Books, Books, Books!

I love to read and so does my little guy! We read everyday. I started reading to him a few days after he was born. In my opinion, it's never to early!

We live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but I was able to find a few fun "story-time like" activities around town. Check out Barnes and Noble's event calendar! Every Monday, is "Wee Read", a children's story-time. Also, check out you local library. Our library has a "laptime" for babies, which is story-time and finger plays, then a story-time for each age 2-5. Plus, both have holiday story-time activities.

Baby books are expensive, but they are a must have! I take my little one to the library every week to pick out new books. Also, the dollar store has baby books! Who would've thought? They are cute and only $1!

If you have a Nook or the Barnes and Noble Nook app, you can get free or super cheap baby books. I have a few and they are very cute!

This website has tons of e-books for children ages 0-10, for free. My little guy loves the picture books! http://www.wegivebooks.org/books

Who doesn't love free stuff? I can't wait for our first book to arrive. I found out about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program through our local library. This program rocks! The program will mail an age appropriate book to each child in your home once a month for FREE! http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/

Noodle Fun

I love this sensory play! While little one was napping, I boiled some noodles (I used spaghetti) in food coloring. Once the noodles were cool, I put them all in a bucket with some blocks.

This is the surprise that my little one woke up to find.

"What is in the bucket? Noodles and blocks!"

"What color are the noodles? Blue, green, orange."

"Mmmmmm"

"Can Lucy play with you?"

"What is on your head? Blue noodles."

"All done."

I think that we both had tons of fun exploring and playing with the noodles and blocks, simply because it was so different from our usual sensory activities. I'm sure we will be doing this one again!

Pumpkin Painting

I really wanted to take advantage of the nice weather so, with a baby in one arm and our art supplies in the other, we headed outside. Once we found a cozy spot in the sun, I gave him the pumpkin. 

" The pumpkin is orange and bumpy"

Then, I gave him a paint brush with a little bit of paint but that just became a teething toy...so I tossed the paintbrush aside.

"Is the paintbrush tasty?"

 I put some paint directly on the pumpkin. That worked a lot better. He knew just what to do!

"You are doing a great job!"

My little Picasso turned the pumpkin into a masterpiece. 

"Yes, you can play daddy's guitar."

"What do you hear?"

I just had to share these pictures of my future rock star! Music is a part of our everyday, whether it is me singing (and by the way I sound AWFUL) or listening to the radio/CD's. I love Pandora Radio. A few of my favorites for kids are Rubbie Duckie radio, Baby Einstein's and Lullaby Theme.

Squishy, Squashy Playdough

This is so easy to make! Here's what you need to get started :

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of salt
• 2 tsp. of cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil
• food coloring

Stir all ingredients together. Put in a pot over medium heat. Stirring constantly until it forms into a ball. Dump the playdough onto the counter to cool. Then knead a few times until soft. Abracadabra, you have homemade playdough!

Now, let's see what little man thinks of this...

 "What does it feel like?" 

"Squishy, blue playdough"

"Squashy, yellow playdough"

"Doesn't taste so great, does it?"

This was a great activity that let my little peanut explore a different texture...something other than plastic. He had tons of fun squishing it in between his fingers, poking it and even trying to eat it. Ok, I'll admit it, I had fun playing with this stuff too!

This little man loves to be outdoors. If he is having a fussy moment, all I have to do is walk to a window or open up the front door and immediately his mood changes. We played outside for about an hour this morning. He had a blast playing with his trucks, pulling out the grass around him and digging in the dirt. Such a boy!

"Vroom, vroom"

"What color is the grass?"

I'm sad that summer is coming to an end because I know we are not going to be able to play outside, go on walks or to the playground as often. I'm a little nervous about basically being trapped inside everyday. Hopefully, we will have some nice weather before it gets too cold out.

Water,Water Everywhere!

Peanut loves the water! He gets so excited every time we pass the bathroom because he thinks that it's bath time. He loves the ocean and going to the pool. Seriously, this kid is a fish. So, I figured why not come up with an activity that lets him explore water without him actually being in it. I filled three different sized pots with 3 different temperatures of water.

"Water is wet. Is that cold?"

"Are you thirsty? Is it good?"

 It didn't take long for him to dump the water out of the pots. It was priceless seeing the expression on his face when he realized what he had done. This activity was a lot of fun but again I wish I had a shower curtain to put down. I really need to make a trip to the dollar store before our next messy project!

Rainbow Rice Cereal

I love this messy game! I've seen this done before with older babies using cool whip or foam paint. I wanted to play this with my 6 month old but was a little nervous to use either of those since everything that he touches goes in his mouth. I ended up using rice cereal so I didn't have to introduce anything new that could be a possible allergic reaction. I added rice cereal to a cupcake tin, then mixed in food coloring. 

"Do you see all of the different colors?"

"How does it feel? Is it squishy?"

"Yum" 

As you can see, it got messy quick! Next time, we will definitely put down a shower curtain to cut down on the clean up.

I think he had fun!

Motivate Me

Hello! My name is Melissa. I am a stay at home mommy to a 6 month old, happy baby boy. I've been looking for ways to keep myself motivated and busy, so figured why not blog about what I'm already doing. Play, Learn, Imagine, Explore, Communicate. I'm committed to creating daily learning activities for my son, through art and play. I plan to add a new activity to my repertoire and blog about it each week.