Sand Paint

Happy Monday!

Sorry for the lack of post on Friday, but I was glued to CNN and terrified and anxious about the big man-hunt.

Anyway, here is a little activity that Liza and my 10 year old niece tried out last week. I saw a pin somewhere on Pinterest about this, but I can't find it to share with you now. If I find it, I will update this post with the link.

Sand Paint:

Materials:

• Elmer's Glue
• Paint (we used finger paint)
• Play sand
• Container
• paper, paint brushes

Procedure:

• Squirt some paint, glue, and sand into a container and mix up. I just eyeballed it, but probably should have added more paint.
• Paint away!

We used a fork to mix everything up.

And we used them to paint with because I could not find two paintbrushes :) I think using fingers and hands would add a whole new level to this sensory experience.

It's such a neat, gritty texture. The kids both enjoyed it.

And it is pretty neat when all dried too.

Just take my word for it and don't turn away from your almost three year old because she might add WAY too much sand to the paint. Sigh.

Have fun!

XOXO Sarah

Simple Name Puzzle

Liza has known how to identify her name for quite a while, but she is recently into spelling it.

Her big cousin made up a little chant and now Liza loves to sing it, "L-I-Z-A!"

I figured that now is the perfect time to make some little name games for her. Don't get excited, this is nothing fancy. I literally did this is 5 seconds, and you will totally be able to tell!

Doesn't matter, she loves it. It does the trick for now.

Materials:

• Paper
• Crayons

Procedure:

• I folded and cut a piece of large construction paper in half.
• Next, I divided each half into fours (to match the amount of letters in her name).
• I cut up one half into four squares.
• I wrote her name on all pieces in each space.
• I demonstrated how she would match the letters up and/or put them in order to correctly spell her name.

See, I told you this was nothing fancy.

One more thing, I truly believe that you should teach your children how to identify and/or write thier name properly. This means that they have one uppercase letter and the rest are lowercase (in most cases)! Please, please don't teach your kiddos only uppercase letters :)

XOXO Sarah

Salt Writing

Materials:

• Cookie Sheet
• Salt

Procedure:

• Spread a thin layer of salt on the cookie sheet.
• Show your kiddo how to use his/her pointer finger to draw and write in the salt.

Since this was Liza's first time doing this activity, I kept it simple. 

I demonstrated how to make an uppercase L and asked her to try. 

She did it!

She practiced making squiggles,  smiley faces, and hand prints.

There are so many ways you can extend and adapt this simple activity! Right now, Liza is using cookie cutters to "stamp" a shape in the salt.

Sorry for another short post!

Enjoy your weekend.

XOXO Sarah

Egg shakers

Hi there! Hope your Monday is going well. This morning I did a quick Easter egg activity with my littles.

What you need:
Plastic Easter eggs
Rice or anything similar that will make a shaking noise
Tape



We filled the eggs halfway with Orzo then closed them and put tape around the opening. The kids love the noise they make, shaking them around using them as instruments around the house.

What activities are you doing with your kids? Please share below! 

Hugs,

Katey 

Shamrock Sort

Hello!

Still blogging off my phone so I apologize for the quick, ill formatted post in advance :)
Another cheap & easy sorting activity today!

I hit up the Dollar Tree today and found some inspiration that should hopefully get me doing more learning games with Liza.

Materials:
-Foam shamrocks (you could cut them out of paper too)
-contact paper (you could use glue or just sort into bowls, etc.)

Procedure:
-Make two different sections. I drew a line line down the center of the contact paper.
-demonstrate how to sort ("This shamrock is sparkly. Should I put it under the plain shamrock or the sparkly one?").
-Let your kiddo get to work!

I started with a super simple sort. You can challenge your kiddo by adding another object (or a few more objects).

Here are some pictures.

XO Sarah

DIY Matching Game

Hello friends!!

I am back to blogging regularly! Woohoo!

I plan to write up a pretty post introducing my new baby boy, but it is a post that I want to have the time to sit and take my time writing. It will come soon :)

I thought I would share with you a project that I made months ago for Liza. I originally came across the idea on my old friend Pinterest. You can find the original source here.

This project was right up my alley: simple and cheap. Perfect for me!

Shape & Color Matching

Materials:

• 12 Wood disks from craft store (I paid about .30 for each circle, I think)
• 6 Different colors of felt cut into 6 shapes (you could use any material)
• Scissors
• Hot Glue
• Sandpaper (optional)
• Craft paint (optional)

Wooden Disks

Procedure:

• Gently sand the edges of the wooden disks (if edges feel rough)
• Paint disks the color of your choice. If you feel like it ;)
• Cut 6 pairs of matching shapes (2 pink hearts, etc.) from felt
• Hot glue felt to the center of each disk
• Play with a cute kiddo!

My finished product.

I didn't try to be perfect. I would have tried a little harder I was making this as a gift. I'm not lazy...just always in a rush!


Imperfection just adds character! Hehe :)

Here we are playing! 

Apparently, it's not a good idea to take a picture while nursing!

I plan to paint the other side one of  these days!

XOXO Sarah

Stickers!

Hi friends!

I thought I would share another super easy, cheap, not too messy activity with you!

You all know how much I love Target, right? Well, in addition to all the bathing suites that are out right now (why must they put them out in January?!) their Dollar Spot aisles are full of new and fun things. It makes me happy.

Anyway, I grabbed a few things for Liza to do for Valentine's Day. One of them was a pack of $1 foam heart stickers.

Dear foam heart stickers, I love love love you for providing my toddler so many hours of entertainment! xoxo

Materials:

• Stickers
• Paper
• Crayon

Procedure:

• Make a bunch of x's (or any mark) all over a piece of paper.
• Let your toddler place the stickers over the marks.



This such a simple activity, but it does have benefits! Your kiddo is using his/her fine motor skills with each step in the process. Peeling the backers from the stickers and placing them on a specific marks supports fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.



Look at that concentration!

You could also take this activity a step further and have create a color matching game. Simply draw your x's in the different colors of the stickers and have your kiddo match the sticker to the correct color x.

Have fun! And remember, you don't have to shell out a lot of money to create simple learning experiences for your kids!

XOXO Sarah

It's Fall

I must have written this post about four times. No lie. This is from weeks ago, but with all my computer drama, it could never get posted (Dear iPhone Blogger app: You suck! xo Sarah).

 

First up is this beautiful apple tree that I drew with my girl. I love it. Aren't her apples the best you've ever seen?

 

 

A few weeks ago Liza had some fun collecting acorns in our yard. We put her collection in a little basket that I inherited from my grandmother.

 

 

Then I put together a little Activity Tray for her to experience.

 

She enjoyed it for almost two weeks before we cleaned it up.

This is not an actvity that holds her attention for long periods of time, but she explored it a little bit every day. It was neat to see her try different things with the tools that I set out.

Hope you are having a fabulous day!

XOXO Sarah