Baby Love

Was sewing a simple heart garland for our dining room tonight...and ended up with two extra felt heart pairs. What to do? Make baby toys!

How to:

Cut 2 hearts from felt--they can be the same size or one can be slightly larger--whatever you prefer!

Sew around the heart, leaving about 1 inch open on a straight side for filling (backstitck several times before you stop).
(I used a machine, but you could also sew this very easily by hand--embroidery floss would be perfect for this task! Just use small stitches....)

Fill with dried beans--not too many--you want to leave room for them to rattle when the heart is shaken!

Finish sewing--I went ahead and did an extra "lap" around the whole heart again just to be sure it's secure.

I then used a lighter to gently "seal" the outside heart by running the lighter's flame quickly around the edge of the felt so that it won't pull apart when sucked on by little ones.

For the second heart, instead of the dried beans, I filled it with 6 tiny jingle bells!

Crunchy plastic, paper, small wooden beads, or even rice would also make good fillings....

These are perfect for babies who are learning cause and effect, how to hold and manipulate items, and how to explore with their hands and mouths.

These festive toys will be gifted tomorrow to a sweet lil' one we know!

Pink playdough

Made a half-batch of my favorite recipe of homemade playdough, and of course we tinted it pink!
Q had fun breaking it in, watched over carefully by her puppy!

We keep the basket of playdough and playdough supplies on the workshelf at all times. Q knows that she has to ask before she can work with it, and she always has to work at her little table or the kitchen table.

Fun working with beads

These are the cut-up mardi gras beads I blogged about a few days ago. Q has had fun putting them into different-sized bowls...sometimes sorting by color, sometimes just scooping them full. Usually she pretends they are soup for different family members. Love seeing her incorporate dramatic play into her day!

Had a boycott against pants this week....House rule was made that you don't have to wear pants in the house if you don't want, but you DO have to have on undies anytime you're outside the bathroom. :) Life with a twosie!

Wind up toys

A fine motor activity out on our work shelf right now is a collection of wind-up toys. Great small muscle work in the fingers to twist the "winder." Also lots of fun!!
Some were Christmas gifts, several I bought in the $1 at Michaels and I've also bought them for $1 at Walgreens before. Windups are loved by all ages--from little bitty babies that just watch em go and are surprised when monkey jumps and dinosaur runs....to toddlers and preschoolers who can set them on their feet and wind them on their own, as these kids gain increasing muscle control in their fingers.

Stuff to Glue

One thing I am loving lately is Q showing a little initiative and independence with the art cabinet. This morning I was finishing up some work on the computer and she announced she was going to glue. Once I said ok, she opened up the ART CABINET, got out some paper, some glue, her scissors and some snowflake sequins from the art cabinet and went to town creating a masterpiece!

My mom bought her a couple little packages of different sequins to glue--snowflakes and hearts. (Hobby Lobby has TONS of neato, cheap little packages of things to glue both in the regular craft section and also in the seasonal area). These are great because she can work with them herself. She loves the independence and she is meanwhile practicing great fine motor skills! And making some pretty art! Her signature on a piece of artwork is several slashes with scissors into the sides of the paper. You can se the edge of one on the far left side of the paper. :)

Having art materials ready and reachable for lil ones is a great way to foster more art-doing in the house!

Last year's Valentine Book

I made a baggie book for her Valentines from last year. Simple and very versitile project!

*buy a package of freezer zipper bags (if you can get plain ones, do it. I couldn't find them so they have the little white part for writing on them. yuck)
*decide how many "pages" you want in your book.
*staple the tops (non zipper end) of 2 bags together (or sew--I used a regular stitch then a zig zag for durability)
*keep adding an additional bag and stapling/sewing until all your bags are added
*if you used staples, cover the top of your bag (over your staples) with wide tape--you can buy all colors of masking tape!
*if you sewed, you can sew around the edges of a wide ribbon to wrap around the top of your bag

VOILA!

Now decide how to fill your bag.
-Valentines
-Who Loves Baby? book with pics of family
-animal pictures from computer or magazine
-Things that are Green (or blue or red....)
-you can make a book with any theme, and change it out when you're ready!

**if you want to tape along the bottom of the zipper part once you've put in your pictures, use wide clear tape folded over. **

Valentine Book

It makes me sad to throw away the cute little Valentines Q gets each year from grandparents and family. So her first Valentine's day, I made her this little book. The cover was cardstock decorated in stickers. Then I cut apart her Valentines, trimmed them to fit, and mounted them on cardstock (1/2 page). I laminated the whole thing, punched one side, tied with cute ribbon, and now she has a Valentine book she can read each year. She loves it and enjoys having us read the cards to her and see whom they are from.

This is a great environmental print activity and a fun way to collect past years' momentos!


(the back page is on top, and the cover is the bottom picture)