Farm Magnets

Alligator is working on making animal sounds. He is getting really good at mimicking their sounds, and for some he can make the sounds spontaneously.

The more we practice the better off he will be. Although we have numerous animal toys, puzzles and books. I decided to make him some animal magnets. That way they are in the kitchen and when he is in there I can remember to point to them and make the sounds.

I used a printable from KidsSoup. You have to be a member but it is pretty inexpensive, and it is a wonderful resource. I printed them on cardstock, then glued them to colored paper, and laminated them. Finally, adding a magnet to the back. It is a lot of steps but I love the look.

I chose this printable because  I liked the faces on  the animals.

Here are some things we will do with them:

1. Hang them one at a time on the fridge at eye level. I do one at a time so that Alligator doesn’t run off with them and lose them. He is notorious for getting stuff off the fridge and me never seeing it again. This way whenever we are in the kitchen together we can work on that animal sound. I will rotate them each day.

2. Use them as props for singing “Old MacDonald”

3. Use them as props for singing “I went to visit a Farm One day” (click the title to see the lyrics, you can do the animals in any order.)

4. Put them in a bag and pull one out at a time to sing or make the animal sounds..

5. Match our toy animals to the magnet.

6. Putting on and off the fridge is a good fine motor activity.

7. Play where’s the…. (Where’s the pig?)

Alligator’s invention

While recovering from his surgery Alligator invented a game.

Let me start by saying that Alligator loves Scissors. He loves the opening and closing of the handles. So anytime he spies scissors he grabs them immediately, he is like a bird of prey.

So, even though he just had surgery, I again had to take scissors away from him. Well, he scoured through our toy tool box, and found a pair of toy pliers. They have a similar handle, so he was fascinated. Then he found a plastic board that has 3 holes in it and took it over to the art table. Where there were markers. He placed the markers in the holes, and tried to pull them out with the pliers.

 

He  was having a hard time working the pliers, he likes to have one hand on each handle, but he had to hold the board down or it would tip. So I taped it to the table and he went at it. Over and over again, he would grab (or inadvertently knock) the markers out of the holes, put them back in and try again!

 

I will definitely pull this out again in the future, he really enjoyed it!

Painting with a Toddler

My darling Alligator loves to color/scribble. I guess it is scribbling since he doesn’t actually color in shapes, but makes designs on paper. In fact, most of the time if you give him a paper with a design on it (like a coloring page) he won’t color it. But he loves a crayon or marker or pencil, and some clean fresh paper.

Well, today he grabbed the paint and a paintbrush and brought it to me. So I figured he wanted to paint. (duh…right). Normally painting isn’t something he loves.; But I think I found the secret.

1. He has to have a brush. He WILL NOT finger paint! Better yet give him 2 brushes, one for each hand.

2. Squirt the paint directly onto the paper. If I try to squirt it into a bowl for him to dip, he will color the bowl. So I squirt directly on the paper.

3. I only squirt a little at a time. He will point at the paint and tell me when he is ready for more.

4. Offer fresh pieces of paper often. Who doesn’t love a fresh start?

 

Here are all of this mornings creations! We had fun!!!!!

Flour and Cinnamon fun!

Alligator had a great time with the flour and cinnamon provided in the MGT kit. We decided to play with it out on our front porch. I added scoops, a funnel, and giant popcicle sticks (Alligator added the empty stapler, which he just adores). To avoid ruined clothes he played in his diaper.

 

The mixture had a wonderful smell.

He played very calmly at first without making much mess at all.

Then he really got into it!

As you can see we had fun, and we are glad we did it outside!

Young Toddler Activity—Sitting in my High chair song.

Since my last post was about a high chair game, I thought I would post about a high chair song.

A few years ago when Monkey was about 18 months old, I took him to a Mommy and Me type class. They taught us this song. I haven’t tried it with Alligator yet but I will.

 

 

Sitting in my high chair, my chair, high chair

Sitting in my high chair, banging with my spoon

Bring on the jelly, bring on the bread

won’t somebody get this baby fed.

 

Sitting in my high chair, my chair, high chair

Sitting in my high chair, banging with my spoon

Bring on the carrots, bring on the peas

won’t somebody feed this baby please

 

(as you sing, pat and or clap to the beat, or better yet give your child and you a spoon)

 

I also noticed that 1 verse of this song is in the book “Wonderplay"  Click on the book to find it on Amazon.

Young Toddler Activity- high chair drop and retrieve

I am trying to come up with some new activities for Alligator, who will be  months on Monday. Here is one I learned about from one of my many activity books.

 

Materials: tape, string or ribbon, toys, highchair

Setup:

1. Attach the string or ribbon to the high chair with tape.

WARNING:

Be careful and mindful that this could be a strangulation hazard, so be conscious of how much string you use.

2. Tie some small toys to the string.

 

Play:

1. Seat your child in the seat.

2. Show him or her the toys.

3. Show him or her how to toss them overboard.

4. Show him or her how to pull them back up.

 

In Action:

Here is Alligator playing with Elmo and a truck. He hasn’t quite learned to retrieve it yet, but he enjoyed having the toys to play with.