The Wheels on the Bus

The "Wheels on the Bus" song has been an obsession of the Bug's lately and since he's been into his new Little People too, we made an egg carton bus!

He has loved dipping his paint brush and there wasn't much yellow paint left so he had a blast!

He might have missed the egg carton but we painted both the inside and outside!

The next morning after the paint had dried, the Bug spent a long time putting the people into the "seats" and we sang the song over and over and made up new verses for the Little People he has (which wasn't easy...)

It was a great fine motor activity too fitting the people into the egg carton spaces!

Car Track Painting

The Bug has loved the song "Wheels on the Bus" a LOT lately so I thought we'd incorporate the song into our art activity!

We made brown paint to look like mud by mixing red and green paint and found that the Oball car he has had textured wheels making a cooler paintbrush!

He rolled the car back and forth as we sang and enjoyed exploring how the wheels moved the paint around!

Salt Dough!

It's no secret that the Bug loves sensory play so we try to do something every day. As we get closer to holidays where we need presents for grandparents (because we get all 3 grandparent birthdays and Mother's Day within 3-4 weeks every year...), I thought we better start some salt dough exploration!

The Bug did MUCH better with not eating the dough this time (he started when he got to a point where he was done playing). 

He really enjoyed stamping the eggs into it and pinching the dough. He wasn't into the cookie cutters yet but did put the pieces he pinched into them!

Excavating Ice!

The Bug has lots of little animal figurines so I try to incorporate them into his play though I have to pay attention to the fact that he does still mouth toys...

His favorite book has been Dinosaur Pet by Neil Sedaka for a while so we did lots of dinosaur play including excavating dinosaurs from ice! I froze the dinosaurs in glad ware containers (I filled them halfway with water, added the dinosaurs and froze it then filled the containers an refroze them to center the dinosaurs!)

We added some warm water to his bin and he played with the ice and watched as it melted.

We didn't do any more than that this time though you can try things like adding salt, using tools to pick at the ice, and other experiments with older children!

Coffee Filter Butterflies!

 The Bug has been very into using watercolors lately but this is the first time I've given him a cup of water! We got paint cups (ours are Melissa and Doug because that's what I found but any cup with a twist cap will work!) and I added some water so he could dip his paintbrush!

Because he was so excited, there was a lot of water and a little paint added to his coffee filter!

After he finished (2 since he was having so much fun!), we added twist ties to make his coffee filters look like butterflies!

Here they are on his art display board!

Getting Messy!

The Bug is no stranger to mess but we haven't done anything too terribly messy since it got cold so I got a crazy idea- Full body texture finger painting! We striped the Bug down to his diaper and gave him paint.

Each color had a different texture- one had sand, one had honey, one had oats, and one had flour, the final color was just plain paint.

The Bug stood up pretty quickly and got REALLY into it...

He of course had to taste it...

Which resulted in some belly painting...

Adding textures to the paint is one of my favorite ways to add a new dimension to the Bug's exploration- he loves fingerpainting and playing in the sensory table so this combines them both!

It was messy fun! We went straight to the tub from here (which is high up on the favorite places!) but you could always start in the tub! 

Whiney Boxes

Lately, I've been trying to play with the Bug and he's just not quite there. As I got annoyed at him for knocking over a tower I was still working on, it dawned on me that he's not ready to play together but he needs some structured play along with his free play in order to TEACH him how to share and play together.

I searched my favorite place- Pinterest and found a blogger who wrote about her older children asking her to play with them and the boxes she had created. The lightbulb went off and instead of creating boxes for me to play with the Bug, we have boxes that create a more structured play.

When he gets whiney and wants me down on the floor playing with him, I pull out a box. I happened to have 3 empty boxes that I use to store the materials and when I get bored with them or the Bug doesn't seem interested, the boxes will be changed out!

For the time being, we have 3 boxes! One has a fine motor activity, one gross motor activity, and one messy activity.

Fine Motor: Scooping Eggs

The Bug has been obsessed with eggs since he had shakers to play with. Scooping them is the next logical step and he really likes it! We discuss the colors of the eggs he scoops and evidently he added a practice golf ball to the box!

Messy: Flubber

You can find a similar recipe here but to get the recipe we used, you have to buy this book! The Bug has always loved sensory activities but I still have to make sure they are taste safe because everything still gets tasted sometimes...

Gross Motor: Scarves and Bubbles

Dancing is a favorite activity for EVERY toddler I've ever met. We're working on fast and slow with the Bug so we turn on fast music and slow music! The bubbles add a bit of fine motor as the Bug is learning to pop them! The Bug doesn't need a lot of help in the gross motor area but he does need some release of energy!

So what activities would you put in a whiney box?