Contact paper is amazing. Turn it sticky side out and tape it with painter's tape or masking tape to any surface and kids will go crazy. Very small ones may enjoy just feeling the stickiness. Others will want to stick things to it. Roman really enjoys when I give him small paper shapes to stick to the contact paper. He likes to stick it on and take it off. And when he's done, we turn it around and stick it to a window for a few days for him to look at. You can talk about shapes, colors, and textures very easily with this activity.
KiwiCo - Tadpole Boxes: These are age appropriate boxes that are shipped out each month. You give them your child's birthday and they pick activity crates to ship to you. I'm going to share the ones we get on here, so you guys can see what they are like. If you decide you want to subscribe as well, you can use my link and get $10 off for yourself and $10 off for Roman as well.
Water Play - It contains 4 stackable floating frogs, a floating Lilypad, a slide, a wet toy drying bag, and a book about sinking and floating. The print-out is a set of colored lily pads for color sorting. I just used regular colored paper instead since my printer isn't working well.
Sensory: This crate is mostly about playing in the water as a sensory experience. It is also about color recognition with the stacking frogs and motor skills to stack the frogs and slide them down the slide.
Safari Tracks - Road Mat, Elephant Car, Felt Leaves, Book (Olive's Duck Chase), the included print-out for this one was a camera with removable pictures of animals
Visual Tracking: can you follow the path with your elephant car, can you name the animals, find the giraffe, find the elephant, find the hidden leaves.
Buzzy Beehive - 2 puzzle boards, 6 bee pieces, a bee hive, a book, wonder magazine, and instruction booklet, On the website you can print out a bee matching activity as well.
This box is about learning shapes and colors. It is also about fine motor control. We can push the bees into the hive using the door on the front or the slot on top. To get the bees our, we shake it and they fall out a hole on the bottom. We can match the colors and shapes on the bee puzzles.
Science with little ones isn't always a true science experiment. It usually means doing something that will seem like magic to them. You can explain how things work while you do them and some of it will stick. Some of it probably won't but the process is what is important. What did they see, hear, feel, smell, and sometimes taste during the process? Since most things for early childhood are centered around the senses, these are the important questions.
Painting is a fantastic sensory activity for children of all ages. I think our first time painting with Roman was around 2 months old. He was laying on his tummy and I had paper and paint in a ziploc. He used his hands to smear the paint around in the bag. There are different ways to paint depending on age and also what kind of mess you are comfortable with. I'm going to share some pictures and ideas of different painting activities Roman and I have done throughout his life so far. I will also share some edible paint recipes for parents with little tasters.
Painting in a bag
I put 2 dollops of paint on a small piece of cardstock and put it inside a sealed ziploc. Then I put it on top of a small towel and let my little man feel and squish the paint through the bag. Then when he was done, I removed it from the bag and allowed it to dry.
Painting with objects
One of Roman's favorite ways to paint is using his toys as brushes. You can use anything that is easily washable or that can go in the dishwasher. Here are a few of our favorites.
Edible Paint Recipe
4 tbs cornstarch
2 oz cold water
1 cup boiling water
Mix cornstarch and cold water in a pan until mostly dissolved. Add boiling water and mix. Then put on the stove over medium heat until you see clear spots start to show. Then remove from heat and keep stirring. When it forms a pudding like consistency, divide into desired bowls and add food coloring.
My name is Aubrey Capps and I am a stay at home mom. I was a preschool teacher before this and really enjoy stimulating young minds. I have a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Development and Education. I have an almost 2 year old, a husband, and 2 dogs. Sometimes things get a little hectic around here, but I have some easy activity ideas that help our world and hopefully will yours as well.
