14 of the best Shaving Cream activities ever!

I cream, You cream, We all love Shaving cream! 

(sorry, couldn't help myself) :)

What can you get up to with Shaving cream? Well, it's definitely more than just for shaving. Before writing this post,  I had not let my kids play enough with this stuff , so after finding two big cans for under R35 at Discem Pharmacy, I grabbed them (with a smile) and came home ready for some shaving cream fun. And you get the benefit of me having scoured the web for the best ideas and sharing some of them here.

But first off, here's a couple of quick and easy activities we got up to.

1. Shaving cream and paint play. I gave Little One a brush and water and told him to wet the water colours and to mix it into the shaving cream. He loved it! You could use tempera or acrylic paints too.

2. Shaving cream, toy cars and a spray bottle of water to wash them off. The full post is here. We did this back in 2012. (If I had a little girl, I'd still do this, but substitute the cars for small plastic bath toys or dolls perhaps?)

3. Earlier this year we made shaving cream puffy paint to create a lunar landscape. The full post is here.

4. Ocean in a bag. I saw this neat idea over at Pink and Green Mama and adapted it a bit. Take a big zip lock bag, fill it with shaving cream, some blue food colouring and add some sea-themed stickers. Seal the bag and let your kiddo explore. I loved how the shaving cream in the bag felt... I couldn't help but play with it too. I think this is a great activity for a younger child and if you added different colours, you would get a lovely rainbow effect. We'll try that next time.

5. Shaving cream in the bath is a blast. I purchased a nice old-fashioned razor (no blade) from Checkers and Little One shaved just like Dad - I loved his expressions.

We are lucky enough to have a mirror running the length of the bath, so Little One can smear shaving cream all over and use it as a canvas to draw and do letter practice. If you don't have a mirror, smearing it onto the bath sides can work just as well.

6. Shaving Cream Desert. Another great bath activity, although no bath required. Provide silicone cup cake holders, shaving cream and sparkly beads and some spoons. Let the fun begin. (Honestly, not a hit with my Little One, but I think that little girls would love this.)

Here are some other wonderful ideas I haven't tried - yet!

Shaving Cream Painting (Mom it Forward)

Shaving Cream Balloons - you read right! (Aluminum Foiled)

Erupting Sensory Shaving Cream Snow (Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Shimmery Shaving Cream Paint Recipe (Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Shaving Cream Dough (Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Make Indoor Snowmen (Modern Parents Messy Kids)
Teaching spreading skills with shaving-cream and foam blocks (Happy Hooligans)

And last, but not least, Shaving Cream Bath Paint (Meet the Dubiens). This last idea looks fantastic and I'm dying to try it, BUT I'm not brave enough to use food colours in the bath. What if it stains? Those who've tried it, claim it doesn't and perhaps it depends on what type of food colouring you use. Of course you can purchase coloured shaving foam, so that's perhaps the "safer" alternative.

And if after all this, you are actually really worried about letting your kiddos play with shaving cream, here's the infamous shaving cream article (a lengthy read). 

I know this goes without saying, but Shaving Cream should not be eaten, so please don't leave your very little person alone with it. 

Till next time, have some super shaving cream fun! 

Please come back and tell me what you got up to.

A is for Astronaut

We recently moved and have been settling into our new life, so blogging and crafting with the children has definitely taken a back seat for awhile. But, I plan to be making a super-duper effort to get back into the swing of things here on the blog and of course with the kiddos. Going to join me?

My little one is now 5 years old (oops, I mean 5-and-a-half... he constantly reminds me!) and in his Grade R/Reception year at school. Here in South Africa our school year starts in January, so his first school term has just ended and we have a wonderful 2 week break coming up.  He has been very busy with a new letter of the alphabet every week at school and to consolidate what he's been up to in class, I want to do some extra alphabet activities at home. I plan on sharing these with you, as we tackle different letters of the alphabet. 

To start off ... a is for astronaut.

An easy alphabet craft inspired by one I saw at totally tots. Little One blasts off to the Moon :).

We chatted about that very first landing on the moon and looked at some pictures on the internet. The paper we used was black mat paper from an old photo album. It was perfect for drawing on with chalk. The chalk led us outside and Little One continued writing on the paving. An easy fun way to practice letters.

Next project. Puffy paint. I have wanted to try this for ages, so this idea from Allison at  No time for Flash Cards was perfect. 

No lies, this was messy! 

The Recipe:

125ml/half-a-cup of white glue

375ml/one-and-a-half cups of shaving cream

A few drops of acrylic black paint

Mix it all together.

I cut open a cereal box (like Allison suggested) and Little One had great fun spreading this all over the cardboard. I was really surprised that he enjoyed the texture of it so much.

We made the moon craters with a bottle top. Go over these a few times while the paint is drying to get a nice effect. We left it to dry overnight before playing on the surface the next day.

Another very easy and fun astronaut craft is to make toilet roll astronauts. Cut and glue some white paper to a toilet roll and draw some astronauts (and aliens if that takes your fancy) . Both my boys enjoyed this activity.

Don't you love the vintage spaceman? (top picture) He is from my husband's childhood. :)

For more space ideas, check out my Pinterest Outer Space page.

Till next time.   

PS. Have shared this at The Weekly Kids Co-Op Party.

Cloud Dough

I've seen around the net that this is called "Cloud Dough", but I actually think that this is closer to the real store-bought Moon Sand than the recipe I shared here.  Either way, you can't go wrong. It's a whole lot of fun.

This "dough" isn't really doughy at all. It's fluffy and light and mold-able. Little One enjoys playing with it with spoons and small containers. It does make quite a mess, so I prefer that we only play with this outdoors.

So the recipe is simple:

8 cups of flour

1 cup of oil (baby oil or vegetable oil)
Please note: Baby oil shouldn't be eaten, so supervise if you use the baby oil option :)

Mix it all up and P L A Y !

I cannot recall where I saw this super recipe for the first time, but there's a nice post with some extra links to what other Mommy's have done with Cloud Dough at Learn with Play at home.com.

Till next time...

S is for Spiders {and a Giveaway}

Where have I been this month of October you are wondering?

Well, I have had two tummy bugs - really awful!

Both boys have had it too - more of the awful.

Not a great month in the healthy department, but we have all survived and are better. And now, speaking of bugs...

S is for Spiders... and Spooky and Scary and... Sensory box! 

When I saw these plastic glow-in-the dark spiders in the store, I knew a sensory box was to be made - a scary spider sensory box. I dyed some rice with red and blue food colouring, added the spiders and presented it to the boys in the dark - before bedtime - I know, it doesn't sound right? Well thankfully, they loved it. I think the only one who was "scared" was me - I actually jumped (and gave a squeamish yelp) when one of the spiders landed on my hand. Really. Big One's response to the sensory box was "It's brilliant" - to get that reaction from a ten year old is pretty cool I think.

A few days later I took the box out again - in daylight this time. I added some string (pretend web), snakes and the letter "s" from my alphabet set. It was great to see the boys enjoying the box again. I also added tweezers and a magnifying glass. We compared sizes; we counted; we took the string and made "s" shapes - all in all a great activity :). 

 

Oh yeah, would you like to win a fabulous 26 piece lowercase alphabet (like the one I used here)? This fantastic product is South African born and bred and made by Little People's Products.

If you would like to win, this is what you must do: Please head on over to their website and come back and tell me which product you really like. For a second entry, pop on on over to their Facebook page and "like" them and then come back here and tell me you did. And for a third entry, share this competition on your Facebook page if you have one. Please leave a separate comment for each entry and some contact details. The competition is open world wide and the closing date is Monday the 5th of November. Good luck!

Mommy Made Moon Sand

A long while back, I raved about how much we like the real Moon Sand. What I haven't shared, is that we have made several home made batches since then and it is a HUGE hit with Little One. I have tried a few variations, but this is the recipe I use most often:

4-and-a-half cups of sandbox sand 

1-and-a-half cups of cornflour

1 cup of water (add more if necessary)

It does dry out, so you need to add water every time you play with it.
 

 If the consistency is right, you can easily mold it. I am able to use a small brick mold  and make little bricks using this sand.

We keep ours in a large plastic container in the kitchen and Little One requests this regularly. I try to keep it uncovered, otherwise it does get a little smelly. If uncovered, it lasts for quite some time - I've kept ours going for a month or two. And, because it cleans up quite easily, I allow the children to play with this indoors too. 

 

Have fun!

PS. Recipes found at: irresistable ideas for play based learning and Skip to my Lou

PPS. My apologies to my email readers. For some reason, you all received a re-post of my Bottle Top Play Dough Cakes today. Blogger must have a few gremlins, as I never republished the post. This is not the first time this has happened - I'm not sure what's up?

Shaving Cream Fun

If you are following, you will know that we are busy with a Robots theme at the moment, but today I'm breaking away from that to share some shaving cream fun. It's holidays almost everywhere and I thought this to be such a great holiday activity. It certainly kept my little guy busy for quite awhile.

So today I squirted some shaving cream over a few of Little One's cars that I had placed on his table. He was intrigued :). I then left him to play and he quickly added a whole lot of his vehicles, as you can see in the pics.

After a nice play, Little One deserted the scene, so I moved the table outside and asked him if he wanted his spray bottle to clean the cars. "Yes, like a car wash!", was his response. 

 

That entertained him for quite a bit longer, because after the cars were all washed down, he roamed into the garden, spray bottle in hand. YAY for me - I could get a few things done :)

This idea was inspired by posts at  The Herkert House and A Childhood List. Isn't blogging great!

PS. Linking to The Sunday Showcase

Easter garden Sensory box

 I whipped up this Easter garden sensory box for Little One yesterday. I added some coloured rice, Easter eggs, pom poms, some mini garden tools, planters, paper flowers and butterflies. I would have liked to have had a little watering can, but I couldn't find one, so we used our imagination :).

Little One first gobbled up some of the Easter eggs (of course!) and then got down to some playing.

To colour the rice, put it in a deep bowl and add food colouring and a little bit of water. Stir in well and keep adding until you are happy with the colour. Then spread it out to dry on a big tray. I put mine outside for a few hours and it dried easily. 

Wishing you and yours a very Blessed Easter weekend! 

PS. Sharing this at Spring Link Up @ Rust and Sunshine.

Little Red Barn

I really love a traditional, all American, big red barn! Even though we don't have red barns as part of our South African landscape, Little One easily recognizes this as part of a traditional farm setting and I have always wanted to add one to our box of animals. Charlotte's Web was also one of the first full-length movies that he ever watched and he has always loved it .

Store bought barns are hard to come by and when you do find nice, good quality ones,  they are usually really pricey. Aaah, but then I remembered my favourite I-can't-throw-away box...the Lipton tea box!! 

To make the barn, I glued the lid closed, cut out the entrance, and stuck a row of craft sticks to the front and back of the box. The main reason for adding the sticks to the back was to make it a bit stronger and it definitely did! The rest of the sticks were cut to size, glued on, and I then added a coat of red paint and the final white touches. Some of the Lipton labeling shows through on the sides - my cousin (who lives in the States and has been here on holiday) said that it adds to the authenticity, as a lot of barns have old advertising on them :). COOL!

Once the barn was done, I created the little farm scene, along the lines of the movie, hoping it would grab Little One's attention. Did you notice Templeton the Rat on the roof? Wondering where Charlotte is? In the barn of course ;).

Although Little One loves the barn itself, the sensory box wasn't a big hit with him. I have come to realize that my great ideas aren't always received with the enthusiasm I'm expecting. I've been thinking of creating a felt farm scene instead...I'll share it with you as soon as it's done.

To view some beautiful photos of traditional red barns, visit here.

PS. Linking this to It's Playtime (Pop on over and join the fun!)

Gloop

 

The basic recipe:

2 cups of corn flour

1 cup of water

You can vary this recipe slightly to get a thicker or thinner version.

This is great fun and of course a fantastic sensory experience - I couldn't help but play too!

I really love how Little One spontaneously decided to stand in it...this is in contrast to my older son, who does not like the texture and won't play with it at all.

Do you know that some children are sensitive to touching certain textures and that it may be part of a tactile dysfunction. This, in turn, is one type of sensory processing disorder. 

To read more, the Out-of-Sync child is a great website with some fantastic articles on the subject.

Can you recommend any other great books or links about this subject? If you can, please leave a comment in the box below, so that other readers can find these resources. :)

PS. Linking this to:
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

PPS. Great book -  
The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder

Let's Build It! {Books and Toys}

Continuing with our "Let's Build It!" theme, there are two construction related toys that I would like to share with you - Moon Sand and Junior Tradesman. 

This was our first experience with Moon Sand and we're sold! It's a fantastic product. Little One has simply loved playing with it and has enjoyed it as an alternative to the lentils in his sensory construction site box. It's texture is quite different to sand and I haven't minded him playing with it in the house, as it cleans up quite easily.

It's a fairly pricey product, so I have been on the lookout for a good homemade recipe. I found a few, but have not tried any of these, so cannot guarantee the final outcome. The first recipe I found is at Skip to my Lou, and the next slightly different combination of the same ingredients is at irresistible ideas for play based learning. It seems really easy to make.

The set I purchased came with a mold to create a sidewalk and bricks. Little One is too young to use these, so big brother tested these out and they work really well.

Our next construction toy... Junior Tradesman Bricks. Little One absolutely loved playing with the cement mixture and wanted to put it into the back of his concrete mixer, which I thought was very appropriate and sweet :). He would have been equally happy with sand and water mixed together as pretend cement. Big One used the toy appropriately and created a wall, which dried overnight into a nice solid structure. When water is added, the cement dissolves and the bricks can be used again. This is a nice product, but definitely more suited to an older child, aged 6 plus.

With regard to books, we have been so lucky to have two fantastic titles on our shelf. Jerry Pallotta's The Construction Alphabet Book is amazing. Even though it is written for an older child, my little guy LOVES it! The art work is fantastic and Little One's knowledge (and mine) of different construction vehicles has soared. B is for Builder by June Sobel is another super book. The text is simple and it is perfectly suited for construction loving children aged two and up.

Some more "Let's Build It!" fun coming up. 
Till then...happy playing.

Let's Build it! {Little World Play}

 

Earlier this year I decided to introduce some mini themes to direct our craft and learning activities. In my perfect world, I would have a new theme with related activities every two to three weeks...sigh ... but, in reality it is very different and this little theme has been running for awhile now :)! So, what you see in the next few posts are activities spread over the past few months. I must add though, that my little guy LOVES everything to do with construction vehicles and workshop tools, so it was easy to get a bit stuck on this one!

I have to admit that I couldn't wait to share this Little World/Sensory Box with you and it's definitely the most successful Mommy Made Toy I've created for Little One. It was a huge hit from the day I introduced it to him and he still plays with it constantly. When planning this mini world, I had decided to use these orange-coloured lentils (called Red Split Lentils), because I thought it would be visually appealing  and I also associate orange and yellow with construction vehicles. What I didn't realize, was that these particular lentils have a wonderful silky feel. I tried to swop them for green lentils at one point, but Little One wouldn't hear of it! Even I love sifting  my fingers through them!

To recreate this, you need a nicely sized container. This rectangular one is about 30 by 45 cm and I purchased it at our local Plastics shop. I use between one and two packets of the lentils (purchased at Pick n Pay). One packet is really sufficient though. And then of course you need some construction vehicles. The little CAT vehicles (that you see above) can be purchased from Game stores. If you are an international reader and would like to purchase something similar, I recently visited the MEGA BLOKS website and they have a terrific selection of construction vehicles in their range.

  

I really love observing my children's interests and passions and find myself caught up in their enthusiasm. In the past few months I have pulled off to the side of the road a number of times, so that Little One can watch construction vehicles busy working at a building site. I have  also deliberately followed a Backhoe Loader, when I could have taken a much shorter and faster route home! Being only 2, do you think he'll remember his Mommy's efforts? I hope so! Or I might have to make him read my blog some day. :)

Have you ever done anything a little unusual to feed your child's interests? I'd love to hear all about it.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to say, it can get messy Mommy! But, the lentils are very easy to vacuum up, so don't fear! I don't really mind putting up with a bit of mess, especially when I see the joy it gives my little guy.

Happy Playing.

PS. I'm linking this to:
It's Playtime!
For the Kids Fridays
Fun for Kids Friday 

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