Spray and Sort

Spray and Sort!

My kids did this activity multiple days in a row this past week and there's currently more ice cube trays in the freezer! They loved it!



Supplies Needed: -ice cube trays -water -plastic bin -spray bottle -bear counters

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Instructions: 1. Drop 1-2 bear counters in a water filled ice cube tray and freeze overnight 2. Once frozen, put ice cubes in a plastic bin or water table 3. Fill a spray bottle with warm water  4. Have your child spray the ice cubes until melted and sort by color (we did this in the empty ice cube trays)



Extension Ideas:  -Count how many of each color -Graph the bears by color - Talk about the quantities of each color using words like "more than," "less than" -Make simple math problems for your child to solve
Examples: "How many blue and red bears are there altogether?"  "How many more yellow bears are there than orange?" "Are there more yellow or purple bears?"



I hope you enjoy this activity as much as we do!

Name Poke

Grab a box, write a name, poke some holes, and you have yourself an activity for your toddler!

Brooklyn had so much fun poking her name with toothpicks. She loves saying her name all the time and is starting to recognize a couple of letters in her name, so this was a perfect little fine motor activity for her to work on while also seeing and talking about the letters with me as she poked them all. 

What you need:

-cardboard box
-marker
-toothpicks

HAVE FUN!

Make sure to follow me on instagram for the latest activities!

qtip erase and DIY white board

DIY WHITE BOARD:

-cardboard

-white paper

-clear packaging tape

Take a piece of cardboard and cut to your desired size. Cover the cardboard with white paper and use clear packaging tape to tape the white paper down. Make sure the tape is covering the entire thing. The tape part is the part that makes it work like a white board! Use dry erase markers to color on top and it will easily erase with your finger, tissue, etc! To thoroughly clean the white board, use a baby wipe before storing it for future use!

Check out my instagram account to see a video tutorial under story highlights under "simple play". 

QTIP ERASE ACTIVITY:

-DIY white board or regular white board

-dry erase marker

-qtip 

Write numbers on the whiteboard (you could also do letters, shapes, sight words, etc.) Hand your child a qtip and the board and call out things for them to eras using the qtip. It sounds so simple (because it is), but there's something about a kid and a white board that makes learning magical! 

count and clip

🖐🏼count & clip🖐🏼⠀

⠀

I call this my lazy mom activity. I save this for times that the kids need an activity because they are about to lose it, but I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to spend time putting together anything! It’s saved in a bag just ready to save the day🎉 And lately, there’s been a decent amount of these days🤪 Can anyone else relate?

⠀

On clothespins, I have one number written on each one with a sharpie. In this particular bag, I had numbers 1-10. I also have bags of clothespins for numbers 10-20, shapes, and uppercase and lower case letters. Choose whichever one makes most sense for you (or just make all of them like me🤣). ⠀

⠀

On pieces of paper, draw out matches for each clothespin. I had numbers 1-1

0 drawn with dots in ten frames. You could also do addition or subtraction problems equaling the numbers, objects to represent the numbers, tally marks, etc. There’s so many different options to choose from! ⠀

⠀

Once you have a paper for each clothespin, fold each paper up multiple times (so the activity takes more time to do haha). Give the papers to your child to unwrap, count, and clip to the matching clothespin. You could also hide these papers around the house to extend the activity, or put them in a sensory bin to find before clipping! So many variations of this easy activity! ⠀

⠀

When you’re done, throw everything in a bag and it’s ready for the next time you need something to save the day! 🙌🏻

Make sure you're following me on instagram to see my latest activities for toddlers and kids!

pom pom darts

What if I told you you could safely play darts with a two year old?! Well maybe not the real deal, but you can do it and your kids will find it just as fun! And yes, it involves pom poms (if you've been following me for awhile you probably already know my pom pom obsession is real). This super easy set up will keep your kids entertained for a long time, will give them overhand throwing practice, and  a little number practice! 

On a big piece of paper, draw three circles for your dart board. Add numbers in each circle. I chose to write 1,2, and 3 so Austin could work on simple addition and Brooklyn could work on number recognition and call out the numbers. You could make these numbers whatever is appropriate for your child. Next you need to make your dart board sticky. You could either use contact paper or clear packaging tape (which is what I used). Put your white paper on a flat surface.  Cut long strips of tape  (a little bit longer than the circle) and place them all STICKY SIDE UP over the dart board circles. Using regular scotch tape, tape the ends of the packaging tape down (outside of the circle). Once the dart board is all sticky, use painters tape to tape the paper on the wall. Head over to my instagram and watch my story highlights under "active play" to see a video tutorial!  Get some pom poms and you're ready to play! The pom poms should stick when you throw them on the dart board!

 We were able to use the board for a few days until the tape basically had no more stickiness left. The great thing about this activity is you can just rip the tape off once it's not sticky anymore and it doesn't ruin the board! Add some new tape or save the board for another day! 

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant

 in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites

 to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Here are a few ideas for playing:

Option 1: Have your child throw pom poms and recite what number circle the pom pom lands in

Option 2: Have your child pick a number and continue to throw pom poms until they get one in that number.

Option 3: If you have two kids that want to play together, make it more like traditional darts. Give one color of pom poms to player 1 and a different color to player 2. They can practice their addition and add up their scores after they use all their pom poms up to see who wins. 

Roll & Write

I love this activity to help your child or student learn to write their name or practice spelling words. It's really engaging and easy to set up, and below are links to everything you need!


Roll and Write Supply List:

2 pieces of paper

one die

crayons

markers

letter stamp set 

pipe cleaner

letter beads 

paint set and brush

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

DIRECTIONS: 

On the first paper, write out the rules (1-Crayon, 2- paint, 3- stamp, 4-marker, 5- bracelet, 6- rainbow colors).  I also put a little box next to the rules for Austin to check off as he finished. On the second paper, write six lines for your child to write on. 

Have your child roll the die then write or create their name (or whatever word they are working on) using the directions from paper 1. Once they complete that number they can check it off and roll again. If they roll the same number again, they continue rolling until they get a number they haven't gotten yet. 

count. balance. drop

🐻Count. Balance. Drop.🐻⠀

⠀

It’s easy to set up, simple yet challenging, and it’s a lot of fun! ⠀

⠀

💜You need cups (wider cups are easier, narrow are harder), tape, bear counters or something else small that you have a lot of (think coins, Cheerios, legos, etc.), scissors and a marker. ⠀

⠀

Place strips of tape across the top of cups (sticky side down). I did one strip of tape for the numbers 1-3, and multiple strips for 4 and 5. You can adjust how thick of tape you want across as needed for your child. Write one number on the top of the tape of each cup. We did numbers 1-5 so we had 5 cups. Give your child the counters and the scissors. ⠀

⠀

Have your child pick a cup, count the correct number of counters to match the number on that cup, balance that number of counters on the tape, then cut the tape to drop the counters into the cup.⠀

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

⠀

WHY?

🖤This is a little trickier than it looks but tons of fun! There were a few times my son had the bears drop outside the cup because he balanced them on the tape too close to the side. ⠀

It was great to see him problem solve when the bears didn’t drop in correctly. I had extra strips of tape handy to re-tape that cup so he could try again. This activity also had him practice counting, fine motor skills, and cutting. 

chalk obstacle game

Happy Thursday! I've been saving this activity to share for #happythursdayletsplay and it's one of the activities my kids and I are going to create and do again this morning. 

You've probably seen at least one chalk obstacle course in the last couple of months. We see tons of them when we are out on walks, and we've done our fair share on our driveway. 

But after seeing @dayswithgrey's outdoor DIY chalk game, I got the idea to combine the two things together to create an outdoor chalk game with an obstacle course twist! My kids absolutely love board games and love being outside so I knew this would be a hit!

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Here's what to do:
To make a big die, I used a box, white paper and a sharpie, and packaging tape. After drawing the sides of the die on the paper, I taped them down on each side of the box with the tape. Draw a board game with chalk on your driveway. In some of the boxes I put simple directions like -4 or +3. In other boxes I put some obstacle course directions (hop on 1 foot 10 times, spin around 3 times, 5 jumping jacks, etc.)

My whole family (husband included) had such a great time playing this game for multiple days in a row until the rain washed it away. It's for sure something we will do again and perfect for the spring and summer. 

Family games are a free and easy way to connect and bond with each other, they are great practice for taking turns, learning how to be a good sport, and following directions. There was also some math and gross motor skills involved in this game too! This game can easily be adapted to whatever is age appropriate for your kids. 

Who is going to make a chalk obstacle game?

Click here to see more pictures of the game and follow me on instagram to see my latest activities! 

Save and Sort

Supplies Needed:

-painters tape

-pom poms

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

What to do:

-Tape strips of painters tape varying in height and direction somewhere in your house that's somewhat narrow. 

-place pom poms on the sticky side of the tape

-Let your child remove the pom poms from the tape and sort by color or size

For more ways to extend the learning, make sure to check out my instagram post on this activity! 

DIY window clings

What you need: -plastic wrap or cling wrap -elmer's glue -food coloring (I use the one below) -dish soap -paint brush

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

What to do:

-Roll out plastic wrap on a flat surface

-In a bowl, pour about 2 tablespoons of Elmer's washable glue. 

-Add  a couple of drops of dish soap and 1-2 drops of food dye. Mix with a paint brush.

-Paint directly on the plastic wrap. Thick is better. 

-Let them dry overnight.

-Once dry, peel off and use on windows over and over!

Make sure you're following me on instagram to stay up to date on more activities!

Spaghetti Letters

I love using a multi-sensory approach to help teach the alphabet. Multi-sensory activities are activities that stimulate more than one of the senses at the same time. These activities will help activate different parts of your child's brain and make them more involved in their learning.

Spaghetti letters is a multi-sensory activity that was such a fun way to start introducing Brooklyn (2.5) to the letters in her name and for Austin to practice creating his name. I dyed the spaghetti to make it a little more fun (and to throw in a storage bin for more sensory play later in the day), but that's definitely not necessary. 

Cook some spaghetti, drain it, and place on a plate or tray to dry. If you want to dye your spaghetti, add a couple drops of oil to your drained pasta and one drop of food dye. Mix it around until the spaghetti changes color then place on a plate or tray to dry. I tried touching the spaghetti before it was completely dry and a small amount of food coloring got on my hands so make sure to test it out before playing with it. 

On paper, write some letters, words, or numbers. Give your child the spaghetti and have them trace the letters using it. They can easily cut the spaghetti to different lengths using their pincher grasp (good fine motor practice too). To make it more challenging you could always say a letter aloud and have your child create the letter without tracing it too. 

Who is going to cook some spaghetti this week?!

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

bath boats

It's simple! Put silicone baking cups (we use mini ones) in the bath and drop some bear counters in. Let your child pick up each bear and drop it in the "boat". It's the simplest activity that will make bath time more fun!

Scroll down to see a list of other household items you could use in place of bear counters too! 

What you need:

1. silicone baking cups

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

2. bear counters

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Other items you could use:

- Ice. Make sure the bath isn't too warm and make it a race to see if your kids can put all the ice cubes in the baking cups before they melt!

-The twist off tops to pouches (apple sauce pouches, yogurt pouches, etc.) 

- Legos (small enough to fit in the cups but not too small that they could get struck down the drain)

-Ping pong balls

-Pom poms

HAVE FUN!

Magic Missing Letters

Ever since introducing Austin (5) to the crayon resist activity "Magic Addition" last month, he's been asking me to create more of them. It's crazy how fun incorporating a white crayon and water color paint can make things!

I grabbed some paper, drew the easiest things I could think of (my drawing skills are ____ ), wrote the word next to it in sharpie but left out the first letter, and wrote that letter with a white crayon. Austin would say the missing letter aloud then paint over it with water color paint to see if the "magic  missing letter" was right! He loved it so much that I spent the next 10 minutes creating a 3rd, 4th, and 5th page for him to do (his request). 

These were commonly asked questions/answers from my last crayon resist post last month:

1.  Yes, it has to be water color paints (the darker colors work better in my opinion).

2. Yes, it has to be a white crayon. A white marker will not work. 

3. I have always used Crayola crayons and have never had a problem. I write everything by pressing hard and going over it again a second time. 

What type of crayon resist activity will you make?

tape magnets

You guys! I can’t believe I hit 🎉1,000🎉followers on my instagram today!

THANK YOU to each and every one of you! ❤️

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant 

in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites 

to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

This activity is 🙌🏻 🙌🏻 and turned our really difficult morning into over an hour of pure magical playing, allowing me to finally finish my cup of coffee that was 4 hours old! ☕️😮

Grab that painters tape again and find some sort of counter. My kitchen island was the perfect spot for us. The seat of a chair could also work! Tape some strips of tape going from the counter (I had about an inch or two on the counter) and let the rest hang down. 

Grab your Picassotiles magnets (if you do not own these- they are hands down the family favorite toy and I highly suggest investing in some). 

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant 

in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites 

to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Let your child place one magnet on the back of the tape (the sticky side) and another on the front (non sticky side) right on top of each other with the tape in the middle. They will stick together! 

It was a great little cause and effect activity for Brooklyn who tried a few times to put a @ tile on the front first to then find it wouldn’t stay put without the help of the one on the back. 

This activity kept my kids entertained for an hour (which is really good for them)! It then turned into creating really awesome and creative things using the tape magnets.

This activity will for sure become a staple in our house. 

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant 

in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites 

to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Head over to my instagram 

to see more pictures of this activity!

abc caterpillar

Because what parent doesn't want to hear the ABCs over and over and over again right after breakfast?! HAHA.

My son had a blast creating a caterpillar with dot stickers in ABC order. This simple activity can be prepped in under a minute and can be adapted in so many different ways to fit what's appropriate for your child (numbers, patterns, numbers from least to greatest, etc.). 

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

On a sheet of dot stickers, write the ABCS (in a random order to add a fun searching element in). Take a piece of long paper (I taped two pieces of computer paper together) and draw the head of a caterpillar on the far left. Put the "a" dot sticker on the caterpillar to show your child how to start. Let your child search for the next letter on the dot sticker sheet, then add it to the caterpillar. 

This activity was a mini little scavenger hunt, had my son practicing letter recognition/ABC order, and was a little fine motor practice as well. I call that a win!

What kind of dot sticker caterpillar will you create for your child?  

color peekaboo

What toddler doesn't love peekaboo?

Brooklyn (2.5) has a serious love for tricking people, and to this day still uses peekaboo as one of her go-to ways to "trick" us. This activity was perfect for her. As she worked on the color sorting activity,  she was able to trick us repeatedly.  It was hilarious to watch her flip up and down the post its after every single sticker saying "peekaboo blue" or whatever color she had just done. She also kept saying to Austin (5), "Where did the pink ones go?" Austin was a good sport and followed along the majority of the time, pretending to not know where they went. "Peekaboo AUST!" she would yell. It was really cute.

Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program, 

an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees 

by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. 

Spread out some different colored post its on a piece of paper. You could always use the regular yellow ones and draw the colors you want your child to sort with a marker on top of the post it.  Cut up some dot stickers of the colors you are going to sort and put them in a bowl. Let your child pick a sticker from the bowl, peel it off and place it underneath the post it to "hide it".  They can play peekaboo with the colors! 

This simple activity is great fine motor practice, sorting practice, and simply fun! It can be switched up so many ways too (letters, numbers, etc.) 

Make sure you're following me on instagram to be up to date on all my activities!

 I can't wait to see all of your peekaboo sorting pages!