty (and very heavy) necklace!

Toddler Art: Painting on Canvas

Michael's had some large canvases on sale (2 for $5) a few weeks ago so I picked up some to use for some simple art activities.  Sweet Girl loves to paint, but has never painted on canvas before! 

She had such a fun time painting and made a couple of beautiful masterpieces. 

We did the majority of the painting outside since I knew it would end up pretty messy.  I loved to watch her explore with the paint.  First she began the typical way of painting, then moved into splattering the paint around on the canvases, followed by finger painting and then eventually body painting.

Luckily, she also enjoyed cleaning up herself and our deck!  It turned out to be quiet a fun little afternoon and kept her occupied for over an hour (which I think is a world-record for toddlers!!).

And now we have some super colorful art in our kitchen!!  Don't you just love toddler art???

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful fathers out there!!  We have an amazing dada and had so much making all his father's day gifts!!  He loved them all and even got a little teary-eyed!!  (You'll see why when you scroll down!!)

Here's a quick look at our homemade gifts/cards for our dada!!

We also went to our pottery place and painted a coffee mug and duck (Sweet Girl insisted dada needed a duckie!!)

Happy Father's Day Dada!!

We love you so much and are so thankful for all you do for us!!

xoxo

Toddler Art: Marble Painting with Shaving Cream

Sweet Girl and I have discovered the neatest way to make marbled paintings!  Shaving cream art!!  That's right....using shaving cream to make fun swirl-y pictures!  It's really so simple and fun to do and the end result is beyond amazing (in my and Sweet Girl's opinions!!)

All you need is a shallow dish large enough to fit your paper, shaving cream and food coloring.

First, you want to cover the bottom of your dish or pan with shaving cream (fyi...I get my shaving cream at the dollar store).  You really don't need too much, but just make sure the bottom is covered.  Then add a few drops of food coloring and let your tot swirl it all around.  Sweet Girl is using a popsicle stick in the picture above, but in other times we've done this activity, she used both chopsticks and her fingers (note...the food coloring does discolor fingers and takes a few washes before it is completely gone).

Next, lay your piece of paper on top of the shaving cream and push down gently to make sure the shaving cream is covering all areas of the paper. 

Then lift out your paper and let it dry for about 10 minutes.  After about 10 minutes...scrap off the shaving cream and marvel at your amazing picture!!  (I recommend using a popsicle stick or something of that nature to scrap off the shaving cream.)

Here's a couple close ups of the incredible marbling! 

I loved them so much I framed two of the marbled prints and hung them in our guest bathroom!

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