Shake, Shake, Shake It!

This was so much fun, my kids asked me to do this over and over.  Luckily, I have a stash of plastic bottle waiting to be put to use!  To do these, simply pour the paint into the bottle (any size will work), put the lid on and shake it, shake it!!  So great for discovering which colors make other colors, fine motor, sensory, and all that shaking gets rid of some of that incredible energy!  This is a great (mess free) painting experience for your babies and toddlers too. Yippee!



Candy Trees

I saw these on Pinterest and knew they were something we just had to try.  How cute are they?  All you need is a couple old fashion ice cream cones (the cone shaped ones, obviously), some frosting and whatever candy you want.  You could use M&M's, gumdrops, peppermints.  We used Skittles.  We tinted the frosting yellow, I asked the kids what color they wanted their trees and that is what they chose.  Then we frosted the cone, placed it on a paper towel and added the details.  So simple and

 "kid-friendly" as my friend stated! 

Yarn Wrapped Letters

This was a great activity for fine motor and problem solving.  I cut the letters out of a cardboard box and got out the box of yarn.  The kids picked their colors and punched a hole in the letter.  I tied off the yarn and we got busy.  It took a little struggling to figure out the best way to wrap them.  We finally figured out that if I held the yarn, the kids could wrap it easier.  I just love how these turned out!

Q Tip Snow Flakes

I saw these in the December issue of Family Fun Magazine, and knew they were something we would have fun doing.  All we needed was some q-tips, glue and wax paper.  You could embellish these any way you wanted really, but we used plastic fake snow.  All we did was make our design on the wax paper, squeeze the glue on the points where they meet, sprinkle some "snow" on the points and let them dry.  Once dry, we simply peeled the snowflakes off the wax paper and there you go! 

Doing Puzzles...With a Twist

My little girl really loves doing puzzles.  So to put a twist on one of her favorite activities, I put all the pieces of her foam alphabet puzzle into a empty baby wipe box.  She reaches in, grabs a letter and then finds the correct spot on her puzzle mat.  She really had a good time not knowing which letter was going to get pulled out next.