A Painted Jack O'Lantern

Activity completed September 29, 2015.

I found a pair of these thick cardboard jack o'lanterns at Hobby Lobby and picked them up for us to decorate. One I kept as a stencil to trace onto construction paper. The other I let Tripp paint. He wasn't very interested, but he painted a good amount of it.

I put it up on our screen door where I usually put seasonal "Welcome" signs. This really helped him take ownership and pride in the project. Whenever he'd see another pumpkin, he'd talk about the pumpkin outside.

A Pretty Flower Window Garland

 Project completed 8/18/15

I love having fresh flowers in the house, but unfortunately both of our cats like them too - a bit too much. They will find any flowers I put out and either knock the vase over or chomp them to bits. When this happened recently to a bunch of flowers, I decided we could turn them into a pretty window decoration instead. It was easy and still adds that pretty look of flowers.

For this project we used:

• Flowers
• Contact paper (or these laminating sheets)
• Construction paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Hole punch (optional)
• Ribbon (or string) 

First I traced a cup eight times on yellow and purple construction paper to form the circles (the rim of the cup for the wider circle and the bottom of the cup inside). I cut these out to form rings.

On the laminating sheets, I laid the rings down on two laminating sheets - four for Tripp and four for me. I let him choose the colors and he picked two purple and two yellow rings.

Then we pulled apart the flowers, talking about the types of flowers, the colors and how sticky the laminating sheet was.

After the circles were filled, I put another sheet on top of both of our laminating sheets and pressed down to seal them together. I cut the circles out and carefully pressed as hard as I could to get all the air out.

These were fun for Tripp to look at. Almost like real nature flash cards or something like that.

Then it was simple to cut out a hole and string the circles on ribbon. Attached to the playroom window, they make a pretty nature display!

Free, Random Play

I have been working on setting up our extra bedroom as a playroom for Tripp, and in doing so I've decided to keep my old Ikea Expedit desk as a craft station. Slowly I'm consolidating all of the random craft supplies in the house into this one spot (I have more than you'd think, for someone who doesn't really consider herself artistic). It has worked so well, with tons of storage, and has been a spot for many fun activities and crafts. It's really nice to have a little corner of the house set up just for creativity.

The other day I was looking through some craft supplies and Tripp spotted some dowel caps. Add to that some beads, air dry clay (could have used play dough, too, but I decided to use up the rest of the clay), and some Lakeshore implements he got for his birthday from his cousin, and why not have some creative open ended fun? I put it all into a disposable aluminum baking sheet and let him do what he wanted.

He had fun putting the beads into small plastic containers and dumping them out, asking me to form balls of clay and then picking them up with the tongs, rolling the dowel caps around and pressing beads into the clay. The air dry clay we used was from Crayola and was sparkly, too, which added a fun dimension to his explorations. So fun!

He spotted some glitter glue from the same cousin at the end of his play and of course we couldn't stop without trying that!

Dry Shelters - Monsoon Learning Activity

Here in Arizona, we have a summer monsoon that can often be very dramatic, and scary for kids. It sounds weird to talk about a monsoon and heavy rain in the desert, but it happens every year. Here's some information from Arizona State University about our monsoon...

 The Arizona Monsoon is a well-defined meteorological event (technically called a meteorological 'singularity') that occurs during the summer throughout the southwest portion of North America. During the winter time, the primary wind flow in Arizona is from the west or northwest—from California and Nevada. As we move into the summer, the winds shift to a southerly or southeasterly direction. Moisture streams northward from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This shift produces a radical change in moisture conditions statewide.

Recently at Tripp's weekly library group, we got the chance to explore making dry shelters during rain. Our teachers set out material like cardboard, blocks, straws, and other items and asked us to work with our kids to make a shelter for someone (Little People toys) from the "rain" (a spray bottle of water).

This activity was a little tricky to me because Tripp's not quite at the age to grasp something like this. He's also not a huge fan of building with blocks; he'd rather knock them down, if anything. So ultimately our shelter ended up being more of my design - I tried to engage Tripp but he wanted to play with cars (maybe I should have presented it as a shelter for cars instead!).

This is one I plan to revisit later, maybe next year, when he can grasp the idea of sheltering from the rain. I think it will be fun to hunt around our house to find material to protect a doll from the rain. Filing this one away!

Pipette Salt Painting - Everyday Math Activity

This was a project that didn't work as well as I was hoping. It may be one we revisit in the future though!

I wanted to do a project with number shapes and pipettes (because pipettes are Tripp's favorite way to make a mess - I mean art! Ha!). I'd seen blog posts like this one that seemed fun, easy, and not overly messy, so I got our supplies and we headed to the playroom craft table.

Supplies:

• Cardstock
• Pipettes
• Glue
• Table salt
• Watercolor, or water with food coloring
• A pencil

This project was great for everyday math learning, numbers literacy, color mixing, and fine motor exercise.

I drew the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on paper and had Tripp help me trace them with glue. Then we added salt and tried our hand at the pipettes. However, Tripp's love of spraying the colored water all over the place was our downfall. You have to be a little more mindful and slow with this project, so that you can see the salt absorbing the color. This is one we'll come back to when he's a little older!

It's still fun to see him learning and reacting to new things, though!

What's That Sound? Everyday Math Activity

A weekly group Tripp and I attend uses the Parents as Teachers curriculum. This idea was part of one of the weekly handouts under Everyday Math, and I thought I'd give it a try with Tripp.

What's that sound?
This activity will give your child the opportunity to use her sense of hearing to match sounds. You will need several small containers with lids. Make a few pairs of shakes by partially filling the containers with small objects and taping the lids on securely. For example, put a few dried beans in two of the containers, paperclips in two others, and so on. Tell your child to shake a container and then find the one that sounds the same. 

Our downfall for this activity was doing it on the craft desk in his work-in-progress playroom - the same spot we've done a few projects with pipettes, which Tripp loves. (Hence why the desk is a little dirty, too... too much science!) He spotted the pipettes right away and wanted to do something with them instead of listening to rattling containers - but we pressed on anyway.

I filled 3 containers, one with M&Ms, one with small beads and one with pennies. We enjoyed rattling them, identifying the sounds and identifying what was the same and different. And then we moved on... to a pipette activity. Ha!

A Visit to: Children's Museum of Phoenix

On July 27, my little guy turned 2 years old. Two! Who can believe it? I love seeing him grow and develop every day.

For his birthday, we thought it would be a great day to check out the Children's Museum of Phoenix, located in the downtown heart of the city. It's a bit of a drive for us, but I just love the area around there - close to Heritage Square, the Arizona Science Center, Chase Field, and US Airways Center.

The cost is currently $11 per person aged 1 and up - and so worth it. Parking is free, too! The museum used to participate in the Culture Pass program, but unfortunately bowed out of that this summer. (You can still get free admission to lots of awesome places around the Valley with the Culture Pass - it's worth checking out at your local library.)

Although the museum is usually closed on Mondays, they make an exception during the heat of the Arizona summer and open for Mondays in June and July. That was great news for us since his birthday fell on a Monday this year.

We were also able to bring along my husband's cousin and his son, who is about 3 months older than Tripp. We knew the boys would have a great time together. I packed sack lunches with sandwiches and snacks for us since I had read up on the museum beforehand and knew they had a cafe with an area to bring your own food. It worked out very well as we added a selection of drinks to our lunch and ate before we checked out the museum (can't have fun on an empty stomach).

The museum has lockers, with keys, for 50 cents per use. If you don't want to lug around a diaper bag, lunch pail, etc., definitely bring a stash of quarters. It's so nice to explore the museum without feeling like your kid's pack mule.

We just loved the museum! Everything there seems engineered to delight and encourage a child's imagination. It's so nice to be able to let kids run around, play, and be their fun-loving selves. This museum offered 3 stories of fun, and we'll definitely be back.

Highlights of our day there:

The Schuff-Perini Climber, a huge tower of climbing, eye-catching fun.

Sand art

Tricycle Carwash (with three styles of trikes so that everyone could enjoy the make-believe fun)

Cute critters in the art room

And the Under-Threes Room, which was probably Tripp's very favorite room. With lots of natural light and wood, this room was a great spot for our little guys to explore.

There's much more to explore, and a couple of rooms we didn't even get to on this visit. I'm looking forward to making the trek to Phoenix quite a few more times!