Ice painting

So what do you do when its still incredibly hot and disgustingly humid outside, plain miserable, but it is still summertime? I mean you can only dive into a pool so many times, and we all know a tiny tots attention span doesn't last too long on one thing. So what to do?

How about combine a nice cool refreshing item with a messy and fun activity!
ICE PAINTING

So much fun!

While Baby DIVA napped, I set up. I took a cookie sheet and covered it with aluminum foil and the taped white paper to the pan to form a blank canvas. Then I grabbed 2 packets of Kool-aid from the pantry and sprinkled the paper with the two colors. And we were ready to go. The only things needed were tiny tot hands and ice cubes.

I will admit that once Baby DIVA woke up, we cheated. We didn't go outside in the blistering heat to complete this lovely activity. Nah, we sat in the air conditioner at the kitchen table. BOO! Sue us! Over 100 degrees, feels like 114, nope not taking my toddler out in that, sorry!

I laid an ice cube down on the paper and began to show Baby DIVA how the "paint" comes alive on her own special cookie sheet canvas. She thought it was pretty awesome until she licked her little blue finger. Did I mention the kool-aid was sugar free? HAHA. By performing this activity inside, where the refreshing cool breeze provided by my electric company blows, the ice melts a bit slower. The project takes a while longer and thus keeps tots entertained longer. hmmmm?! Might need to keep it indoors forever huh?

Baby DIVA really enjoyed this little activity. Our "painting" came out a fine quality of abstract art.

Complete with left-over cookie from snack. Mixed media art. LOVE IT!

Savvy Tot School: Colors

I told you a few weeks back that I was starting to expose Baby DIVA to Savvy Tot School again. I mentioned she had a basket of activities and could go and choose what she wanted to "learn" whenever she felt the urge. Well she is still digging her basket. She wanders over from time to time and picks out a prize. I have been adding to her little basket too and thought I would share some of our recent activities.



We have several matching and color exercises. I took some craft foam and attached the cutout print outs and covered the whole thing with contact paper. I found the foam provides a nice easy grip for Baby DIVA and then contact paper prevents her from eating her learning tools and tearing them to shreds. Both games she enjoys to do of course.



Here is the Crayons matching/coloring game. she can match the colors now and the words as she grows.

And here is the egg matching coloring game. Here Baby DIVA can work on her color matching skills as well as coordination in placing pieces together.

Baby DIVA loves both of these games and I often stash them in the diaper bag and we play at doctor appointments, waiting for food at restaurants or any other time a distraction is called for.


Another simple color exercise we have been doing involves toys and distinguishing between colors. A few months ago, Hobby Lobby had these fabulous bright colored metal buckets on sale for 50 cents. I picked up yellow, blue and green. Baby DIVA and I now use these buckets to sort her toys. Blue toys and trinkets in the blue bucket, Yellow toys and trinkets in the yellow bucket, and next week we will introduce green. So Far she is really picking up on this and loves to help pick up her toys. So not only is she learning colors and sorting, but she is learning to be a tidy neat freak too! Yippeee! It has been quite fun walking around the house Baby DIVA toting a bucket nearly as big as she is, filling it up, together, with toys of the corresponding color. I am really enjoying watching her learn and grow and treasure the moments we have together doing so.

Savvy Tot school Revisited

Remember when Baby DIVA was knee deep in Savvy Tot school and I would share with you all her "learning"? Ya well she was not so interested so we kind of put it on hold. Now a few months later Baby DIVA is beginning to show an interest again in this whole Tot learning stuff, so I am back on the wagon, cutting with unsharp toddler scissors, gluing things on paper in no particular order and eating play dough. It is fabulous!

We still have a structure but I would have to say it is a loose learning style. I built a huge arsenal for any moment that the learning mood might strike. There is a "fun" basket at Baby DIVA's reach that I have placed numerous homemade learning games and activities. Whenever she feels the need she sprints right on over and brings me a Ziploc full of the game she wants to play. She has her choice of various activities such as playing with clocks to building foam houses. Its pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Honestly she doesn't play exactly how the items should be utilized as of yet, but it is coming. For example, she really enjoys taking the color crayon matching game in and out of the Ziploc instead of laying them out and matching the colors. Oh well I say. We improvise and instead just talk about the colors as she takes them in and out and in and out and in and out over and over until Oops the baggie goes "night night". You know what I am talking about. I know you do. Don't tell me that Brown Bear, Brown Bear book hasn't taken a 3 day slumber on occasion.

Does your tot like to play these games? What stuff do you have going on to teach and play your tots?

Savvy Tot School

Baby DIVA is like a sponge. She learns something new everyday. Every day is I am so amazed at her, the amount of knowledge she gains, the funny "new" something that she does, it is all breathtaking. She really is enjoying her Savvy Tot school. This last week we worked on Senses. At the beginning of the week I thought I would do a different sense each day, well toddlers don't really work with what you plan. I ended up just using our every day life and pointing out various sensory moments to Baby DIVA. We felt all kinds of material in her toy box. We heard many different sounds, like birds, and dogs, and airplanes, while relaxing at the park.

Next week will not only provide Baby DIVA lessons in Gardening, but will also harness another new found skill for Baby DIVA. Pink Haired Momma will begin taking care of a 7 week old Baby K-Dude 3 days a week, Baby DIVA will not be the only babe in the castle. Life lessons begin to take shape this week at our place! As wee tend the the garden in the backyard, Baby DIVA will learn the fine art of sharing momma's time.





I will let you know how that goes!

Savvy Tot School

Color week was totally fabulous. We learned about YELLOW, because the sun was shining almost every day. We learned about BLUE, because the sky was solid blue, no clouds to be seen. We were fascinated by the color GREEN, as we watched the grass begin to grow and buds of winter tortured plants begin to wake up. All of the color activities planned for Savvy Tot School this week were shaken and stirred and new ones poured out, all because we had fantastic weather this week. It is wonderful to be able to expose Baby DIVA to natural learning!

To start off color we, we dined on a fabulous and "colorful" meal. Followed by reading of "color" books daily, that we carefully chose at the library. We also enjoyed our every morning drawing on the porch door coloring session with our super cool window crayons, which always includes at least one taste of a color. Thank goodness for non-toxic.

We also made a Hi-five board. This week to be used for color, but can be utilized for many many other themes. I traced my hand print on various colored foam boards, and then cut them out and glued them to a large board. Baby DIVA then could "Hi-five" the color we were discussing. She of course didn't exactly follow this game by the rules, but she did loved dragging the whole board around the house and attempting to say "Blue".

I think of of Baby DIVA's funnest color activity was whip cream painting!



All in all it was an incredible week. Lots of outdoor play, loads of colors to see, and tons of loving with my Baby DIVA!! Up next: The senses!

Baby DIVA's Savvy Tot school

I have started something fabulous for Baby DIVA which I have formally named "Savvy Tot School." She is so digging it! And since the first week was a total success, now I will share it with you. Yes, if I attempt something and it fails, most likely I wont share it here with you! LOL I must go on thinking that the world assumes Pink Haired Momma is brilliant and can do no wrong, and then I wake up.

Okay! Here is what has happened. I became so sick and tired of finding fun and exciting events, crafts, games, entertaining tunes, etc. to do with Baby DIVA, only to then discover we did not have all the pieces and parts to complete the crafts, or the day we wanted to venture out the event was closed. It really began to frustrate me. So I put together a plan. I scoured the Internet, the local resources, my craft books and found some awesome age appropriate ideas. I then sat down with a calendar and mapped out the rest of the year in "theme" weeks for my Baby DIVA. I coordinated the appropriate events, crafts and happenings to the matching "theme" week. (Just to let you know I only matched up all this info for about a months worth of time, the rest of the year I will work on as we go, always being at least 2 weeks ahead.) This structure will allow me to plan our activities and play dates with some organization. I can also glance at our upcoming theme week and list of activities and then cross reference our craft supplies, in order to ensure we have everything we need. Yes I am a bit OCD and need this structure, call me crazy it is ok!

Exhausted from her Savvy Tot School lessons

The first week is now complete. Our theme was "animals". And we had a blast. We started on Monday by getting 5 stuffed animals of baby DIVA's. We had Froggy, Bear, Miss Bunny, Ally Alligator, and Pig Pig. We sat around talking about what these stuffed toys were, what colors they were, where they lived, what they ate, what sounds they made, basically anything I could think of that was related to these animals, we talked about. She seemed so intrigued. She stayed focused on this little lesson for almost a full 30 minutes. I was amazed. Following our little lesson we got out our super cool Window Crayons, thanks to our fabulous friend Nicole for opening our eyes to these fabulous crayons, and had a drawing contest on the patio door. Baby DIVA's scribble beast took the award! And then we watched Babe. For lunch we dined on animal shaped sandwiches and animal crackers, and drank milk from a moo cow. The afternoon was a little more casual as we enjoyed playing outside.

Our learning tools

Each day this week was structured in such a manner that various animal lessons were incorporated throughout our day. We made paper bags into animal puppets and had a little puppet show, although Baby DIVA was more interested in eating this activity. While grocery shopping we hit the Easter aisle and learned about chickens, bunnies and eggs through all the Easter novelties that are out. Almost every day we spent a good while making animal noises and reading animal themed books, we picked out at the library last week.

Libraries are full of fabulous information

All in all I think it was fabulous. Baby DIVA experienced some new information all while having a blast, and I felt in control and not flustered or frustrated in any way. Now of course some of the ideas and activities I had were not utilized, and that is fine. I am not planning each day down to what we will do and precisely when. I simply have a notebook full of themed ideas for that week and can choose from it, knowing we have everything in house to fit our needs. I am excited about this endeavor. I hope it works out well and that Baby DIVA continues to learn and grow and have tons of fun in her Savvy Tot school with momma! Next week our theme is "Colors"! I will let you know how it goes!