Toddler Activities: 31 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Indoor Snow Painting: It feels as if winter has been going on forever around here. As the days wear on, I've been trying to come up with ways to enjoy our cold, snowy weather while it lasts, instead of just wishing for spring! On one particularly chilly day, instead of bundling up to go outside, I brought some snow inside to paint and play!  I filled a large, deep cake pan with clean snow, and made paint from water and a little food coloring. Emma used a large paintbrush to apply the color. You can also use an eye dropper for a different effect. Emma spent a big portion of the morning decorating the snow while we stayed warm and cozy inside!

Ice Marbles: I've seen these all over Pinterest, and really wanted to give it a try. Ours turned out very well! To start, put a few drops of food coloring or Kool-Aid powder into a balloon and then fill with water. Food coloring makes more of a marble look. Kool-Aid makes a solid color all the way through.

If it is cold enough, place your balloons outside. You can also use the freezer. Depending on how big the balloons are and how cold it is, this will take about 24 hours. Hold them up to the light to see if they are frozen all the way through. Use a knife or scissors to cut the balloon off the frozen ice marble. We let our kids play with the frozen marbles in the tub.

They enjoyed sliding the marbles around, eventually breaking them, and finally watching the marbles melt in warm water. We’ll definitely be doing this project again – I think it would be fun to make some red and green marbles before Christmas to line the driveway or porch!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler
• Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.

 

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We got a new rug for our entry, just in time for a wet spring - hopefully coming soon!
   
2. Emma is enjoying the weather, whether there are snowflakes or puddles to jump in - it is always an adventure outside!
3. Bryson is starting to stand on his own - growing up too fast!