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this for 4th of july to make fireworks of sorts but it s really a great painting activity all the time i love showing little kids how to use all sorts of different materials to make art posted by amanda at 6 00 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels art preschooler wednesday july 21 2010 simple summer fun water play this has got to be one of the easiest activities to work in naturally in the summer when it is hot we seek water right of course we all need to be very careful around water whether you are at the public pool or letting baby play with a tub of water in the backyard it only takes a minute and it only takes an inch water play is not the time to busy yourself across the yard from the kids safety first have fun right along with your children there are lots of different ideas of what to do with water fun in the summer here are a few the beach if you take a bucket and a shovel along with you to the beach your children are sure to spend hours filling and dumping and filling and dumping water bring along various toys for your child to experiment in the water with you also have the unique fun of waves and the beach merges two of the best activities for a child water and sand the swimming pool going to an actual swimming pool can be lots of fun too this is an important time to talk about water safety i think an important thing for you to do is teach your children to swim whether it be through swimming lessons you pay for or from you if you feel qualified while i despise swimming lessons because it takes over my life for two weeks i think it is important for children to learn to swim the wading pool our kids love to put water in our little tykes little pool and play around they take toys in there and we actually always keep it either right by or in the sandbox so they can play with sand and water we do empty it out when we are done try taking out various household objects to experiment in the water with the sprinklers isn t this just one of those portrait of childhood experiences it is for me the watering can my children love to fill up a watering can and water flowers i found some watering cans at dollar tree they are small but large enough to have fun in the pool and to water plants around the yard while doing this you can throw comments in there about how plants need water to grow squirt bottle water guns the other night we were at a water activity with a bunch of families one mom had brought a squirt bottle along for her three year old son to play with and squirt people and the little dear only squirted his mom they had an extra and brayden had lots of fun with the squirt bottle the next day we got out our squirt bottles and brayden and kaitlyn ran around the yard squirting things an each other the squirt bottle is great because you can change the type of spray so you can talk about why the water goes further or spreads out more little tub for the younger children you might want to fill something up like a little tote tub of water to play with outside i don t like mckenna to lean over the wading pool to splash in water so this is a better object to use if that is all she wants to do or if she isn t in a swimming suit the bathtub one time a blog reader from one of my other blogs commented that the bathtub is playtime for us this is very true every day includes water play in the bathtub at least i am a sucker for toys and we have lots of bath toys children have so much fun they fill and dump splash color play with bubbles all while practicing motor skills while they pour water over and over your ideas if you have any additional fun things you do with your children that involves water please share posted by valerie plowman at 1 00 am 1 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels simple summer water play tuesday july 20 2010 do you dare kids in mom s makeup drawer doesn t usually sound like a learning activity more like a where is my toddler oh no kind of activity for the older toddler or preschooler makeup can be a fun learning experience in the right environment our rules no touching makeup without mom around clean up messes when we are finished ask permission before trying something new like lipstick on the eyes yikes here s how we do it i keep a drawer bag of makeup she is allowed to use not everything is for munchkins for example mascara i m not ready to go there yet she pulls out an item like eyeliner i explain to her what it s for or what i want her to do with it in the picture above i said you can use this to draw a circle around your eyes the tip is a soft tip and i knew this is something she could handle then she pulls out another piece like lipstick i ll say something like color in your lips or make dots on your cheeks she can have fun playing and also practicing shapes and following directions the beauty part of it is that she is willing to happily follow every direction just for a chance to play makeup posted by raegan at 12 00 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels rainy day monday july 19 2010 simple summer fun cloud watching in order to do this activity your child will need to be at a point of showing some imagination you can by all means try this with a child who isn t showing imagination practice helps right but it will be most successful with those who are imaginative i would say this is best for preschoolers and up with some 2 5 and older doing well of my children brayden 5 finds the most enjoyment out of this kaitlyn 3 likes to do it but it doesn t hold her interest as long as it does brayden s mckenna 15 months likes to point to the sky and babble like she knows what she is talking about cloud watching can be so relaxing you simply lay on the grass or sit and look up at the clouds you then take turns talking about what you see do you see a dinosaur a heart a lion share what you see before you go out if you want this to be a bit more educational you can brush up on your cloud types and on cloud formation and drop little science facts into the conversation you could also share facts about what your child sees do you know what a baby lion is called a baby lion is called a cub this is a simple relaxing summer day activity for you to do with your children posted by valerie plowman at 1 00 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels clouds science simple summer friday july 16 2010 outdoor fun mud paint my toddler with her i m ridiculously happy face in the everything toddler activities book by joni levine one of the fun outdoor activities suggested is mud paint one thing i know for sure my toddler dirt water some seriously messy fun here are the steps 1 find some mud or better yet show your child how to make mud use a spoon to help make the mud a creamy consistency 2 with the spoon place a blob of mud on a piece of poster board for your child to finger paint with for older kids let them make their own consistency thin thick etc and use different things to paint with leaves rocks paint brushes fingers toes the possibilities are endless if you don t have poster board i think it s fun to get an old white sheet and paint it when you are finished let it dry shake it out and wash after a few times my girls got creative and started painting each other it was hilarious my youngest likes to dig in the mud so much we made her a mud bucket especially for her digging pleasure posted by raegan at 12 00 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels outside activities sensory simple summer wednesday july 14 2010 sand box tips i had some questions on the sandbox so i thought i would extend it a bit with some tips staying clean first of all we all know how ocd clean i am the sandbox can be quite annoyingly dirty and sand gets everywhere for babies put baby powder on baby s bottom before going out the sand that gets in her diaper and it will will come off more easily if you don t have like baby powder try cornstarch i am not positive it will work but they are similar so it is worth a shot after your kids are done playing in the sand use baby powder to clean the sand off when you apply baby powder to sand covered skin and rub gently the sand literally comes right off this is great for the beach too bugs bugs are annoying don t they just bug you ha okay how do you keep bugs out and once they are in how to do you remove them to keep bugs out it is going to depend on the type of bug ants seem to like sand a lot black pepper can deter ants try sprinkling a perimeter of black pepper around the sandbox you can also try red pepper or dried mint bugs tend to like moisture so to keep bugs out be sure to keep your sand dry in our dry climate this is not a problem but if you live somewhere that is humid and or moist you will likely need to dig up and turn your sand regularly if you have a small rototiller you can use that we use that every so often on our sand just to keep it workable if you have ants in your sandbox try dumping three gallons of boiling water down the ant hill i suggest you do this during nap time when the kids aren t around if you pour this on plants they will likely die do this when the ants are active and close to the surface another way to kill bugs is to cover the sandbox in black plastic for a couple of days the heat should kill the bugs for fleas one idea is saturating the sand with salt water if this doesn t work i would recommend you go in to a local garden store one with employees who know what they are talking about in other words avoid the big box stores and see what they recommend be sure they know this is for a children s sandbox it needs to be safe for children sandbox care exactly how you care for your sandbox will depend on the type of sandbox you have there are the purchased pre made sand boxes like a turtle or crab or homemade constructed sandboxes a common tip is to keep it covered the biggest problem with sandboxes is cats pooping in your sandbox we don t have problems with this because we have two dogs who love to chase cats but you definitely don t want pooping cats in the sandbox covering the sandbox also keeps rain off the sand this is good for preventing bug colonies and also for preventing rock hard sand there are definitely better types of sand than others for sandboxes i suggest you do your research and test the sand both wet and dry to see what you like we buy our sand from the companies that use dump trucks to deliver such things but you can use a truck or trailer to get it yourself stores like home depot and lowe s also sell sandbox sand turn the sand every so often if it is small enough you can use a shovel and a rake if it is large go for the small rototiller you don t want the sand to stay moist so if it is moist dry it out in the sun before covering again you can also strain sand with a colander or toy sand strainer this is something your child will love to do if a premade sandbox gets wet turn it and leave it in the sun one built at your home will have natural drainage and the water should move down but again if you are in a humid climate keep your eye on it to see if it needs to be dug up to help it dry out we make our sandboxes we made one in our last house we have a nice large one at our new house but it is old the sand is old the box itself is old and is breaking down so we will be building a new one this summer it is our next major project it is great fun because the box is large enough for all three children and several neighbor children at the same time mix it up while children love the sandbox they are human and get bored looking at the same thing over and over we dug a huge hole in ours and it was a whole new sand box the kids loved playing it this new hole add some water and it will create a new experience a new toy or toy will bring new fun try a hill change things up to bring variety and spark new fun in your child s imagination hopefully this answered some sand questions let me know if you have more happy playing posted by valerie plowman at 1 00 am 10 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels sand monday july 12 2010 simple summer fun sand i love the sandbox my three children will literally sit and play in it together for at least a solid hour at a time the scoop dump build castles and the 15 month old sometimes decides to taste the sand gross while they do that i garden read and watch them have fun together the sandbox provides many learning opportunities for your little one it provides sensory experiences as they play in it they get to work on their fine motor skills as they dig they can play little scientists as they explore the sand just to name a few and if you are feeling the need to get some extra learning in there you can do sand letters or twist that a bit and do sand shapes you could bury special treasures for your children to find but don t feel like you need to do anything beyond what they come up with themselves if you don t have a sandbox but have the ability to get one i highly recommend it if you can t get one see if you can play in a friend s sandbox or visit a park with a sandbox or you can always fill up a small flat tote with sand to play in so during these summer months sit back and relax while your children learn away as they play in the sand posted by valerie plowman at 1 00 am 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels sand simple summer thursday july 8 2010 blog loading time i ve noticed lately that i am having tremendous difficulty getting the blog page to load this could be my rural internet access but i m wondering if others are having this same issue so how is the loading time for our blog is it fast okay or slow is it so slow as to be frustrating and make the blog less desirable to visit posted by amanda at 8 21 am 11 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday july 7 2010 simple summer fun bubbles bubbles are another fun summer activity that is providing learning opportunities for your child your child observes how the bubbles blow and how the wind affects where they go your child observes what makes bubbles pop your child also gets some great gross motor work in when chasing bubbles and can get fine motor work in while blowing bubbles i once saw a great addition on the show curious george george wanted to blow bubbles using different shapes for example a slotted spatula when he blew them they of course didn t blow into rectangles triangles or squares but circles so if you want to work some science shape learning in you can try that oh and if you start to get light headed from all of the bubble blowing i seriously love this thing my sister gave it to kaitlyn as a birthday gift over a year ago it is nice to have my breath back plus the kids love to blow bubbles with it and i get...