Snow Day Activity Center

It's hard being stuck inside on a snow day. I often struggle to keep the kids occupied. This last snowy day, I set up an activity center on our dining table.

On one side of the table I set up some paint in ziplock bags. I've seen this activity done a ton on Pinterest. You just put some paint blobs in ziplock bags and tape them down. Buddy doesn't like getting his hands messy, so this was a good solution for clean play. Even still it took a little convincing because he dislikes paint so much. Of course, once we showed him how to draw letters in the paint, he was sold.

I set up some paper and crayons on another side while he warmed up to the idea of playing with the paint.
Once Jellybean was tired of pushing paint around, I brought out some salt dough. She loves dough, but Buddy is, again, a bit resistant because of the potential mess factor. His preschool teacher has recommended that we try to get him to do activities that will build the strength in his fingers. Playing in dough is a good one.

Yep, our hands are a little messy.

I had a bag of decorative rocks close by, so I brought those out to see if it would make the activity more interesting. To my surprise, Buddy loved sticking the rocks in the dough and was engrossed in it far longer than Jellybean. He didn't even get annoyed about his hands not being perfectly clean.

First, he concentrated on making a stonehenge of sorts.

Then he squished all of the dough together and created a monster.  When he was done with that he worked on hiding the rocks inside the dough. Weird how adding one new thing can change everything.

Well, that was one morning successfully managed. Here's hoping that there aren't very many more days that we're stuck inside this winter.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Artsy Play Wednesday

Halloween Craft: Salt Dough Ghosts

For my birthday, last month, my awesome sister gave me all the ingredients to make some salt dough. With it she printed out this great idea from Family Fun for salt dough ghosts. I thought it would be a fun craft to do with my children on the day before Halloween.

It was a fun craft, unfortunately, I was the only one into actually making the ghosts.  Buddy decided that he wasn't interested in salt dough and Jellybean decided to work on her own projects. This included smashing two of my already created ghosts... Anyway, I had fun, Jellybean kept busy and I like my little "ghosties."

Here they are being created:

Jellybean working on her own project with some Halloween cookie cutters:

And then the ghosts after their short stint in the microwave, cooled and faces added:

While alive, two of these ghosts were sumo wrestlers. Can't you tell?

I don't know how these will hold up, but they will be adorable in my Halloween mantel next year if they are still in one piece. I love the additional craft idea my sister gave me for some spooky paper bag trees. Would be so cute with the ghosts in a Halloween table display.

If you are looking for a ridiculously easy Halloween craft today, this might be the ticket.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Artsy Play Wednesday

Toddler Gift Giving- Salt Dough

Today is Grandma B's birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) The family celebrated the occasion this last Sunday.  I couldn't be there because of a horrible head cold that just wouldn't go away.  I was sad at missing the get together, but I had fun helping my kids make a gift for their grandmother.

We love working with play dough in our house. My kids also really enjoy creating gifts for people. Personally, I love seeing them experience the joy of making something for someone else and then the joy of giving their creation away.

 I put together a batch of salt dough and got out some cookie cutters and letter stamps.  Both Jellybean and Buddy enjoyed playing with the dough. If left to her own devices, Jellybean just rips dough apart in tiny pieces (she also kept licking the dough), so I helped her cut out some fish. Under her instruction, there had to be a mama, a dada and a baby fish.  I also rolled out a circle so she could do a hand impression.

Buddy lives for Halloween and was very attracted to the pumpkin and ghost cookie cutters. He also molded together a "monster box." Apparently, Grandma knew immediately that it was from him due to the "ABC" stamped on the outside (his other obsession is with the alphabet).

After the salt dough was baked and cooled, I got out some markers and let them color their creations.

Salt Dough Recipe:

-1 cup of flour
-1 cup of salt
-Half a cup of water
-Mix it together and knead it
-When ready to cook, put on a baking sheet in the oven at 200 degrees F for 2-3 hours
-When cool, paint or decorate. You may wish to varnish or cover with gloopy glue when dry.

When researching salt dough recipes, I came across a great resource for play dough recipes: The Imagination Tree. The post has over a dozen recipes/ideas for using play dough. It also talks about the benefits of working with play dough and how the medium of play dough encourages imaginative play. It's worth a read.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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