Paint!

Buddy is a fastidious child. He doesn't like getting his hands messy. Because of this, he has gone almost the entire year of pre-school refusing to participate in painting projects.  Right now, his class is working on a dress-up wardrobe for a school fundraising auction. The children have been painting the wardrobe. Making balloons with their fingerprints as well as flowers, butterflies and grass with handprints. Just imagine how much of this painting my son has done.... His teacher has wanted him to be involved so she sent home some paint and the handles for the wardrobe drawers. She figured that I'd be able to find him in the right mood to paint the handles if we did it at home.

Well, it took a couple of weeks to find a time when he was willing and boy did I find him willing:

After he painted the handles, he just kept going.

Buddy said, (and I quote) "I like painting!" So, I asked him why he doesn't paint at school.  He responded very matter of fact, "I just like cutting and gluing at school."

So, did Jellybean paint too? Yep, she did.

She was a little disturbed when I told her not to paint her mouth.

I love the end results of both of their work.

I think I'm going to need to frame both of these.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Bag Monster = Awesome.

I ran across a blog post recently that sparked my interest. It was a post about a few indoor activities that the blogger had put together for her kids. One of the activity ideas was creating a "bag monster." Basically, a trash bag stuffed with grocery bags hung from the ceiling for the kids to kick. This idea is genius. I made our monster, which the kids call "Waga," a couple of weeks ago. The kids love it so much that I can't actually keep it attached to the ceiling, they always manage to kick it down in about 10 minutes. I don't hang it for them every day, but when I do, they go nuts. Evidence below:


BagMonster from A Happy Song on Vimeo
It is the perfect activity for getting out a lot of excess energy. Please disregard the background mess in the video. We hang the monster in our "formal dining room", which we like to use as a multi-purpose room: Play-room, craft room, photo shoot area, and weirdly, it's also where I blow dry my hair. Hair drying always ends up turning into a round of puff-ball air cannon play.

Waga the bag monster. I do excellent artwork.

Yesterday, after the kids had worn themselves out punching/running around the bag. They decided just to lay down and kick it. Seriously awesome exercise going on here.

BagMonster2 1 from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to Play, Create, Explore for this great idea. There have been several times when letting the kids get their energy out on that bag has absolutely saved my sanity.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Indoor Fun: Puff-Ball Air Cannon

While the weather is continuing to warm up some, we've still had days when it is too cold to go out or air quality is too poor.  So, we've had to get creative.  One our favorite indoor games is creating a puff-ball air cannon.  Grab some puff-balls, an old poster tube and a blow dryer.
Plug the blow dryer in and place it inside the bottom of the poster tube. Then load it up with puff-balls (not too many, or they'll get stuck).

Turn on the blow dryer (on the coldest setting) and wait for the fun.

Then do it over

and over again! Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Box Fort

So, am I the only one that does a ridiculous amount of shopping online and then collects a ridiculous amount of cardboard boxes? After a couple of years of collecting, I realized that I should probably do something with all of those boxes. What to do...?

Let the kids build a fort of course.

 And this was only the small boxes out of my collection. My sister-in-law said I must be a glutton for punishment seeing as that many boxes in a small room strongly resembles a huge mess.

Good thing my little builders knew how to create some order out of the disorder.

I'm wondering why I didn't just get them more boxes for Christmas instead of toys.

There is a huge bright side to a box fort. Once the hours of enjoyment are over, all of those boxes can go directly to the recycle bin. Fantastic.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Indoor Fun: Animal Color Bath

I've mentioned before that we just made it through a couple of weeks where we were basically house bound. Between illness and the heat outside, we didn't have much choice but to hang out indoors. With two toddlers, that gets old fast.  I scrambled to find some activities that were easy to do (I was sick after all) and that would keep the kids' attention for a fair amount of time. One activity that turned out to be a favorite was the Animal Color Bath.

I found the Color Bath Dropz at the grocery store. You can add one or more color tablets to change the color of the water. We experimented with the tablets and found that it was a fun learning experience. It's really fun to see how the water can change from red to orange by the addition of a yellow tablet or yellow to green by adding a blue tablet, etc.  The kids loved playing in the water.

They also loved washing their farm animals. I gave them each a wash cloth and a towel to dry the animals on.  It's absolutely amazing how something so simple can be so engaging.  They spent a good 45 minutes washing their animals and playing in the water. 45 minutes of peace, ahhh.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Water Gem Play

We were hit with a double whammy on Monday.  It was rainy outside and Buddy was sick.  So, we were stuck inside for the bulk of the day.  I'd seen a suggestion on another blog regarding water gems. I purchased a bottle of them and have had them waiting in a cupboard for quite some time.  Today seemed like the perfect day to get them out.

Water gems are really cool. They are little gel like balls that balloon up when they are left in water. I guess they are mostly used to make flower vases more decorative. You can purchase the water gems in dehydrated packets, or already hydrated in a bottle. I got mine at Michaels, but I imagine they are available at almost any craft store.  The hydrated version is a bit more expensive, but I decided to pay for the convenience of having them already ready and waiting for me. I'm not very good at planning.

I just poured some in clear tupperware and brought out spoons and cups. Then I added a tad more water. The kids loved them. We played with them for at least an hour. They enjoyed putting their hands in and feeling them, spooning them up and putting them in their cups and then pouring them out. They especially got a kick out of an occasional escapee. The gems, we discovered, are a bit bouncy.  I also brought out a flashlight and turned out the lights. It was fun shining the light through them.  I really wished that I had a light table. These would look awesome sitting over a light source. I'm going to rig one up for next time.  Maybe something like this. These would also be great in a sensory bin.  Clean up was a breeze. I just poured off some water and put them back in their bottle. I'd definitely suggest getting some water gems to keep around for indoor play.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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I Can Teach My Child