Painting newspaper with water

For a simple, no mess project, get a paintbrush or two, a bowl of water and some newspaper! So easy and so fun! Water color paints would be fun too since news print absorbs water so easily.

Window art easel

This large piece of paper was padding in a UPS package and it is perfect for coloring! It was just too big to use at the table; he couldn't reach all blank spaces. So taping it to the window let him reach it and gave a nice effect.

West has been very active lately and this was a nice way to color and expend some energy at the same time. Instead of sitting in a chair, he jumped from his pile of crayons to the paper and back again. Art is all about the process to him.

Plain old paper cups

Plain old paper cups are perfect for toddler and baby play!

West loved to scatter them and then restack them

Lula prefered to chew on them and knock down towers I built.

West decided to knock down towers with his nose!

A few of West's friends were over later that day and played with the cups too. The almost 4 year old asked to take some home because she thought they were so much fun. She did a great job stacking them in towers.

Funnels and plastic tubing

When West saw the contraption I made he said "ah, nice!"

It was cold out and I didn't want him getting soaked so I filled up a squeeze bottle with water and food coloring and let him go to town. This could easily be played with inside by putting the whole thing in a large plastic container to catch the water.

How to make it:

Clear, flexable plastic tubing of different diameters

funnels

metal garden stakes

zip ties

piece of wood

maybe some hot glue

power drill

I drilled two holes in the wood that were just slightly smaller than the garden stakes and hot glued the stakes in place. Then, I secured the funnels to the tubing. One piece of plastic tube fit in a funnel snuggly and the other fit over the other funnel. You can hot glue them in place if you feel like the tubes might slip off the funnels. Now, hot glue or zip tie the funnels to the top of the garden stakes and continue occasionally zip tieing the tubes in place down the stakes. And you're done! You can also at T's or valves to make it more exciting.

Paper punches

West loves using any sort of tool or utensil. These large paper punches are some of his favorite things to play with. I've found that the larger the punch and more simple the shape, the easier it is for him to use. He'll just sit at the table and punch out squares and circles out of construction paper. I also use a regular hole punch to add holes to the squares and circles. Then he strings them on a piece of yarn and hangs them from various places. Pipe cleaners are good for threading them on to as well.

Sensory balloons

I filled six balloons with flour, quinoa, sprinkles, Moonclay (from a sample I had), baby wipes or hand lotion. Each balloon has a very different feel. All except the one filled with hand lotion are somewhat moldable.

West's favorite is the one with hand lotion because it's the squishiest.

To fill them I used a kitchen funnel and pushed as much of the ingredients in as possible.

Obviously, playing with these requires close supervision.

This idea is from playathomemom3.blogspot.com

Things to do with a light box

low light = blurry pictures

Clear teething toys and balls. I would set them on the box and Lula would toss them off.

The hair gel and glitter ziplocks have a cool effect too.

Clear blocks are fun for stacking

Very sheer fabrics are fun too

Scarves are fun to layer.

The options are limitless!

This is fun on dark mornings when the kids get up early and it will be fun in the dark winter evenings.

chalk and water

West loves to clean anything, even chalk off of the patio.

There's something magical about how the chalk 'disappears' when water is added.

This time, he wanted me to draw and he wanted to 'clean.'

A squirt bottle is fun.

So is a paint brush.

But a squeeze bottle is the best, in West's opinion.

A pumpkin, a nail and a hammer

It's a bit early to carve pumpkins, but I couldn't wait to try this!

I poked the nail in a little bit and he hammered it in. We did this over and over. He loved it!

Lula enjoyed watching but is looking forward to next year when she can participate. West was really good at hitting the nail; great hand-eye coordination.

The finished pumpkin! He wanted to color on it so we used permanent marker (the only thing we had that would write on the pumpkin).