So today the kids were throwing their toys around and trashing the house. We all have those days and they can be super frustrating…..sitting there thinking why do I buy all these toys? All they do is throw them around! Well we all to often forget that our young toddlers don’t actually know how to play WITH things at all! So we need to teach them how to play….and nicely! Teach how to take turns and play together. Normally these things are learned in mommy and me or a school. But really we can and should be starting at home.

So what I did was I made a town! My kids have a ton of the Fischer price little people and accessories. They also absolutely love playing with them. So while they were asleep I drew up a town on some butcher block paper and taped it down to the floor. Then I put all the different buildings, vehicles, people and accessories into my town.

When the kids got up they were super excited to dig into the town I had created! I made a farm area and a construction site with random things I had laying around! My husband and I showed them a few ways to play with the town then we let them go with it. My son added some more LEGO construction and my daughter made it snow with packing peanuts!

Use what you have and get creative! Be free with it too…..have fun and they will have fun. Remember they are absorbing everything and learning through what you do when your interacting with them. I have added a video of making my town and some pictures of my little ones playing! It doesn’t have to be perfect and it’s sure going to get messy but that’s exactly where the fun is!

As always have fun and get messy enjoying your Littles! Leave a comment below and/or a picture of your family enjoying a learning center!!

Today during virtual mommy and me we had some fun with an experiment! Super simple to do and loads of fun for the Littles. Just 4 simple things that you probably already have on hand. What you will need is milk, food coloring, a bowl and a Q-tip. Get all your supplies before pulling the kiddos in for this one and I would pour the milk for the kiddos (you only will need about an inch of milk in the bowl). A few drops of food coloring in the milk and then you can have your little dip in their Q-tip to watch the ripples. Also they can hold it up high and watch it drip drop down! Again this works with hand eye coordination and colors…..you can use one color or many to see how they mix together. While doing this experiment remember to talk, talk, talk about the colors and what is happening…..every moment to expand that vocabulary/start it up!

This is a super fun activity…..get messy and enjoy their exploration. After its done swirling and mixing they are gonna wanna dive in and splash splash with it! Let them explore its so good for them……and its just a little spilled milk no biggie! Stick an eyedropper or paintbrush in there to let them put it on paper…..let them use that squishy squashy Q-tip on some paper! All of this is great discovery for them and a fun time you can spend laughing with them!

As always get messy and have fun! Remember your doing an amazing job…..even if you don’t think so and even if its a shit show! Leave some comments and pictures of your family enjoying this experiment!!!

Sometimes to keep these little ones occupied AND get them tired getting them outside is just the key! I try and set up things to keep them busy. Pop tents, slides, water tables, tumbling mats and other assorted toys! One of their favorites is actually when I put up the teepee and put a bucket of books in there for them!

So I have a 2 year old who is high energy and a 1 year old who is the exact opposite! I like to try to have calmer activities mixed into high energy ones to entice each of them into other activities. So my teepee with books, blanket and tea set is attached by a tunnel to a ball pit with basketball hoop today. I have a tumbling mat with my little tikes slide going onto it. On this mat I also have a few shapes from my climb and crawl set.

Also I have my “science center” (an old water table that is missing the plug so can’t hold water) filled with burrs, flowers, pine cones and sticks we collected on a walk. In my science center I also have toddler friendly magnifying glasses I got from Lakeshore Learning so that they can examine/explore all the things we found while out walking! This is just a fun way to learn about the world around them while playing…..it also gives the opportunity to learn some new words like pine cone! It is sometimes important to remember a lot of teaching in early education is also basics like words and how to manipulate every day items (like looking through a magnifying glass).

If you have the option of a great outdoor space where you can set up a work area and some great play stations for the littles this may be a great way to occupy them. That way everyone enjoys some fresh air AND they are occupied so that you can do some work!

As always enjoy those little ones as much as you can! Leave some comments with pictures of how you and your family enjoyed this post!

So its after Easter and we have tons of those plastic eggs hanging around right? Well you can use them as a fun learning activity for your little ones! They already love to take them apart and put them together so you can expand on that. The simple act of taking them apart and putting them together is great for working those fine motor skills AND hand eye coordination (SO many of my activities foster that because its super important). You can add to that very easily.

You can make it a matching game for colors, shapes, numbers or letters. You know what I am going to say next…..with a little prep you can make your eggs into a fun activity! Color match is super easy because the eggs are already a variety of colors….you just have to take them apart and guide your little one to matching the colors correctly!

For shapes, letter or numbers all you will need is a sharpie to write on your eggs. On each piece of your egg draw/write a shape/letter/number so that your child can match them together. To make it more challenging for letters/numbers try a uppercase/lowercase combo and a number to quantity combo. For example put a capital A on one side of the egg and a lowercase a on the other side for matching. Or put a number 3 on one side of the egg and 3 dots on the other side of the egg.

To get super fun with this you can also hide them in a sand box letting your little dig around in the sand to find the pieces and then match them afterwards. In this activity you can hide eggs with shapes, colors, numbers and letters to make it super challenging. That last activity could keep an older little one occupied for some time if mom/dad needs to get some work done! Just remember messy is ok and we aren’t looking for perfect here.

For your younger little one just starting out in learning activities there is going to be a lot of hand over hand and you helping them. For those little guys remember that this is all an experience and we want it to be positive. Show them how you want them to do it a few times and then let them explore all the materials. You will want to do it with them a few times more because consistency is how they learn!!

For older friends the goal is independence and an activity that may keep them occupied so that you can get something else done…..or you can work while they “work”! Sometimes its all about how we say things to our little ones that makes all the difference!

Remember that quarantine is hard and confusing for ALL of us and so its okay to get it “wrong”! Its ok if they don’t cooperate (lord knows mine don’t most of the time)! Its ok to not want to! Its ok to feel overwhelmed! YOU are doing a GREAT job with the hand we have all been dealt!!

I don’t always get it right, I don’t always have cooperative kids, I don’t always feel like doing things. I feel overwhelmed sometimes, I feel like a crappy parent sometimes! We all have bad days but remember to count your blessings and love your babies because thats what matters!

As always leave a comment/share a picture of your fun with your family!! Have fun, get messy, LOVE those babies!

Today during virtual mommy and me we made Oobleck! This super fun and messy experiment is a really sensory/soothing experiment for kiddos of all ages (including the parents)! This simple experiment only takes 3 ingredients (only 2 are necessary really). As always prep prep prep super important so you are ready to go when your kiddo gets involved. What you will need for this is cornstarch, water and food coloring (the food coloring is just fun but not necessary if you don’t have any). I used some paint bowls that I got at Lakeshore Learning to make this in and gave my kiddos some spoons to stir with as well as little plastic cups with water in it. I like to let them as hands on in making process as possible so they really engaged. Start with about a half cup of cornstarch and then let your kiddo add water (and drops of food coloring) until you get a consistency that looks liquid but is solid once you start to pick it up. When you let it drip into the bowl it should have a jiggly slime consistency. You may have to add more cornstarch as well to get the correct consistency. Put those hands in there and enjoy your jiggly, slimy, goopy oobleck! Below is a video of us experimenting! You can see in the video the consistency you are going for.

As always have fun and enjoy your kiddos! Leave a comment or picture of your family enjoying this experiment!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!!! We hope you had a fun time with your quarenteam today and did something special! Today we were incredibly lucky that our firefighter was home with us to celebrate…..his schedule just happened work that way this week which was really a blessing! Because he wasn’t home yesterday we saved ALL the Easter fun for today so we could enjoy it together. This year we dyed our Easter eggs with whipped cream and food coloring so we could get our hands into it! My oldest little one LOVES all the the things sensory and spends most of his time covered in some sort of mess, my younger one is really not so much a fan but she will hang out while he becomes a mud bucket. This is a super way to make some really cool looking eggs and to allow your little one to get elbow deep in the action. What you need is food coloring, whipped cream, a metal tin, hard boiled eggs, bowl (for holding eggs) and paper towels. To set up you put whipped cream in your metal container and add drops of food coloring all over. Then swirl the food coloring into the whipped cream (I used my finger lol you could let your little one do this step if you were so inclined!). I would suggest putting down some paper towels for the eggs to rest on once they have been colored. You then add the eggs and let your little one (or everyone) roll them around to get them alllll covered in whipped cream! Take them out and let them rest on a paper towel for a bit. Lastly you wipe off the excess whipped cream and you have some beautiful looking eggs to place in your bowl! This is a great way to do it with little because if they eat the dyed whipped cream its no biggie at all! Below is a video of my little man dying our eggs and above are some pictures of the prep/finished products!

As always have fun with your littles and drop a comment below!

Happy THURSDAY! Just a little day of the week reminder there……it sure is hard to remember some days during this quarentine. Today during our virtual mommy and me group we just did a fun Easter egg painting with the kids. Super duper easy, messy and fun to get ready for Easter this weekend. I would start by watching a fun easter story on youtube or reading one if you have one (I will add a link below)! Then dive right into this fun painting activity which is great for fine motor development, hand eye coordination, and following directions!! You could make this more of a challenge for older kiddos by having coordinating paint and egg colors asking them to match as the go along. OR you could do a “paint by number” challenge by numbering areas taped off on your page (you could also “paint by shape” or “paint by letter)! A great way to pepper in a little number/shape/letter/color ID while getting super messy and getting that sensory exploration play in!

So what you will need: Plastic eggs, paint, construction paper, painters tape, scissors and smocks. I have filmed a little activity prep video for you to see how I prep my activities!

As always enjoy getting messy with those kiddos and please leave some comments/pictures of your fun below!