The Art Box – Valentine Style

In the Art Box last week: some patterned paper hearts that M cut early in the week, foam and silver heart stickers, foam heart beads, valentine colored pom-poms and buttons, sparkly heart sprinkles, paint, doilies, construction paper, glue, stamps, stamps, and more stamps, and red glitter.

M was very excited about this particular art box. This was the first year I didn’t have a single Valentine craft idea in place, and I was ready to enjoy seeing what he would come up with on his own. We went over the list of people we’ll send Valentines to, and I was so happy to see him excited about making something for the specific purpose of gifting it to someone.

He started off taking a look at all the stamps and had fun with some new roller stamps I found at Target.

Before long he was gluing and sticking and stamping all over the place. This was so much fun! I loved that he thought it was completely appropriate to include firetruck and helicopter stamps too. :) I had fun hearing about who was getting which Valentine, and all he wanted to do on each one. Here’s a sampling of what he did:

He still has a few more to make, and I’m wondering if he’ll agree to folding these so they are more like cards (with extra decorations on the front). I love each one and I hinted to him that I sure would love to get one too. I may have to hint this to Daddy as well. ;)

I know these are not the cutesy crafty Valentines that we all love, but they were truly made with love and something M was able to do completely on his own. I love that they really look “kid made”. :) I hope everyone who gets one knows how special they are!

Link your Art Box posts up below! A warm thanks to all of you who participate – I love visiting your blogs and seeing your posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Feb. 7, 2010

M is 41 months old. 

We have been taking turns sharing the flu the past couple of weeks and so what you see below is a hodgepodge of activities we did in the last half of this week (when we were finally starting to feel better), and things we’ve done over the past several weeks that have just not made their way into a post yet.

First, the fun stuff – Valentine Activities. :)

M used tongs to transfer red and clear plastic crystals into an ice cube tray.  He, on his own, made a “red, white, red, white” pattern as he did this.  I actually squealed when I saw it. :) The boring ice cube tray was exchanged for a cute heart tray soon after this, but no pics.

I set up a heart cutting activity for M and before I could walk to the kitchen, find my camera and get back, he had them all done. These were pretty scrapbooking papers I picked up at Target.  I folded a piece in half and drew half a heart on it and M was so surprised and excited when he cut it and opened it up to see a heart!  He loved this and did more of them the next day, and even showed Daddy his “trick” later. :)  I saw this on Chasing Cheerios.

I put together a quick sensory bin for M, using our red crystals, pom-poms, red and silver foam snowflakes (Valentine’s Day is associated with winter in my mind, although I know it isn’t for everyone).  There are foam heart beads and foam heart stickers in there, and little pipecleaner hearts too:This was a phenomenal dud with M.  He lasted 5 minutes looking at the items.  However, I’m sharing it because he loved the “snow” I filled it up with.  This is fiberfill stuffing, and it is called Cluster Stuff.  I get it at Walmart and since discovering it, I do not use anything for stuffing (when I’m sewing or whatever) except this.  It never gets matted down.  It’s washable and, in fact, gets softer and fluffier when it is washed.  Oh, I could sing it’s praises for a long time.  However, what you really want to know is that M thought it was wonderful and played with it by itself for quite a while.It’s soft, warm, and cozy as you just dig your hands in.  Mm.  Don’t you want to go buy some now? :)

Back to activities… a little Sucrets can (M loves this little can, what can I say?) with pony beads in Valentine colors and red pipecleaners.  After he strings on the beads we’ll shape them into hearts for the Grandmothers.  Blue was added to make it a bit more masculine. :)  It worked, right?He hasn’t actually done this yet, but I wanted to include it in a post before Valentine’s Day is actually here.

Also, for a fun activity on his shelves, I put a container full of our Valentine window clings.  He does these seasonally, but for some reason theses Valentine ones were a huge hit.  He loved running back and forth and putting them up on windows.  Most of them found their way onto our kitchen door:

 

More Sensory Activities:

We made Gak using liquid starch, white glue, and blue food coloring.

After this picture, the battery in my camera died and I didn’t get any pictures of the actual process of making it or M playing with it.  It was a lot of fun.  It’s a slippery, stretchy putty.  It’s pretty cool stuff.  Here’s a picture of it after my battery was charged, ha.

 

M asked for his Floam one day; it’s been forever since he’s played with that.  He sat in the living room for a good 45 minutes “snowplowing” the floam.  We are still finding it everywhere despite the huge towel he was sitting on.

 

Math Skills:

I wrote numbers 0 through 10 on some paper doilies and M put them in order on the floor (he pretended he was a train as he moved down the line).  Then, using tongs, he counted “snowballs” (cotton balls) onto them.  He enjoyed this much more than I expected and did a great job. This is him telling me he doesn’t want me to take a picture just as the camera is flashing.  Sigh.  I thought this was a super idea, and then I saw that Katie at Katie’s Nesting Spot had done the exact same thing, except hers are much nicer looking (of course, everything she does looks amazing), and obviously weren’t just thrown together like ours were. ;)

M has been loving his pattern blocks and mats lately.  He has been doing them every. single. day.

 

Literacy:

M got this new ABC puzzle from the Target dollar spot and did it with only a tiny bit of help:

He did a J cut and paste page:(he just loves that purple glue stick).

And we did the activities in our new J lapbook:

 

Visual Discrimination:

I bought a cheap small calendar and M matched up the small pictures on the back to the large pictures:

As you can see, he’s been opting out of some of the photos lately.  It’s his choice and one I’m really trying to respect although I would prefer to see more of that cute face. :)

 

Fine Motor Skills:

M played with his Lite Brite:

Sorted erasers into an ice cube tray with tweezers:

And played with a wooden dress-the-bear puzzle:

For more Tot School posts, go here! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Valentine Count and Clip Cards

I get so much enjoyment from making little activities for M and other kids his age… I know it probably seems crazy to a lot of people, but this kind of thing is really fun! :)

So, the latest is this set of count and clip cards.  The child counts the hearts on each card then clips (using a clothespin clip or anything similar) the correct number along the side.  These go from 1 to 12.

My little sweetheart and I will be using these during the week before Valentine’s Day. :) 

I printed my set on cardstock and laminated them in order to make them a bit sturdier for the clothespins.  You can print them by clicking on the thumbnail below.  Let me know if you use them!

Have a beautiful day! :)