How We Play Wednesdays

Take one Christmas present. Add water. Wait about an hour. Play a couple rounds of new board games. Check and find: jellystones.

Add one kid, and have loads of squishy, sensory fun!

Reindeer Craft

Ever since my kiddo was teeny tiny, I have been making these reindeer crafts. His foot is used for the head and his hands for the antlers. I write the year on the back. We hang them on his bedroom door for decoration. It is neat to see how much he grows every year.

I love that this is a quick and easy craft that helps celebrate Christmas! 

Christmas Sensory Bin

Christmas is my most favorite holiday. To help Logan get into the holiday spirit, I created a Christmas sensory bin for him to play with. I have been able to get quite a bit of mileage out of this bin. The first week I just presented him with the red and green rice along with different types of scoops, funnels, and cupcake tins. He had a great time just running his hands through it and playing with the different sized funnels, which are new to our sensory play. 

Once the novelty started to wear off and the bin wasn't getting as much use, I added in some new, interesting items. Suddenly, the old was new again! In this bin, I added glittery tree table scatter, pom poms, tiny spiky balls, pretend candy canes, plastic ice cubes, and a wind up penguin. I had everything on hand, or I purchased it at the dollar store.

Logan enjoyed sorting the items and then played with them another way by creating a small world for his penguin. "I'm making a ice home for the penguin. The trees will be the forest. He is going to find the perfect one for his Christmas tree," he tells me. Soon, the funnel is a "dark mountain" and the pom poms become the penguin's "fish shaped house." 

I have a lid for this bin and it makes it easy to store under a bed and out of sight when not in use. I pull it out occasionally during play time to give Logan the option to play with it through out the day. I will separate the items and store them once I decide to create a new one. I'm thinking something involving "snow" for January!

How We Play Wednesdays

My kiddo adores little figurines. One of his favorite things to do is combine them all in different ways. Here he uses his Littlest Pet Shop and Playmobil toys to play in a completely different way than the toy was intended.

Sparkle Bath Paint

There are some days that my little guy is reluctant to take a bath. These days usually coincide with days when he is wearing a Band-aid that he really likes. I explain to him that I will put a new one on after bath time, but he loves that particular band-aid and "will miss it too much." So on those days, I have to find something to make taking a bath more alluring. Bath Activities for Kids, Santa Sparkle Paint did just the trick. In my house, when you add glitter to anything it suddenly makes it a thousand times more amazing. This was no exception.

I simply whipped up some homemade bath paint and dumped an outrageous amount of silver and green glitter into it. 

Logan covered almost all the surfaces of the tub with this paint. I had planned to rinse the paint off after his normal bath like we usually do, but he had other plans. He would paint a surface and then dump water over it to wash it off, and then he would squeal with delight as it mixed with the water in his bath. 

You can't see it from this picture, but it really sparkled! Once we washed the paint and glitter down the drain, he rinsed off in a nice bubbly bath. Mission Complete! Band-aid: Forgotten. 

How We Play Wednesdays

I'm starting an all new Wednesday post called "How We Play Wednesdays." It is simply a glimpse into our daily life, and the different ways my little guy plays during the week. 

Bath stickers stick to kids too. 

North Pole Breakfast 2012

Our family welcomed our elf back this week. This is the second year that Mickey came to visit us from the North Pole. To celebrate his arrival, we had a North Pole Breakfast. Last year our elf, which was given the nickname Mickey by our clubhouse loving little guy. His arrival was quite a treat, as were the sweet treats he brought with him! Logan was very excited, to find this little surprise waiting for him when he woke up. He couldn't wait to look at Mickey, read the story, and snack on some donuts. 

This sweet little tradition is one I hope he will look forward to for many years to come!

Christmas Advent Activities 2012

It's my most favorite time of the year! I adore Christmas time where everything seems more magical! This year, we are have quite a few fun things planned. There are more than twenty-five, but some we will do on the same day! Here is just some of the fun we will be having this Christmas season: (italics are the ones completed)

1. Decorate the Christmas tree 
2. Play in a Christmas sensory bin 
3. Bake Christmas cookies
4. Build a gingerbread house
5. Welcome our elf 
6. Host a Christmas themed play date
7. Make salt dough ornaments 
8. Go to a light parade 
9. Walk around and enjoy Christmas lights
10. Make reindeer food
11. Play with Grinch Goo
12.Make ice cream cone trees
13. Play with gingerbread play dough
14. Drive around, look at Christmas lights, and drink hot chocolate
15. Attend a special event at a local attraction
16. Sing and dance to Christmas carols
17. Have a Christmas movie night
18. Make a reindeer hat
19. Make and decorate Christmas trees in the bath tub
20. Play with candy cane paint
21.Have a special Christmas eve party at grandparent's house
22. Wear Christmas socks
23.Go to a festival of lights
24. Dress up in a Santa hat and take pictures!
25. Make a cinnamon snowflake as a yummy snack
26. Leave out cookies for Santa
27. Make shape Santas
28. Read Christmas books before bedtime

Dot Painting

This past week we read a book called The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. It is about a girl whose art teacher tells her she must put something on her paper at the end of class. She makes a tiny dot. The next class, she comes back to find that the teacher has framed that tiny dot. The little girl thinks she can do better and soon she has a gallery full of all different types of dots. 

After reading the book, I asked Logan if he would like to make some dots. Using pipettes and liquid watercolor, Logan squeezed all different colors and size dots onto his paper. 

Soon, he too had a gallery of dots of all kinds.

We hung them on the fridge once they had dried. I always enjoy finding ways to extend the reading of books. It is way to expand the experience of reading the book. In this case, it allowed Logan to experiment with dots the same way the main character did. This activity really made the story seem relevant and come to life. I find that doing activities like this do not take much time to set up, but help to solidify Logan's love of reading.