Jack-O-Lantern Counting

We haven't done this activity in a long time so MD enjoyed it this week.  Especially the halloween theme.  He is getting really good at it and I love to see that he is learning.

Spooky Sorting

Sorting is one of those things that never seems to get boring for MD.  I got these pumpkin containers at a yardsale and the mini erasers at Walmart and this is just one of the uses that we are getting out of them this month!

Halloween Theme Sensory Tub

October is here and that means the Halloween fun can begin!  Now that I am finally done with preparations for SE's birthday party I can have more time for other fun things.... Here's MD's sensory tub with a Halloween theme.  MD was not impressed with the skeletons so we ended up pushing those to the side since he does not want to play with them.  And any tub of play stuff for him has to contain at least one truck! 

I've been super busy....

Working on this.... SE's 1st birthday party.  Most of my "free" time has been consumed by this for the past month.  But it is now done and over with and now we are ready to begin with October fun and activities. 

There have been many changes around here lately.  MD started preschool.  He goes 3 hours a day and it was an adjustment at first.  He loves it now and it is really helping him with his social skills.  SE is walking now and becoming a different little person of his own.  So I am looking forward to doing more developmental and educational activities with him as well as expanding on MD's knowledge and experiences.  And of course arts and crafts will continue to be one of the most important things I do with both of them ♥

Home Bowling

MD really likes this bowling set that grandmother got him recently.  I don't like it much because it is difficult to set the pins back up after he knocks them down and he definately needs help with it. 

He loves it though and gets so excited when he knocks them down. 

We tried getting SE involved in this one but he wasn't interested in rolling the ball towards the pins.  He was very interested in tasting the ball. 

Practical Life! Making Pizza..

Lots of fun for my guy....

 

And tasty too... it's like art he can eat for lunch!

 

Shaving Cream on Easil Chalkboard

This idea cam from the Artful Parent.  MD had a lot of fun spreading the shaving cream everywhere.  I tried to encourage him to "draw" with his fingers but he was to busy feeling the sensation as he spread it over and over on the board and on his arms. :)

The Grouchy Ladybug

We've been reading a few books from the library lately and one of them is "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle.  We read both the English and Spanish version, "La Mariquita Malhumorada".  So I decided to use another used carton from the bottom of a frozen pizza to make a ladybug.

MD had fun making it even though a was process that took a couple of days to finish.  Not that it was complicated, it's just we needed time for the layers of paint to dry and by the time the paint was dry I was busy with something else around the house.

I found another spare piece of carton in the garage to cut out the shape of the body to paint black.

But we ran into a problem.  I had never ever realized that we don't have any black tempera paint in the house.  So we improvised.  I use to work with oil paints and always made black by combining blue and brown.  So I tried it with tempera paints.  That made a dark grey color, to which I added black food color, and there you have it.  Black paint!

On the last day, MD glued black construction paper dots to the bugs wings, and I stapled it all together, adding small pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes.  I also grabbed a piece of chalk to draw in a mouth and asked MD if we wanted me to add a grouchy mouth or a happy mouth.  He chose happy.

Fine Motor Work and Tasty Exploration

Found an activity they did together.  MD practiced something he hadn't done in a long time.  Screwing and unscrewing bottles of different sizes.  He can now do this pretty well....SE tasted the bottles.

Watercolor Ocean (and Park) Resist

We recently took a few family trips both two the beach and to an aquarium where the kids got to see many types of sea life.  MD has been infatuated with sealife, especially sharks for quite a while now.  So I wanted to focus some art activities on this theme.  Here is our watercolor ocean resist.  I drew the sea creatures with crayon, colored in a couple of them, and then had MD color the rest.  The funny thing is, MD has never really colored in a coloring book.  Most, if not all his art has been pretty "free" so he really did not get the concept of coloring inside the lines.  This is the first time I showed him how to stay inside, but of course he did not. 

I really don't know how to go about this because small part of me thinks he should learn to color inside the lines and maybe he should know this by now, or at least try.  But another part of me (a bigger part) feels that this would be hindering the creativity that I am trying to encourage in him.  So for now I guess I'll wait.

This is our ocean, after he colored and then brushed over it with blue and teal watercolors.

 

And this is his picture of a "park" he did all by himself. 

Shake Shake Shake

Saw this on the somewhere on the web many many moons ago and we've been using it on and off for a while both with numbers and letters.  It's a fun game to use for letter or number recognition.  We put the marble in, give it a good shake, and then open the egg carton and name the number/letter where the marble landed.  Anything with movement and silliness is always a big hit!

Beach Sand Playdough

I made a batch of playdough for MD this week and added a little bit of black food color (to make it grey) and a whole lot of beach sand from our recent trip.  Since he's been excited about making sandcastles I thought this was a great idea when I saw it on Counting Coconuts. 

It is definately fun but I think I added to much sand because it's a little on the dry side.  Still works though. 

This is our quick mini castle.

Untitled Post

I am calling this Untitled Post because I don't really know what to call it.  I saw this a while back on 5 Orange Potatoes and thought it was a great idea.  That post was called "Iridescence" and rightly so.  What I overlooked when we set out to try this activity is that you are supposed to use neon food colors to create the iridescence.  At least that's what I understand of it.  So ours didn't quite look the same, but MD still liked it.

He enjoyed pouring salt on the ice.  He always enjoys pouring salt for some reason. 

He also really liked dropping food colors on the salty ice and we had fun watching the ice melt with all the different colors.  I think we went a little overboard on the colors but it was a very fun and quick activity.  I like to call it "art". 

Beach Dino Dig

We took a little family beach vacation recently, and this was one "toy" I took along for MD.  My mother gave him this dinosour bones excavating kit.  I didn't think it would be so much fun for him but it was.  He loved it.

He sifted the bones that I hid for him in the sand and dusted them off with a brush.

So excited!!

Spray Paint

Here was a nice summer art idea I had.  Food coloring and water in sray bottles.  Too bad the colors were too thinned out with the water and didn't look so bright on the paper.  The paper got soaked.  But as with most of our art around here, we did it more for the process then the final product.  This final product was definately not saved, hee hee.

Sorting Firemen and Policemen

I've had this post for a while now and had forgotten to post it! 

I got these firement and policemen at the dollar store.  Sorting them is lots of fun for a little boy obsessed with firemen.

Drawing Letters

On this day, MD chose to "draw" letters during his art time.  Cute.

Bottle Cap Letters

I had forgotten about this but..... this is like the water bottle cap numbers I made only this one has upper and lower case letters for matching uppercase and lowercase.

Rainbow Pasta Suncatchers

I have been wanting to do these for a while now since I saw them on Pink and Green Mama. 

They look so colorful and beautiful!

I finally found some time to dye the noodles with food color.

The next day, MD and I both worked on making these while SE napped.  We drizzled school glue on wax paper and got to gluing the pasta.

We hadn't done a glueing activity in a while so MD got a little carried away...

Shaving Cream Fun and a Confession....

MD is now loving doing sensory activities like mixing colors in this shaving cream.  His speech is also coming along really well and makes life a lot easier.  What doesn't make life any easier?  An extremely active and curious soon to be 10 month old.  SE will be 10 months old this week and for the last month or so life has been turning upside down around here.  We used to have our Art and Learning time in the morning after breakfast.  Now this schedule is impossible because SE will not stay put for one minute.  He is all over everything he sees including MD's art projects in progress and or educational material, and constantly interrupts any type of structured activity I may have for MD.  So now we mostly all play together at that time instead which makes great memories but little to post about.  Sometimes when SE naps for a descent length of time, I'll get a chance to work with MD or give him an art activity.  Those are good days.  Because usually all I get to do while SE naps, is make MD lunch, eat lunch, and clean up a bit.  Then SE wakes up and it's back to watching him constantly.  He will not for any reason stay anymore than 2-3 minutes in a Pack-N-Play without yelling his little head off . . . . so he's all over the house exploring, tasting, and destroying.  This is my life for now.  This is why posts have gotten few and far between.  That's all folks :)