Toddler Fun and activities

The past few weeks I have been trying to do different activities with Keane and Gracie at least a few times a week. They are a little young to really grasp the concept of some things but I always think it is worth a try! Also, the resources that we have as far as craft items, etc are limited so I have had to be resourceful to find things that we can make together. They have truly enjoyed some of the things we have done but have had little or no interest in others and it ends up being a craft that I do and they enjoy playing with it later or coloring while I make it. Also, I have had to just "let go" a little when they do the activities and give them a lot of "creative license". They love to mix the finger paint colors and actually prefer painting with them with a brush instead of their fingers right now. Anyway, here are a few of the things that we have discovered and tried the past few weeks. Hope you enjoy and maybe even get a few ideas for your family (I'd love to hear what other things you love to do with your young toddler kids)

Finger Paint:

For us as I mentioned, they weren't really into painting with their fingers and actually painted with a brush instead for some of the time. They ended up mixing the colors too...just one of the ways I had to say, "oh well...they are having fun and "being creative"..."

Elephant masks: (I printed from the Internet)

Keane had fun coloring his first (they are always happy to spend time coloring)

Gracie had fun putting the glue on with the glue stick

So did Keane...

The finished project...Keane DID NOT want to wear his. These were actually only supposed to be the templates and you were supposed to make the actual masks out of felt but we didn't have that so we just used the templates to make the actual masks.

Playing with dried beans (I have heard that you should not use raw kidney beans for this...don't know exactly why but you can see the health warnings of eating raw kidney beans on the Internet. I used dried white beans, dried chickpeas and dried black beans)

I give them several tubs and a cup. They have fun transferring them. They also sometimes play with their toy cars in the beans and other small toys. We do this on the marble floor and they are pretty good about not scattering them all over the floor. The ones they do get on the floor are easy to sweep up. I store them all in one big container. They REALLY love this activity and of course I am there with them the whole time watching them and making sure they don't eat any (they really understand when we tell them not too and we have played with the beans several times and they haven't tried to eat one since we told them not to).

Noodle Necklaces and coloring with markers

This activity was not a huge success. This is one of the ones that I ended up making while they watched and colored. They LOVED coloring with the markers but it was more messy than the crayons of course.

Gracie helped me string a few pieces of pasta...

Then she got bored with it...

Keane did not really want much to do with the process but liked touching the noodles.

Gracie actually put on the necklace once it was finished.

Keane DID NOT want it around his neck

But had fun coloring and getting his hands covered in different colors...

Tonight I am going to color Easter eggs with them so we will see how that goes...and yesterday we started playing with Play-doh which they really seemed to like. It is fun finding more and more activities that they enjoy and that help them learn and be creative...