Thursday, September 29, 2011

Shaving Cream Play

She started with her finger, but didn't like the feel. After switching to a spoon she was much happier. Silly little girl.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Orange Ice Cream

Yesterday we made ice cream in a bag. Here's the recipe:

To make ice cream in a zipper bag you will need:
  • 1 quart zipper freezer bag
  • 1 gallon zipper freezer bag
  • 1/2 cup half and half, or whole milk
  • 1Tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • Enough ice to fill the gallon bag about 1/2 full
  • 6 Tbsp. salt --Table salt works fine for this.
  1. In the small zipper bag pour in the milk, sugar and vanilla. Seal tightly and set aside.

  2. In the large bag pour in the ice and the salt. Carefully put the smaller bag with the milk mixture inside the larger bag with the ice.

  3. Shake the whole thing for about 5 minutes then remove the smaller bag and enjoy your ice cream!

We added some food coloring to make it orange so it could go with our theme for the week. I'd say it was a success.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Orange Hunt

This week we're focusing on the color orange. What with it being fall (and my daughter's constant confusion between yellow and orange) I figured it would be a good thing to learn about. Today we went on an orange hunt around the house where we collected all the orange objects we could find a. We ended up finding quite a few!

We then counted them all and laid it out on the stairs.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

More Cars

Today we used cookie sheets, boxes, cutting boards, and baby food containers to make ramps, tunnels and bridges. After several cars went up, down, and over, it was time for all the stuffed animals to slide down the ramps. My daughter even tried, and surprisingly, the cookie sheet held her weight!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Let's Go Riding in an Automobile

We've been talking a lot about cars lately. Our favorite car book is Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle.

Yesterday, using the help of some internet clip art (some wheels, a steering wheel, and a license plate) and some string for a seat belt, we made our own car. My daughter was so pleased. She kept saying, "Look! I driving!!" If you look behind her, you'll see that my son was less than impressed.
Today I taped a piece of paper over our old license plate and gave my daughter some crayons. She didn't know what was underneath, but kept coloring. She kept saying, "ooohhhhh, so bumpy!" She was so excited when she started to see the letters come through. She was especially excited when she saw a K because that's the first letter in her name.

When she was all done, we took off the paper and she saw the license plate underneath. She got such a kick out of carry it around, and later taping it to the back of the car we made yesterday.

Milkshake

We got the CD 'Songs for Wiggleworms' from the library recently and it is one of our favorites. My daughter's favorite song is called Milkshake Song. It describes making milkshake and then the chorus says, "Milkshake milkshake, shake it up, shake it up, milkshake, milkshake, shake it all up." Finally today, we put the song into action.


A little milk, a little ice cream, and she sure shook it up!She was very pleased with the results.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Color Wonder

Have you ever tried color wonder? Markers and paints that ONLY work on specific paper. They're expensive, but I think they're great. I have no fear leaving my toddler alone with markers. Instead of buying the coloring books, I get the plain paper and then print pictures directly on the paper. I also like the cut the paper in half so that we get more bang for our buck.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Money, Money, Money

Yesterday my daughter dumped a jar of change into a laundry basket. It was fantastic entertainment. She loved the noise it made as she stirred the coins around. She loved the noise it made when she shook the basket. She loved the noise it made when she picked up all the coins and dropped them back in. She then experimented shaking the basket and watching the coins fly out the slats. She picked up the coins, put them back in, and started all over again. With clean up (she got a kick putting the coins back in the jar as well), this activity lasted about 35 minutes and in toddler time, that quite a while!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Mess-free Painting

*Please excuse the flipped up skirt.

My daughter loves to paint. I love it when projects are easy to clean up. This activity caters to both of us. I give my daughter a cup full of water and a couple of paint brushes and she paints to her hearts content on the chalk board. A few minutes later, the board is dry and she can start all over again.

Her favorite thing to paint right now is our family. She paint four different figures (There's Mommy! There's Daddy!) and then gets a kick as they start to disappear (Mommy gone! Daddy gone!).