Weekly Learning - Water

Day 1: Songs

If All the Raindrops Were Lemon Drops and Gum Drops

Rain, Rain Go Away (this is kind of a weird version, in my opinion, but the one I used to let my toddler watch got taken down off of YouTube for some reason)

Day 2: Activity

Play with ice cubes!

Put a bunch of ice cubes in a big bowl or tupperware. Explain, in toddler language of course, that when water gets really cold, it gets hard. Show them the ice cubes. Let them use there hands to touch the ice (if they want to). Then pour warm water into the bowl of ice cubes and watch them start to melt.

Let your toddler have fun with this - let them get wet if they want. It's summer time after all!  You could even put a couple ice cubes in their bath and let them play around with it.

Day 3: Get Out

Go have fun at a local splash pad or go to the pool! You could even have a play date with other mommies and set up a slip 'n slide or sprinkler for your toddlers to play with. Just have some fun in the sun. . . and in the water :)

Day 4: Activity

Water balloons!

Fill up several balloons with water and let your toddler have some fun throwing them and watching the water burst everywhere.

Tip: sometimes breaking water balloons in the grass makes for a harder mess to clean up, whereas if you do them on the cement you can sweep the balloon pieces up! But you do whatever you prefer.

Day 5: Library Day

Water, Water by Eloise Greenfield

I Am Water by Jean Marzollo

Toddler Activities - Balloon Blobs

Well, my kids are in bed and my hubby is reviewing for an exam that he has tomorrow, so I figured now is a good chance to blog about what Kimbri and I did yesterday morning.

We made Balloon Blobs! 

These are super simple and very inexpensive to make. That equals good, my friends :) I got the idea from the Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook. 

What you'll need:

-Balloons

- Flour

What you do:

- Blow up a balloon and keep it inflated for a minute, without tying the end, so that it can stretch out.

- Fit a funnel into the open end of the balloon and carefully spoon flour into the funnel. Put as much flour in the balloon as you can.

- Remove the funnel and tie a knot in the end of the balloon.

- And you're done! If you want you can draw faces or designs on the balloon like so:

Now your toddler has a way fun, squishy, new toy to play with! 

Toddler Activities- Piggy Bank

Sometimes it's the most simple things that toddlers love doing the best! 

Like putting coins, or "monnies" as Kimbri calls them, in a piggy bank. 

My toddler seems to love putting things in something, and then taking them out again, repeating the process who knows how many times! It's great entertainment :) And it's helpful when it's time to clean up and put all the toys away. You can make cleaning up a game!

Anyway. . .

This activity is pretty self-explanatory. Let your toddler have fun dumping all the coins out of the piggybank (they love hearing the coins jingle as they shake around inside the bank). 

Then let them put all the coins back in to the piggy bank! 

Brother is having fun playing with toys while Kimbri has fun with the piggy bank "game". 

And Kimbri is STILL going at it! I'm not kidding. . . she dumped them out and put them all back in FOUR times!! See? Toddlers love this kind of thing. And it's super easy! 

Just make sure you watch them closely so they don't put the coins in their mouth and choke on them.

Have fun! 

Toddler Activities - Homemade Play dough

Let's make some homemade play dough! 

This recipe is super simple and way easy. We all love easy, right? Ok, so there is one part to this recipe that is hard....

Stirring.

Stirring? You ask. I know, it doesn't sound hard. And it's not, at first. But the thicker the play dough gets the harder it is to stir! You'll see.

Anyway, other than that tiny little detail, the rest is a piece of cake!

Recipe:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 Tsp cream of tartar

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

4 cups water

Directions:

- Combine all the dry ingredients in a large pot. 

(Don't worry, the burner was NOT on in this picture. Kimbri just likes to mix the dry ingredients around before I turn the burner on.)

And yes, she was wearing her swimsuit around the house
 that day. She didn't want to take it off!

- Stir in the oil and water.

- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough starts to become dry and pulls away from the edges of the pot (dough should look more dry than wet).

- Divide dough into balls and add food coloring to them. Knead it really well. But be careful because it's really hot! You actually might want to let the dough cool for a little bit before doing this.  

Wear gloves or something if you don't want your hands
looking like this!

Weekly Learning - Animals

Day 1: Songs

I love this song for practicing the animal sounds because it shows the animal and asks what sound that specific animal makes. If you pause the song after each question, you can stop between each animal and practice the sound that, that animal makes, moving as fast or slow as your toddler needs.

Animal Sounds Song

Another fun animal song is of course Old MacDonald Had a Farm! The version of that song I posted is kind of weird, in my opinion, but one of the reasons I like it is because it shows all the different types of the same animal. Because let's face it, not all cows are black and white :) Here's the link:

Old McDonald

Day 2: Activity

My daughter loves to draw. Since sometimes I just like to keep things simple and easy, today's activity is drawing!

Get out some old blank sheets of paper and go for it! Get down on the floor with your cute little toddler and draw animals together. You don't have to be a professional artist to do this, my friends. Just have fun! Practice saying what the animal is called and what sound each animal makes as you draw it!

Day 3: Get Out

What kid doesn't just love going to the Zoo? Take a family trip or go with some other mommies. Make it a play date!

If you don't have a Zoo nearby, maybe there's an aquarium or animal museum you could visit. Or if you know someone that owns animals, ask if you can visit them.

A lot of parks even have ducks swimming in ponds or birds flying around. Wherever you go, just make your focus on the animals you see!

Day 4: Activity

Play the game, Charades, animal style.

Even if your toddler is too young to do it alone, letting loose and acting like a kid again is fun for you and fun for your kids :) Be silly with your toddler.

Go ahead, act like a monkey, walk like a penguin and turn into a horse and let your kids ride on your back. They'll love it!

Day 5: Library Day

You can make a trip to your local library to explore new books your toddler has never read or just select books from the ones you have at home to read, of course, focusing on animals.

Here are some of our favorite books/stories that involve animals:

- Good Night, Gorilla
- The 3 Little Pigs
- Panda in the Park
- 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm
- Zoo Babies
- The Journey Through collection (This is a great collection! There are 5 books that focus on animals in different types settings: Farm, Forest, Ocean, Jungle, and Desert.)

Weekly Learning - Colors:

Day 1: Songs

Click on the following links for two really cute songs that will help your toddler learn or review colors:

Flower Song

Balloon Song

Butterfly Color Song

*Tips: - When first teaching colors to your toddler, press pause after each color so they can have time to                   practice saying it and solidifying it in their mind.
       
           - I also have turned the sound off while it goes through the song so they can't hear the word of                       the color being shown. This helps test them to see if they really know it without hearing it!

Day 2: Activity

Hide-n-seek Colors:

Cut colored pieces of paper into circles, or you could use whole sheets of paper so you can reuse them. Hang the different colored papers around the room and ask them to find each color.

For younger toddlers that don't quite grasp the hide-n-seek concept yet, just hang the paper in plain sight, on the walls or on the couch, etc. . .

Day 3: Get Out or Review

Just go on a walk to the park or around your neighborhood. Especially pay attention to colors. Stop and ask your toddler what they see and ask them what color it is.

This is fun, gets you out of the house and helps your toddler solidify their colors!

Day 4: Around the house

Paint! I know this can get messy but it's really fun for toddlers :) It's most definitely an activity that I have to do with my toddler when my 7 month old is taking a nap!

Let them "paint" a picture with each of the colors. Mix different colors to create new colors! To them, it's like magic! They'll love it.

Day 5: Library

- The Crayon Box that Talked
- A Color of His Own
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see? 

Tuesday Treat Day - Jello & Bananas

I had fun doing this activity when I was a little girl and now I get to have even more fun doing it with Kimbri! 

It's really simple... and simple is always good! 

What you need: 

Bananas, Jello

What you do:

- Cut the banana however your toddler likes it. 

- Pour the Jello powder onto a plate.

- Have your toddler dip the banana in the Jello, like so:

- You're done! It's that simple. 

When you dip the banana in the powder, it turns to the color of the flavor it is! In our case we used Strawberry Cream Jello so our bananas turned PINK!  

You can use any color of Jello powder that you want! Have fun :)