Frozen Themed Sensory Play

(4 Years)

"Really?  I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat."
"Nope."

You can't help but sing along with the songs from Frozen- maybe because the kids sing it in the pool, while playing dress-up, in the bath, in the car.... you get the picture.

Well Frozen inspired this frozen sensory play.  We first placed a can of shaving foam in the fridge the night before to get it nice and chilly.  We then made three different colors of ice blocks- so the kids could pretend to be ice cutters (and builders) - it was supposed to be just shades of blues and purples, but I knew that Little Miss would really want pinks, so I made a batch of pinks also.  We used gel food dye, but liquid food dye and liquid watercolor works the same when making colored ice.

This type of creative play is just perfect for a HOT summer day.  They loved building and knocking down their ice creations.

Look at the concentration on their faces, so serious!  I love it!

The colored ice cubes lasted a long time in the 90 degree heat.  In fact, it lasted so long that we brought out that can of cold shaving foam that I mentioned earlier.

"Foam!"  Anna, Elsa and Olaf also joined in on the fun.  The Frozen friends were buried in snow, an ice palace was constructed (and knocked down- ooops), they went sledding and ice skating, Olaf had his dip in the water - just like he always wanted.

They had so much fun playing with colored ice in the foam, it turned the foam beautiful shades of purple, blue and pink.

Clean up is so simple- hose it all down.  The shaving foam even made their trays and toys squeaky clean.  They played with the colored ice and foam for a little over an hour - the ice stayed all that time.  If you need a fun, easy and inexpensive activity, this sensory play is perfect for that HOT summer day.  

The kids asked to play with this again, next time we are going to add in some water beads for more sensory fun.  I love how easy this is!  Happy Monday

Soak the Sight Words

(4 Years)

We've been playing in the pool a lot lately, a lot!  It's just too hot or humid, or hot and humid to do anything that does not involve a pool, a sprinkler or being inside.    Wild One and Little Miss, like most kids - and adults, like playing with water shooters.  Instead of ME being their favorite target, I decided that we would soak some of their sight words.  The chalk gets a quick dunk in the pool to make the writing a deeper color, and off I went writing down sight words (we call them magic words, it's more fun!).  As soon as they saw me writing, I was bombarded with "What are you doing?  Mom, what are you doing?  Why are you doing that?  Is that for us?"

When I asked if they wanted to play a water shooter game, they were bouncing "I do!  I do!".  They quickly grabbed and filled their water shooters.  All they needed to do was be the first to pronounce the word that I pointed to (with a pool noodle, just in case their hand-eye coordination and aim wasn't as good at words as it is at me!).  That's it!  Let the game begin and they had a BLAST!

We played two rounds and then it was time to come in for lunch.  As they were drying off, they asked if we could do more words tomorrow.  Hmmmmm, yes!

Look how easy learning through play is!

Bobbing for Apples

(43 Months)

Bobbing for apples, how hard could it be?  It turns out it's actually pretty challenging, try it.  We watched as Wild One tried biting an apple, again, and again, and again.

We tried blindfolding him and letting him use a pair of kitchen tongs. He kept peeking under the blindfold.  Wild One suggested that he didn't need a blindfold, he could just keep his eyes closed.  Do you see him peeking?

Little Miss took her turn.  She was all giggles. "Is this how we do it?" she asks, as she holds her arms behind her back.  She tries several tries and laughs that she comes up empty.  My little one is very persistent, she kept trying and trying and trying...

and then!  SHE GOT IT!  You would have sworn she won the US Open!  Aaaggghhh, yay!!!  

What a fun way to cool off, while playing a good old fashioned game of bobbing for apples.  Oh, blah blah- we hypothesized if the apple will float or sink, we counted the apples, we observed that the apples will either float upside-down or right-side up, but not on their side.  Honestly though, we only did this activity to have fun with apples.

We FINALLY Made it to the Beach!

(41 Months)

It took three and a half years, but we finally made it to the beach!  At first they were too little, next it was that the beach is an hour away with no traffic, then throughout her ones and twos Little Miss didn't like sand touching her toes and fingers, but we were finally ready for the beach.  So after an hour-long drive, we were finally there!

Of course, Wild One ran straight to the water, "c'mon Grandpa".  He loved the feeling of the water pulling the sand from under his feet.

Meanwhile, I was convinced that Little Miss would want to search for tiny sea shells, but instead she stayed by the water's edge and scooped sand into buckets.

Wild One loved the feeling of the waves carrying him to and from the shoreline.

 

Little Miss didn't move from the time she sat down.  She just continued to scoop and pour.

After we played at the beach, we went on a dolphin tour (our first boat ride).  I discovered it's not easy to take pictures of dolphins while holding an excited three-year old.

We had so much fun! It was even a perfect morning, slightly overcast to cool down the hot summer sun. I'm so lucky.  I love my little ones and my Dad.  

One would assume that after five hours of beach and boat, that the kids would nap on the way home.  One would assume incorrectly.  They closed their eyes for maybe 20 minutes.  Why don't my kids like sleep?  I love sleep.  

This has nothing to do with today's post - The wall of rain!  No matter how many times I see that it still amazes me.  We were lucky, that it didn't rain on beach day, it rained the next day.