Sensory Play - Paint Table

The boys are not into messy play. They don't like to get their hands dirty! But I WANT them to! They refused to do hand painting. So, here's my trick. I lured them to the paint table with cars. Ha!


What You Need:
Small Table
Plastic Sheet (to wrap the table top)
Paint
Car (optional... you only need them as a bait)

They were shaking their heads when asked to go to the paint table but they dashed to the table once the cars were out.

K rolling the car.

Hah! Y finally used his fingers! And he told me he was drawing a train.

And then his hands! K followed suit when he saw Y having fun.

Y: "oh oh... dirty hands"

Misson success! This is a great activity. Cars are a nice addition. It was nice to see the wheels texture on plastic. it's nicer than on paper. And they explored the smooth texture of plastic with paint. They were at the table for 40 mins. K was reluctant to leave the table and I had a hard time coaxing him into giving the fire engine a car wash.

I think a great way to preserve the "painting" is to press a big piece of paper over the plastic. I didn't do that this time but will definitely try it the next time round.

Homemade Toys - Car Ramp

I hope I'm not boring you guys with all the cars related activities. I don't have much choice because my boys simply love cars and all things related to transportation.

My husband said we should look out for car ramp toys for the boys to play with. I checked out some and I thought they are pretty expensive. We could probably get one for them since their birthday is just around the corner but I thought why don't we built one ourselves?! So, on rainy afternoon with 2 boys that are dying of boredom, we built a simple ramp out of kitchen towel rolls and masking tape. It was flimsy and it didn't last for more than an hour. The next day, we improvised and built this.

I'm not creative nor artsy but I hope to share with my boys that we can create our playthings. Just like during my parents' time when toys are considered a luxury and they created their playthings with leaves and twigs. It's something that city kids don't get a chance to, including myself when I was a kid. To "de-urbanized" is really hard for us in a small city like Singapore. 

What You Need:
Cardboards
Box
Masking Tape
Toy Trees
Markers
Newspaper

Method:
(1) I filled the empty box with some newspaper for some weight. You might not need to do this but I had to because the boys like to sit on the box.

(2) I folded the cardboard for the "wall".

(3) Tape the cardboard ramp to the box.

(4) Make some road drawings on the box, put some deco like toy trees, etc.

(5) Get your cars out for some fun!

Pardon my drawing on the box. I can't draw. The boys always have very challenging drawing requests and I just have to tell them Mummy doesn't really know how to draw that but I can try. They make me very happy when they tell me what I am drawing when I can't even recognize it myself. And these days, when I'm stumped with another challenging drawing request, they boys say "Mummy try" while I'm struggling to draw something that I don't even have an idea of how to start.

Homemade Car Mat

I have been hoping to do non-transportation related themes and activity with them but my boys are just sooooo into their cars and buses that I can only get their attention by incorporating transportation into the activities we do. So, we did a car mat and we drew roads, buildings, houses, etc for them to roll their cars on.

What You Need:
Big mounting board or paper
Drawing materials such as color pencils, markers, crayons, etc.
Cars

This smile from K just melts my heart

Painting = Car Painting

My boys are just so crazy over transportation such as cars, and eversince I introduced car painting to them, I can't shake this off. We always ended up with cars for 9 out of 10 painting sessions.

Painting with Homemade Paint

After the last messy painting session, a friend gave me a splendid idea of making my own paint. I have never thought of making my own paint. It sounds like a crazy idea for a twin mom. My hands and legs (literally) are kept busy countering their fights and meltdowns, “Where got time?” (in Singlish) But since I’m not willing to part with more money paint for another painting session, I kept that in mind but I didn’t expect to do it so soon.

Y crept up to my computer sneakily on this day and saw the pictures of the messy painting after I finished blogging. K was rummaging the shopping bag and dug out the squeeze bottles that I bought. They were a steal at S$0.40 each at Japan Home and I swept the whole shelf. Then they started harassing me to let them paint.

Of course I’m not willing to take out my brand new bottles of Crayola paint so I told them we are going to make our own. It’s so easy that I managed to whip something out when I have no idea at all how to start. I simply put some corn flour and water in a pot and put to boil on the stove. While waiting for the starch to cool, I got out my box of water color tubes and let them choose their own colors to put into the squeeze bottles. After that, pour the starch in and shake. Tata!

Ok, I know this sounds like crap tutorial but since it was so impromptu, I didn’t know how much flour and water I used and with sticky hands, it was not possible to take pictures while doing it and making sure that my 2 toddlers won’t fight themselves to death or run round the house with the corn starch. I will do this again and next time, I’m gonna share with you a better tutorial.
Here’s Paint in Progress.

Y was making tracks with the paint.

K kept shouting "My car is stuck in the mud!!" while painting.

K for Kite

 

Our Letter of the Week was K last week and this is the craft we did for Kite. 

What You Need:

Sandpaper

Paint

Hole Puncher

Strips of Crepe Paper or Ribbons or Tissue Paper

Marker

I drew a Diamond shape on the sandpaper. We talked about the shape of the Kite. (Diamond was the Shape of the Week) And I let them use finger/hand paint on the sandpaper. We also talked about the texture of the paper as they did that. 

They got bored with finger painting and asked for Cars. Their wish was granted and they enjoyed rolling their cars over the sandpaper. It was great as they could feel the difference when they roll the car on the sandpaper and on the newspaper. It was interesting to see them exploring with their cars. So, remember to listen to your children, they give you the best ideas!

That's Y's finger pointing to the Kite done by his Brother. They know which is their work! Once this is dried, punch hole on the top and bottom. Attach ribbon/string on top and crepe ribbons at the bottom. They can hold the top ribbon can start running around. However. as the sandpaper is a little heavy, it can't really "fly".

Pipe Cleaner Sirens

What you are seeing is a Mummy's frantic attempt to placate an inconsolable Y whose world was about to crumble when he found that the siren on his police car fell off. We couldn't find the siren that had dropped and Pipe Cleaner was my savior for the day. He even got to choose the color for his siren. But I see trouble when his Van needs a siren, followed by his Dump Truck... his Bus.... I knew this has to stop when I see K pulling out his drawer of cars in excitement. But seeing Y's face brightened is worth it even if I have to install sirens for all their cars. :0

Drawing with Window Crayons

I'm beginning to like rainy weekends. It's on days like this when we play together as a family at home. We try to bring the boys out to parks and get their dose of Vitamin D as much as we can. On this day, we took out a box of Crayola Window Crayons. I love Crayola products though I find them pricey. $12 for 5 pens, very expensive.

Price aside, I like how smooth the crayon glide on the surface. You won't have to worry about scratches if you are drawing on your window surface. We have used them on mirrors, our glass doors, plastic sheets and on this day, we were drawing on our glass coffee table.

My boys love to draw roads, houses, and move their cars around.

The drawing smudges easily so it can your hands and arms quite dirty. But I love the washability. It cleans off easily. See how my boys had a great time cleaning after we finished?

Disclosure: This is a personal review and opinions are my own.

Crayons on Construction Cars

This saved me from a meltdown one evening. They were already in their PJs when they asked to color. They soon got bored with crayons and asked to paint. It was close to their bedtime and I really don't want to do a major clean up. So, I refused and they were all ready to rant. They had their Bob the Builder toys with them and I quickly took out a roll of masking tape and taped the crayons to the builders to make it look interesting. Phew... thank god, this got their attention and they calmed down. I doubt I will be able to handle another double meltdowns. I've had too many for the day.

What You Need:
Any cars
Crayons
Masking Tape

K, rolling his tractor with crayons. The crayons were taped really badly in my haste.

Car Marble Painting

This is Marble Painting with a twist. If you are not new to this blog, you should know by now that my boys are cars fanatics. Their cars are usually within their reach during craft time. Marble Painting is a regular craft for us. We do it every now and then. Especially during times when I'm short of time but the boys are desperately asking for their activity time. Today, the boys did their marble painting a little differently and I welcome the change. Instead of holding the sides of the box to roll their marbles around, they used their cars to push the marbles. This was entirely their own initiative. How creative! I love it when they show me how things can be played in different ways. While we as parents will usually think that we are the ones teaching them, I often think they are the ones teaching us and showing us how the world can work in different ways.

What You Need: 
Some sort of tray or box cover to contain the paper and marbles (and cars in this case)
Paper
Paint
Marbles
Cars

Just push or hit the marbles with the cars and it will roll the paint all over, creating patterns. My sons love the sound of the cars hitting the marbles. And they were thrilled when the marble they pushed hit another marble. Have fun!

Toilet Roll Painting

The boys have been asking to paint... a lot... and we ended up painting twice a day sometimes. After a few sessions of open ended painting, I thought it would be good to introduce something new for them to paint with to keep the interest. I looked into my recycle bin for crafting and I saw many toilet rolls. Yes, I have a bin where I keep things that I think can be put to good use to the children's crafts. This has been extremely useful. I used to see a craft, then collect materials and I never get to that craft. So, these days, I just look in my bin and see what I have. It's so much easier.

What You Need:
Toilet Rolls
Paint
Paper

They shouted "circle" while painting

K, can't bear to let go of his car while painting.

Y tried to use the rolls to stamp each other.

The toilet roll became a tunnel for his car to go through.

And K couldn't resist and invited his car to join in the painting.