More Winter Activites

Ice Painting

Ellie has been very interested in the icicles we have hanging all over our house. We painted with the ice and talked about how it was frozen water.

At first she was a little unsure, but got really into it. I've seen this idea before as a summer-time outdoor activity, so we may do it again when it is hot outside.


Snowy Trail Mix

Not very healthy, but a fun treat. I put everything in bowls so Ellie could see and work on her pouring skills.

Once she tasted the M&Ms she would not let them out of her sight. (She did a great job of labeling each of the colors as she ate them, so if you want a junky color activity, there is another idea.)

Bring the Snow Inside

This idea came from my friend Jessie. It has been too cold to play outside the last couple of days. I was trying to get dinner ready for missionaries and friends to come over and this worked as a great diversion.

Puff Paint Snowman

We did this a while ago, but I didn't get pictures. I've always loved finger painting directly on the table with shaving cream as a quick easy distraction for kids, but just learned that you can add glue to make it into puff paint. You can't see very well from the picture, but it has a fun texture after it dries. Just mix equal amounts of shaving cream and glue. (You can also add food coloring to do different colors.) Use a paintbrush and make sure it doesn't get in the eyes or mouth!

Too Much Stuff

We were out running errands today and I looked over at my passenger seat. This is what I saw:

Just how many bags do I need anyway? There is the library bag, the diaperbag (full of toys, snacks and of course diapers...just in case), the purse...since I don't want to take the whole diaperbag into the stores, a reusable grocery bag for the shopping trip, and my primary bag I still hadn't brought in since Sunday. No wonder it is hard to get out of the house sometimes. Besides trying to get the kid in the car I'm taking the whole house with me!

Boots

Ellie got some hand-me-down boots this week from her friend Abby. Apparently they were Abby's favorite shoes. They have already quickly become Ellie's favorite as well. She loves that she can put them on all by herself. This results in her wearing them around the house ALL day.
Here are a few examples:

While trying to get her dressed

I had to take off the boots to get her pants off, but she insisted she needed them back on before she could sit down to go potty. (Just as a side note, she is very interested in the potty right now, but always asks to use it after she has already gone in her diaper. I'm trying to follow her lead and not push if she isn't ready, but I don't want to miss the opportunity if now is a good time. Any suggestions?)

And she needed them back on after getting her pajamas on as well. I did tell her she couldn't wear them to bed, so she said good night to the boots. I'm sure they'll be back on first thing in the morning.

6 more weeks of Winter

This week our theme is winter. I haven't done a great job of taking pictures of our activities, so I'll just post what we have and try to do better the rest of the week.

We started off Monday with Groundhog's day of course. We made groundhog hats, played with our shadow's on the wall, watched a YouTube video to learn about groundhogs and made these groundhog puppets.

Brielle is still very excited about glue.

We read a fun book called Substitute Groundhog. The groundhog gets sick and is trying to find someone to fill in for him on groundhog's day. Brielle was mostly interested in the armadillo that was in the story and wanted to learn the sign for armadillo. (I didn't know that one, so had to look it up to show her).

Ice Cream Snow

We had some fresh snow today which gave us the chance not only to play outside, but to make some ice cream. Ellie loves cooking projects and this was a fun one.

She loved the finished project, but then asked for some hot chocolate.
I need to remember to get video of her saying ice cream. It sounds really funny and makes me laugh every time.

National Popcorn Day

So, the actual day is up to debate. I've seen that it was January 19th. I've also seen that it falls at the end of January and usually near the superbowl. Anyway, we chose to celebrate National Popcorn Day today.

Warning: Popcorn is a choking hazard and not recommended for Toddlers under age 3 (that being said I do let Ellie eat popcorn as long as I am with her. I also give her other foods on the choking hazard list such as grapes, nuts, corn and beans. Please don't report me as being a bad mother!)


(Ellie with her friend Paiton, who came over to play. Ellie LOVES watching the popcorn pop)

Texture

Ellie loves playing with texture. Beans, Rice, Water, Bubbles...whatever I give her she keeps herself well entertained. She loved filling up different containers with popcorn.

Popcorn Snowman

This is how it could look....

use your imagination...this is a Picasso style snowman

Popcorn Pictures

It was a little bit hard to understand the concept that once the popcorn touches the glue it is not a good idea to eat it.

More Color Fun

I think it is safe to say after today that Ellie officially knows the basic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Black and White). She still will default to yellow a lot, so when you ask her a color she starts saying yellow, but then tells me what the actual color is.

Here are some of today's highlights:

Traffic Lights

So, you're supposed to have the kid rip the paper. This was extremely frustrating for Ellie. I ended up helping her, but we'll have to work more on the fine-motor skills I guess.

She did love being in charge of the glue. She was very amazed that the paper stuck to the glue bottle.

She would sometimes start laying a paper in the wrong circle, but then look at it and pick it up to move it to the correct one.

Color Squishers

We've done this before with colored Corn Syrup. This time I used the left over yogurt finger paint from Monday. She didn't get very into this activity, because she knew that it was the finger paint and wanted to really paint instead...so we did.

Color Matching Parking Lot

This was a fun use of our color cards. My favorite though was when Brielle found a lowercase "t". She thought it looked like an airplane and was VERY excited. She started running through the house with it saying "airplane, airplane" Obviously she doesn't really know her letters yet. Now that we have the colors down, I guess we might have to focus on those.


We also went to Impression 5 Children's Museum today. I was a bit busy keeping track of Ellie and Wes so didn't get great pictures. Maybe next time.
I told Brielle this morning that we would go after lunch. All morning long she kept bringing me her shoes saying "seum, seum!"

Colors

Well, this doesn't have to do with colors, but we started of the day by joining a group of mom's at Krispy Kreme. They offer a free "service" for groups where they let the kids decorate donuts. I think they are just trying to get kids hooked at an early age, but it was still a fun activity.

Ellie loved the sprinkles. She doesn't really care for donuts all the much though. She only ate about 1/4 of the donut and picked off sprinkles on the rest.

She did love watching the donuts being made.

Color Mixing

This was a really fun way to focus on colors. Brielle didn't seem to understand the science of primary colors making secondary colors, but she loved mixing the colors.

She spent at least 30 minutes playing with the water and might have gone longer if we didn't have to leave to meet friends at McDonalds for lunch. She thought it was really funny to pretend to drink the colored water. I'm sure it would be safe, but I discouraged it anyway.

Color Match Cards

I made some color cards that we played a few games with and will continue to use for other projects as well. We tried a simplified Go Fish, which was fun. I tried to see if she could play memory, but she would just pick up the cards as I layed them down...we'll have to save that for when she is older.

Her favorite game: I put the cards across the room on the piano bench. I asked her to get me a certain color and she would run and grab it and then bring it to me. It was a great way for me to sit on a chair and relax while she ran around to get her energy out.


Some favorite color-related songs we've been singing:
The Spectrum Song (from Disney)
The Rainbow Song (from Signing Time)
Our Primary Colors (from the LDS children's songbook)