Snowball Fight Painting

Little Brother is quickly approaching three (how did that happen?!) but in true toddler fashion he still tends to like projects best that are pretty quick. If there are too many steps to a project it tends to lose his interest. This snowball fight painting was right up his alley the other day though.

While we've been happy to get a little snow, it's still not quite enough to enjoy our typical winter activities and we find ourselves wishing for more snow. Until then, we're trying to create winter fun in other ways.

Fall Textures Basket

There's something about November that is so drab and brown, but yet also can be really pretty. Recently Little Brother and I had the chance to get out for a walk just the two of us. Because the weather was beautiful and sunny the dried plants, leaves, and trees really captured our eyes. We love finding ways to explore nature connections, especially when we take a walk. 

This time we brought the materials home with us to create a Fall Textures Basket, an easy way to create some toddler sensory play. 

Shape Search in a Fall Backyard

The weather this week has been amazing, and we were really pleased to be able to get out and enjoy the nice temperatures again. Little Brother and I had a ton if fun playing with shapes outside in the fall sunshine and leaves.

We had a blast bringing our large, foam pattern blocks outside and involving them in some great backyard autumn play. 

Pumpkin Patch Candy Counting

We love finding ways to use holiday candy in learning games and activities. In the past we've used candy hearts and jelly beans to practice different math skills. So of course it was time to do something with fall candy!

As Little Brother is getting a little older, he's been getting really interested in counting and numbers, so I put together this Pumpkin Patch counting activity using candy pumpkins. I decided we would work on the numbers 1 to 5.

Hand Print Mum Paintings

One of my favorite sights of fall includes beautiful fall mums. I love the variety of colors and I would buy one of each color for the house if I could!

It seemed like a fun idea to try and recreate mums with the kiddos in a craft project: we were inspired to try creating Handprint Mum Paintings. I decided this would be a great project to do with Little Brother.

I do have to admit that sometimes "toddler art" throws me for a little bit of a loop. Although I had one idea for this project in my head of what it would look like, Little Brother took it in his own direction and it looked a little different than I was expecting. But I do love how much he got into painting it, so I decided I still wanted to share it.

Painting with Acorns

You may have noticed it's been a quiet few weeks here. Adjusting to our new schedules and a minor illness have definitely left us a little thrown off the last few weeks. But despite our quiet front here online, we are still finding a few moments to craft and create.

One great aspect of our new schedules is that Little Brother and I have a few hours a week that's just the two of us. This is a first for us and we're both enjoying it! It's been fun to think of some projects that are geared just for him.

As we slip into fall this acorn painting was an easy and fun toddler project.

We were inspired by our post a few weeks ago on 35+ Fall Painting Ideas to try painting in a new way, using something simple we could already find in our yard this month. 

Easy Easter Sensory Bin

The other day I was looking for something fast and fun for the boys to do, and quickly put together this Easy Easter Sensory Bin.

All month I've been inspired by several different posts where people used plastic Easter eggs in sensory bins. We already had ours out for our Jelly Bean Math Play, so it was easy to add them to our bin. 

Toddler Color Sort Box

As I've mentioned before, I'm often looking for ways I can capture Little Brother's attention with a "quieter: activity. He has loved "drop" activities for quite a while now. Other drop activities we've created before include a pom pom can drop, the simple straw drop, and a big bottle ball drop. For this activity I was inspired by my husband's poker chip set (because he's not using them anyway) and a small shoe box to create a Toddler Color Sort Box.

We've tried some color sorting activities with Little Brother before, including a pipe cleaner color sort, but this was our first time using three colors. The poker chips were a perfect sorting material because of their size and distinct colors. 

Rolling Pin Valentine's

I first saw using a rolling pin and foam stickers to paint this fall over at Fantastic Fun and Learning when they were creating Rolling Pin Fall Leaf Paintings. I tucked it into the back of my mind as something I wanted to try with the boys. When I was trying to think of a way for Little Brother to be a little more hands on with his Valentine's, it came to mind.

I decided to use the smaller rolling pin that the boys use in their play kitchen or play dough play, with the idea it might be easier for Little Brother. Even though it's a rolling pin used for play, I took the tip of wrapping it in plastic wrap. On top of the plastic wrap I added a few foam heart stickers. (Foam stickers are pivotal to the project as they are thick and are raised off the pin.) 

Mess Free Color Mixing on the Light Table

We love participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids, and this month the author is Ellen Stoll Walsh. We enjoy several of her books, but particularly love the story of three little color mixing mice in Mouse Paint.

A while back we did a color mixing wheel based on the book, so this time I was looking for a different idea. As we're still in the dark days of winter I decided to incorporate the light table in our play. 

It's not often these days I get any time alone with Little Brother, but last weekend Daddy and Big Brother were on their own adventure so we had some down time together. Perfect opportunity to do a toddler focused color mixing activity.

Toddler Painting with Indian Corn

As we've headed further into November we can see signs of the end of fall everywhere. One of my favorite symbols of fall is indian corn, also called flint corn, and as we get closer to Thanksgiving we see it in decorations everywhere. It's amazing how varied the different colors can be.

I picked up several different ears last week at a local farm stand and got excited about sharing some different activities with the boys. Over the past week we've been enjoying exploring indian corn in many ways. The first activity was one designed for Little Brother: Toddler Painting with Indian Corn.

Toddler Painting with Indian Corn

It's always fun to explore different painting strategies with toddlers. A few of our favorites include splatter painting, comb painting, and feather painting. It allows toddlers the opportunity to paint, create art, and have a sensory experience all at the same time. 

Toddler Airplane Activity Binder

A friend of mine starts an amazing adventure this weekend as she and her husband travel internationally to adopt the child they've been waiting for for almost three years. It's been eye opening and inspiring to watch them as they spent the last few years working and waiting through the paperwork process. And now their moment is here. Among hundreds of questions and concerns, my friend mentioned the long airplane ride back to the United States with their little toddler and what she was going to do for activities. Although many of her questions and concerns were ones I could only listen to with empathy, this was one that got my brain churning. Before they left our family gift to them was a Toddler Airplane Activity Binder.

Toddler Airplane Activity Binder

Although I won't know for several weeks if the binder was successful, I'm hoping it is helpful on the long plane ride. I can also see it being used in other settings where toddlers need some purposeful activities, such as waiting at a doctor's office or in a restaurant. 

Pipe Cleaner Color Sort

One of my goals for this fall is to create more purposeful learning opportunities for Little Brother.

As he gets older we have more skills and concepts to explore. Although we've done activities which involve "dropping" or "pushing" objects into containers, this was the first time I've added a sorting element for Little Brother. Although I knew he was a little young, I wanted this to be an activity he could grow with, so I made it a two color sorting activity.

I was inspired to use pipe cleaners and spice containers together from a toddler activity post over at Teaching Mama. (She used a parmesan container, but it looked a lot like our spice containers.) 

Baby Faces Busy Bag (For a One Year Old)

We're really excited to be participating in a Virtual Busy Bag Exchange sponsored by Teach Me Mommy.

Today we're swapping ideas with Life Over C's and Adventure in a Box to share busy bag ideas for one year olds. I've created Busy Bags and Boxes for Big Brother a couple of different times before, check out this post or this one for some of those ideas, but this was the first time I've made a busy bag for Little Brother. I found it an interesting challenge to think of what might interest a one year old in a bag. 

We've started to encourage Little Brother to work on identifying parts of the face which inspired me to create a "baby faces" busy bag. 

Soap Foam Car Wash Bins

If you've been reading our posts for a while you know we love transportation play. The other day we were looking for a new way to play with our matchbox cars. Lately many of them have been spending some time in our sand and water table and getting a little dirty. This has been inspiring Big Brother to pretend to wash them. I decided it would be fun to set up some car wash sensory play.

In the earlier stages of spring we discovered soap foam play from Fun at Home With Kids. We turned it into some really fun clean mud. It's such a cool, easy way to create a different sensory experience for kids.

Simple Straw Drop for Toddlers

I know I've already shared several drop activities for babies and toddlers, but Little Brother has been enjoying this activity for over a week, so I couldn't resist sharing. It was so easy to put together and such a great way to work on fine motor skills.

He loves putting small things into other containers, which inspired me to put together this one afternoon. I used regular drinking straws, a cardboard coffee can, and a hole punch to create this simple activity. 

Big Bottle Ball Drop

So as I put this post together I had a little bit of Mama shock when I realized that I can no longer classify activities for Little Brother as "baby play," he has officially entered the realm of toddler hood. Somehow my little guy is no longer so little.

Little Brother continues to be a pretty on the move guy, so I'm always looking for ways to engage his energy. We spontaneously tried this activity one day, and it was a hit.

Last year we wound up with this big bottle from a job my husband was working on; we saved it because we figured it would be good for possible power outages. Little Brother had so much fun with some of the pom pom drop activities we did last month we were looking for other similar activities. We pulled the big bottle out one day with a handful of ping pong balls and gave it a try.