Creative Family Fun

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Toddler Activities

Follow the Leader

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I happened across the book Follow the Leader by Erica Silverman one day at the library and thought it would be the perfect book to inspire some fun, indoor play time.

The book is the story of two brothers playing follow the leader with the older brother leading the way. In the end, the older brother learns that his younger brother would love a turn being the leader, which was something my oldest sometimes (ahem… a lot of times) can use a reminder about.

Disclaimer: Please do not feel you need to have your eyes checked after viewing the next pictures. Yes, they are blurry. The girls were running way too fast to get a clear picture!

Follow me!
Spin around!
Hold your nose!
RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!
Now roll around!

And, when that was done, it was time to get creative with our movements. This is the time to have some fun and mix it up.

Fun and Crazy Follow the Leader Ideas

Parade version: pretend to play different instruments or be different characters in a parade

At the farm/zoo: pretend to be the different animals you would see

Silly movements: just how silly can you be!

Opposites: go from fast to slow, loud to quiet, high to low. How many opposites can you act out?

Sports: baseball, football, soccer, anything goes!

And our favorite: Ballet style! Swirl, twirl, and walk on your toes.

The next time the kids are feeling cooped up inside, challenge them to a fun & crazy game of Follow the Leader. It’s guaranteed to get their energy out!

Do you have any fun ideas for Follow the Leader?

Water Play for Toddlers

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Over the weekend, I set up a water play station for AJ.

I laid out a bowl full of water, a few empty containers, and  scoops, spoons and dippers. I placed the containers in a baking dish in the hope to contain some of the water.

Yes, I did set out glass containers for my toddler. I planned on sitting with her the entire time, so I knew that wouldn’t cause a problem.

She was eager to begin once she saw the set-up. She grabbed a measuring cup right away and started scooping.

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She spent a lot of time at the beginning transferring water from one container to another.

She scooped and poured and scooped and poured.

She tested the limits of the containers to see just how much water she could get in one and then enjoyed watching the water flow over the edges.

At one point, she even tried to see if she could pick the water up with her hands. That didn’t work!

And then, she tried pouring…  oh dear!

We had a lot of fun, soaked a few towels, and had to completely change AJ’s clothes.

Nonetheless, I’m sure we’ll do this again! Although, the next time, I may just lug all the (plastic) containers into the bathtub.

Farm Animal Charades

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Things get a bit silly when you start imitating farm animals!We played a game of farm animal charades recently and had a blast.

I found several clip art images of farm animals, then printed, laminated and cut them out. We borrowed a pot from the play kitchen and put all the pictures in.

The rules were simple. We took turns drawing a picture and then had to act like that animal while the others tried to guess.

Yes, the guessing part was easy, but pretending to be the animals was a whole lot of fun!

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We were chicken, horses, cows and sheep.The concept was easy enough that AJ, at age 2, was able to play and understand.

Plus, she’s a pro at animal sounds!

By far, the most popular animal was the rooster.And yes, there was some rooting around in the pot to find the rooster card because who doesn’t love saying “cock-a-doodle-doo” as loud as possible?

To round out the fun, we found a great book called Moo Who? by Margie Palatini. It’s the hilarious story of a cow named Hilda Mae Heifer who gets knocked in the head with a cow pie and loses her moo. She talks to a series of different farm animals and tries out all of their sounds until she finally figures out that she does indeed moo. It’s a fun book to read aloud and it encourages laughter and silliness.

Have fun!

Painting on Wet Paper

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I was recently inspired to pick up a copy of the book Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (Bright Ideas for Learning) by MaryAnn Kohl at the library. It was a well-used copy and it’s no wonder. The book is full of fun, interesting and creative activities designed to combine science concepts with art. There are projects for all ages of kids. In fact, I don’t think you could be too old to have fun with this book.

The project we decided to tackle first was painting on wet paper, which was designed to demonstrate the concept of diffusion.I waited until AJ was napping before starting the project. On hindsight, even at 2, she could have had fun with this project.

The first step was wetting your paper.I had watercolor paper on hand, so that’s what we used. The book suggested construction paper, but almost any paper would work as long as it wasn’t too thin (you don’t want it to disintegrate when wet).

We then placed the paper on a tray and got to work. You’ll want your paper on something that will not soak up the water (cookie sheet, tray, etc.).Lizzie picked out a couple of colors of tempura paint and I thinned them out quite a bit with water. I wanted it to be thin enough that she could easily drip it onto her paper.

She dripped and smeared the paint while we talked a bit about diffusion. I loved having the example of the spreading drops of paint.It was quite fascinating to see the paint spread out so quickly. Lizzie had a lot of fun exploring her wet paper.

In the end, we had a really cool piece of art. We’ve also got several more projects marked in the book to try. Do the ideas of baked drawings, invisible designs, floating sculptures and shake pictures tempt you to pick up a copy of Science Arts? I hope so!

Feeding the Birds…

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We had a beautiful autumn day yesterday and we decided it was the perfect day to tackle #19 on our Fall Bucket List, feed the birds.

Set up was easy. I put together a bowl of cereal and a couple of lengths of string.I then tied one Cheerio to the end of each string so when the girls started stringing the cereal it wouldn’t fall off the other end.

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We settled in and started stringing.It’s an easy task once you get started, so I took the opportunity to read a few of the Halloween books we found at the library while the girls were stringing.

Do you notice the dog paws? Charlie, the dog, decided to join us for this project. Not because he thought it looked fun, mind you, but because he loves Cheerios. LOVES Cheerios.

Don’t despair, we did give him all the broken Cheerios… he was too cute not to!

When we were done, we took them outside and hung them on the branches of one of our little trees. I hope the birds love them!