PB & J Sushi Rolls

Fun and simple twist on a staple lunch at our house. My kids got a lot more excited over eating these than they do the regular sandwich though. Here's what you do:

Remove crust from two slices of bread. With a rolling pin (or glass or whatever, really) completely flatten bread. Spread a thin layer of peanut butter and fruit spread on each slice of bread. Roll each slice into a tight spiral. Cut each spiral into four pieces. Eat and enjoy! Best with a glass of milk. :)

Pasta Dogs

This idea came from Family Fun. These are a couple of my kids favorite foods, and cooking them up like this made it so much fun to eat! Just slice up a hot dog, spear the pieces with dry spaghetti, and boil until the pasta is tender.

High Five Colors

I did this for my daughter's preschool one day. The theme was colors, so we played this little game. Just cut out handprints from different colored sheets of paper, and tape them to the wall. You then sit back and say, "Give Pink a high five!" And the child has to run up and "high five" the pink hand. It's such a simple little thing, but the girls LOVED it and we played for quite a while. My 2 year old even got into it later, and my daughter loved helping him out since he is just beginning to learn his colors. You can change it up anyway you want, such as "High five your favorite color and name it!"

(Sorry about the lack of posting! This pregnancy has really had me down!)

Sensory Bottles

Wave Bottle, Bubble Bottle, Slow Motion Bottle

This can be a great calming activity. They are fun to shake or roll and watch what happens with the different contents inside of the bottle.

Wave Bottle: fill 3/4 of the way with water, then add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and a few drops of food coloring.

Bubble Bottle: fill 3/4 of the way with water, then add 2 tablespoons of dish soap. We added food coloring to this one as well.

Slow Motion Bottle: fill with a clear thick liquid, such as light corn syrup, shampoo or hair gel. Then add small items of your choice. I put fun beads, small metal scrapbook eyelets, paperclips, safety pins, and glitter.

Be sure to add a little super glue to the inside of the lid so your child can't open the bottle!

Kid Twister

The best part about this simplified game of Twister is that it is so versatile. Here's how we played: we have these little animal cutouts, so we placed them on the floor and then I would call out instructions such as "put your right foot on the monkey," then "put your left foot on the dinosaur." My daughter loved it. You can use different colored paper to help learn colors, or try shapes, or combine both to add more challenge.

Goop

This was a favorite of mine as a child, so I knew my children would love it. Just mix two parts cornstarch to one part water. This is how I did it: I put the cornstarch, water and a drop of food coloring (my kids LOVE colors!) into a ziploc bag, then I closed it tight and let my kids mush it all together. They had a lot of fun with that! When it was all mixed, I poured it onto paper plates so they could really get their hands into it. After awhile, they mixed their two colors together to make purple.

Balloon Paddles

My kids had so much fun trying to keep the balloons off the floor with these balloon paddles. Just tape a paper plate to some sort of "handle" (we had paint stirrers, so I used those, but you could use rulers, wooden spoons, or whatever you have), blow up a couple balloons and have fun!

Paper Bag Blocks

These were fun. You just take paper bags (I used small since that's what I had at home, but I would really love to try the big ones), stuff them part way with newspaper, fold over and tape shut! The kids had a lot of fun stacking and knocking them over, tossing them into a big basket, and yes, even throwing them at each other. But nobody got hurt! :) My original plan was to have them decorate them, but they were too eager to play. Maybe next time. Anyway, cheap (free if you have bags) and very quick to throw together.

Ice Block Toys

For a fun twist to bath time, try Ice Block Toys. First, find some toys around your house that are water safe. Fill up some containers with water, and freeze the toys in them. Once they're frozen, dip them in warm water to release the ice blocks. Toss them in the tub, and let your kids have fun watching their toys appear! If you don't want to do bath time, let your kids play with them in a sink full of warm water.

Chunky Crayons

If you're like me, then you most likely have tons of broken crayon pieces in your crayon box. Rather than throw them away, I like to recycle them and use them again! This is one of my favorite things. It's great for learning colors, sorting, and teaching about recycling.

First of all, take all the paper off your crayon pieces. Then sort them however you want. This was my daughter's favorite part. You can sort like colors, by season, or just any combination of rainbow.
Put them in a sprayed muffin tin- you can use the big or mini one.

Put muffin tin in a 275 degree oven for about ten minutes (just keep an eye on them- they melt pretty fast). When they're all melted, take out and let cool. When it's cool enough to handle, you can put it in the freezer to speed up the process, and that also makes them come right out of the pan.

Take them out, and you have brand new chunky crayons! These are perfect for my one year old son, who gets frustrated with regular crayons.

If you have candy molds or other fun baking tins, you can use those as well. Just make sure your child knows they're not a treat! :)

Muffin Tin Meals

As a mother of a very picky, fidgety eater, I am all for ideas that will get her to eat! I've seen this around a lot, and thought I'd give it a try. I love it because it's so versatile- you can use a six muffin tin, or twelve, mini muffin tins, as well as switch up what you put in them. My daughter was actually excited about helping mom get lunch ready! The little mini spoon just made it more fun to eat.

For an older baby, you could do different finger foods.

"Scrap" Book

I save my scrap paper for my daughter to color on, but I found a way that's much more fun! We took several pieces of scrap paper, folded them in half and stapled down the edge to make a "book". Then I gave her some crayons and stickers and she made her very own book. She felt pretty important, if you can tell from the pictures below. Anyway, this is just a random daily activity that we spiced up a little.

Water Fight

Okay, so not very original, but sometimes the most spontaneous things are the very most fun! My husband and I were outside the other day when it was pretty hot, and we somehow got into a water fight, fully dressed of course! We involved my kids (being gentle with them) and they had a BLAST and didn't want to go inside. Yes, I had to deal with wet soggy clothes afterwards, but pure joy like that is worth it.

Bubbles and Bubble Wands

Sorry I've been missing in action! I've had a crazy couple of weeks.
I LOVE bubbles (and my kids do too.) I made this homemade solution because we go through so much of this stuff, and this is cheaper for us, plus it works great. I have a few more recipes I want to try, but for now here's this one.

Bubble Recipe:

(Fills a gallon milk jug)
11 Cups Water
4 Cups Ajax dish soap (anti-bacterial works best)
1 Cup corn syrup

Mix all together!

We've been having a great time experimenting with different bubble wands.

Bubble Wand Ideas:

First of all, pipe cleaners are awesome. Kids can make whatever shape/color they want.

Another thing I love to do- take a couple straws and cut them in half, then tape them together. Dip one end in bubble solution, and blow into the other end. This makes tons of little bubbles, and it's easy for young children to do.
Fly Swatters are GREAT. (You can buy a new clean one for really cheap.) Just dip and wave it around. Makes LOTS of bubbles. Funnels. We dipped the small end in the solution, then blew into the big end. Easy for my daughter.

The possibilities are endless!

Highchair Entertainment

I was getting really frustrated tonight trying to get a bunch of cleaning done while trying to keep my one year old out of it. He wasn't hungry, so snacks were out, and he was just restless- he got four shots this afternoon! :( Anyway, I decided to try this. I've had it in mind for awhile. All you do is take some little toys, tie them to pieces of string, and tape them to the high chair. This is GREAT because he loved playing with all the little toys, throwing them off, and then he could get them again. Bonus for my son in particular- he loves playing with his feet, so that was fun for him too. :)

Tape City

We had a lot of fun with tape this morning. We made roads for my daughter's cars! We even made a little parking lot. You could get really creative with this by accessorizing with toys (doll houses, little people, trees, animals...)


Idea from The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Basketsock

This may be a given, but I thought I'd post it anyway. We played our own version of basketball, but with socks and a basket. Both kids found it to be great fun (and mom and dad as well!) and really, how much damage can you do with socks?

Sticky Feet

Today, I took some clear contact paper and taped it to the floor, sticky side up. My kids had SO much fun walking on it, dancing on it, just playing in general. Their feet (and hands) not only stick to it, but make fun sounds coming up!

We got it out again later, (this time I put it on the kitchen floor, and it stuck better) and the kids had even more fun. They got pretty creative rolling toys across it and stuff. They're still in there playing- I'm going to have a hard time getting them to go to bed! :)

Idea from The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Painted Bread

We had fun this morning with some bread. Just take a little milk in some small containers, add a few drops of food coloring to each, get some clean paint brushes, and design away! We then toasted ours, or you can use them to make sandwiches.

Flying Fish

This is a super easy activity that even I enjoyed. When you throw the fish into the air (or drop them from a higher point), they kind of flutter and spin down. Then we took them outside where it was slightly windy... boy did those things fly! It was hilarious! My daughter stood on top of her slide and would let go, and they'd take off and we chased them all over the yard. Good times. Here's what ya do:

Cut 1 inch strips from the page of an old magazine (long ways). Cut a slit halfway into the strip at each end about 1 inch from the end. (At one end of the strip cut from the top halfway down to the middle, and at the other end cut from the bottom halfway up to the middle.) Bend the strip into a loop and push the slits together so that the loop closes and it looks like a fish.

This idea came from "The Toddler's Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner