Glittery Bottles

Y was in the middle of a meltdown when I carried him to my study room and while he was struggling, he hit the mouse and this page appeared on my screen.

It was god sent.

Me: hey, look at this, let’s make a glitter bottle!
Y: Glitter bottle?

starts to wipe his tears and slowly calming down.

Y: Mummy… what’s a glitter bottle?
Me: Oh! Hrm… It’s a bottle… with glitter! Let’s get some glitter!

As I rummage through my craft shelf, ops…. no glitter. I think we have used it all up during our last messy painting session. 

Me: Oh… we have run out of glitter.
Y: I want glitter bottle.
Me: There’s no more glitter, let’s do other activities…
Y (starting to cry again): I WANT GLITTER BOTTLE!!!!

BIG OPS.

Me: Oh I know! It’s not going to be a glitter bottle, it’s a glittery bottle!
Y: I want a glittery bottle.

Great.. So I went round the house to look for something for our glittery bottle and thankfully he waited patiently. Here’s what I found. 



What You Need:
Glittery paper/ribbons cut into small pieces
Empty bottles (I used mineral water bottle)
Beads
Paint
Water
Oil
Masking Tape/Duct Tape (to tape the bottle cap)

Method:
Just pour everything in and add water and oil. The water and oil ratio can vary. I find that 1/3 water and 2/3 oil is great. So you get the lava lamp effect. Don’t let your kids mix too much paint. The boys wanted so many colors and we just got ugly brown bottles. 

Luckily I remember I have some shimmering ribbons for the bottle. This add a nice effect to the bottle.

They can practice their pouring for fine motor skills too.

Y, exploring his glitter bottle. He wanted to make more but we don't have any more empty plastic bottle.

Pegs Match Game

Completed these in 5 mins to get my twins up the high chair for lunch, all with available materials on my dining table. I just gave myself away. Now you can imagine the kind of junk and clutter I have on my dining table!

Things You Need:

• Index Cards or any card stock
• Wooden Clothes Pegs
• 2 sets of stickers

Methods:
Just paste 1 set of stickers on the card and the other set on the pegs. Tata!

Kept them occupied for a while and we had a cooperative meal.

Fine Motor Skills Activity - Scooping Beans

Scooping is a Montessori inspired activity. This is a very easy activity to put together to keep your children occupied for at least half an hour. It was 45 mins for mine. You can let your children practice scooping with all many materials available at home, rice and all sorts of beans, etc. But keep a close watch, though my boys have out grown tasting, they still attempt to put the beans in their mouth.

What You Need:
2 Containers
Spoons
Beans (I got those big red beans)

Y, practicing his scooping but he soon got impatient and just poured the beans over the other container.

Paper + Glue + Beans = 45 mins of peace

We are not quite done with the terrible twos x2 phase though the boys are turning 3 years old in about 3 months time. I made a very brave decision to transit them to a big bed as they are outgrowing their baby cots and with the allergy cough that I suspect the bed to the culprit, we purchased 2 car beds for them. It had been a nightmare . It’s been 1 month and I’m happy to say that they are slowly adjusting to their new beds though they still ask for their old beds every now and then.

It’s mostly child led activities in the house these days since they have their old favorites like Marble Painting and Car Painting. It’s not an uncommon sight to see them with their cars and paint at 7am in the morning still in their PJs.

Back to the activity, on this day, Y suddenly ask for glue. “Glue?! What do you want to glue?” I asked. And all that came after that was whining “I want Glue! I want Glue!”. Ok, they want Glue and I’ve got to find them something to glue. In the kitchen I go and out came some beans and so here are my boys totally focused. I just love the serious work on their faces when they play. I like to observe how they different they play. Y make patterns with his glue before pasting the beans creating a masterpiece while K puts a dot for every bean, very systematic.

Drip Painting with Watercolors

What You Need:

An easel or any upright painting space

Watercolors

Dropper (I got mine from Daiso)

Containers for watercolor

Paper

Method:

I showed the boys how to pick up water using the dropper and how to drop the water and they were ready to explore.

I let them choose 4 colors each and was surprised to see that Y chose darker colors while K chose all the bright colors.

While painting, they used different techniques. Y squeezed the dropper and splatter on the paper while K just drop a little water at a time and used the dropper like a pencil to draw his train and track (according) to him. It’s really interesting how different children explore. They enjoyed this painting session very much and it lasted for 40 mins. K could continue painting but I think Y got jealous when I was taking pictures of K’s painting. So, I had to quickly redirect them to another activity before Y starts throwing the droppers and pouring the paint.

I thought the artworks produced were frame worthy. Left belongs to Y and right belongs to K.

Fine Motor Skills - Toothpicks + Styrofoam

What You Need:
Toothpicks
Styrofoam Block (Many things that comes in a box often have these)

This activity requires close adult supervision. Never leave your young toddler alone with this! Especially if you have two. 

K was quite good with this and he thus he enjoyed it more than Y. He poked all the toothpicks into the block, took them out and did it all over again. Y got frustrated. He was having problems holding the toothpicks with his fingers. He gave up and was observing how his brother did it. I like it when they learn from each other.

I think this activity is still pretty safe if you only have a 2 year old toddler but it's extremely dangerous when you have two as they could hurt each other with the picks if they get frustrated. Or worse, start fighting over a toothpick that looked the same as the rest. I stayed close to prevent any accidents from happening. 

Dot Art with Circle Stickers

Read about Pointillism art in one of the art books the other day and got me very interested in Dots. And that made last week a week of Dots and the first dot related activity we did was just making patterns freely with circle label stickers that are easily available at stationery stores. I got all the sizes available and I like the vibrant colors they come in.

In this activity, they...

• learnt about Big, Medium and Small
• learnt about Colors
• learnt about Shapes.
• counted
• practiced fine motor skills, esp with the small ones!
• made patterns, lots and lots of patterns.
• made trains with circles.

And it was a lot of fun... all under the cost $5 for all the pretty circle stickers.