Cocooon of Chaos

Simple Amusements: Super Hero in Seconds

What you need:

one child, ready for super hero transformation

old t-shirt

sharp scissors or pinking shears

optional: super cool Batman under-roos 

What you do:

In our case, first up was teaching Oliver the old Batman theme song...but, that is optional...

cut shirt along seams, to fit your super hero

using the arms, tie around neck (not too tight!)

fly around the room, "rescuing peoples" (Oliver's addition)

I'm assuming you all have common sense here and will not make the cape too long as to trip over and hence, choke your child...

Voila! Super hero in a second! No, I'm not claiming this is just my idea--actually, it was Devin's and a million parents before me--but just a little reminder that we all need to let loose and let some super hero run around in his undies saving peoples.  Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Simple Amusements: Postal Paper Roadway

With so many recent birthdays and such, we have a lot of boxes in the cellar. In preparation for recycling day, I came across a long piece of brown postal paper that sparked an idea: a roadway. 

This was completely off-the-cuff, so you can easily do a fancier one than mine, but let me tell you, the five minutes it took to tape it down, draw the road, and gather the vehicles was worth the endless hours of play! Once again, the extraordinary found in the simple...

Simple Amusements: Ripping Tissue Paper

After Devin's birthday, we had some left over tissue paper which, of course, sparked my brain for the Simple Amusements series.

What you need:

Tissue Paper

Little hands for ripping

What you do:

Rip the tissue paper into long, thin strands and hand them to your little ones and let them go wild!

Three things I can promise with this activity:

many giggles, small mess, and a exercise for their pincer grasp and fine motor skills...all from something most people throw away!

We then cut out an oval shape, spread some glue, attached the little pieces to the paper and made collage Easter eggs. The possibilities here are endless...happy ripping!

Simple Amusements: Spring Painting with Forsythia

Despite the chilly temperatures this week, Spring is indeed here and what better way to celebrate than to bring a bit of Spring's bounty indoors! A favorite messenger of Spring for me is the vibrant Forsythia that seems to explode at this time of year, but any sign of Spring will work!

What you need:

We used forsythia, but any spring blossom will do

Paint

Paper

What you do:

pour paint, hand out the sprigs of Spring, and let them have at it...

Happy Spring, everyone!

Simple Amusements: Homemade Dot Paints or Watercolors on a Stick

Having a  toddler who loves to draw with markers=many markers without lids. As many of you may know, I am a big believer in getting many uses out of things, so I thought of this nifty idea after I found random dried out markers all over the house. Rather than throwing them away, I tried dipping them in some water and they made beautiful watercolors on a stick...or as my rambunctious toddler decided, dot paints. 

our lidless collection

and the little man banging away...happy drawing!

Simple Amusements: Sheet Parachute

Super Tuesday=many littles in my house=need for activity! Out comes an extra fitted sheet I had laying around, balls, and stuffed animals. Even the not-so-little-ladies enjoyed it...even more than the toddlers! It really and truly is about the simple things...

Simple Amusements: Water and Cardboard

In my never ending quest to amuse the tot, I'm finding, as I mentioned before, it is truly the simplest things that really work and hold his interest. So, for this installment of Simple Amusements (check category for more ideas!), the only materials you need are: cardboard (I used cereal boxes), water, and a paintbrush.  For those who care about messes, I think I may have established that I do not when it comes to artistic exploration,  this is an easy, mess free activity!

Boy, oh, boy...

 

As this little boy of mine has left infancy and is a full fledged roaring toddler, our lives have been turned upside down. Yes, even though I've worked with small children all my life, I had some naive notion that my little boy would be a bit more mellow. How very silly of me! Well, I was so, so, so wrong about that. Oliver keeps us on our toes ALL day long and just when I think he can not find one more daring thing to do, he finds one more activity to give me a mild heart attack. Finding ways to entertain him have made me ridiculously quick on my feet with anything to keep him from jumping off the couch, climbing on the kitchen table, or leaping from the stairs.  As much as he stirs my nerves, he also reduces me to a jell-O like being with his cuteness, charm, and devilish smirk. 

These have been my survival tools as of late:

shaving cream, off-the-cuff cabinet easel, spray bottles filled with water, skateboard magazines (I'm serious, this boy LOVES them!), rain boots (thank, Mum!), and bubble water. In so many ways, having this little man has forced me to alter my own thinking. I don't really care that there are spots of shaving cream on the window until bedtime, I don't think he's worn a matching pair of socks since he was 3 months, and when the craziness ceases and he collapses in my lap to read books, I could not be a happier mama.  My nana told me, "you're going to love him differently...not more, not less, just different." And, as always, she was right.

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it." ~Mark Twain

Oh, and I am certainly enjoying each and every moment of this beautifully chaotic life. Happy Monday everyone. May your week be filled with a bit of sunshine and lots of laughter. Warm brownies and a birthday candle await me....

Scratch Paper Mosaics

Confession: I should be working on my research paper about Cultural Inclusive Classrooms, but my tea cup was empty and my brain about to explode, so here I am. Need a little break from Academia and a dose of creativity. Ava officially has pneumonia, so my days have been peppered with vapo rub applications, movie watching (forgot how much I love Annie!), and blasts of creativity on the fly. (Wouldn't that be a great name for a book?!) Anyhoo, I keep a bag of scratch paper in the art tower that was overflowing, so we decided to do scratch paper mosaics.

Materials: scratch paper ripped (or cut), paper, glue, marker

Draw something, apply glue, scatter pieces of paper and if you feel like it, trace over shapes with a marker.

Ava's sun and hearts, Ollie's motorcyle, and my owl

Once again, so much artsy fun with so little. This project is great for fine motor skills from the ripping, gross motor with scissor skills, and sensory exploration...not that we need an excuse to be creative, but these things are ALWAYS in the back of my mind. Once a teacher, always a teacher.

On a different note, I have so enjoyed my time with my eldest. She is in school all day, comes home to homework, then outside to play, and all other independent seven year old stuff...I did not realize how much I miss spending time with her. Pneumonia is not a friend of mine by any means, but having the time to create, read, and wonder with her have made these long days a bit more enjoyable. I've learned that she's hoping to become president, be a scientist, own three horses and write poems. It is hard finding individual time for each of these little beings with the craziness of life, but even if it is wracked with illness, I am grateful.

May your weekend be full of doing nothing...

Simple Amusements: Pom pom Pick-up

I have a house chock full of stuffy noses, brutal coughs, and high fevers. Good times, let me tell you. Days like these force me to be creative on the fly, so while two of the three kiddos were present, I decided to clean out our art tower. Low and behold, I found a bucket of pom poms I thought were missing and a game we learned in Family Yoga was once again practiced....Pom pom Pick-up.

Materials: container of pom poms in various sizes, feet, and hands.

Objective: pick up as many pom poms with whatever you decide to use in an allotted amount of time. For example, someone says you have 60 seconds to pick up as many pom poms as you can using only your feet. Ideally, everyone has their own container and you can count at the end...yesterday was not one of those days.

This game is not only a good way to burn off some sillies, but also great for balance and fine motor skills. (And for the smaller sort, great sorting and color recognition, too.)

I'm constantly amazed at the wonderfulness of the ordinary in this abode. With winter approaching, my brain is in constant creativity mode as to amuse these children. So, I started a new category, Simple Amusements, to help us all get through these winters. It is almost Friday, my friends....