Summer Reading Fun: Up, Down, and Around

 When I originally planned all these summer reading activities it was with the idea of implementing them in our local library using the book Bear and Bunny Grow Tomatoes, which I knew they had in their collection.  After our move, when I discovered that this book is nowhere to be found in our new library system (which surprised me because it's a huge library network), we had to switch things up and went with more of a general garden theme instead of just focusing on the tomatoes. It was still a lot of fun and worked out perfectly.

For our play dough this week I made this scrumptious smelling chocolate play dough. It looked like dirt, and the kids loved making their own little gardens with rocks, flowers/leaves, and toy bugs.

Our art project this week as really fun. The kids colored on coffee filters with markers, then sprayed their art work with water and watched the magic happen. After things dried in the sun for a bit we added some cute little apple borders I found here and hung our art on the wall.

For our gross motor, I had planned to play this fun apple toss game. I picked up a couple packages of these balls from Amazon for us to use. We ended up cutting things a bit short this week and never got around to playing the game, but I think the kids would have had a good time with it.

Our sensory bin this week was pretty epic. The kids thought it was amazing! I put 50 lbs of rice in a kiddie pool, added in the toys from our play dough fun plus all the fruits/veggies from our play food, and all the digging/scooping toys I could find. The kids had a blast digging and playing their pretend garden.

 For our snack this week we could have gone with any possible number of healthy garden fruits and/or veggies. Instead though I decided to have some fun with the kids and made a dirt cake instead. I assembled it in a clean flower pot (purchased just for this and scrubbed well before using), and stuck a couple bunches of fake flowers in there. It looked real enough that the kids were a bit shocked when I dug in and ate a big spoonful of the "dirt" right from the pot. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but they gobbled it up too fast for that.

Last, but not least, here is a list of all the fun garden themed books we used to inspire our fun. Clicking the image will take you to Amazon, where you can learn more about any book you're interested in.

*Diedre Mower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This post contains affiliate links.

Summer Reading Fun: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 This week we had fun with Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. His books are so wonderful and so widely loved that you can find countless ideas out there to go along with any of them. It was hard to narrow things down to just these few.

 For our play dough activity this week the kids got to play with red and green play dough (favorite recipe here), large googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and an assortment of all our favorite play dough toys.

Our craft was caterpillar sponge painting. Instead of buying a bunch of cheap sponges and cutting them into circles, I bought a package of foam hair curlers from the dollar store. I took the foam part off the plastic frame and cut them in half in order to have enough for all the kids. It worked GREAT!

 Our sensory play was the biggest sticky wall I've ever made. I cut out a TON of green and red circles out of foam sheets, as well as grass, flowers, clouds, etc. I drew a sun and a few plants on the non-sticky side of the contact paper before taping it to the wall. Most of the kids had never seen a sticky wall before, so it was fun to introduce a new idea to them all. If you don't want to cut shapes out of foam, here's another route you could take)

 Our gross motor activity was feeding the Hungry Caterpillar. I painted a giant caterpillar onto a piece of foam board and cut a hole for the mouth. I propped the board up in front of an empty laundry basket and let the kids throw toy food in the caterpillar's mouth. Throwing things is always a big hit with the kids.

 For our snack we ate grape caterpillars. I wasn't sure about giving the kids pokey sticks, but they really really loved this snack! If I had just handed them the skewers and a bowl of grapes they would have loved to make their own, but I didn't think and made them ahead of time.

 I try to always have some other books that fit the theme for the kids to look at, so this week I had several of Eric Carle's bug books. Here are the ones we had, click the image to learn more about the book:

*Diedre Mower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This post contains affiliate links.

Pudding Writing Spelling Practice

In March of this year our family loaded up and moved from our beloved Glenwood, New Mexico to Arizona's Phoenix valley. One of the many HUGE changes that meant for our family was that Erik started attending a new school. He went from a tiny school with one teacher (pre-k through 3rd grade) and a grand total of 8 students, to a school with more than 1000 students and a class of more than 25 kids. His new school has a mandatory homework policy (don't even get me started!), so we found ourselves trying to find ways to help Erik get his work done without pushing him to the point of burn-out. Practicing spelling words was becoming a fight, so I've been compiling a list of fun ways to get that job done. I'll be sharing several of them here for anyone else looking for better ways to memorize things.

For today's Spelling Practice idea, we've got pudding writing. It's so easy to set up! Mix up a box or two of instant pudding in any flavor, spread it on a sheet pan (or serving tray, or whatever you have that works) and tell your child a word to spell. They get to use their finger to write the word, then lick it clean when they're done. Everyone wins!

 Well, everyone wins except for you, because you have to look at my crummy phone pictures. I lost my camera for about a month so this is as good as it gets. :)

 The fun thing about this is that it works for all ages. For Maren and Sharli this was just pudding painting, like we've done before.

 There are several reasons why this is an excellent way to practice spelling. Here are a few:
- the more senses you get involved the more likely you are to remember things. This is great sensory stimulus, bringing in smell, taste, touch, and sight.
- the more emotions you involve in an experience the more likely you are to remember it. See the joy on this face:

 - gross motor (large muscle) movement (moving your whole arm while you write in the pudding) means you're getting more of your body involved which means better memory building.

 So, whether you're looking for a way to learn some new words, or a way to keep little fingers busy, there's something here for everyone.

Summer Reading Fun: Corduroy

Our next book for our Summer Reading Program was Corduroy, by Don Freeman. This is a cute little story about a bear who goes looking for a lost button and finds a home.

For our play dough time I added buttons and googly eyes to our regular cookie cutters and misc play dough toys. Some of the most popular "toys" I keep out during play dough time are disposable plastic butter knives and a citrus juicer.

We didn't have a craft this day because we joined the older kids on one of their projects, but something like a button collage comes to mind. Or perhaps sewing buttons onto felt?
For our sensory play this week I dumped 20 lbs of rice in a kiddie pool, and mixed in some Teddy Bear Counters and every button I could scrounge up. Add in lots of scooping/digging/sifting toys and you've got all you need to keep kids busy for a while.

Snacks could be Teddy Grahams or you could make sugar cookies and use a straw to poke "button holes" in the circles of dough before you bake them.
For our gross motor activity I made about 15 giant buttons out of paper plates (using a black sharpie), and hid them outside. The kids loved going on a button hunt just like Corduroy did in the book. 

*Diedre Mower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This post contains affiliate links.

Pudding Painting

Sharli has always had a pretty serious need to put things in her mouth, so she hasn't gotten to do as much painting as Erik did at her age. I had some extra boxes of instant pudding in my cupboard, so the kids helped me mix it up and color it. I put Sharli's "paint" right on her high chair tray, and Erik's on a large cookie sheet.

 Now obviously this isn't going to create a work of art you can hang on your wall, but it does give your kid a chance to create and explore new tastes, smells, and textures. Process art is so much fun!

 We talked about colors and color mixing. It was fun to try to get Erik to guess what color we'd end up with before we mixed things together. When they were done creating we had snack time ready to go!

MORE Ways to Keep a Toddler (and a Preschooler) Busy on a Road Trip

Several months ago we went on a big road trip that lasted almost two full weeks. This was the first major road trip we'd gone on since adding a second kid to the mix. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to maintain my sanity while keeping the two of them entertained, it had been hard enough with just one!

I knew I already had a good collection of ideas from our experience with Erik, in fact this post I did about our major road trip with him has been one of my most popular. That post really sums up a lot of what we did on this trip, so I do recommend you check it out as well. Even though all the old ideas are still good, I knew we were going to want some new things in the mix to keep the kids interested. I spent a fair amount of time searching for ideas and assembling supplies, but it was totally worth it. Here are all the activities I came up with, hopefully you'll find something in here that might work for you too. I put each one in its own zip top bag and put everything in a backpack so I could keep it handy and organized. 

And here is more information about everything we did. Links take you to the sites that inspired us, or to amazon.com. 

***Coloring books, colored pencils, and a pencil sharpener. I purchased a new coloring book for each kid so that they would be new and exciting. I chose to pack colored pencils instead of crayons because in warm weather crayons may melt all over the inside of your car, and because Sharli eats crayons.  

*** Glow in the dark bracelets and cheapo flashlights for keeping the kids busy after dark. 

*** Books! I bought a new book for each kid. Having something new and exciting makes such a huge difference. We also packed a big bag of our favorite books from our own shelves. Erik is getting big enough that he can follow a story without needing pictures to be entertained, so we checked out Mr. Popper's Penguins from our library and read that aloud as we drove. That was a fun one for us adults too, definitely one I'd recommend!

***An I Spy bottle. I somehow didn't get a picture of the kids playing with this one. It wasn't a huge hit, but it did keep them busy for a few minutes here and there.  

***Magnet Discovery Bottle. This one wasn't much of a hit with my kids. I think we ended up throwing it away part way through the trip because it was taking up room and nobody wanted to play with it. Who knows though, maybe your kids would love it. 

***Pipe cleaners. These were to be used on their own to play with, as well as to be used in our Pipe Cleaner Drop and to make Pipe Cleaner Shapes, both of which are outlined here. For the Pipe Cleaner Drop I ended up wishing I'd used one of those little snack size Pringles cans, since the full size one was kind of unwieldy for Sharli. Plus, the smaller things are the less room they take up in the car. I also remembered too late that we learned with Erik that sticks work better than pipe cleaners for this one.  

*** Sticky Sticks (and matching game). These have been one of the most favorite things we made for this trip. Months later they still get played with a lot. This one is so easy to make. You just attach velcro dots to craft sticks and you're done. If you want to make the matching game then you cut shapes out of paper and write the name of the shape on them. Even if your child isn't reading yet, there is still great value in giving them chances to become aware of print in the world around them.

***Open and Close Activity This one was pretty easy to put together. I looked around the house and the dollar store for small containers that I thought little hands could open and close and put them all in a bag together. It turned out that some of them were pretty difficult for Sharli to open, so I incentivized the work she'd have to do to open them by putting fruit snacks inside. 

***Button Snake. This was an activity I had intended to be more for Sharli, but Erik loved it! He begs to play with it at least once a week. I somehow failed to get any pictures of this one, but the link above has all the info.
***Pom Pom Magnets. These were super easy to make. I just picked up some thin magnets from the craft aisle and hot glued pom poms to them. The magnets I found were in little strips, so I glued a whole line of pom poms on with my hot glue gun (the adhesive already on the magnets wasn't enough to do the job) and then just snipped in between the pom poms with scissors. Throw in a cheap cookie sheet (I got mine for just under $1) and you have a great magnet board, as well as a hard surface for you kid to set on their lap for all the other activities as well. Both kids really enjoyed these magnets. Erik pretended they were cars driving around, or made pictures with them. Sharli mostly just enjoyed dumping them onto the tray and then putting them back in the bag. 

***Lacing Cards. We've made these before for Erik to play with, but that was a long time ago. They were a hit then and they are now too.

***Clip Sticks Counters. Erik might have liked these better if he weren't too distracted by all the other stuff in the activity bag. They were easy to make, all you need are some craft sticks (which is handy, since you'll want some for the Sticky Sticks too), some circle stickers, and a few clothes pins.

***Ping Pong Ball Puzzles. I thought this was a pretty clever idea. You can make an infinite number of puzzles, and increase the difficulty by increasing the number of balls so it's an idea that can grow with your child. Pick up a cheap package of ping pong balls, salvage an egg carton from your recycling and you're ready to go. 

One thing I talked about in my first Road Trip post was the power of snacks. If all else fails just throw some food to your kids and that should keep them quiet for at least a few minutes. Two snack ideas that made a re-appearance from our last road trip were edible jewelry and Surprise Snack Mix. Check out this post for more details. 

And because I'm super nice, I've been working on figuring out the perfect mixture for the snack mix so you all don't make the same mistakes we have. I learned last time that there are some snacks that don't play nice with the others. Our problem snack this time around was the frosted circus animal cookies. They did great until the car got too hot and the frosting melted. Then everything stuck together and got really messy and difficult to eat. Oh well, maybe next time it will be better. Our mix this time included the Circus Animal Cookies, fruit snacks, M&M's, and Goldfish crackers (except ours were the cheap brand so they were penguins instead of fish). I tried to include a mix of textures and flavors to keep things interesting.

I think that about covers it. Now that we've got a third little one in our home I'll have to let you know how things go next time we go on a major trip, but for now this should be enough to go on. Have a good trip!


*Diedre Mower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This post contains affiliate links.