Fall Activities for Toddlers (Part 1)

For each project I will highlight several developmental skills it enhances (but by all means not all). Often we do things, but don’t think about why. And sometimes we don’t do things because we don’t think they will make an impact. Now every kid is different and what one gains another might gain something different. But that’s okay. It’s most important to present the opportunity for our children and let them tell us what they learn from it. The key points that I will discuss include:

Language Development: Language skills develop by talking, singing, and reading together.
Gross Motor Development: This refers to large movements, such as walking, jumping, crawling, climbing, etc.
Fine Motor Development: These skills are those small tasks that require a lot of hand-eye coordination, such as painting, using a spoon, coloring, picking up items, transferring from one hand to another.
Creative Development: Creativity may be taught, but only if it is supported.
Sensory Development: Sensory skills refer to hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, exploring, and looking.
Cognitive Development: This is our knowledge base; we learn from our experiences and grow from there.
Enjoyment Development: Having fun is so important for children to engage in as often as they can.
Social Development: Learning to work together and “be” with other people creates a well-balanced child.

** All of the following ideas can be easily varied for older kids**

Painting pumpkins
This took us about 3 minutes.
Materials: pumpkins, paint, brush, washcloth
Directions: I bought these small pumpkins as the grocery store. I let my daughter choose between two paint colors. I put paint on the brush and helped her paint the pumpkin. It’s okay to help at this age because they need to learn what to do. I suggest not doing it for them, though.

Language used: pumpkins, paint, red, brush, orange.
Fine motor skills: painting with brush
Creative skills: she could paint anywhere on the pumpkin (and the highchair as it turned out)
Sensory: touched the pumpkin and paint. And my daughter tasted it, too.

Cognitive: remembered other pumpkins she has seen around the house.
Enjoyment: it was fun.
Social skills: we worked together to paint the pumpkins.

Fall Sensory Table
Items include silk leaves (from Target’s dollar spot), gourds, soft pumpkin that plays music, trick-or-treat pumpkin bucket. You can come up with your own ideas. Try not to do too much.

Language used: leaves, pumpkins, gourd, trick or treat, bumpy
Fine motor skills: picking up leaves, pushing soft pumpkin’s button, putting items in bucket and taking them out.
Creative: not sure what she does, but she plays with them a lot.
Gross motor: Stands while playing.
Sensory: different textures – soft, bumpy. Listens to music on pumpkin, loud sound when she puts something in the bucket.
Cognitive: can find the pumpkins or leaves when I ask her. Connects to other items in the house.
Enjoyment: She plays there often for fun.
Social: we play together to figure out what the items are and repeat the words often.

Brown Leaf, Brown Leaf, what do you see?
Teacher-made book that I created while I was student teaching. I took the idea from a friend.
Materials: square paper, cut out leaves, scrapbook paper (grass), printer, eliminator, double sided tape, binder rings, hole punch.

Directions: There are lots of ways you could make a book like this. This is my version. 1.

1. Decide what the text will be. Mine was Brown leaf, brown leaf what do you see? I see a red leaf looking at me? And so forth for three more colors. The last page is “I see a big tree looking at me.”
2. Type or write text on paper.
3. Cut out leaves and tape under text.
4. Tape scrapbook paper with grass under leaf.
5. Laminate, be sure to round the corners otherwise the corners are too sharp.
6. Trim to size you want. I use 8 x 8.
7. Punch two holes on the side.
8. Use rings to clasp it together.

Language: The repetitive text makes it interesting to listen to. Older children (3 or 4 years old) will be able to “read” the story even though they don’t know how to read because the colors prompt them. Words used: brown, red, yellow, green, leaf, leaves, tree, see.
Gross motor: Taking the book off the shelf and carrying it to the spot she wants to read it or to one of us.
Fine motor: Flipping through the pages
Creative: Books always encourage imagination
Sensory: Touching the book, listening to the story, looking at the pages and colors
Cognitive: Kids learn the text and anticipate the pages. When read over and over again memory skills are enhanced.
Enjoyment: Reading is fun. Able to look at it on her own.
Social: Learning to read together

Foam Sticker Picture
I previously did this with a fish scene.
Materials: Paper, foam stickers, laminator
Directions
1. Laminate paper
2. Help child place stickers on paper
3. Put creation on child’s level

Language used: bats, ghosts, cat, house, stick, moon, pumpkins, jack-o-lantern, orange, black
Fine Motor: Placing or helping place stickers on paper
Creative: Stickers can be placed anywhere
Sensory: Stickers are sticky and soft. By placing it at their level they can go back to it and touch it.
Cognitive: Reinforces other words and ideas used for Halloween. Memory to go back to it wherever it is in the room. I asked questions like where to stick the sticker.
Enjoyment: Creating a new picture is fun and seeing again is enjoyable.
Social: Working together is a great skill to practice.

Be sure to check back next Tuesday for Part 2!

Monday Morning Purge

Our garbage gets picked up on Mondays around 11 a.m. I normally clean up the house and empty all the garbage cans Sunday night while my husband is here to watch the baby. Then on Monday morning I purge even more. I can usually get another bag of garbage out by emptying boxes, restocking and taking things out of packages. I also clean out the fridge. We used to live in an apartment, so I could do that whenever I wanted. But now Monday mornings are my purging mornings. It's almost like a game to see how much more garbage I can find in the house.

Stay tuned for a two (or three) part series

on Halloween crafts for toddlers.

To be published on Tuesdays!

Fast Food ...

When my husband I were first dating we went to see Morgan Spurlock speak at the university I was attending. And it has changed our lives forever. It was the third date for us and the first "real" date. The other two were those get-to-know you lunches.


They first showed us Morgan Spurlock's movie "Supersize Me." We both had seen it before, so we knew what we were watching. He then talked about his journey to eat 30 days of McDonalds and the behind the scenes action of creating the movie. He was well-versed and it was more like listening to comedian than a "lecture," which is how it was presented. He said many things that changed my opinion about fast food. I think what it did to his body was the biggest factor. It took him six months to go back to his pre-McDonalds weight. Six months to recover from a month seems like a real reason not to eat fast food. He also talked about the chicken and how processed it is. I now think, how hard is it to make chicken nuggets from scratch? Not that tough or time consuming even. The most influential comment he made was about the beef -- they grind up as many as 100 (maybe it was 1000) different cows at the same time and you could have any number of cows in one patty. Ugh, that just makes me feel sick. Another reason we buy a large sum of our meat from a meat market.


So, the outcome of that "date" is that I haven't eaten McDonald's since (about 3 1/2 years). I used to eat it weekly. The only exceptions we make to our non-fast food diet is Subway, Cousins, Quiznos, Culvers and my husband goes to Qdoba and Chipotle. About a year ago, I was with people who ordered KFC. Out of politeness and hunger I ate it. My stomach hurt so bad all night and it didn't even taste good. Occasionally, even at regular restaurants I get a "fast food" item, and my body just can't handle it anymore. I used to eat fast food a minimum of three times a week when I was single.

I think the hardest part about not eating fast food is that it made traveling so much harder. I used to drive through on my way to my parents -- a three hour drive. It was so much a part of my routine that I had no idea what to do. Of course, now we make sandwiches and bring our own drinks and snacks. But the truth is that fast food is convenient, but it is not healthy. We quickly realized that there really are no healthy fast food stops when we travel. And we wonder why the country has a weight problem.

If you haven't seen the movie, you must watch it. It will change your opinion of fast food forever.

It'a like cramming for a test

I was re-copying my grocery list this morning and trying to memorize as much of it as possible. It's hard to hold the list while shopping with a little one who wants to hold your list. (I give her a list of her own, but it always ends up on the floor or getting eaten). I put my list in order of the store to make our trip as smooth as possible. I had several items that I don't normally buy on the list today. At one point, I was reading my list out loud before we left and I said to myself "you know what's on it." It's the same pep talk I would give myself before an exam. I guess school does prepare you for real life. Just not in the way you would expect.

Today's grocery savings was 22 percent of my total. Last week was 36 percent (although I had a free pack of diapers, so that skewed it a little).

The "F" Word

Okay, so here are a couple problems I'm having with choosing my candidate. None of them answer the questions. I've watched all three debates (two presidential, one vice presidential) and they all dance around the questions. This bothers me because here is their chance to tell us what they think about issues, and they don't answer the questions. Instead they go on and on about something close to the topic (sometimes not even close), and then say what their opponent will do. But they never seem to get around to saying what they will do. And I would like to hear about some other topics besides economy, Iran, energy, and the Maverick. I don't understand why journalists interview Sarah Palin don't demand her to give an answer. I think she's trying to be quoted instead of answering the question. It drives me crazy.

The other problem is that there is so much mud being tossed around that I have no idea who to believe anymore. Just tell me what you will do.

And they most overused phrase for this campaign is the new "f" word "fundamental." Here's the definition for fundamental, in case you were interested. I wish they could figure out a new word to say once in a while.

For the record, I haven't decided yet.

Grocery Store Website

I finally got around to looking at our local grocery store's website. I tried it months ago, but it didn't seem to work very good. Now, it's great. I can view all the store ads before I go, print their coupons, print manufacturer coupons and plan better than ever. For example, tuna is on sale this week. I usually only buy tuna when it's on sale, so now I know I can stock up on it. Good thing, too -- I've only got one can left. I also like that I can print coupons before I go. I like to plan ahead as much as I can. This is especially important because my little girl has about a 20-minute cart ride in her and that's about it. By the time we check out she's had it. So, I can make my trip as swift as possible by checking out the website ahead of time.

Google your store to see if this will help you!

What's Cookin' -- Vegetable Soup

I've been trying to make my daughter's meals instead of buying them pre-made. Partly because of her food allergies and partly to give her a healthy diet. I also like things I can freeze for a quick meal, when I don't have anything extra for her. I plan, but am still figuring out her eating patterns.

Vegetable Soup
I like this better than a can of already made soup for four reasons. One: I know exactly what's in it. Two: I can water it down to cut down on sodium. Three: I always seem to have some extra fresh vegetables that need eating up and this helps solve that issue. Four: I can freeze it. Keep in mind I make this for my daughter so I chop everything up really small. Adjust for your meals.

1 can of beef broth (beef bullion works too)
1/4 cup fresh potatoes (cut up)
1/4 cup fresh carrots (cut up)
1 stalk of celery (cut up)
chopped onion to taste
1/4 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup frozen peas
1 to 2 Tbsp barley (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pour broth in medium size pot.
2. Place fresh vegetables and barley in broth and bring to boil.
3. Let simmer 10 minutes on medium low.
4. Add frozen vegetables.
5. Let simmer another 10 minutes on medium low.
6. Serve up.

**Any combination of fresh or frozen vegetables works. Keep in mind frozen vegetables don't usually need as much time to cook. You can always add more of one or the other, too. Also a can of water can be used to thin out the broth. **

Freezing tip: I use baby food jars to freeze this soup. I froze 4 jars for instant meals and kept the rest for 3 meals this week. The soup in a jar will work good for traveling.

Buying tip: The Target brand of beef (and chicken) broth are considerable cheaper than the name brands. And work just as good!