DIY Flower planters: the perfect project for gardening with your toddler

How to make your own planters with your child. Planting potted flowers is a great sensory project with instant gratification. Your toddler will love this first gardening project.

My toddler is in the middle of anything I do these days, which is wonderful and exhausting. She loves to carry her own plate, although it sometimes spills. She loves hugging her baby sister, even though she sometimes responds with a scream.  I want to include her, but I'm struggling to keep up with the all out of her enthusiasm.

Making these planters together was a great way to reconnect with my toddler. She loved being included, and we had instant gratification of beautiful flowers for our front step.

How to set up a patriotic craft for your toddler

"Mom, she's messing up my project!" I love having children of several different ages, but hearing this phrase is one of the hazards. So, when I put together the patriotic math craft for my six-year-old together the other day, I decided to put together a toddler July project for my two-year-old as well. The toddler of the patriotic craft offers great fine motor practice, and you can always get familiar with some shapes, colors and counting along the way.

Do It Yourself Counting Practice for Toddlers

Do you put the egg shells back in the carton or throw them away directly? We always threw them away when I was growing up, so that is what I do. My husband likes to put the back in the carton. I guess there isn't any harm in it. Although, I did write a note on the last few cartons, asking him to keep them clean. I really wanted to work on some counting with our two-year-old, and egg cartons would make the perfect container to use on her toy shelf. 

Virtual Book Club, Julia Donaldson's A Squash and a Squeeze

Every month we love participating in the Book Club for Kids. Julia Donaldson was a new author for us this month.  The book that we found was a delightful little story called A Squash and a Squeeze.  My daughter was fascinated by the story immediately.    It has rhythm, rhyme, and some simple counting. 

Reading Alphabet Books

"A" is for apple.

Our first alphabet books were in the mix almost accidentally, board books that appealed to toddlers who hadn't really started speaking yet.  We would point to the letter, name it, then read the fun caption that followed.

Add a little Biology to your Baking

Most baking includes eggs, and any time you're working with eggs is a great time to throw in a little biology.  You can talk about the parts of the egg and how there's no baby chick in this one.  You can talk about bacteria.  Bacteria have their own kingdom along with Animals, Plants, Fungi Protisits and Archbacteria.   Bacteria are not invisible, but they are tiny!

Learning with Playdough

Play dough is an amazing substance.  My kids will play with play dough for hours.  When I had two preschoolers I tried to pull the playdough once a week. The body of this post was written during that time.   Here's how you can cover all your preschool learning goals with one this one great activity.

How do we learn with Play dough?

Make stuff. 

I've noticed that my kids are interested in making stuff longer if I engage in a little parallel play making stuff too.  This took a little effort at first.  After a while, it became a relaxing opportunity to try something new.  

Use tools.

When I see that just making stuff is getting a little boring, I like to introduce stuff: a random piece of plastic, butter knife, rolling pin, tooth picks, slotted spoon. Of course, sometimes my son starts pulling out tools as soon as we pull out the play dough.

Practice math skills.

My kids love asking me to make tiny balls, which could also be called spheres.  Sometimes we make cubes and build structures.  Sometimes I ask for a particular number of pieces of play dough.  My daughter can count to six pretty easily right now, so I ask for four first.  Then I ask for seven, then five and so on.

                                     

Write.

When we were learning the alphabet I made letters and asked for their names.  Then I asked for the sounds that they make.  Now I make simple words and coach my kids to sound them out.  You could do the same with numerals.

Of course, all this time we're strengthening the muscles needed for fine motor skills.  

Using just one activity I cover all my objectives for the day.  Even better, I connect with my children in a way we all enjoy.

When we lived in Kuwait, making play dough was by far easier than trying to find it.  A good friend asked me to "try out" a recipe for a church group, and I am grateful for the nudge in the right direction.

Homemade play dough recipe

Ingredients:

 1 part corn starch, 

2 parts baking soda, 

1.5 parts water.  

(i.e. 1 cup cornstarch, 2 cups baking soda, 1.5 cups water)

Method

1.Mix everything in a sauce pan.

2. Cook and stir on medium low heat, until all at once it comes together and forms into a ball.

3. Cool.

4. Knead in a little extra cornstarch as you go.

I have to admit I was scared to try it, but it turned out brilliantly!  Of course, you can always buy the commercial version. 

What do your kids like to do with play dough?

Looking for more sensory ways to learn?  Thriving STEM is happy to be an affiliate for this great book.  Click on the picture to purchase, or read my interview with author Cathy James by clicking here.

Other Posts from Thriving STEM you may like:

Holiday Cookies

We love making sugar cookies for any holiday, or in between holidays.  I use a recipe from the Mennonite Community Cookbook, edited by Mary Emma Showalter.   Few ingredients, no chilling, and perfect texture ever time make this one more treasure from my Mennonite friends.  

How to make simple animal puppets that really talk

Our family moves every few months right now, which makes it really tough to build up a good supply of craft materials.  It's hard to justify the space for all that extra cardboard and the pile of old socks when you're packing to move cross country.

How to teach counting with a fun rhyme from Jamaica

Ten little green bananas hangin' on a line,

A bird eat one, Dat left nine.

Nine little green bananas swayin' in de breeze,

They all turn yellow, An' one a dem sneeze!

Learning to count and subtract with a Jamaican Centipede Rhyme

My preschoolers loved learning to count with  A Caribean Counting Book by Faustin Charles and Robertan Arenson. We enjoyed the book so much the first couple of times through, that I thought we could get more use out of some of the math rhymes.  To help  us get the most out each rhyme, I started making up visuals. This activity is for the Jamaican Centipede Rhyme.

Ode to Duplos

With my son's fourth birthday came our household's first set of real Legos.  (Thanks, Grandma!) He plays with them almost every day, as does my daughter.  I'm sure we have many happy hours of building ahead of us.  Stashing the Duplos in the closet made me  nostalgic though.  So, before they disappear into the box marked "toddler toys", let me write a little tribute to the good they've done for us.

Card board people

This was a fun project because it gave me a glimpse of my children see when they look in the mirror. It's also a great way to sharpen the preschool science skill of observation as they get an early start on some human biology!

Just for fun, favorite Board Books

Board books are great for the period of time from when those little hands start grabbing, until they finally get the co-ordination to be gentle.  Here are some of our favorites!

Bead Necklaces

This project originated with our creative Aunt Ranae.  When she came to visit us last fall, she arrived with a whole stash of art supplies stowed in her suitcases.  I had been looking for fine motor skill activities to help prepare for writing.  It has since become one of our favorite activities.