Life with Emily

Fun and easy holiday craft: wrapping paper!!

For around $15, you can get a huge roll of butcher paper from Amazon. Get out crayons, markers, paint, whatever and go nuts with drawings, designs, patterns, words, stamps, handprints, doodles, anything!

It’s been a great way to keep Emily occupied with minimal supervision while I get the trees *just right* and she can’t wait to use it to wrap her presents! It’s also been good for giving her an opportunity to practice drawing and writing in a very “low stakes” environment.

Making goofy puppets with this very goofy girl today!! I made the Oscar the Grouch inspired one and did the hot gluing.

We used paint sticks from Lowe’s (the ones they give you for free) and a wooden spoon from the $1 store. I sanded the spoon first and then we painted them with acrylic craft paint and let them dry for a long time. We have a very large collection of random craft supplies we dove into for the rest.

I originally saw this idea as a set of characters from The Gruffalo and that was really cute, but we like making our own crazy monsters instead.

Happy everything from us to you!

Emily and I got out our Picasso Tiles (magnet tiles) and studied physics and geometry tonight. 🤓 We built a maze on our auto drip tray ($10 at any auto supply store; or, use a cookie sheet - we like the drip tray because it’s big). Then, we put a foam block under it and found a ball. We tilted the tray to make the ball move through our maze, like a labyrinth game. It was so cool to watch Emily figure out how to make it work - I could just see the gears turning in her head! After that, we built a parking garage and put all the cars to bed and built a tower to protect them. 😊

This is a great idea for winter!

DOES PAINTING INSIDE SCARE YOU?

I hear you. Giving your toddler a paintbrush inside can feel like a frightening game of herding cats- when the cats are covered in paint and headed straight for your sofa 🥴😲. Check out this trick to keep the art contained, fun and safe! BONUS, fill up the tub with sudsy water when you're done for a mid-day bath and clean up!

CHECK OUT HOW I SET THIS ONE UP HERE -> https://busytoddler.com/2019/02/bath-tub-art/

We rediscovered our Picasso Tiles (magnet tiles) today! I always forget how cool these things are. Lots of great problem solving practice while learning about geometry, colors, light, magnetism...and they are just a lot of fun.

Since our painting activity yesterday was so much fun, we tried again today with some finger paint soap we had around the house. I’ve found these for $1 at Target and also at Dollar Tree. They worked ok, but the colors are not very bold/saturated. It was also harder to clean up than the tempera paint - I had to scrub Emily in the tub and still missed a few spots. The washable tempera paint rinses right off. We will probably keep these paints for bathtub play and stick to tempera paint outside.

It’s a lovely summer day in Minnesota so I set up a project I’ve been thinking about for a while: a colorful car wash! I gave Emily washable tempera paint from Michaels and a variety of brushes and rollers and let her go to town. A lot of paint ended up on her (which I totally expected and do not discourage) and the deck, in addition to the car, but it all washed off with regular soap and water (and a rinse from the hose).

Novel Effect is a very cool, totally FREE app that listens and adds sound effects as you read children’s books! It includes tons of books: Llama Llama Red Pajamas, Green Eggs and Ham, Where the Wild Things Are, Dragons Love Tacos, the Gruffalo, etc etc etc!! It’s also available in the Google Play store.

Novel Effect: Read Aloud Books

Alphabet Rice Sensory Bin!!!!

I got some alphabet clothespins for $3 at Target because they were cute. I got a package of ABC bulletin borders for $1 because I like the font and rainbow colors (they are black & white on the other side). Everything else we had on hand!

I took one set of the borders and cut the letters apart. I laminated them and cut them out. There was plenty left to hang some around the house too.

You can search our page for my post about rainbow rice or just google it, but in short, I dye it with vinegar and food coloring and store it in a canister from the $1 store. We’ve been using and reusing this same rice for over a year.

I put everything in our DIY sensory bin with some plastic cups and shot glasses from the $1 store that we’ve been playing with all summer (they are translucent and fun to play with in the sun or with a flashlight).

I showed Emily how we could choose a clothespin and then find the letter buried in the rice. We sound them out and think of words that start with that sound. When she gets bored with that, she just scoops and pours and explores. Hours and hours of entertainment. 😊

Target currently has these plastic trays in Bullseye’s Playground for $3. They are perfect for containing messy toddler arts and crafts! Today we are painting on regular printer paper with washable tempera paint. In the future, I can imagine filling the wells with pom poms, googly eyes, sequins, beads, etc for all sorts of craft projects.