Toddler Holiday Counting Activity

During this Christmas break I wanted to do some holiday learning activities with Jack that were fun. I ran across this activity at The Taylor House.

I had everything on hand to do this activity so that was a great start. 

I put red, green, and white pom poms in a holiday plate. We would pick up a card with a number on it (printable available here). I would have him tell me the number and then I'd tell him that is how many pom poms I needed. Using the tongs was a little tricky because I couldn't find my smaller pair. He finally got the hang of it and really enjoyed picking the pom poms up. 

I'm not sure that he completely understood the concept, which made it an even better learning activity. We will for sure be doing this activity throughout the week.

Easter Toddler Crafts

Sunday was a beautiful spring day. The family was together to let the two cousins play together outside. My dad grilled ribs and my mom fixed amazing sides. It was just the perfect afternoon!

Since it was so pretty outside I decided to do a few impromtu Easter/spring painting activities.

The first activity was suppose to look like this...

Well my little 2 year old can not handle all that stillness. Ours is not perfect but I think a non-perfect cross just makes sense. However, the OCD side of me was losing it but I let it go. 

For the second craft we did I used my nephew's cute little feet and a flower pot we had laying around.

It was a fun, easy, super cheap (I did buy the plaque for the cross at Walmart for less than $3), and quick Easter/spring craft time with the kiddos. The best part was the kids giggling when they had their feet painted. 

Green Eggs Toddler Activity

Jack's daycare is going to do a combination of Green Eggs and Ham and St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday. They asked parents to have their child wear green and bring any treats or activities that would go along with Green Eggs and Ham and St. Patrick's Day. I decided that I would contribute an activity. First I found this printable at Mommy Lessons 101.

I then wrote a letter of the alphabet on each one. I then laminated and cut them out. 

You can have your toddler practice using a spatula to flip the eggs and recognize the letters or you can have them to just flip them over. To extend the activity you can have your little one trace the letters.

Do you have any activities planned for your little one on St. Patrick's Day?

Active Mama *Feb-March

I use to participate in a link up called Active Mama but my friend no longer blogs. Basically what it was you did fun things with you child, wrote up a post, and linked up. It was so much fun reading and learning about new fun ideas. Another great part was the planning process because beforehand you would come up with things you wanted to do in order to keep yourself accountable and also to help yourself get any materials together or planning done.

This is one of the Active Mama activies I did with Jack from before. 

I've decided I would try to write up my Active Mama goals and then post how I did. If all goes well then I just might make it a link up again. So here I go, my Active Mama goals for the rest of February and  also March.

1// Make a letter matching game for Jack and I to play. I want to either get 2 decks of flashcards and have him match them that way, or make something at work using the cutting machine and some cardboard. Obviously, I'm going to try the flashcards first because that sounds a lot easier. Maybe if I did flashcards I could anchor one deck to something somehow and then put velcro to the back of the second deck. Is this making any sense??? Like maybe staple the first deck to a cheap but semi thick tablecloth and then let him velcro the matching letters. We could just spread the tablecloth on the table to play or lay it out on the floor. We need to do this activity at least twice a week.

2// Pipe cleaners through colander activity. I would like to do this activity at least 5 times.

3// Sort pom poms by color. i would like to do this activity at least 3 times.

4// Read more to Jack. You would think as a librarian that I would read more to my child. He doesn't care to sit still very long. I need to do better at getting him use to listening. I can find shorter books and get him more involved. My goal is at least one book a day right before bedtime.

5// Take Jack to The Wonder Place. We took Jack there once awhile back and I would like to take him again now that he is a little older. It is almost two hours away but it is so much fun. I think he would really enjoy it more now. It has lots of learning activities. I want to do this once.

6// Water painting. Just take construction paaper and give him a paint brush and a small container of water. Hopefully this will be one of those activities that will keep him busy while I do small tasks like wash dishes or fold laundry. I want to have him do this activity at least 4 times, maybe more depending on how well he does. I'm a little worried he is going to dump the water out.

7// Color. Jack colors at school. We tried coloring here some but it has been awhile. I would like to try again. Maybe coloring can be the activity we do right after bathtime. Hopefully, it will continue to keep him relaxed instead of him getting all hyped back up after bathtime. My goal is to start making this a routine for after bathtime. We do bathtime six nights a week. This goal can easily change depending on how well he does.

8// Make and use a penguin playdough mat. I may also make other playdough mats to use. My goal is for Jack to do this activity once a week.

Things to buy:
/2 decks of alphabet cards
/velcro
/pompoms
/pipe cleaners
/construction paper
/playdough

Things to do:
/print off penguin playdough mat and laminate
/staple alphabet cards to tablecloth
/put velcro on alphabet cards
/gather books to read


You can read a few of my old Active Mama posts from my old blog by clicking here, here, and here.

Are there any goals you want to accomplish with your kid(s) this month?