Toddler Tuesday - clean painting activity

paint in a bag.

This morning the hubby took A to art camp so I could stay home and do stuff. I think he expected me to clean, while I had other ideas in mind J I worked on putting Velcro on popsicle sticks so C can make shapes with A later in the school year, did a load of laundry, and played outside with C. Once it got too hot to be outside, we came in and C said he wanted to paint…. Oh boy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to paint with kids, A did it all the time and it was super fun, but the house is on the market and we are trying to keep it super clean so painting makes me really, really nervous….

However I didn’t want to deny C the opportunity to paint, so I pulled the table far away from the blinds, covered the floor with a towel and gave him paint in a plastic bag that I taped down to the table.  He played with that for about 3 seconds before he was bored(personally I don’t blame him, it was lameo). Then I figured I could use brown paper taped down to get the same neatness factor but more fun.  So, I taped down a large piece of  brown paper to the table top and gave C strict instructions that paint did not cross the black tape lines.  Once I gave him the paint, we named the colors – he really only knows blue out of the primaries. The he had at it while I crossed my fingers and held my breath. I also washed some dishes and talked to my sister on the phone for a few minutes.

Pushing the paint around
with his bulldozer

I gave him 3 different sized brushes, a bunch of cars/trucks, and some plastic animals and people.  He had a blast using the bulldozer to move the small globs of paint, running the vehicles through the paint, and painting the people and animals. Did he make a mess? NOPE! I love this kid J Of course he did made paint hand prints so we cleaned up before he even got out of the kitchen area.  I think I may have found a safe way to paint.

Now, if I could just get to that cleaning…….

See, no paint outside the lines!

Planning for next year - Preschool (YIKES!)

I love planning. I get all excited and like to browse and look at stuff for ideas for HOURS! C is going to be 3 soon - where did the time go? He gets bored easily and wants to do work like A, so I figured I needed to do more with him this coming school season. I don't expect to do worksheets, or activity pages or anything, but I think we will do unit studies in conjuction with what A is studying or whatever takes his fancy.  Of course, I have been looking at all these ideas from all these great sites and it's easy to get carried away. That being said, I created my list of goals for C today and it looks something like this:

Know:

Colors

Shapes

Counting objects to 5

Be able to sort different objects by color, size, and/or shape

Be able to sort animals according to characteristics

Draw a circle, square, triangle

Be able to complete an ABC pattern

Sing songs

Be able to do:

Lacing work

Pasting

Cutting

Coloring

Crafting

Puzzle work

Building skills

Sharing

Patience

Would be nice:

Recognize A, C, D, M, S

To change:

Less TV, more books and toys

More one on one time

More hands on fun like painting and messy work

As you can see, there is nothing in the above list that involves "seat work" - which is how it should be. I have found a site called Confessions of a Homeschooler that has some great free printables for lacing, patterning, letters, and colors. She has puzzles that correspond with each letter that I will be using just as puzzles - we will talk about the animals on those puzzles and the beginning letter sounds, but I TOTALLY don't expect him to know those sounds. I do want to expose him to that concept though so that when we start PreKinder stuff he has heard the idea before and it isn't alien.

So far I have decided that we will make a cardboard car and gas pump, sensory floor tiles(round or square cardboard tiles covered in different stuff like sponges, Bath sponges, bubble wrap, etc), lacing cards, sensory balloons, craft stick shapes, giant felt shapes, a felt button worm made from felt scraps that can be ordered by color or shape, etc.  

Some of the items that I can't make, I will have to buy.  Those include wooden puzzles, sorting trays(wood silverware trays), craft items like paint, pom poms, etc, aquarium gravel, rawhide dog bones in all shapes and conditions for dinosaur bone hunts, stampers, paint rollers, and dot dot painters, etc.  IF you live up in the great white north and want me to send you money for when you go to Goodwill and can pick me up some of those things, I'd be super excited :) Send me a message, I'll send you money :) :)