Naptime = Playtime 4

Recently, Brayden and I have just been playing a lot while Paisley is sleeping.  He needs way more of my attention while she is sleeping, since he is getting less while she is awake.

Yesterday, we pulled out his hot wheels and just played with his cars.  We played, laughed, and had a great time. 

Remember, the time you spend with your children is really for them, so make sure what you are doing is fun for them as well.

 

Naptime=Playtime 4 Cloud Dough

Brayden and I are having so much fun with our naptime=playtime activities. 

As I was searching pinterest for new ideas for my Indoor Fun and Games board, I came across one of my new favorite blogs for fun ideas, Kara's Classroom.  I first found her post on cloud dough and then searched through her blog and I cannot wait to try more of her ideas.

Cloud dough was easy to make, and Brayden had lots of fun playing with it. 

To make cloud dough all you need is 7 cups of flour, 1 cup of vegetable oil and a big container to put it in.  *I wish we would have had a bigger container, but our little one worked just fine.

To start, we gathered our flour, oil, container, and a towel to sit on.  Brayden helped me count and measure out the cups of flour and then mix in the oil. 

He played for awhile with just the dough till we were interrupted by Paisley who wanted to join in the fun.  She started off in her bouncer, but she did not want to stay there.  I put her in the bumbo and gave her a cookie cutter to play with.  Brayden loved trying to make the cookie cutter shapes in the dough.  Next time, I want to come up with more things for him to play with in the dough, even though his hands and the cookie cutters worked just fine. 

After the big girls got home from school, Brayden told them what he had played with and they wanted to play too.  Even my girls liked it, and this is why I want a bigger container.

Overall, the cloud dough was a HUGE success and I cannot wait to get it out again!

Any suggestions on what else to play with in the cloud dough?

Naptime=Playtime 3 Preschool Fundamentals

Brayden asked to get Super Why cereal one day at the store, and I knew that there would be fun projects we could do together. 

The first thing we did is letter matching.  I looked through the cereal to find all the letters of the alphabet.  This was time consuming.  It took about 30 minutes for me to find all the letters, but it was worth it.

On a piece of paper I wrote out all the letters so he could match the cereal with the letters.  I put the letters in order in the little bowl, but I let him pick out the letters he wanted to match.  He did a great job and only needed a little help from me on the letters that didn't quite match each other exactly.  

After we matched all the letters we practiced writing.  I want him to get better at his writing so instead of doing a certain letter, I had him write out some of the letters with straight lines (A, E, I, H, K, M).

After writing we flipped the paper and traced his hands.  We counted fingers and talked about left and right.

It was a great learning day!

Can't wait to share our next naptime fun!

Naptime=Playtime 2 Foam Fun

Brayden and I are loving the fun things we are finding to do.  Since he is 3 1/2, I am wanting to do a mix of academic things, fun messy (sensory) things, and arts and crafts. 

Brayden loves bubbles, so I knew he would get a kick out of making his own foam.  I got the idea for foam from the blog, Fun at Home with Kids, and I have it pinned on my Indoor Fun and Games pinterest board.  

Things needed:

2 tbsp. of dish soap
1/4 cup of water
A mixer


I let Brayden help with measuring out, and I let him do all the mixing.  You want to add the dish soap to the water, and mix for a good 2 minutes.  If your foam is creating some peaks, you are done.

 

 

I put down some towels and some fun kitchen gadgets (whisk, spatula, ect.), and I let Brayden play how ever he wanted.  At first, he did not want to touch the foam, but he eventually opened up to the idea of messy, and had a ton of fun.  One of the good things about the foam was how easy it was to remix it if it started to deflate.

 

We played for a long time and we were covered in foam, as well as my kitchen.  Another good thing  about the foam was easy clean up.  I took a wet towel and ran it across my kitchen floor, and I ran a bath for Brayden.  He loved having all the kitchen gadgets and foam in the bath.  I loved that he played till his water went cold.  All of the foamy bubbles disappeared, then it was easy to throw the kitchen gadgets in the dishwasher to get them clean.

 

 

This was a great playtime for both of us!  It was cheap, quick, easy, and lots of fun!  I can't wait till we do it again!

 

Do you have any fun ideas for playing with kids at home? 



Naptime = Playtime 1 Painting and Letter Recognition

Since most of my day is spent catering to baby Paisley, I am trying to make an effort to do things with just Brayden.  This time comes in the morning when Pais takes her nap.  I have been working with him on his letter recognition and writing and also fun things like painting, coloring, foam, and anything else fun we come up with.  I think he has really enjoyed the time that is spent just me and him.  I am going to do a series where I show you fun things Brayden and I are doing, how he likes it, where I found the idea, and how he is progressing.

The first thing Brayden wanted to do was paint a Christmas picture.  I used green washable paint and painted his hand 6 times and we made his handprints into a Christmas tree.  I put lines on the bottom of the tree and let him use brown paint to paint in the trunk of the tree.  Then I asked him if he wanted to add ornaments to the tree and of course he said yes, but he painted them around the tree.  Silly boy!  I let him paint how he wanted with out correcting him since it was his picture.

 

 

With Brayden being 3 1/2, I also want to work on his writing skills.  I wrote his name on a piece of paper with yellow marker, and had him trace over it.  The yellow is easy for him to see and easier to follow than hash marks.  After we tried his name, we worked on the letter A. 

 

 

I don't want to push Brayden to do more than he wants, so this was all we did on this day.  His attention span isn't very long, so we moved onto something more playful.  I do think he enjoyed his time with me.  I know I enjoyed being able to focus on just him.

 

I can't wait to show you more of what we do! 

 

Any suggestions are welcome!!