Ball and Car Painting

Supplies required:

Paint
Paper
Balls
Toy Cars
Boxes or buckets or something to put the paper in (optional)

I had seen the idea for this art project in a few different places, and today we decided to try it out.  I thought it was going to be very messy, so I dressed the kids in old clothes and shoes and took them outside to do it.  It didn't turn out to be very messy at all, although if my son W had been interested in the project (he was more interested in playing basketball and playing with one of the bouncy balls we used for the project) it would have probably become a huge mess.

For this project, we found a couple of shallow boxes from Amazon that I had already cut the flaps off of to make into "drawers" for our coffee shop.  We also used a couple of plastic Easter baskets.   You could use a lot of different kinds of containers, or you could do this project without any containers at all.  I put paper in the bottom of the boxes and in the bottom of the Easter baskets (I cut the Easter basket paper into circles so it would fit.) 

For the "ball" paintings, I scattered a few drops of paint on the paper (you don't need a lot) that was in the Easter basket, then had E put the ball in there.  She then shook the basket around to make the ball roll all across the paper in the paint.  It was fun and easy.  She then wanted to try to do the ball painting in the Amazon rectangular boxes, and that worked well too. 

For the "car" paintings, we used a piece of paper in the Amazon rectangular boxes. I put some paint on a paper plate and then had E roll the car in the paint to get the wheels covered.  She then "drove" the car around on the paper.  This was a lot of fun too!  You could even put the paint right on the paper like I did for the ball painting if you wanted to cut down on the mess. 

This was  lot of fun (minus the complete meltdown my son had when we initially got out the bouncy balls for this project--he wanted to play with them, but they were small enough to choke on, so I couldn't let him play with them while I was still gathering all the things I needed.)  I thought my son W would be very interested in this project, but he could have cared less.  He was just excited to be able to play with the bouncy ball once we got outside.

E doing the ball painting:

E's ball painting in the Easter basket (I probably put in a little too much paint--and if you use black paint, it obviously has a tendency to make everything gray):

My ball painting:

E's ball painting in the box:

My car painting:

E's car painting:

Pretend coffee shop (or any kind of store)

Supplies Required:

large cardboard box
box cutter
smaller cardboard boxes for shelves, drawers, counters, etc.
play food, play dishes, coffee cups, etc. 

The idea for this activity came from Pinterest, although my family put our own coffee-obsessed twist on it.  (And yes, Pinterest is the reason I went for a couple of months without posting..I've been too busy getting new ideas for activities!)  The idea on Pinterest was for a cardboard grocery store, but we decided to make a pretend coffee shop instead (although it can be used for any sort of store, cafe, etc. and we have also used it as a grocery store).  I won't go into detail about how to make the cardboard store--it is explained here:  http://www.ikatbag.com/2011/10/greengrocer-etc.html

I brought home a large box from work that was going to be thrown away, and my husband and I cut out windows and made ledges with the windows, as it explains in the instructions.  I also used a medium-sized cardboard box and some boxes from Amazon to make "drawers." 

To make the store into a coffee shop, I set up a tall box and put the kids' pretend coffee pot (you could also use a teapot) on top of it, along with a pretend container of milk.  Every time my husband or I went to Starbucks, we rinsed out and saved our cups and lids and also saved the cardboard rings that go around the coffee cup.  We even saved some wooden sticks used as stirrers.  I put all of those supplies in one of the cardboard "drawers" I had made, and in the other drawer, we put pretend dishes, silverware, and all of the pretend food we had that were some kind of treat--donuts, cookies, etc.  E and W had a lot of fun "filling" the cups, putting on the lids and the cardboard rings, and serving my husband and I coffee.  This was definitely a fun activity, and I like that we could re-use a bunch of things we would have recycled instead.

Tie-Dye Easter eggs

Supplies Required:

Dot markers (regular markers might work too):  http://www.amazon.com/Do-A-Dot-Rainbow-Art-Set/dp/B00004W3Y4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333917538&sr=8-1
Coffee filters
Scissors

I got this holiday craft idea from Pinterest:  http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/03/faux-tie-dye-coffee-filter-easter-eggs.html.  We bought dot markers for this activity, so I'm not sure if it would work with regular markers (it would definitely take longer to cover the whole filter, since there isn't as much surface area on a regular marker).  But we plan to use our dot markers again.  Specifically, I plan on printing out some "do-a-dot" letters for our car trip to the beach this summer.  Here's a link to pdfs you can download for the alphabet activity:  http://totschool.shannons.org/?page_id=2360

E and I had a lot of fun making these, and it's a super easy project.  My husband even had to make one too after he saw us making them.  If you knew my husband, you would know what a plug for the activity that is!  Basically, you just take a coffee filter, cut it into an egg shape, fold it in half once, then fold it as many other times as you want to (differnet folds will make different designs).  You then use the dot markers to make dots on the filters.  (Hold the marker there for a few seconds to make sure it bleeds through all of the folded layers.)  Then, wait for it to dry (although we were too impatient to wait for it to dry) and open up the "egg." 

We taped ours to our front window, and they looked really pretty in the sunlight (excuse the blue painter's tape we used--we were all out of regular masking tape....would have looked better if the tape hadn't shown through them!)

Happy and Sad

Several months ago, our family started a tradition during dinner that we have been doing every night and plan to do into the future.  I had seen the idea in a movie I watched years and years ago (can't remember which one) and then saw the suggestion in an article I was reading more recently.  Everyone at the dinner table shares something that made them happy that day (or excited or some other positive emotion) and something that made them sad (or angry or scared or some other negative emotion).  I love the ritual of doing it every night, and I can see how much it has benefited E (our almost 4-year-old).  When we first began doing it, she would have the same happy night after night, such as, "W (her brother) got to come into school with me today" (even when she hadn't gone to school that day, and even though he always comes in with my husband to drop her off when she does go).  But over the course of a few weeks, she saw us modeling it and got better at being able to articulate what had made her happy and what had made her sad.

I love this activity because it's a great way to hear about everyone's day; it builds emotional awareness; even when you have had a bad day, it can help you reflect on something you enjoyed about the day; and it often emphasizes the little things that make  a difference. 

Hallway Ball

Supplies Required:
Ball
A hallway

"Hallway ball" was one of our family's favorite activities when W was between 5 months and 10 months old because it was something that he loved to watch us do (before he could really participate) and was something that he loved to do himself when he was old enough to throw the ball.  We typically use a beach ball for hallway ball because it's light, fun to throw and hit, and it's not hard enough to hurt if someone gets whacked in the face (which almost always happens at some point during the game).  E stands or sits at one end of the hallway, and I sit or stand at the other end.  Before W could crawl, I would sit him in front of me and help him participate.  We basically throw, hit, or even kick the ball as hard as we want to because there is nothing to knock over or break in the hallway.  It's fun to watch the ball bounce off the walls (and sometimes the ceiling).  This activity always leads to lots of giggles. 

Pretend Picnic

Supplies Required:
Play food
A blanket
Stuffed animals and/or dolls
Picnic basket or other container (optional)

When E was two, one of her favorite things to do was have a pretend picnic with her stuffed animals, and it's still an activity we do once in awhile.  We set out a blanket on the living room floor (we have an awesome one that my grandmother made that is a perfect picnic blanket), and then we arrange all of her animals in a circle around the edges of the blanket.  Some of them need to be propped up with a pillow or little bench or something else so they can sit up.  Ella then gets out her play food and distributes it to the animals, who eat.  After the picnic, they sometimes go "hiking" on our fireplace.  Or they line up in front of the TV to play games.  When W was a baby, he even became part of the picnic.  It was a good tummy time activity, and I'm sure being surrounded by animals made tummy time slightly more interesting.

 

Reading in Bed

Supplies Required (a supply list for this activity is pretty much ridiculous):
books
a bed

After my son W was born, I wanted to make sure that I set aside some special time for my daughter E, especially in those early newborn days where W was so dependent on me.  So one night shortly after W was born, I asked E if she would like it if I spent the next morning reading to her in her bed.  She was super excited about the idea, especially when I said it would also involve having breakfast in bed.  (My husband, who had to make the pancakes and serve them to us in bed, was probably less excited about the idea.)  When E woke up that morning, I climbed into her bed with her and we read several books.  My husband brought us a tray of pancakes while we were reading.  E loved this, and ever since then, we have probably done this activity about once a month.  She especially loves it when the reading has some sort of theme--for instance, when I read her ALL of the books she checked out from the library (usually that's about 15!) or ALL of her Clifford books.  Shortly before Christmas, I suggested to her that we should gather all of the books she had about Christmas and winter and we should read all of those on our reading in bed morning.  She had fun gathering all of the books the night before. 

E loves Curious George, and for Christmas, she got a big Curious George book with all of the original Curious George stories.  (If you are at all familiar with the original Curious George stories, they are LONG.)  So after Christmas, when we had our reading in bed morning, she said she wanted me to read that entire book (350 pages or so!) along with two other Curious George compilations with 10 stories each.  I told her we could only read 2 of those big books, so she picked out the original Curious George book and one of the newer ones with 10 stories.  I read all 10 stories from one of hte newer books, but we only made it halfway through the original Curious George collection before E got tired.  I couldn't believe she had finally reached her limit!