G is for... and B is for..

G is for garden.
We went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. We looked at the flowers for a little bit but spent most of our time in the children's garden. M* had lots o' fun hiding in the trees and running in and out of the bear cave.
G is for grow.
I found these at the dollar store you put them in water and then they grow. M* wasn't terribly impressed with the growing part but had lots of fun putting the beans in the water and then taking them back out.
G is for green.
We did a "green" scavenger hunt where we looked for things in the house that were green. M* decided about 10 mins into it that she was done finding green things and wanted to find pink things instead. What a girl.
G is for goat.
We also got a book from the library on goats and made a trip to the farm to look at them but of course we mostly looked at the bunnies instead.

Other things I wanted to do but we didn't get around to was make a giraffe puppet here are the instructions here, plant some flowers (garden), and make gingerbread men.


B is for balloon.
We did a couple things with balloons. The first thing was I hung balloons from the ceiling and let M* hit them with a bat. In the picture below though she had decided that the golf club was a better tool for the job. She was quite distracted by the static electricty. You will notice her small amount of hair is sticking up.
We also painted some balloons. It was a nice change to just painting on paper. I taped ours down onto bigger paper it was easier for her to paint and easy clean up for me. I also saw an idea on perpetual preschool that said to tape a few balloons (not full of air) to a dowel and let the child use it as a brush but we didn't try it so I don't know how well it works.

B is for bird.

We did some bird watching outside our complex. We live right by a canal so there is nice variety. We also took some bird seed out there and threw it out for them.

B is for bubble.

The library had a bubble party (this was my sole reason for doing b on the week we did). M* had lots of fun. We were going to try an activity at home where you tape a clear lid (like on a pringles can) to a flash light and catch the bubbles on it. It's supposed to make it easy to see all the colors in the bubble. I bought cans just for the occasion and threw them out without thinking about it.

Other things I had planned but we didn't have time to do were float some boats in the bath tub (you could make your own or just use a toy boat), and go bug hunting.

Bubble Blowing

So I don't want to be all about, "buy this for your kid", "oh, this is great buy this for your kid" but...buy this for your kid. My tot LOVES bubbles but for some reason she's not like the other kids and can just pop them she has to be holding the container, which big open bubble containers in her hands means lots of spilled bubbles. These things by Little Kids Inc are genius. It's like a sippy cup for bubbles only it works way better than any sippy cup we own. We got one at Target for $2 and it's totally worth it with all the money you save on spilled bubbles and all the time you save changing clothes, and now we can blow bubbles inside anytime we want. They also have big buckets with multiple wands in them if that sort of thing is your cup of tea.

As a side note has anyone seen or used one of those bubble pipe things? Were you blow into the end and then out the other end comes bubble-delight? I wonder if they are easy enough for a toddler to blow their own bubbles. Maybe, we'll have to try it one day.

Farm Themed Day

What kid doesn't love farm animals?? Oh...you there in the pink, your kid doesn't? Well...weird...

Have a farm day! Eat only things from a farm (if you stretch enough you could really make anything come from a farm). Talk about what animal lays eggs, what animals make milk, how crops grow etc. Your child may not understand exactly what you're saying but exposure is key.

Go visit a farm. If you don't have a farm in your area chances are you do have a petting zoo. Check out this website for help finding one. http://www.pettingzoofarm.com/ They have a lot of states missing so try google if you can't find one.

Follow the visit up by some quiet story time about farms. Hit the local library if you don't have any.

If your child is old enough make a craft that has to do with a farm animal. Keep it simple like turkey handprints or make a yellow pom pom into a chick.

Sand Box

Materials:

Sand or Dirt
Buckets, bowls, shovels...you know the basics.

Ahh spring how we've missed you! I found this bucket and shovel at the dollar store and thought might as well try it (I think I saw the same thing for $1 at target if it makes you feel better buying it there). We spent an hour loading up the bucket and dumping it in. If you don't have a sand box around get a pot of dirt and set it up on your porch, it'll be just as fun and just as messy.
Does anyone have any cool things they do with their toddler in the sand? I just don't feel it's true potential has been unlocked at our family.

Nature Walk

When we go on walks and M* is not in the stroller she loves to pick things up. babycenter.com had a great idea of taking a basket for your toddler to put things in that they find. Don't let the cold weather scare you off this could be fun bundled up or in the sun. Point out things like sticks, leaves, rocks and acorns. Also, it's been fun to have her show daddy her finds when he gets home.

Feed the Birds

Here is a good thing to do on a nice winter day. We have tons of birds in back of where we live. So we went out and fed them. We didn't even have any birds come near us M* just had tons of fun throwing the bird seed. We've fed bread to ducks too which is kind of fun because they'll come closer.

The picture is not the greatest which is probably good or you would notice her eyebrows are red with spaghetti sauce...awesome.