reading | Grey Skies & Rainbow Highs

Ever wonder how you can combine listening and creativity? This St. Patrick’s Day activity does it.

My house is already rapidly getting ready for spring. Our plants are growing, we’ve been playing outside, and spring cleaning is in full effect. Just over the weekend, our house has rainbows, spring, and St. Patrick’s Day decor up and hanging.

To get Mila ready for next week’s fun holiday, we read Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase.

I thought we could do a painting with it too. When I pre read it, I tried to find repetitive words she wasn’t super familiar with before. Clover is the leprechauns name in the story and is used quite often. So, that’s what I decided on.

To make a regular painting a little more fun, I continued using an unusual painting tool.

The supplies you’ll need:

Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase (you can use any book to modify this activity)
Green paint
The top or bottom of a bell pepper
Canvas
A fork (optional)

Yes, you read that right. We’re using a bell pepper to paint!

I guess I just really wanted to play with my food as a child since I’m constantly letting Mila play with hers.

Bell peppers make a clover shape when they’re painted and stamped.

She actually wasn’t super fond on just gripping the pepper though. You can stick a fork in the pepper to do the same effect. It looked like she had more control that way too.

All we did for this activity was read the book and stamp the pepper every time Clover was said.

It turns out, Clover was said way more than I remembered when I first read the story. Mila was constantly going back and forth with from paint to canvas.

There were a few times she didn’t do it because she was so interested in the book. Cute right?

Don’t worry. We read it again afterwards.

Honestly, this was such a cute activity.

It proved that my toddler can actually listen (I’m such a jokester) and she’s so creative.

I think my favorite part of the painting is where you can tell Clover was said three times in a page. She just stamped it quickly in the same spot.

We hope you love this activity as much as we did!

It’s a quick one to do with your toddler or older child. You’ll get a new St. Patrick’s Day decor price and the knowledge that kids can listen when they want.

Let me know in the comments if you try it out.

Make sure to check out these great St. Patrick’s Day activities too!

Clover Canvas by Coffee with Kari
St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin by Mom Buns & Mayhem
Leprechaun Snow by Team Cartwright

Also, I’m looking to expand Mila’s Easter/Spring books. Do you have an Easter/Spring childrens book recommendation?

Today is National Read Across America Day. What better way to celebrate with your child than a new book and activity?

As I was picking out books for the day, Mila’s Little Bookish Wardrobe box came in. I thought it fit perfectly in the NEA’s theme this month: cultivating compassion.

The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess is a book all about feelings and helping someone out who’s in a bad mood. We all get in bad moods, but this book helps cultivate compassion by thinking what will help your child’s sibling, parent, or friend in a nice way.

Mila loved the images in the book and it was a great way to talk about emotions. It also opened us up to talking about what makes her mad. Honestly, hearing her talk about being angry was a learning moment.

When we normalize feelings and having different ones, we can learn so much about our kids and selves.

In the box, we always received a red wig (that Mila is wearing in the first picture), a rainbow sweater, and a slippers activity. Every thing in the box goes right along with the story. It’s always fun to explore.

This months activity was drawing on slippers. In the book, they paint to feel better and the Curmudgeon has big, furry feet. They sort of look like slippers.

So, Mila drew her different colored lines on the slippers. She’s so proud of them.

I think it might be a good learning tool for when she’s mad or having big emotions. It might be something she wears if she’s feeling overwhelmed. It’ll let me know there’s something going on if she can’t express it.

Two other books that we have that cultivate diversity that I think you guys would love are these.

Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer

I absolutely love this book. It talks about a wide range of diverse families. There’s families of all backgrounds and sexualities. For us, it talks about single parenthood too. All in a compassionate way!

The Sloth Who Slowed Us Down by Margaret Wild

Another great story that promoted compassion is this little story. It’s literally about the title. It’s such a cute story that talks about family time and slowing down for each other.

No matter what you read today or anytime with your child, you’re giving them a gift they’ll always be thankful for.

Even if you put them in a red wig.