Fingerprint Fun

                                                                                  

 I remember seeing an Ed Emberley Fingerprint Drawing Book a number of years ago and it immediately piqued my interest. I looked high and low for these locally, but couldn't find any in stores or at the library. So I was very excited to find out that Ed has a terrific website and that I could easily order his books (at great prices too) online.

In the spirit of our Doctor Doctor fun and checking out the human skeleton, I was tickled to find a cute fingerprint tutorial of  
Mr. Boney Parts on the website.

Big One's version...

Using the super Melissa and Doug Ink Pad, Big one and I spent some time creating fingerprint art. I won't tell you who made what, but I will say this -  my creations are definitely "cute", whereas Big One's are "cool".

 

Could you tell who made who?..I'm sure you could :)
 

Can Critters

We had some friends over for a morning and we made these cute can critters. I had been collecting the tins for awhile, so there was quite a nice stash. I had planned to give the children some paper and markers to decorate them, but then remembered that I had a whole container of vinyl off-cuts. I'm so glad that I did, because it was so easy and less time consuming to cut and stick the vinyl on to the cans. Even I joined in.

After the creating, we lined them all up along the wall and we had a tossing game - who could knock over the most critters. Another big hit with the kiddos, keeping them busy for quite some time.

I can highly recommend this as an activity - from start to finish they had a blast!

PS. Sharing this at
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Doctor's Kit

When your little one is particularly interested in a certain activity, book or even TV character, it's a great opportunity to extend that interest and add some other fun and learning activities. So while my Little One was focused on playing "Doctor Doctor", I had the chance to squeeze some learning in there too.

Without a doubt, playing this game is a great opportunity to teach and reinforce body parts (remember to include the not so common parts - ankles, soles of feet, wrists, forehead, etc.). It's also a chance to talk about being a Doctor and what they do, as well as different types of medical professionals (Paediatricians, Dentists, Nurses, Veterinarians - it's up to you how far you stretch this and of course how long you can maintain their interest). And, it's a great chance to talk about all those Doctor's tools in their medical kit!

Does your little Doctor own a medical kit? These are readily available in most toy stores, but some real-life additions to their kit is sure to be a big hit...some"ouch" powder, real syringes, a plastic scissors, old x-rays, a Nebulizer mask and tubing, real plasters (band-aids) and bandages, a small notepad and pencil for writing scripts...all add to the fun.

I added a variety of plastic containers to our kit and then filled them with some matching coloured smarties. Little One was motivated to open them all because of the sweeties inside, but opening them required some problem solving. One lid had to be pushed off/popped up, another unscrewed, another flipped open and so on. Of course this all required some good fine motor work, so little fingers get a work-out too. (PS. I have to add this little note...I only played this once with Little One, as I didn't want him to think that real medicine containers contain sweeties. Please always keep medicine containers far-far out of reach from innovative little people, who know how to pull chairs to counters and climb up to reach things!)

A super addition to some "Doctor Doctor" fun is a terrific little book - a golden book called Doctor Dan by Helen Gaspard. This has been one of Little One's favourites for a long time :).

PS. Linking this to:
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

The Play Academy @ NurtureStore
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Make a Colouring Book

Have you ever made your child a colouring book? I recently made one for Little One and he loved it. In fact, when he was done colouring, he said, "That was so much fun." I smiled from ear to ear. For this book, I printed only pictures of
"Things that Go".

I found nice pages at these websites:

DLTK

Printable Colouring Pages

COLORING PAGES FOR KIDS

Kids Color Pages

These very nice chubby triangular crayons were given to me a few years ago by an occupational therapist. I have never seen them to purchase anywhere, but they are wonderful for little hands. It got me thinking about the best first writing tools for toddlers. In my search for more information, I found a wonderful website called The Motor Story. There is a great article on drawing here, where it is recommended that large markers are used as first writing tools. The reason given, is that the markers glide easily over paper and the thumb moves away from the palm of the hand, thereby enhancing the thumb strengthening process. In comparison, crayons write with more resistance. If you do give your toddler crayons though, preferably give them the chunky larger size. I would love to here any comments on this subject.

Till next time...

Let's Build it! {Tool Time Fun}

When I read this post over at TinkerLAB (a blog written by a Momma called Rachelle), I got very excited, because I knew it would be a great hit with Little One. I had some polystyrene saved and went off to purchase golf tees. I then offered it (with the box of play tools) to both boys. They had a ball...for about 45 minutes! Not many new toys get that much attention. 

It was fun to see what they did. My older son hammered just about every golf tee into the polystyrene block, whereas my little one was more interested in pushing the tees in with his fingers and also sawing the polystyrene with his hand saw. 

Little One has enjoyed playing with this a few more times. Once I notice boredom with an activity setting in, I usually pack it away for awhile and then reintroduce again later. If you don't have polystyrene available, you could let the kiddos hammer the tees into firm soil in the garden (like Rachelle did), or the side of a cardboard box would also work nicely.

Be sure to check out TinkerLAB for many more wonderful activities.

Baking School

Who would have thought that baking some biscuits could be so much fun and educational at the same time! It's a super sensory experience, uses fine-motor skills, and we added shape and colour recognition, as well as counting into the mix!

Nope, no cookie dough in my mouth Mommy...

PS. I'm linking this to: 

For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars  

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity 

High Paw @ the best toys for toddlers

Cats {Fun with Shapes}

  To add some more fun to our Cats theme, we invited some special friends over for a play date and we dressed up as cats. With some marshmallow mice and fish in our bellies, we then made some very easy cat faces from pre-cut shapes!

Do you recognize our feline friends? Arrowboy and Sweetpea (on the left) belong to Joyful Mama and Little Mouse (on the right) belongs to Trudie. We are so lucky to have these special ladies and little friends live so close by!

Cats {Nursery Rhyme Fun}

 

I recently shared about a terrific book, Origami for children, by Mari and Roshin Ono, so I was very excited to find Origami Club, a fantastic website, with lots and lots of ideas and great instructions. You can print the instructions, or watch a video if the printed version is to tricky to understand. All ideas are also rated, so you know the difficulty level before you start.

As part of our cat theme, I focused on some popular cat nursery rhymes...

 The Three Little Kittens

For some fun related to this nursery rhyme, we traced around Little One's hand and then created three sets of mittens. He loved sticking on the cotton balls. Little One loves glue, and calls it "gloopy glue", like Mr Maker does.  He gave this bottle of glue a good squeeze (great for those little fingers), but in the end I needed to help squeeze the glue out. We then played a game of hide and seek with the mittens. Just like in the nursery rhyme, we "lost" the mittens and had to find them. He really enjoyed this! (The mittens and the kittens are great for counting practice too.)

For some more fun, I made origami puppets (see above) to act out the nursery rhyme and we once again used our mittens as part of the play. I made a happy and a cross face for the Mommy cat, which I stuck back-to-back to a craft stick, so that the face could easily be flipped over during the story. This was also a great success!

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where have you been?

Acting out this nursery rhyme also turned into a great learning activity, with me focusing on prepositions. In my version, the pussy cat frightened and chased the mouse under, over, and onto the chair.  

PS. I'm linking this to...

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

High Paw @ the best toys for toddlers

For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
We Play @ childhood101 

Speckled Hearts

 

These were our Valentine's gifts for the awesome grandparents we are so blessed to have in our lives.

We took an A4 sheet of red paper and Big One wrote an "I love you because..." note on it. We then wrapped this around a nice slab of chocolate and decorated with speckled hearts (I don't know what else to call these :)). 

I think everyday...any day...is a good day for an "I love you" note...don't you?

To make our speckled paper, I gave Little One a toothbrush and some watercolour paints. He found the toothbrush spraying rather tricky, so this was a good fine motor workout for those little fingers! 

I found the origami heart pattern in an amazing book, Origami for children, by Mari Ono and Roshin Ono. I also found a similar pattern here, if you would like to make some of your own.

PS. I'm linking this to Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity.

Painting fun

When Summer arrives in Cape Town it brings along the wind, which can blow rather ferociously at times. It also brings welcome relief from the heat! We are lucky enough to have a small enclosed back garden, which is mostly sheltered from the wind and this means that we can have some beautiful Summer times in our backyard in the evenings. 

In December we had one of those almost windless evenings and I decided to let Little One paint outside. I gave him acrylic paint and sponges (saved from the inside of tablet containers) and attached them to pegs. This is a great way to let a younger child paint, who doesn't yet have adequate control over a brush. Little One decided to use the paint brush anyway :). He also decided to paint with the sand that I used to hold the plastic container down!

Afterwards, he wanted his nappy off...running around the garden naked is just one of his favourite things to do! What fun! I LOVE these pictures :)

Wherever you are and whatever the weather, I hope you are having some holiday fun.

Pipe Cleaner Teddy Bear

I found this Teddy Bear tutorial a few years ago at my local craft shop Joh Se Winkel. Now having the blog, I just couldn't resist sharing it. So here is the tutorial and pictures:

Take one pipe cleaner (the thicker, fluffier ones work better) and cut off 6cm. These are the ears. Then cut off 10cm (the arms). You will be left with 14cm (the legs).

Bend each end of the 6cm piece to the middle and then do the same for the 10cm piece and the 14cm piece. After bending the 14cm piece, bend it down into the shape of an upside down "V".

Take the second uncut pipe cleaner and make a tiny loop at the top. (It looks like a long walking stick). Put the ears into the loop and fold the pipe cleaner twice over the middle of the ears. Then continue folding the pipe cleaner over, but once to the side (of the middle) and then to the other side. You have now created the face. If you lift the ears, the little face will show.

Put the arms under the chin and put the legs directly under the arms. Bend the remaining pipe cleaner over the legs and over the one shoulder and then repeat over the other shoulder until the pipe cleaner is finished. Tuck the end of the pipe cleaner in somewhere. Lastly add the eyes and nose carefully (otherwise there is glue all over the face) and dress as you please! :)

I made some teddies today with some eight year old friends and they managed to get it right (with just a little help). So this is a nice fine-motor activity for older kiddos.

I hope you found this easy to follow and will be making some of your own.

PS. I'm linking this to: 

Christmas Link-up Week @ Mummy Crafts 

The Christmas Blog Party @ Holiday Haven 

Christmas Sharing Time @ Raising Memories 

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

I dare you!

 Paint with your Tot!

 Garden with your Tot!

 Bake with your Tot! 

And, I dare you, let them do the dishes!

Isn't it awesome to think that you can do all these activities with a one and two year old! It always amazes me to think of how much they grow from one to two.

So I dare you...go on...be brave :)

(PS. Little One's age in these photos...just for my own records really...painting 23 months...baking 25 months...gardening and dishes 24 months)