Shaving cream fun

The past few days have been snowy and cold here. Well, snowy for Oklahoma. I'm not opposed to going out. Except that apparently our town has not heard of this magical thing called putting salt or sand down on icy roads, and most people here either drive ridiculously fast for the conditions or drive absurdly slow while taking up two lanes.

Okay, end rant.

Anyway, we are all getting a serious case of cabin fever. I had exhausted all my usual activities when I happened across an idea for shaving cream fun in Parents magazine.

Here's what you need:
-Shaving cream
-Food coloring
-A baking sheet
-Crazy toddler

Yep, that's seriously all you need

I plopped bits of shaving cream onto the baking sheet and added a few drops of food coloring to each. Ella then stirred them in.

It's very serious business

Then I let her go to town. She played with it for at least an hour.

The bigger the mess, the bigger the smiles

If you are really ambitious you can talk about what happens when you mix different colors together. 

If you are like me, you will take advantage of the time to have a few moments of peace and consider it learning by osmosis. 

The moon incident

I have a special talent as a parent. It seems I have a knack for taking everyday items and turning them into objects of terror for my toddler. Like the moon.

The other evening, Ella started to show a lot of interest in the moon. I thought it was a great learning opportunity. I talked to her about it. We looked at pictures in an old issue of National Geographic. I let her watch some neat little video clips NASA had produced. As the grand finale to this little lesson, I took her outside to look at the moon. She went off to bed rattling off the facts she had learned. I was one proud mama.

Fast forward to 4:30am. We woke up to her screaming bloody murder. All Jim could get out of her was, "Moon up high. Moon very scary."

Yes, I somehow ruined the moon for my toddler. If anyone can explain to me how I managed to do this, I will buy you a drink.

Homemade finger paints

In the interest of full disclosure, I will start this post by stating that there is a big part of me that loathes finger paints. They are messy and only keep her occupied for maybe 20 minutes max, and then it's a huge pain to clean up. We've tried the much neater "finger paint in a ziploc bag" solution, but of course, where is the fun if you can't make a huge mess? I figure if I am stuck doing finger paints for the foreseeable future, we should  at least do them right.

While browsing the internets, I came across this post on Learning 4 Kids, detailing how to make puffy paint. Even though Ella is not at the age where she cares about the puffiness of her paint, I decided to try it with her since she is at the age where she eats the paint. And if she is going to eat the paint, I would rather know exactly what is in it, even though her store-bought paints claim to be non-toxic.

It also is an easy and quick learning activity. We counted while I measured out the ingredients and went over colors as she made her palette selection. She helped mix and we talked about the texture of the ingredients. Of course, finger paints are a fantastic sensory activity.

Best of all, the homemade paints were SO much easier to clean up than the store-bought ones (washable and water based? The stains I am still scrubbing out of her clothes would beg to differ). A quick rinse of her hands and face, a few dabs of her shirt with a sponge, a wipe down of the high chair tray, and we were done.

We just might end up doing finger paints more often.

The two seconds where she was content actually painting on the paper instead of on her face. 

And that's more like it. 

Puffy Paint Recipe (as found on Learning 4 Kids)
1 tbsp self-rising flour
1 tbsp salt
3 tsp water
Food coloring

Easy Learning Activity for 1 Year Olds

I know a lot of readers of this blog have young kiddos themselves, so I thought I'd share an easy learning activity that I do with Ella. I'm a big believer that learning at this age should be fun and informal, and I try to incorporate teaching her into things she already likes to do. Since she is big right now on taking things in and out of containers, I decided to channel that energy into helping her learn to distinguish colors.  

This activity is incredibly simple. All you need are pom poms and an ice cube tray. I found the pom poms at Hobby Lobby- I want to say they were under $2 for a big bag of assorted sizes. All I do is put a couple of different colored ones in the ice cube tray compartments, then she sorts the rest into a bin with the matching color. She doesn't get it 100% (I'd be shocked if she did at this age) and after a couple of minutes it usually devolves into dumping the tray out and throwing the pom poms around her playroom. In the time that it lasts, though, it's a great little activity for helping her distinguish colors, match things up, and refine her motor skills.

The bigger pom poms are a huge favorite of hers as well. She likes seeing all the different types of containers she can put them into- tupperware, baskets, bowls. Seriously one of my best purchases recently. 

And for those of you worried about her eating them- well, she did try. However, they are fuzzy and apparently her sophisticated palate decided they weren't as tasty as things like dog food, and she hasn't tried since.