Magical Moon Sand

I saw this great recipe for sensory play on Pinterest and I couldn't wait to try it with Aiden.

Moon Sand
5 cups flour
1 cup baby oil
Glitter
1. Pour ingredients into a container
2. Let your little person stir it up with a spoon or their hands
3. Add rocks, vehicles, robots or other creatures for a moon like playing experience

The Review
This was tons of fun. The sand smells so delish and feels so soft when you squish it through your fingers. Aiden had a great time mixing the oil into the sand and squelching it through his fingers. He created a fabulous moonscape by added rocks and wood chips from the yard into his bucket. And the way a 20-month old says "Moon-sand" has got to be one of the cutest things!

Tips
This is quite a messy one if your little person is a young creative toddler who doesn't get the whole keeping it in the container thing, so I would recommend either taking this outside (like we did) or covering the floor with a wipe able mat or large garbage bags.

Happy moon-scaping,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Painting Begins

As per usual we are having some up and down weather days in the last few days of winter. I adore being outside and hate being cooped up in the winter so any inkling of having weather that is close to being nice for playing in the fresh air it's on with our coats and out of the door. And one of my favorite things to do outside, aside from running around and free playing, is big, messy art projects that would cause Aiden's Dad to have a miniature heart attack if he saw the mess that we made if we did it indoors.

Earlier this week we had one of those days, those glorious sun-filled, warm but not too warm, perfect for playing outside days. So after lunch, which I must admit we rushed through so we could get as much good weather as possible, we threw on our coats and shoes and headed to the backyard.

I'd recently read about an art project that I was dying to try - sidewalk chalk painting - so I gathered our supplies and setup our painting project while Aiden puttered around in the sandbox.

Here's the recipe:
1 part cornstarch
11/2 parts water
Food colouring

Mix ingredients together in a paint tray or muffin tin. Arm your little person with a brush and have them paint to their hearts content.

This was a huge success and one that we will definitely do again. We had a blast painting the sidewalk, our hands, our clothes and some rocks that we found in the parking lot. While we painted we talked about our paintings, and sang songs about the colours we were using and the new colours we were making. I didn't keep track of time but I'd say this kept us busy for at least 30-45 minutes. Not bad for a one nap kind of day.

Happy sidewalk painting,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Music Video Monday: Find The Letter A

The Rundown
Alright, so I'm taking a bit of poetic license here with the term "music video" as this one is not so much a music video but is more of a general sesame street video with a music track. But it is a good one so I wanted to include it in our selections.

In this short video a letter A is hidden somewhere in the yard, but it's not your typical written or cut out A. The kids (through voice over) try to see if they can spot the letter A.

Why We Love It
We love this video because it teaches little people and reminds big people that letters can be found anywhere, not just on the printed or digital page. The video points out the fact that things are not always as they seem and if we are observant enough we will find wondrous examples of letters, shapes and numbers in our everyday world.

Creative Extension Activities
1. Go on a letter or number hunt while you are out for the day with your little person. Challenge yourselves to find the most creative example of your chosen letter or number. Aiden has managed to find a Y in the crease of a seat cushion at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
2. Create letter or number shapes out of unusual items in your house.
3. Make letters or numbers out of food items that are on your little person's plate at breakfast, lunch or dinner, e.g. make a letter A out of rice grains or a letter Y out of pretzels. This is especially good if you have a picky or antsy eater in your house - this can keep them entertained long enough for them to actually get a few bites in before they want to leave the table.

The Video

Happy watching and observing,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Mud Pie Fossil Madness

As I was looking through my photos from the summer I came across this one of our adventures in making mud pie fossils.

This was a very special project for me as I was sharing a first with Aiden - both of our first time making mud pies. (Yes, I managed to live for 33 years without making a single mud pie!). It was extremely messy and ended up turning more into mud soup than mud pies but it was oodles of fun. Here's the recipe:

Marvelous Mud Pie Fossils
Ingredients:
Soil (either from your yard or from your leftover potting soil)
Water
Pasta shapes
Digging tools (spoons, trowels, cups etc.)
Container for the soil (foil roasting pans work well)
Felt square

1. Pour soil into a container.
2. Pour water into the container and have your little person stir it up.
3. Let your little person add pasta shapes to the mud mixture.
4. When your little person has made a pie, transfer it to a felt square. Let the mud dry.
Voila, you have yourself a mud pie fossil!

Tips
This is a wonderful project for outdoors, but it can be done indoors. It was very windy on the day we did this project so I set up Aiden's paddling pool in the kitchen and let him sit in the pool while making his fossils. Clean up was easy as I just had to hose off the pool and clean off Aiden.

The Review
This one was buckets of fun! Aiden had a great time mixing the soil and scooping it out to make his pies. We will definitely be doing this one again.

Happy mud pie baking,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)

Now I Know My ABCs

Please be forewarned: This post contains some extremely annoying, prouder than proud Mom statements!

I have a pretty smart kid. At seventeen and a half months Aiden know about fifty words, knows all his major body parts and recognizes ten out of twenty-six letters. I'd love to take credit for his cleverness (ok I'll take a bit) but most of his letter and number (he knows the number 2) recognition is due to his love of sesame street (what a fantastic show by the way, although I have the song "Why oh why do I love Y" stuck in my head on repeat right now!).

What I can take credit for is encouraging his superb language skills. I've read to him everyday since birth and I've always talked to him as I'd he understands everything. And now that he can identify letters and numbers (which he loves doing) I try to incorporate language activities into our regular adventures.

Here's a list of some of the things we've done and you can do to encourage your letter detectives:

ABC Activities
1. Buy an alphabet play mat to put down in your play room. Ask your little person to find certain letters or numbers and bring them to you.
2. Find small items, like toys and household items, that begin with the same letter. Place them in a bucket or container. Have your little person pull each item out of the container, one by one, and have them tell you what it is. Remind them what letter the item begins with each time.
3. Draw a letter on a big piece of paper. Have your little one colour and collage the letter. Look through magazines to find pictures of things that begin with the letter you drew. Cut out the pictures and stick them to the letter poster.
4. Go on an alphabet walk: As you walk with your little person point out things that begin with a certain letter.
5. In the grocery store, as you are waiting to pay, ask your little person to point out different letters on the magazines. (This also gives you a chance to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip!)
6. Try on some dress up clothes or have your little person dress up. When you are both dressed up tell your little one what you are wearing that begins with a certain letter, e.g. Mom is wearing a hat and hat begins with the letter H.
7. Make letter puppets by drawing letters on card stock and attaching them to Popsicle sticks. Decorate the puppets, giving them faces and googly eyes. Then create stories using the letter puppets based on the letters, e.g. A's Amazing Adventure to Alaska.
8. Hide letter blocks around your play room (in fairly obvious places). Have your little on search for and find different letters.
9. Read, read and read some more to your little one. Ask them to point out letters that they know in the book.
10. Clap, cheer, hoot and holler when your little person identifies letters when you are out and about. A little encouragement goes a long way.

Happy letter learning,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Cleanliness is next to fun?!

I can honestly say that I strongly dislike cleaning our house. I strongly like when our house is clean mind you, but the actual act of cleaning is not high on my list of fun things to do in the day. So I began thinking how can I make this necessary thing that consumes so much of our time as enjoyable as possible and involve Aiden in the process. I suppose this was my creative problem. Here's what I came up with:

The Making Cleaning Fun List
1. Go on a stealth mission to the garbage: Hide behind trees, scamper between cars, sneak along the sidewalk and make a mad dash to the garbage before the bad guys get you, all while singing the mission impossible theme song.
2. Take up indoor duster tobogganing: Put a large duster on the floors and put your little one on top of it, like a toboggan. Pull them around as fast as is safe to clean the floors.
3. Bubble paint the floors: Get a tub of warm, soapy water and sponges. Cover the surface of the floor with soap bubbles and draw in the bubbles with your little person. Give them sponges and paint brushes to paint the floors and move throughout the house as you do this. You'll have clean floors in no time.
4. Play a sock matching game: Unload your cleanly laundered socks onto the floor. Pick out a distinctly patterned or coloured sock and have your little person find the matching sock from the pile. Repeat until all the socks are matched and folded.
5. Set up a sweeping slalom course: Place various items, like toys and chairs and empty cereal boxes, throughout the area that needs sweeping. Give your little one a broom or brush and a ball that they need to sweep through the course. Show them how to go through the course. Clean floors here we come!
6. Have a dirty laundry toss: Put a pile of laundry that needs cleaning on one side of the room and two different coloured laundry baskets on the other side of the room. Designate one colour of laundry basket for whites and one for darks. Give your little one an item of laundry and see if they can toss the laundry into the correct basket. Repeat until all the laundry is sorted for washing.
7. Make blanket caves on the beds: While making beds sit with your little one on the stripped bed and then pull one of the sheets over your head to make a cave.
8. Have a cleaning dance-a-thon :Give your little person kid-sized versions of your cleaning gear and spray bottles filled with water. Turn on some music and dance your faces off while dusting, sweeping, mopping and scrubbing.

Happy cleaning,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)

Happy Birthday Auntie Rachie!

Today is my sister and Aiden's Auntie Rachie's birthday. Auntie Rachie lives in London, England, so we can't celebrate with her today. However, in honour of her special day Aiden and I have planned some Rachie/Birthday themed activities for the day.

The Birthday Celebration List
1. Make a Happy Birthday banner and decorate it with crayons, markers, stickers and paint.
2. Make birthday hats from paper, cardboard, miscellaneous recyclables, Lego, stuffed animals, and any other materials we can find.
3. Go on a parade while wearing our various birthday hats.
4. Wear outfits in the favorite colour of the birthday person. If you don't know the favorite colour of the birthday person, wear outfits in a colour that begins with the same letter as the birthday person's name, for example Aiden and I are wearing red today.
5. Sing Happy Birthday to the birthday person's photo as many times as they are old during the day.
6. Create a special birthday song using various musical instruments and/or pots and pans and kitchen gadgets. Hold a concert for all the stuffed animals to debut the song.
7. Go on a Birthday Alphabet Walk: on your walk point out as many things as you can that begin with the first letter of the birthday person's name.
8. Play birthday games like musical chairs or pass the parcel in honour of the birthday person.
9. Make portraits of the birthday person or birthday cakes out of play dough.
10. Have a meal eating only things that begin with the first letter of the birthday person's name...lucky us, we get risotto!

Happy Birthday Auntie Rachie!
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It's November and right on cue we have snow here in Calgary. I moved to Calgary from England in High School and in my first few years of living in Calgary the first day of snow was always somewhat magical. There was something I found so comforting and serene watching big, fat snowflakes falling down, joining their snowflake friends to cover the ground with a pure white blanket of snow.

As the years went by, however, the novelty of the snow wore off. Instead of cozy, holiday-movie type thoughts running through my head, I'd have thoughts of skidding cars, nightmare traffic and perpetually freezing hands because I always seem to lose my mitts.

But now that Aiden is here the magic has come back. It is truly amazing seeing his eyes light up with wonder and curiosity as he watches the snow fall from the sky. And even more amazing watching him experience walking in the snow for the first time and holding it in his hands while saying "Cold" as he makes a little snowball. He reminds me of how cool snow really is.

In the spirit of the embracing winter and snow here's a list of fun things to do in the snow with your little person.

Snow Activities
1. Build magical snow creatures who come to life at night. Give the creatures names and characteristics then tell stories before bedtime about the snow creatures.
2. Build a snow maze and run around the maze together. Be sure to create dead ends and booby traps to make the maze as fun as possible.
3. Bury a treasure in the snow and then make a map to find the treasure. Give the map to Momor Dad when they get home and see if they can find the treasure.
4. Draw pictures in the snow using sticks as pencils.
5. Have a snow angel making contest. Award prizes for the craziest angel pose, the most angelic angel and the angel with the wildest wings etc. be sure to have an award ceremony complete with a podium and National Anthem singing.
6. Draw different animal tracks in the snow and then spend some time walking like each animal in the snow.
7. Find a hill and go tobogganing.
8. Paint in the snow using spray bottles filled with water and a bit of food colouring.
9. Make snow pictures by putting a piece of dark coloured card stock in the freezer and then taking it outside and catching snowflakes on the card. Examine the snowflakes with a magnifying glass to see if they are really all different.
10. Do some snow bowling: Set up several empty pop bottles, 500 ml works well, at one end of the yard. Make some big, solid snowballs and take turns rolling the balls at the bottles.

Next week I'll post recipes for Magic Mud, Finger Paint and Easy-To-Make play dough, but in the meantime have a fun, snow filled weekend and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Secret Spy Day

Yesterday we had plans to meet some friends at a mall for a playdate but the universe had a different plan  for us when it decided to hide the car keys in Aiden's Dad's coat pocket, which went with him to work. To make extra sure that we carried out the universe's plan, the universe also hid the spare car key in a place that we've yet to discover. Not only were we carless but we were also stroller and infant carrierless as these were both locked in the car.

So what to do when you are stuck at home, without a car and a stroller? Have a secret spy day of course. Here's a list of what Agent 00 Aiden and Agent 00 Mom did on our secret spy day:

The Secret Spy Day Activity List
1. Go on a stealth mission through the complex to the mailbox (see later post for explanation).
2. Disguise the entrance to our underground secret base with various natural things, like leaves, sticks, woodchips and rocks found in the yard.
3. Create secret spy messages on the sidewalk using sidewalk chalk.
4. Create decoy Agents by dressing up teddy bears and Aiden's plushy monkey, Thelonius, in Aiden's clothes and shoes.
5. Find spy equipment in the pit of rice sand, (see previous post on rice sand).
6. Test our agility on our indoor spy obstacle course (pillows, tunnels, ottoman, sofas, and ride on toys).

Teaching Elmo to Drive the Getaway Vehicle

7. Make a getaway car using a laundry basket, some blankets and a toy steering wheel.
8. Make some spy goo (magic mud - see future post for recipe) to trap our enemies.
9. Make a spy base using blankets, sheets and chairs as the frame.
10. Make lego spy planes, bases, cars, boats and cities.

Although we missed seeing our friends, we had a pretty fun day being spies at home. Thanks universe for hiding the keys!

Creatively yours,
Maya :)