Shaving Cream Swirl Art: Father's Day Craft Idea

Father's Day is fast approaching and sometimes it can be really hard to figure out what to get Dad. When the kiddos are little homemade stuff is always a big hit and this fun activity uses some shaving cream in honor of Dear old Dad to create a beautiful tie-dyed work of art!

The activity is quite simple, so even toddlers can get in on the fun! All you need for this one is some foamy white shaving cream, a container to spray it in, some food colouring, a couple of q-tips or straws, and some white paper to make your art print on when you're finished.

Start by spraying some shaving cream into the container, you don't need a lot, just enough to make sure that you have a full coating of your tray. Once you've sprayed the shaving cream, you can smooth it out just using your hands so you're starting with a flattened surface.

Add a few drops of food colouring to the shaving cream, making sure to add 2-3 drops to each spot so you have a good little bit of colour there.

Once the colour is on the shaving cream you can start making the master piece! Use the q-tip or straw to swirl the colours around the shaving cream making all kinds of cool tie-dyed patterns. It's ok if the littles get their hands in there too--it's just shaving cream so it washes off pretty easily, although they might have some colouring left on their hands.

Once you have the colour patterning you're happy with (and you can keep adding more and more food colouring until you have the desired effect) simply place a piece of white paper on top of the shaving cream and softly rub all over the back of it pressing it down lightly into the shaving cream.

This will transfer the colour from the food colouring onto the paper. If you rub the paper lightly down into the shaving cream you should get the colour to transfer without having too much of the shaving cream stick to the paper.

Once you have your print simply set the sheets aside to dry and tidy up! The extra shaving cream that stuck to the paper will absorb in to the paper as you let it dry.

Once your papers are dry you can do anything you like with them! You could write a message right on to the picture, or cut out a tie-dyed hand print or heart to use in a card. The possibilities are endless! Make sure you snap a few photos of the process too so Dad can see his little having fun playing with the shaving cream.

"Exploding" Tie-Dye Milk

This is a super cool science activity that's sure to impress your little and have them wanting to try it over and over again! We were at our local OEYC (Ontario Early Years Center) this morning and they were having a "Science" themed morning. They had a lady come in to do some simple activities with the kids, which the boy-o of course loved, so we decided to keep the science fun going when we got home!

This activity is called many different things, and so you might have heard it referred to as Tie-Dye Milk, Colour Milk, Exploding Milk, etc. but it all boils down to the same awesome activity no matter what you call it. I've decide to take the best of all worlds and call it "Exploding" Tie-Dye Milk.

All you need for this activity is some milk (the higher the fat the better--we used 2% and it worked ok, but homo would be better!), a container to put the milk in, some food colouring, dish soap, and some Q-Tips. Poor a thin layer of milk into the bottom of your container and then put in a few drops of each colour food-colouring.

Now the fun part!! Dip your Q-Tip into the dish soap and then touch the Q-Tip in the center of one of the colour drops and watch the colour shoot away from the Q-Tip making cool swirling patterns in the milk. You can re-dip in the dish soap and keep touching the Q-Tip all over your container to watch the awesome patterns that emerge.

You can also swirl the Q-Tip around in the container and watch the colours run away as well! The boy-o was totally fascinated by this activity, and loved watching the colour spread out across the container. Once it started to get a little murky we added a few more drops of colour to brighten it back up a bit and started over again with making the colours run.

The reason that this activity works is the dish soap interacts with the fat molecules in the milk, which is why using a fuller fat milk makes for a better experience. The activity is another great one for some quiet toddler play or a rainy day. 

To make the activity last longer simply dump out the coloured milk and put a fresh new layer in the container. It requires very little milk, so even repeating the activity a few times is still a very cost effective science exploration. (especially if your milk is getting to the end of its shelf life and you don't know how to use it up!)

We'll definitely be filing this one away for use another day and I hope you and your little enjoy it as much as we did!

Bingo Dabber Letters

Now that I'm done with school and back at home with the boy-o I've been looking for some new sensory or educational activities that we can do together, especially when the weather isn't co-operating and we're stuck inside for the afternoon. This is a super simple activity (although a little messy since bingo dabber ink stays on the hands for days...) that we both really enjoyed working on.

It's a great activity to help your toddler get a bit more familiar with the letters of the alphabet and you could use it for numbers as well. Essentially all you need is some blank paper, some bingo dabbers, and a pen or marker to draw some circles on the paper. (We also used our "craft cardboard" to protect the table, and a smock) The circles don't need to be perfect by any means, but they do need to be big enough that a bingo dabber dot could comfortably fit inside it.

We tried a few letters and the boy-o caught on really quickly. I showed him how to do the first one by making a "dot" inside the circle, and that's all the instruction he needed--as off he went filling in the rest of the dots. He did a fantastic job at it, and was really focusing to make sure his "dots" were right inside the circles. After doing a few letters I just gave him a totally blank page to let him have at it and let his creative ideas flow.

We'll definitely be doing more of this in the future! It's also a really great activity for working on hand-eye coordination with your toddler, and when they finish it's such a feeling of accomplishment for them to see their hard work!

Homemade Slime: AKA Gak to Some

I've been wanting to try out a slime recipe for a while now, but this was proving to be much more difficult than I thought. There are ALL KINDS of recipes floating around on the web about how to make Borax-Free slime, and I can tell you from personal experience that they were disasters.

We tried making it with liquid starch, we tried making it with laundry detergent, and it was all epic fail. EPIC. So I gave in and tried making it with Borax and we all lived to tell the tale. The boy-o didn't even attempt to put it near his mouth, and since I was the one making it, he was never near the original Borax powder, and the amount that goes into the slime is so minimal that I'm not going to worry about it.

I used regular white glue when I made it and didn't have any food colouring on hand the first time I tried making it, but I did add some blue sparkles to it. This gave it a fun sheen, but the sparkles definitely come out, and I've been picking them off him for days--consider yourself warned!

At first he really wasn't too sure about the slime since it was cold and a really different texture than anything else he's used to. He soon got over his hesitation though and started pulling and pushing it around the table. It was a great sensory experience for him. Our slime was quite thick and rubbery, and not particularly "slimy" so the next time I try it I'll add less Borax. (And some food colouring!)

So after a quick trip to the store to pick up some food colouring after the boy-o went to bed tonight, I decided to try making some more slime now that I've got some food-colouring. I made a pink and green one. All of the slimes are simply stored in their own Ziploc Baggies until we want to take them out and play again!

Here's the recipe that we used to make our slime:

Slime:

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup Elmer's Glue

- 1 TSP Borax

-  1 and 1/2 cup Water

- Food Colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. In one bowl mix 1/2 cup (4 oz) glue and 1/2 cup water. Add food coloring if you want colored slime.

2. In the other bowl, mix 1 teaspoon borax with 1 cup water until the borax is dissolved.

3. Add the borax mixture to the glue solution, stirring slowly. You may not need to add it all!

4. The slime will begin to form immediately; stir as much as you can, then dig in and knead it with your hands until it gets less sticky. (No one makes slime without getting a little messy!) Don't worry about any leftover water in the bowl; just pour it out.

Pink and Green Slime

The pink one is a pretty similar consistency to the original white one with the blue sparkles, but the green one is suuuuper slimy, which is fitting I supposed since it's green and all! 

The new colours have been stored away in some baggies too and I can't wait to see how the boy-o reacts to the new slimes and the texture of the green one.

Slime with Borax

Simple Toddler Activity- Q Tip Drop

Having a toddler can be tough sometimes--they don't seem to have an "off" switch, unless they're asleep. This has made it more important than ever to have some "quiet time" activities the boy-o can work on while I'm trying to get jobs done around the house, like making dinner in particular.

This is a bit of a throwback to the Ice Cream Bucket and Popsicle Stick idea, except it's much more compact which is great for travelling and even simpler to make. Basically all you need is an empty Parmesan Cheese container and some Q-Tips. I purposely bought a small clear container of Parm Cheese to make it suit the purpose more, but any of them will do just fine!

The concept is pretty simple.... give them the container with the flap open that has the small holes for shaking (not the large spoon one) and a pile of Q-Tips. Show them how to drop the Q-Tips in the holes and then let them have at it! This is a fantastic activity for working on fine motor control, not only for picking up and holding the Q-Tips, but also getting them into the little holes.

To take it up a notch, we also practiced our counting each time we put one in which is a great way to reinforce numbers while playing. The boy-o had a great time putting all the Q-tips in, and then unscrewed the lid himself to dump them out and started over again!

Because we used the small container size, it'll be really easy to toss in a carry-on or diaper bag for travelling purposes, and when not actively in use, you can just store the Q-Tips right inside the container. Since the Q-Tips aren't actually being used for their intended purpose, I'd definitely just recommend buying them from a dollar store making this simple little activity incredibly inexpensive as well.

Popsicle Stick Matching and Slot Game

We've been doing lots of activities to work on the boy-o's fine motor skills after hearing that many 2 year old no longer have properly developed fine motor skills from spending so much time playing on phones and iPads. He doesn't get any screen time yet (TV either) but it still concerns me that this could even be a thing, so we do lots of sensory stuff to work on his fine motor skills anyway!

He really likes to match things, and he's quite good at it actually. So our newest game is to take a pile of coloured Popsicle sticks and hand him a colour, and then he finds all the other sticks that are the same colour. (Not colour blind-check!)

I converted an old ice cream bucket into a slotted sorter, and once he's matched up the colours he pushes the Popsicle sticks through the small slots on the lid into the container. Once he slides them all in he likes the sound of shaking the bucket and then asks for them to be dumped out so he can do it over again.

The slots in the lid are just barely bigger than the Popsicle stick, so he has to line them up just right and push them to get them through. For little ones who are just beginning to work on motor control you could make the slots much bigger.

This fine motor activity is great because he'll sit there for 30 minutes sliding the sticks in, dumping them out, and starting over again. There is no mess to clean up and the sticks can store inside the ice cream tub for next time. It simultaneously works on colour recognition, matching skills, and fine motor skills. Eventually I'll get around to decorating the bucket, but for now, it works just the way it is! It's the first toy he's gone for the last couple of mornings after waking up, so it must be a keeper!

Moon Dough/Cloud Sand

After posting my last recipe for play dough, I had several people asking me about Moon Dough (also sometimes called Cloud Sand) so I figured I'd try that out with the boy-o today. You can buy Moon Dough from most toy stores, but really for what you're getting it costs a fortune! Moon Dough is spectacularly easy to make at home, and when stored in an air tight container it lasts for many re-plays.

Not only is Moon Dough super easy to make, it only requires two ingredients (three if you want to get fancy), but it's a wonderful in-expensive sensory activity to do with your little. Moon Dough acts very similar to wet sand, but has a much softer and velvety feel to it. We added a tiny bit of food colouring to the oil when we made ours, and since oil and food colouring don't mix well we ended up with flecks of blue colouring in the sand rather than all blue sand which made a really neat effect.

 

Moon Dough (like sand) can be quite messy, so we played with it in one of our trays and we put a smock on the boy-o. We had him strapped into the highchair and put the metal tray on top of his highchair tray. It worked out really well and sweeping the spills off the tile floor was quick and easy. 

We added a few Tablespoons and some dishes from his kitchen to enhance our play with the Moon Dough. The boy-o loved scooping it up and dumping it into another container and then dumping it out and starting all over again. He played well by himself for a bit while I finished up making supper, and then I joined in for a bit too. He loved watching it "snow" when I dropped it between my fingers making little flakes of it fall.

Moon Dough Recipe:

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup oil

- Food colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. Add a few drops of food colouring to oil if desired and mix.

2. Add oil mixture to flour and using your hands work the Moon Dough until the oil has touched all the flour and made a crumbly mixture that sticks together when pressed firmly together. 

3. Play!

4. When finished store Moon Dough in an air tight container for another day of fun.

Another great rainy day activity or boredom buster!

Our First Indoor Softplay Experience

We had some really miserable weather the other day with a cranky boy-o trapped inside and we were pretty desperate to find something to do with him that would get us out of the house. If we were still living back in Toronto we could have met up with some of our baby friends for a playdate, but sadly we don't have any baby friends here so that wasn't an option. (oh, how we miss you all!!) So I started looking up indoor playgrounds or soft plays. We had never been to one before, but decided to give it a try to see how it worked out for us.

It was $3.50 for the boy-o to play which was quite reasonable, and even though there still wasn't really any kids his age there, he had a great time and it allowed him to burn off some energy without making us totally crazy! He was a little overwhelmed at first and unsure about what to play with, but he slowly warmed up. They had a special toddler area which was great so I didn't have to worry about him being accidentally flattened by an older kid. They had a huge ball pit, a toddler trampoline, a car-coaster, a marry-go-round, and some stationary cars to rock back and forth on as well as a tiny slide. It was a great way to spend some time playing with the boy-o. 

They have a no outside food/drink policy in effect which I totally understand because they want you to purchase your snacks there. The offerings they had were quite reasonably priced, but none of it was even remotely healthy which annoyed me since you couldn't bring in your own fruit etc. We only stayed for about an hour because by that point the boy-o was exhausted, but with their limited snack selection we wouldn't be able to stay much longer than that anyway since I don't want feed him that kind of junk. So it was great for a short stay and play, but we couldn't make an afternoon of it. It'll be a good trick to keep in mind for the next rainy day!

55 Dr Seuss Inspired Activities

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a collection of Dr. Seuss inspired activities that you can do with children of varying ages. She knows that we're big Dr. Seuss fans in this house (the boy-o's room is Seussed out!), and that I *love* doing crafty things, so it's like that compilation was just made for us! I haven't had a chance to look through all of the activities yet, but from what I've seen so far this needs to be shared far and wide.

My Favourites:

1. The Foot Book: Fizzy Footprint- This activity is based off the Dr Seuss book "The Foot Book" and although it wouldn't be appropriate for very small children, toddlers and pre-schoolers are sure to enjoy this one! Simply take some baking soda and food coloured vinegar to create a fizzy surface that you can place plastic toys in to see how their footprints show up.

2. The Lorax: Handprint Truffula Trees- This activity is based off the Dr. Seuss book "The Lorax" and puts a new spin on hand painting. Using your fingers only you make the Truffula Tree trunks and use a stamp to paint the fluffy top. They even provide a resource on how to draw your own Lorax to add to your picture!

3. The Cat in the Hat: Stacking Buttons and Corks- This activity isn't directly related to the Cat in the Hat books, but it's very reminiscent of his balancing acts and stacking one thing ontop of another! All you need are some large bright buttons, some old corks, velcro dots and shoe box lid! A little bit of patience would help as well as the longer you let the adhesive set on the velcro before playing with it the better. Again this activity wouldn't work too well for the littlest littles, but toddlers and pre-school kids are likely to really enjoy all the different sensory aspects of this play.

4. Bartholomew and The Ooblek: Ooblek Recipe-  This particular activity is based on the Dr. Seuss book "Bartholomew and the Ooblek" and it's a definite favourite of mine! You get to make your own green Ooblek to play with (I've posted a recipe for it before and called it Magic Mud!) This activity is great for young infants who able to sit up right up to pre-schoolers and beyond! My 10 month old son loves playing with it because of the textures, and older kids will be interested in learning the science behind how it works. 

To check out all 55 Dr. Seuss inspired activities you can check out the original page over at No Time For Flashcards. Dr. Seuss' birthday is coming up soon--March 2nd, so start planning your Seuss themed celebration now!

What's your favourite Dr. Seuss book?

In our household Dr. Seuss' "A B C Book" and "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff" 

both reign supreme right now.

Creating Keepsakes: Foot Prints

It's no secret that babies grow too fast--one minute they're tiny and totally helpless, and the next minute they're stealing your glasses and crawling away with them shrieking like a total mad man. (or maybe that's just what happens in my house?) Anyway, the bottom line is that it's really nice to make some keepsakes from when they were tiny and little to help you remember later just how tiny and little they really were. 

One of my favourite ways to do that is by getting an imprint of their hands or feet in Salt Dough. When your little one is really little that can be a bit challenging though as you need to press their hand/foot rather hard into the dough to get a good imprint. If this is likely to be an issue for you--have no fear! Rather than press their hand or foot INTO the dough, you can leave a paint print on the dough instead. 

We decided to make a footprint ornament for each of the grandparents for Christmas, and we did ours with blue acrylic paint and Salt Dough. Here's the instructions for making your own Salt Dough keepsake using Acrylic paint:

Ingredients for Salt Dough:

- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Mix together flour, salt and water until dough forms. Add water slowly to make sure you don't over water dough. If dough is too sticky, add more flour.

2. Roll dough out to desired thickness.

3. Apply paint to bottom of child's foot with paint brush and plant their foot firmly on the salt dough, trying to push down each toe to make sure they leave a print.

4. Wash off baby's foot and trim around foot print to remove extra dough. Poke hole through the ornament to thread with string later.

5. Leave ornament somewhere warm to dry (like on your radiator), flipping occasionally. It took two days for us. (We didn't bake ours as is traditionally done because of the paint--but if you wanted to bake before you applied the footprint cook for approx. 2 hours at 250° F)

6. Once the ornament is dry thread a small string or ribbon through the hole and tie! 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself Christmas just ended, why post about this now?? Because you can make all sorts of things out of Salt Dough besides a Christmas ornament and it makes a really great activity for when you're housebound from snow or rain, especially since it uses materials almost everyone already has at home.

Your Turn: What's your favourite way of 

preserving special memories of your little one?