Tag Archives: toddler activities

One Way to Trick Your Toddler Into Brushing Their Teeth.

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If your child is anything like mine, they can’t stay still. Especially when they’re doing something as mundane as brushing their teeth.

I’ve finally found the trick to get Mila to brush her teeth and do it right.

All it took was Pizza and his friends.

Okay, I know everyone loves Pizza updates. You’d never imagine how central he is in our everyday life. This time, it was finally for my advantage though.

Mila has had issues with brushing her teeth since the beginning. I would have to hold her down to get them cleaned

I did different tricks like making her laugh, having her brush mine then me hers, and changing her tooth paste and brushes. For a few months, I even told her they’d fall out if we didn’t brush them. Some things worked… for a little while.

This time though, I’ve found the golden ticket

Since Mila has started dance class, she’s become this little performer. All eyes have to be on her and she loves when she gets to teach dance moves.

One morning, when it was time to brush her teeth, she did her usual refusal.

She was playing with Pizza and his friends and a light bulb went off. I asked her if Pizza knew how to brush his teeth. She said no and I asked her if she wanted to teach him.

Weirdly, she said yes.

For the extended weekend, she had to have an audience while brushing her teeth. I set them up in the morning and she did her lesson.

Now that it’s routine, she doesn’t give any complaints when I ask her to brush her teeth.

All it took was the power of teaching, Pizza, and a few toys.

Does your child have any issues with teeth brushing? What are some tricks you’d share that made the journey easier?

Toddler Activity: Thankful for You Lollipop Flowers

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It’s National Random Act of Kindness Day! Although we try to do as many acts of kindness everyday, we wanted to share this today.

Mila loves her ‘kids’ and ‘girls.’ These kids consist of all her cousins and her girls are from dance class. She loves the time she spends with them.

When I asked who she wanted to share kindness with, it’s no wonder why she chose them.

We talked about why it’s nice and important to do nice things for other people. There was a mini brainstorming session about what we could do. Valentine’s Day definitely helped the matter!

Mila suggested flowers, so we compromised.

All you need to do to create these lollipop flowers are paper, scissors, and suckers! I used taped to secure the flowers too.

For creating the flowers, I just drew ones on the back of the paper and cut it out. To get the lollipop stick through, I pressed a hole in the middle with the scissors.

On the underneath of the flowers, I put, ‘I ♥ You! -Mila.’ Short and sweet!

We’ll be giving them out as soon as she sees her kids and girls. She loved how they turned out and wanted to hold them like a bouquet.

If we did a large scale random acts of kindness, I’d definitely add a quote to the flowers. These would also be adorable for a birthday party or class treat.

We’re so happy and excited to spread a little extra kindness in the world. This year, we hope we can do more random acts and bring joy to those who are least expecting it.

Let me know what you think about this kindness project in the comments below.

Toddler Activity: Mardi Gras Beads Process Art

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Happy Fat Tuesday!

If you’re looking for a quick activity to do with your child today, this one goes perfectly when listening to some jazz music.

You probably have most of the supplies at home too. Here’s all you need:

  • Paint (purple, gold, green)
  • Canvas
  • Beads

Since everyone knows we love process art here, using beads is a fun way to create.

I chose traditional Mardi Gras colors for Mila to use and we had some random beads already here. There were two different sized beads she used too!

All you have to do is instruct your child to dip the beads in the paint and drop them on the canvas.

It can get a little messy, so put paper underneath.

I had to help Mila get paint on the beads. It’s a little tricky, but older kids shouldn’t have a problem with it. It’s also nice to make sure to leave one part of the necklace clean so it’s easy to grab.

I absolutely love how this painting turned out. It would be cute to add an outlined fleur-de-lis too!

Mila loved being introduced to jazz music too. She dipped the necklaces along with the beat! Next year I’ll have to find a beignet recipe!

If you decide to do this activity with your child, let me know how it goes in the comments!

For more Mardi Gras activities check out these blog posts:

Toddler Activity: Icy Heart Melt

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Two science activities in two days? Yep!

This ice vs. salt activity is a fun way to freeze time for you and keep your toddler busy. It challenges them to see what’s making the ice melt and how they can do it quicker.

Before doing this activity, you have to freeze ice cubes. I used a mini heart mold, but you can use anything. To get the colors, I used food coloring.

Here’s what we used to set up and do this activity:

All I told her before I let her experiment was to melt the ice. I told her salt and blowing on it would help.

I’m all for giving myself some time to clean or cook. Mila played with this set up for quite a while.

She gave me enough time to cook and clean up, which is a win for me.

After she was done, I let the liquid dry and brushed the salt off of it. With this you can hang it up, have your child make a picture with it, or incorporate them into a Valentine’s Day card.

We had a ton of fun doing Valentine’s Day activities this year. I can’t wait to see what we get into next!

As always, I hope you enjoy this little icy heart melt. If you experiment to, make sure to let me know how it went.

Toddler Activity and Snack: National Pizza Day

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Today is National Pizza Day.

I love that it feels like everyday is a holiday. It makes not being able to do things like normal feel a little more special.

Anyways, since Mila is learning to count, I decided to make a fun counting activity and a pizza wrap for the occasion. Of course, her friend, Pizza, had to be involved too.

All I used for this little activity was construction paper, a crayon, scissors, and tape!

I divided the pizza up into eight slices. Then cut out enough square pepperonis for them all the have the correct number on them.

If your child is working on scissor skills, this would be great for them too.

This is a simple activity, but the repetitiveness helps solidify their counting skills. Mila has a hard time with four and five and likes to skip them. By doing this activity, it made her see four and five and do it eight times in a row.

I also love that she’s using her fine motor skills to pick up and place the small pieces on the pizza.

After she went through the activity once, she had time just playing with the little pieces. Pizza and her Barbie dog enjoyed it as well.

Even though this is a simple game to put together, it really does help with counting. It’s always such a good feeling to see them put their knowledge to use. Not just repeating numbers. Plus it gave me time to make food too.

Of course, we had to make something pizza inspired for the day!

Using the same wrap style as I did for the Cheesy Beef Quesadilla, Mila and I had cheesy, pizza wraps.

All you need are these things:

  • Tortilla
  • Pizza Sauce
  • Cheese
  • Any toppings you’d like!

Make a cut halfway through and down the center. Then add pizza sauce and cheese all over it.

Next fold the tortilla and place it on a hot pan.

Once it’s brown on both sides, you can take it off and serve it. I turned the pan on a lower setting so the cheese could melt more.

We love having handheld food, especially when it tastes so yummy.

We had a blast celebrating National Pizza Day!

One funny thing that did happen was Mila thought it was Pizza the Sloths birthday. So, it was just a day of being happy for all types of pizzas.

I hope you can make or order some pizza in really soon!

If you do the counting activity, let me know how your child likes it.

Also, check out these two AMAZING pizza recipes from my friends Erica and Irma. Erica did an amazing Rainbow Veggie Pizza that I want to immediately make. Irma made a yummy bubble pizza too. Another recipe I’ll try soon too!

Toddler Activity: Celery HeARTwork

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Process art is one of my and Mila’s favorite ways to be creative. This week we discovered that celery makes the cutest, little hearts.

Isn’t that just amazing or is it just for me since I’m the worst at drawing heart?

Anyways, this celery heARTwork activity is so easy to set up and your child can be as creative as they want. It was also great for us to mix in with snack time.

It takes playing with your food to a different level.

This is all you need for this activity:

  • Canvas or something to paint on (craft paper makes amazing wrapping paper!)
  • Paint
  • Celery
  • Something to put paint on (I used recycled milk jug lids.)

That’s seriously it! We obviously used different shades of pink and red. You can use whatever colors your child picks.

All they have to do is use their celery sticks like a paint brush. Dip the celery into the paint. Then press it down on the canvas.

At first, Mila wanted to move the celery like a brush. I showed her how to use it like a stamp to clear that confusion. She immediately recognized they were hearts.

Celery transfers the paint MUCH easier than potatoes. That means they don’t have to push down as hard.

Mila had so much fun playing with her food, while eating the same type.

When she would switch to snacking, I had a rule that all four celery paint sticks had to be in the upright position. That made me feel a little more comfortable when she kept switching back and forth!

No paint was consumed during this art project.

I love the way this process celery heARTwork turned out.

She just made the canvas and wrapping paper, but again, this can be used for anything you need hearts on!

The biggest thing to remember while kids do process art is there’s no end goal. This is their time to be as creative as they like.

I think the best part of process art is to see how your child grows with it. They get a better sense of composition, shapes, and colors the more they paint.

Their growth is truly the greatest gift.

As always, I hope if you do this activity, you let me know in the comments.

Toddler Activity: Super Bowl Artwork and Noise Makers

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The Super Bowl is this weekend! If you’re a person who just watches for half time, here are two activities you can do with your kid’s before the game or during.

I incorporated two things Mila loves: art and music. For both of these activities, you probably have everything you need in your home.

When doing these, I would highly recommend a parent to help on a few steps.

Noise Makers Supplies:

  • Toilet paper rolls
  • Paint
  • Glue – Elmers and hot glue
  • Glitter
  • Ribbon
  • Rice

The first step is to paint both rolls.

I tried to stick with both teams colors, so Mila can shake when either team scores. She was able to help me paint them, but it was messy!

After the paints dried, you can add glitter to them. I did stripes around each side and Mila rolled the glitter on. To get it to stick, I did another coat of Elmers paint on top of the glitter. Then she wanted to add a sticker to both.

When the glue is dried, fold one side of the roll down. Then, put hot glue over top to seal it.

Add rice when the hot glue cools down and the fold and glue the other side too. I didn’t measure out the rice to a science. The rice probably filled half of it!

Then, we added ribbons on the end for extra decorations and to cover up the dried glue. It also double seals the ends so no rice flies out.

These are fun to shake and Mila loves dancing with them!

The next activity is so simple and we turned it into a little gift!

All you need is three things:

  • Brown paint
  • Canvas
  • Potato

To get the football effect with the potato, just carve the laces into it. I used a knife. That was one step definitely not suitable for young kids.

Then, all you have to do is dip the potato in the paint and use it like a stamp. I would suggest to really press down on it. If not, it doesn’t transfer the paint well.

I let Mila do her own design, but it’d be really cute to tape down a rectangle to make a frame. Then put your child’s picture inside of it.

We ended up taking pictures and made our own little frame with a clip. It turned out SO cute.

Other ideas for the potato/football stamp would be table cloths, banners, or place settings. Another idea could be to use the potato stamp for a fun way to keep score. There are so many possibilities.

We had so much fun making these and I can’t wait to see her play with the noise makers. My dad, her papa, is going to love this little gift as well.

I hope this gives you something to do if you get bored during football or are just really excited for the game.

As always, if you decide to try these out, let me know in the comments.

Valentine’s Day Gift: I Love You Instax Picture and Frame

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If you want to show off the cutest series of photos at the office, in your home, or even as a gift, you should definitely try this out!

‘I love you.’

We have an Instax camera and love snapping pictures. Mila likes how the film instantly come out and their aesthetic pleases me.

I got an idea to make myself (sorry not sorry) a Valentine’s Day present that I can always remember Mila at this time. So, we had a little photo shoot.

Obviously, she loved getting dressed up and making her hair ‘pretty.’ She was all for it!

Then it was time to shoot.

Since I can’t have Mila’s voice always telling me she loves me while I work, I thought of the next best thing… sign language.

In one of Mila’s dance songs, they sign ‘I love you,’ but a little reminder didn’t hurt.

After I got those first three pictures, she wanted to take more. So, so obviously I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of her.

Anyways, I found a perfect, Instax picture frame on Amazon! It’s pretty sturdy. The only issue I had with it was I had to tape the pictures in to stay, but that wasn’t a big deal.

Once I put it all together, it turned out so beautiful.

If you have more than one child, this frame also has a six opening frame too.

I think this would be an amazing gift to parents, grandparents, or anyone your child loves. It didn’t take too long to do either.

Your child will love seeing their pictures instantly and will be happy to give this as a present.

I hope if you decide to make this Valentine’s Day gift, you’ll let me know in the comments below.

Friday Favs: Imagination Library

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For future Friday’s, sorry for that f alliteration, I want to do something a little different. From here on out, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite picks.

These can include books, shows, podcasts, kids things, or whatever else I think of. Obviously, I’m going to try and make sure it’s useful for other people too. I’m not that self-obsessed.

This week, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite programs: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

I’ll give you the run down of the program.

Dolly Parton created the Imagination Library because she wanted to make sure no child was illiterate. It’s a program where kids are gifted a book a month.

The Imagination Library is available to children who live in certain areas. If you’re local to me, your child definitely qualifies. To my non-local friends, you can check to see if you qualify here! It’s definitely worth seeing.

Mila has been receiving books for almost a year, maybe. They’re cute books and she enjoys getting mail.

We read all the time, so it’s nice to get fresh books. Plus, they’re always educational. For example, last month, it was a story about hibernation.

This months was perfect for the stage Mila is in now. It’s called, Goodnight, Numbers by Danica McKellar.

If you couldn’t guess from the title, this book is about numbers and counting. Mila had the toughest time saying four and five while counting. It was so frustrating.

But, when she read this book, she counted to ten like a pro!

The drawings are made to keep the kids interested in counting the entire time. Each page correlates with a number. The pictures have random things with the same amount on the page. So, it’s like a little scavenger hunt!

This really helped Mila. She pointed most of them out. The pattern of counting the same number a few times made her more confident too.

Another cute part of the story is it follows bedtime routines. So, when you’re reading it before bed, they know what might happen next.

More importantly, there’s diverse characters. Different types of families and races are centered around one number. I thought this was a great way to continue talking to Mila diversity AND how every family looks different.

This inclusive and educational book was such a hit. If you’re interested in the book, you can find it here on Amazon.

We love Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and I hope you will too. Make sure to check if your family is eligible for these books. They’re such a great source and way to excite your little one to read.

Thanks for checking out this Friday Fav! Let me know if you are apart of Imagination Library in the comments.

Toddler Activity: DIY Heart Banner

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With only a few days of January left, I thought it was a perfect time to start thinking about Valentine’s Day. Since Mila loves to paint, I incorporated that and my love for decorating in this project.

I also was inspired by this Instagram post to make Mila’s artwork into a banner!

This little banner looks simple, but took two days to make.

Older kids may be able to do the entire project by themselves. Younger children will need their parents help with scissors and a hole punch.

Here’s what you’ll need for this project:

  • Paint
  • Brushes
  • Paper (we used craft)
  • String
  • Scissors
  • Hole punch
  • Bubble wrap (optional)

We started off doing some process art with bubble wrap. Anytime we can add new ways to create, we do.

I had Mila paint Valentine’s Day colors (pink, purple, and red) on bubble wrap. Then we set our big pieces of craft paper on top. After it was on top, she rolled her rolling pin over it. I told her to do this to make sure the paper picked enough paint up.

We did this for four pieces of paper. She did different strokes of paint for each.

They all came out so individual and Mila enjoyed how different this looked compared to her usual paintings.

Next, we had to wait for everything to dry.

To be honest, this probably would have taken a few hours. I might have waited a couple days. Oops!

Mila is still too little to draw hearts or cut them out, so I did the next steps by myself. If she was a little older, she could have done these steps too!

I drew and cut out different sized hearts. The size variety is interesting to me, but you can do whatever.

If you have extra painted paper leftover, keep it! I have a cute Valentine’s Day card you can make with them!

Next, hole punch two holes on the top of the heart.

Your child can help you put the string through the holes if you’d like. Mila thought it was cool to help put it together this way. It took her a little whole though!

After they’re all on the string, hang it up where ever.

This simple project is fun to do with a toddler and even older kids. You can showcase their art and have festive decorations that are handmade and cute.

The plan the rest of the wall is to put hearts around the canvas she made with reasons why I love her in them.

I can’t wait to make this February special for Mila.

Let me know if you try this project out and what projects you’ll be doing this Valentine’s Day!