Beyond Carving!

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Beyond CarvingWith little kids in the house, pumpkin carving may not seem like the safest of Halloween activities. So we’re here to offer some super fun alternatives to take you and your little ones Beyond Carving!

1. Try washable paint! Sure, the results won’t be as long lasting as regular paint. But being able to wash off little hands with ease is priceless. And washing your pumpkin and starting over again can keep kiddos entertained for much longer than the initial painting session!

2. Try festive stickers! Encourage wee ones to practice their fine motor skills by peeling off the back of stickers and pressing them onto your pumpkin. Help tiny tots by peeling the first half of the sticker back and then let them finish the job.

3. Try Mr Potato Head pieces! Give those old toy pieces a new life with your Halloween pumpkin. Encourage your little one to stick the pieces wherever they feel inspired to! Nothing says Mr Pumpkin can’t have two sets of lips. Hey, that means he’ll be able to eat double the candy!

4. Try cotton balls! Turn your pumpkin into a white furry friend. Or spread out cotton balls to create spider webs. Glue them all over to one spooktacular sphere!

5. Try collage! Some washable glue and imagination can take your Halloween crafting to the next level! Add sparkly gems, old buttons, googly eyes, pom poms, feathers, or confetti to complete your collage creation!

Encouraging Indoor Exercise!

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Encouraging Indoor Exercise!With temperatures dropping, it gets harder to keep kids moving when stuck inside! But we have some ideas to keep little ones working their gross motor skills indoors, come rain or shine. Read on and play along!

1. Use painters tape. Make a maze on the floor for kids to trace with their feet. Have them do it on one leg, all fours, and even backwards for an added challenge.

2. Use pillows. See how tall you can stack them together. Can your little balance on top of two or three or four? Give them a hand to high jump over a stack for heightened fun.

3. Use cardboard boxes. If you have a few, you’ve created a set of giant blocks to play with. Then line up flattened, skinny ones to use as a balance beam. Use thicker ones to create a ramp, then run and roll down the incline.

4. Use a ball. Practice throws are best saved for outside. But you can easily roll your way to some indoor fun by making your own bowling game. All you’ll need are some plastic water bottles to knock down. For bonus points, sit down and see if you can pass the ball from one player to the next using just your feet.

5. Use a jump rope. Wiggle it on the floor like a slithering snake for your young explorers to jump over. Raise it high to limbo low under. Brave players may want to pull it taught for a friendly game of tug of war!

Tiny Tot Trees

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Tiny Tot TreesWashable stamp pads are the latest craze around here. Because even the smallest toddler hands can make fantastic fingerprint art. So in honor of the Fall season and our littlest artists, we present TINY TOT TREES!

All you’ll need to make your own is brown & white paper, a brown marker, and washable stamp pads in any variety of Autumn colors.

You can have older kids draw or cut their own tree trunks and branches. Our students  here used rectangle paper trunks and circular tree tops to create theirs. Once the tree’s foundation is set, it’s time to have fun making all the leaves.

Encourage little ones to dip each finger in a stamp pad to see a variety of print sizes. I also like to encourage them to use their non-dominant hand to stamp too! Get both sides of the brain working. It’s a bit more challenging and a lot more fun!

For even more lovely leaf making, try dipping the ends of Qtips into each stamp pad. The teeny prints will add just the right touch to complete your growing Fall forest!

Nature Detectives!

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Nature DetectivesWe took a wonderful walking tour last week on our Toddler Camp adventure. Tots explored trees, examined rocks, spied bugs, and much more. To bring some of the fun we had outdoors home with us, we created our own NATURE DETECTIVE ART!

Older kids took white crayons and drew all the different things we found on our hike onto white card stock paper. We helped little ones with this first step. You could barely see the shape of each until you held the page up to the light.

Then we used water color palettes and brushes to paint directly over the faint drawings. What happened next excited all of us. The more we painted, the more the drawings beneath the paint emerged. Sun rays, spider legs, and tree trunks became clearer and clearer!

This type of crayon resist art is easy to do in or outdoors and is a great way to continue your nature exploration even after the sun goes down!