Marble Painting with a Toddler

Here is our first time using marbles with the Little One for painting.

You may be familiar with marble painting but I'll take you through the steps.

Cut a sheet of paper to fit your tray, any shape and size of tray, although keep in mind your little one's capabilities. 

 Since she is under two I chose a small pan.

Pick a marble and dip it in paint.

Normally I would have little pots with paint and a spoon to scoop the marble out but I didn't have any  pots available.

Put your painted marble onto the paper 

pick up the tray and try to roll the marble around.

She put several marbles in at one time and I showed her how to roll it back and forth as well as shaking the tray.

After each roll and shake she would dip the marble and put it back in.

I think her favourite part was dipping the marbles into the paint.

We ended up completing three sheets which I think will work great for a greeting card.

Playing with the Twins

 Our youngest daughter gave birth to twins in December and it has been wonderful to watch them grow.

 They borrowed some of the ideas that was used for our older grand daughter.

Like this PVC pipe stand to hang rattles, and such, to attract their attention, or accidentally hit and make noise.

We started reading books to them early too.

A mirror was set up for tummy time so they could look at themselves and each other.

And of course we sang lots of songs to them.

 And lately I introduced play trays.

Simple cookie sheets placed in front of them to hold items that may be easily grabbed.

At first they just looked at the items,

but as they developed more movement in their arms they brushed against the items and watched them move.

Items were added, like the tin foil plate, to add more sound when it was hit or moved.

As they continue to grow their coordination improves and they begin to grab some of the items.

Bubble Blow Painting

This week I invited the families to paint with coloured bubbles.

The bubble juice was coloured with food colouring and placed

in old muffin tins.

The children were encouraged to blow bubbles pointing at the easels.

The first challenge was to get enough bubble juice on the wand.

The parents were wonderful models on how to make it work.

 I enjoyed watching this father and son begin.

The father guided the wand into the bubble juice then up for his son to blow.

After trying it he handed the wand to his son to try it on his own.

A fun experience that they shared together.

By the end of each day we had lots of bubble prints on paper and

the table top was wonderfully coloured too.

But since it is soap it washes off.

We have been playing with bubble outside

so the children loved doing this activity

inside.