Dollar Store |

Lipstick Painting

May 21, 2015 By Callie Leave a Comment

It has been raining, raining, raining here and my girl wants nothing more than to go outside and play. It’s been rough trying to keep her and me couped up. I did manage to make a Dollar Store trip last week and snagged a couple of things.

I decided to pull some things out of the fun closet and let her have some fun.

Supplies-

3- dollar lipsticks of differing shades

1-page of aluminum foil

1-high lipped cookie sheet

I simply lined the cookie sheet with foil. The foil gave an added sensory touch to this messy fun. The high lipped cookie sheet really comes in handy. Nothing got on the table. I undid each of the lipsticks, modeled drawing with them and set her loose. Row adored this.

Cleanup was minimal. I plopped her in the sink. I honestly thought it was going to take forever to get the lipstick off her hands and that they would be dyed for a good week. It came off rather easily. Anything that didn’t come off quickly I ran a paper towel with some rubbing alcohol over and it cleaned it off quickly. Just check little fingers for tiny boo boos before using.

I’m always amazed how the simplest things make her happy. I strive to be more like that.

I’m always looking for quick and inexpensive fun things for my toddler. How about you? Have any ideas? I’d love to hear them!

Saint Patrick’s Day Sensory Bag

March 10, 2015 By Callie Leave a Comment

When Irish eyes are smiling….we make sensory bags with gold glitter!

I love what a sensory bag does for littles-the discovery, the sensation, the fun!

I love what a sensory bag does for a Mama-ten to twenty minutes of entertainment, a chance to talk about senses and colors and oh so much more, the inexpensiveness of it and oh yes it takes like three minutes to make.

Supplies-

Gallon Ziploc bag-the real deal so it won’t break

duct tape if you don’t trust your little from ripping the top open-I’m eying you boy moms.

hair gel

green food coloring

glitter-gold

a small St. Paddy’s day trinket-we used gold coins.

All of this can be found at your local Dollar Store as mentioned in my previous post.

Add supplies one by one in the bag. I did not mix anything up because I wanted Row to do that once the bag was closed. I simply dumped everything in and sealed.

And let them go! I loved the look on her face as the clear gel turned completely green. We talked about colors, shapes, and the sense of touch. A great extension for older kiddos-btw they love this stuff too. List words that start with “G”, describe attributes of the sensory bag.

Easy, fun, and lasts!!!!!

Are you doing any fun activities for St. Patrick’s Day? I used to make rainbow layer cakes in college-that was always cool!

Toddler Time-Sensory Play-Shaving Cream

January 20, 2015 By Callie Leave a Comment

I wanted to share a quick, easy, and super inexpensive toddler time tip.

I used this trick back when I was a teacher. The kids loved it.

Shaving Cream Play

I will give a brief warning…this is a supervised activity. You can easily use this activity to help keep toddlers busy while you’re cooking but just keep an eye out for slinging, eating, and eye rubbing.

Shaving cream was one of the items I snagged during my previous dollar store post. Simply slide the toddler into their high chair, up to the table and spray shaving cream directly on the surface. I will advise you to just use a tiny bit at a time. Yes I have made this mistake before.

Shaving cream is a great sensory tool especially for children with sensory disorders. It has a great feel and a clean smell. Clean up is minimal since after use most of it actually gets rubbed into the table-which is pretty fun!

You can also add food coloring if desired. In Kindergarten we would spray it onto the tables and children would practice letter and number writing, beginning and ending sounds, sight words,name writing. It’s just endless. This is something that can easily be stretched as an activity for grade schoolers as well. The shaving cream also cleans the table which is neat!

Row loved it and squealed the whole time. We did have a bit in the mouth by accident and we survived. This is great when you need a few minutes-ours lasted easily 15-20 minutes for cooking dinner!

Do you have any fun toddler time ideas?