Car Marble Painting

This is Marble Painting with a twist. If you are not new to this blog, you should know by now that my boys are cars fanatics. Their cars are usually within their reach during craft time. Marble Painting is a regular craft for us. We do it every now and then. Especially during times when I'm short of time but the boys are desperately asking for their activity time. Today, the boys did their marble painting a little differently and I welcome the change. Instead of holding the sides of the box to roll their marbles around, they used their cars to push the marbles. This was entirely their own initiative. How creative! I love it when they show me how things can be played in different ways. While we as parents will usually think that we are the ones teaching them, I often think they are the ones teaching us and showing us how the world can work in different ways.

What You Need: 
Some sort of tray or box cover to contain the paper and marbles (and cars in this case)
Paper
Paint
Marbles
Cars

Just push or hit the marbles with the cars and it will roll the paint all over, creating patterns. My sons love the sound of the cars hitting the marbles. And they were thrilled when the marble they pushed hit another marble. Have fun!

Storage Ideas: Storing Kids Puzzles

I used to put all our inset puzzles in a bag and I hate it when the puzzle pieces fall out. I have a few bags of puzzles and it takes some time it takes some time to locate the pieces when you have a few in a bag. I make sure no puzzle pieces go missing. I'm not a neat freak but I'm very particular when it comes to the kids' toys. I hate it when I see kids throwing the toys into the toy bin. So, I never have one. All their toys are placed on shelves. I hope they can learn to take care of their toys and to appreciate what they have. If a toy goes missing, the whole family join in the search. I'm proud to say we have not lost any toys so far, the few times we couldn't locate them was because my domestic helper kept them at some obscure places by mistake or it went real deep under the bed.  

Ok, back to the puzzles. I now keep each puzzle in individual plastic bags (yeah... I know, it's not environmental friendly but I doubt I will ever find the time to sew fabric ones), those that are slightly bigger than A4 size will fit most standard sized puzzles, like those from Melissa & Doug. (we have lots of those) So, it's easy for me and them to just pick up the puzzle and all the puzzle pieces will be contained in that bag. Once we are done with it, we just put it back. It has been working great. I got my plastic bags from SKP. I chose those that have a resealable seal. It's not expensive, few dollars for a hundred pieces and I have been using the bags for many other purposes too, like storing their artworks.

Photo Shapes Puzzle

I was inspired by Pink and Green Mama with her Homemade Christmas Gift. I used this Shapes Photo Puzzle to lure my sleep fighting 2 years old in to the bedroom for their naptime. It's hard to get them in the bathroom and it's harder to get them in the bedroom as they know it's going to be sleep after books. So, again, I had to crack my brain to think of ways to lure them in. This was really easy and I finished it when they were in school.

I did it a bit differently. It was not meant to be a gift and I want to be able to use the puzzle again. So, I laminated the photos. I did the first version just using paper though.

What You Need:
A Shape Puzzle
Photos of family members
Laminator (optional, just print on card stock if you don't have one)

Method:

1. Find portraits of family members.
2. Resize accordingly and print them.
3. Laminate.
4. Use the shapes to trace the photos for the puzzle holes.
5. Cut 
6. Put them in the puzzle and cover with the inset.

I played Peeka-Boo with them with the puzzle and they were so surprised to see photos of family members in them! They were thrilled! And we had a lot of fun. Here are variations to add some learning elements to this.

• Play Memory Games 

- After showing them a round of the photos, I put all the insets back and ask them who is behind each shape. They got them all correct!

• Photo Hunt

- I asked them where is Papa and they are supposed to pick up the inset to reveal the photo under it.

• Put the photos back

- This was by accident and they were giggling so much over it. One of the photos fell out and they were laughing and shouting "Mummy fall out!" and they went on to make all the other people "fall". To make it "educational", I made them tell me what shape the family member fell from. And after taking them all out, I asked that they put them back to the respective shapes and name them. So, it's "Popo in an oval" and "Kor Kor in a square", etc.

What I like about not sticking the photos on the puzzles is that I can always change them and change the sequence for more memory games and keep the interest high.

Why everyone should have a child (or children)

• They'll make you believe that's there's such a thing called unconditional love. 
• They'll make you want to be a better person.
• They'll make you want to have more children (ok... only for a few seconds when they are angelic at the SAME time which "thankfully" didn't happen a lot)
• They'll make you believe that your children is the greatest or the most amazing "thing" that you've ever created. 
• They'll make you a more patient person. (or a screaming mom with your hair standing)
• They'll make you realize your flaws.
• They'll make you want to take care of yourself and afraid of dying. 
• They'll make you mind your language.
• They'll make you want to earn more. 
• They'll offer you a brand new perspective to things. 
• They'll let you have a taste of your own medicine.
• They'll make you appreciate and understand your mother better.
• They'll make you want to have a complete family.

Toilet Roll Painting

The boys have been asking to paint... a lot... and we ended up painting twice a day sometimes. After a few sessions of open ended painting, I thought it would be good to introduce something new for them to paint with to keep the interest. I looked into my recycle bin for crafting and I saw many toilet rolls. Yes, I have a bin where I keep things that I think can be put to good use to the children's crafts. This has been extremely useful. I used to see a craft, then collect materials and I never get to that craft. So, these days, I just look in my bin and see what I have. It's so much easier.

What You Need:
Toilet Rolls
Paint
Paper

They shouted "circle" while painting

K, can't bear to let go of his car while painting.

Y tried to use the rolls to stamp each other.

The toilet roll became a tunnel for his car to go through.

And K couldn't resist and invited his car to join in the painting.

Fine Motor Skills - Toothpicks + Styrofoam

What You Need:
Toothpicks
Styrofoam Block (Many things that comes in a box often have these)

This activity requires close adult supervision. Never leave your young toddler alone with this! Especially if you have two. 

K was quite good with this and he thus he enjoyed it more than Y. He poked all the toothpicks into the block, took them out and did it all over again. Y got frustrated. He was having problems holding the toothpicks with his fingers. He gave up and was observing how his brother did it. I like it when they learn from each other.

I think this activity is still pretty safe if you only have a 2 year old toddler but it's extremely dangerous when you have two as they could hurt each other with the picks if they get frustrated. Or worse, start fighting over a toothpick that looked the same as the rest. I stayed close to prevent any accidents from happening. 

Toddler Tactics: How do you avoid Bath Struggles?

There are days when they will be fighting for their turns to take their bath/shower, refusing to get out of the bath and there will be days when they just refuse to step foot into the bathroom. Those are days when I have to crack my brains to think of tricks to get them to cooperate with me. Attempting to shower a screaming toddler is fighting a losing battle. I've tried and after the shower, they are as good as not being showered with the perspiration they get from their screaming and crying.

So, here are some tactics I've tried and worked (but only for a while, I'm very lucky if I can use the same tactics more than 3 times):

1. Bath Toys - Boats, Squirters, Rubber Duckies. 
2. Bubbles - I got a bubble gun specially for this purpose as it's impossible for me to blow and bathe them at the time. The bubble produce enough bubbles to keep them entertained while I undress them.
3. Alphabet/Number Foam - Those that you can stick on your bathroom walls with water works great to get them busy with their letter/number hunt.
4. Shaving Foam - I spray them on the wall and they draw. 
5. Change a bathroom - I invited them to my bathroom to take a shower. They are curious about the new environment.
6. Bath Balls - The bath balls didn't dissolve in the bath, they were holding them so tight that I couldn't even get the plastic off them. They ended up throwing them around like a "ball". haha...
7. Car Wash - Get them to get their dirty plastic cars in for a car wash. 
8. Get them to shower their bath toy animals - I place their dinos, ducky, fish (rubber bath toys) on the floor and let them hold the shower head to shower them. 
9. Let them hold the shower head - The toddler wants to be in control. Just be prepared to get wet. 
10. Let them on and off the tap - At your command. 
11. Let them bathe together - Get a sibling to join, the more the merrier. (or maybe you can join in but I doubt I will try.)
12. Bribe Reward them after the bath - TV time or Stickers works for them. 

All the above 12 tactics are NOT working now. It's a pain trying to get them to bathe these days! I've just bought 2 spray bottles and they are going to be my tool for bath time tomorrow. Wish me luck. 

What other tactics have you tried to get your reluctant toddler to bathe/shower? Please share! They get bored so fast and I'm running out of ideas.