Tag Archives: toddler

Home made and Edible finger paint!

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I love activities that are home made! First you know the ingredients and make sure they are safe for kids. Second, home-made activities can be a bonding time for you and your child. Third, when it’s made at home… It’s made with extra effort and lots of love!!! 

Here is how to make home-made and edible finger paint. You will need these:

  • Flour
  • Filtered water
  • Food coloring
  • Bowls and plastic cups
  • Optional: flavoring (e.g. Vanilla, banana etc)

So the ratio is 1 cup flour to 2 cups water. If you add or lessen the recipe just follow the ratio –1 flour : 2 water.

  
It will look like a bowl of soup. I let Josh help me mix all the ingredients together and let him make this batter. From here we will now need a saucepan and spoon to mix this over heat. 

  
This batter will thicken in a few minutes so pay attention because you cannot over cook this one. When it starts to lump, put off the stove and mix it as it cools.

  
Now we start coloring. I would place in smaller bowls and decide to teach Joshua how colors are made. You really just need yellow, red and blue. From there you can make orange (yellow+red), green (blue+yellow), and purple (red+blue). My son enjoys mixing the colors! You can add drops of flavoring here too — in case they eat it. Hahahha! Then we put them in separate plastic cup containers.

  
Once the friends came over, each one had to bring their own Cartolina paper to work on. It was time to explore this paint with their hands and even their feet! It was sooo fun! 

  

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Baking fun! 

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Having children brings me back to days when I was a child baking. My grand mother, Lola Baby, taught me how to bake her coconut macaroons. That ignited my entrepreneurial spirit early on. When I was grade 6, she made me consign these macaroons at a favorite palabok restaurant in Iloilo. From there, I got my allowance. I was taught early to bake, earn, and save. 

Joshua has interest in cooking. As early as 1 year old we would play cooking and pretend to eat his imaginary dish. But now at 2 and a half, he is more excited to do the real thing! 

I am baking in the simplest form with my toddler. So I just bought a box of White King ultimate brownie mix. You just add egg and vegetable oil and mix.

   

Joshua helps in mixing the ingredients and also sees that there are changes in the composition from powder to a chocolate batter. It makes him realize that it takes a bit of work and some time to bake his goodies. It makes him patient and excited to try his hard work. After about 30 minutes in the turbo oven (yup, you can use a turbo oven),  Joshua gets to see and eat the baked brownie he worked hard for!  

 

On another occasion,  Joshua was throwing a bit of a tantrum.  I did not know what to do to distract him from his foul mood. So I started to cut bananas and mash them. It was not long, he asked if he could be the one to mash the bananas. I of course said “yes”. Soon I had a bowl with 2 cups of oatmeal, a bit of oil, honey, and chocolate bits. We started to mix them all and made teaspoonful balls of this batter. Placing them in a baking pans and putting them in the turbo oven for 15-20 minutes.

Oh did I tell you, that this changed the entire mood of Joshua? He was no longer crying but was superbly excited to see his cookie snack. Yes! It was a successful distraction and one healthy snack! 

   
 
  
I am so happy that there are lots of options today for children to do activities at home!  Baking is a great bonding experience and a good source of learning, and a great distraction activity for tantrums!!! 
 

 Mommy drama! 

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Being a mom is a super tough job! Joshua my toddler, who is more expressive nowadays, tests my patience on so many levels. We have arguments everyday and I get soooo tired from all the daily dramas. In a week we would probably complete a drama series for eating, for bathing, for sleeping, for waking, and for playing. 
He is a kid and tantrums come along with 2 year olds… However, Joshua is also processing his feelings of jealousy over his sister. I am seeing some regression on some milestones. Like his desire for eating has lessened and he prefers drinking milk in the bottle. He also demands for my full attention and time especially when he sees me nursing Anna. 

   
He has fully articulated his jealousy by saying “I don’t like Anna”, ” I want mommy and Anna go to Ate Kim (Anna’s nanny)”, and one of his worst crying episodes he said, “mommy, I want Joshua patay (dead) so mommy would cry.” I cried with that remark. 
 I tell him “Anna is your sister, she loves you and Mommy loves you so much. We are a family and this is God’s blessing.”  Because Joshua feels jealous, I spend most of my time with him. I only leave him shortly just to feed Anna. Every move I make he calls to check if I am still around. He calls my name almost crying and then he would smile and laugh in relief that I have not left him!

I figured this boy’s love language is time. And I do spend a lot of time with him. We are inseparable. But when he gets his tantrums and he starts screaming and crying because he wants mommy, (even if I am around)… I ask him kindly to stop crying. But his crying escalates further into screams and irritation that soon, I start losing my own patience. 

I try not to discipline him about his crying. But I realized that he was using it as a tool to communicate with almost anything. When he dislikes something he would cry. When he wants something he would cry. When he sees me walk out the door he would cry and give an all out tantrum. I try to not get angry, but I must confess seeing a crying face with screams and occasional arm slaps just gets me frustrated and angry.  This just went on for a week… 
  
I started to cry out of frustration because nothing worked. Explaining nicely and reassuring Josh by hugs and talks just does not cut it!  So I tried yelling and screaming for him to stop. I tried threatening him that if he does not stop, I would leave. None of it worked. 😦  For one week it was this non stop cycle of crying and we end up fighting because Josh would fall into a tantrum even when I am giving him full attention (except during feedings). 
I asked friends to pray for me. I cried to the Lord and asked “how can I be a better mom to my son?”  I was so discouraged that even when Steve says, “you are doing a good job”, I still feel I am failing.
Then I remembered excerpts from a parenting seminar I attended. It was discussed when a child who deliberately disobeys or disrespects his or her parent they should be disciplined. I must admit, I get lazy to do this because it requires so much to get into a room with a defiant 2 yr old who will not submit to be disciplined. 

The bible says: 
Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom,but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.


I knew I had to correct Joshua’s behavior and work on his attitude. I had to teach him that he can’t always cry his way. I also had to reassure him that he must respect his parents because we love him.  I disciplined him and took time to explain. Joshua immediately stopped crying. In fact when we got out of the room, his mood changed and started playing.
  
I learned that I really should exercise discipline when the need arises and teach my son.  Otherwise, I will develop a bad habit in his character. It’s almost a week since his last tantrum after the discipline.  Joshua has been speaking instead of crying. 

How do I know that he understood what we did in the discipline room? He plays with his avenger toys and then he would pretend one would be crying. Later he will have the other toy say – “stop crying… If you don’t stop, you get a spank”. 
To learn more about biblical discipline I am suggesting you this link. Read more:

http://www.gotquestions.org/disciplining-children.html

A Toddler’s art from egg shells

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When you cook hard boiled eggs, don’t throw away the egg shells right away. These shells can be inexpensive materials to your new art project with your toddler.

Set the egg shells in a container. Now using your finger or a spoon, begin to crush these egg shells into tiny broken pieces. You will then need the following materials:

  1. Paper plate
  2. Glue
  3. Paint
  4. Paint brush

This day, I decided to let Joshua make a happy face. So we took some glue and drew the eyes, nose and a smiling face. Next part is to drop the egg shells above the glue.


After placing the egg shells leave the plate for about 5-10 minutes. Wait for the glue to dry. Once dry, feel free to gently lift and tap the plate to let excess egg shells fall. From there, your child can now get ready to paint the egg shells!


We used home made paint. If you want to know how to make please check out my blog on Home Made Paint.

Again this activity helps those little fingers to control the muscles around the hand. You may also practice color identification and discuss the organs found on the face!  This is an easy and fun way to make use of those egg shells!

The egg project

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An egg slicer can be quite amusing for little kids. Egg projects are not only fun… they can be a practical method of teaching kids to prepare their breakfast. So here are some suggestions on what to do.  

Hard Boiled Egg with a twist

    Boil your egg atleast 10-12 minutes so you can get the center firm. After boiling set it aside. Meanwhile get a plastic bag (I used those cellophane bags for making ice) and put some food coloring and water. I got an idea from YouTube to try to crack the egg from side to side and make the colored water sip thru the cracks. When done right you would get some kind of electrifying design. 

  
After making it sit on food coloring for about 10-15 minutes, the egg will be ready to be peeled. Once peeled you will find a nice design on the egg making this quite exciting for kids. Here is our design on yellow food coloring.. It looks like a little sun on the egg!

  
Once the egg is done, we can start teaching our toddler about slicing the egg. This is good motor skill exercise and also teaching independence as they prepare the sliced egg for eating. 

 

Don’t throw the egg shells just yet!! Set them aside or store them for future art projects. We will show you samples on what to do with them in my next blog.

Meanwhile, see how Joshua does the egg slicing activity in this Video:

Memory Verse- John 3:16

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I felt challenged by a friend who is a missionary to teach Joshua some memory verse. She gave me a lesson plan they use in Vacation Bible school or Sunday School. The first on the list is John 3:16.

For God so loved the world He gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I thought, wow that’s going to be a long one. I read the different styles. Some use gestures like sign language, other methods are using color book to describe key words. I thought, il do the color one because the hand movement was more challenging.

So that morning, I got gold paper, red paper, blue paper, and white paper. Then, I got glue and several round cylinders used for creams. Fortunate for me I had about 5 of those.  So I cut the colored paper and asked Joshua to help me paste them on the cylinder tops.  And here we got the following:

1. GOLD – this represents GOD. Joshua placed eyes because God sees everything. Gold is glory and also reminds us that Heaven’s streets are gold.  

  

2. RED – This represents LOVE. It also reminds us of what Jesus has done was shed his blood on the cross because of His great love for us.

 

3. BLUE – This represents “the world”

 
4. CROSS – This represents Jesus and to tell us God gave Jesus. This part is “He gave Jesus”

 

5. Happy face – This represents the person who believes. Joshua says this is him.  The key word is BELIEVE. 

So I say: “so whoever …”
Then Joshua says: “Believes” 
I say: “in Jesus will not…”
then Joshua says: “die”
I say “but have eternal…”
Joshua says: “life”.
 

So we did this again and again… Soon to my surprise, Joshua can say the memory verse by using the illustration. I am amazed that my two year old can memorize this verse!  When verses like these are remembered, these become foundations to my little one’s mind and heart. He will remember that God loves him and his faith in Jesus gives him eternal life! That is a fundamental truth that will guard his heart from many lies. God is love and He loves us! 
  

  
  
  

Home Motor Skill activities

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Everyday Joshua wakes up to activities that are fun! In fact, he does not ask for his tablet anymore because when he wakes he looks forward to the new activities we will be doing. Of course, it requires a bit of preparation, but really most of the stuff is just being creative with what we have at home! 

Motor Skills are so important. 

When my toddler’s fingers are practiced it gets them ready to write, to use the scissors, and hold their utensils well. This skill is not only getting the muscles worked out, but eventually it will help our toddler become more independent and confident in doing practical things! 

Here are examples of Home Motor Skill activities:

RICE SCOOPING

All you need are:

  •  1 large containers (better if they are canisters — I used our play doh canisters)
  • Rice
  • Spoon
  • Paper plate/ newspaper or cartolina 

Place rice in the larger canister. Then prepare in a separate paper plate the 3 empty canisters. The objective is to move the rice from the large canister to the smaller ones by scooping it with a spoon. This requires hand control and concentration.

  TOOTHPICK INSERT

If you happen to have a toothpick holder with toothpicks inside — then your child is in for a challenge. Take about 20 toothpicks and let them insert it one at a time on those tiny holes of the toothpick holder. You think this is easy, but this is a bit of challenge for those little fingers. This activity is great for fine motor skills and concentration! 

  
The first time we did this activity, Joshua finished in less than 10 minutes. I asked him if we should do it again, and he said “no more”. But the next day he did it again but with more ease because he had more control compared to the first time.

We can do so much with household stuff and help our toddlers enjoy fun educational activities with us!  Try these and see how your kids enjoy these activities! 

Mr. Hospitality

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I want Joshua to be a good host, so I invested P88.00 in Daiso and bought this liquid container with lid and handle and 4 colored cups. The idea is to teach my toddler how to prepare his own juice and to pour it in cups and serve.

Joshua was quite excited and he willingly cleaned the new juice container and cups with water and soap. After, I showed him how to put the juice powder and water, he mixed it and we closed the lid. 


That was the easiest part. The next most important part is the pouring of the juice in the cups. It is suggested to have a little tray so that spills would just be on the tray. Then it’s also good to prepare towel for any spill.

  
 Joshua had some spills and has to learn to control how much juice to pour. Having more than one cup was great because it helped him master the control of his hands in pouring. The best part for me is teaching him to serve others. So each cup of juice he served to other people and the last cup he reserved for himself! 

   
 It is a great routine for the afternoons and encourages Josh to get excited about having his afternoon snack and share it with others!  He now has the making of a very hospitable host!!

I want to go to heaven

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One of my heart’s desire and prayer is for my children to believe in Jesus in their youth. I take seriously the command of the bible in Deuteronomy 6:5-7

  
Joshua and I have conversations about God and Jesus because we get to read the toddler’s bible. We get to explore who God is through the stories in the Old and New Testaments. His favorite stories are Moses who prayed to God and the Red Sea opened, David and Goliath, the birth of Jesus, the Cross and Jesus’ Resurrection.

At night he sleeps to this song which his nanny has taught him -“Kay Buti Buti mo Panginoon” (God, you are sooo good). He can sing it too. 

But as of recent, our conversations have become more interesting. I explained to Joshua that heaven is a beautiful place and Jesus is in Heaven. He has prepared heaven for those who believe In Jesus and ask Jesus to come into their hearts. So I told him to ask Jesus to come in his heart and he said it… “Jesus, come in my heart”.  Then for how many days since our conversation… He has been asking about Jesus and he has been saying, “I want to go to Jesus. I want to go to heaven.” My response is, “me too, I want to go to heaven and to Jesus”.

 
The bible tells us that heaven is not only beautiful and perfect… It is also a place where we are in complete fellowship with God.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭3-4‬ NASB)

Joshua seems really excited to go to heaven because he was asking if we can ride the car and go there. I told him, we have to wait for Jesus to come and to take us to heaven. 

I know many probably freak out with this kind of conversation. But, if you believe in God and His Word, then heaven is where we all should desire to go. Even as young as 2 years old, my little boy is beginning to desire that too! (Who desires to go hell?  Not many I hope!)

In my quiet hours, I am thanking God for the opportunity of being able to share these moments with Joshua. It made me think, if parents do not teach God and their faith with their kids, then the world will teach them many confusing and (often) cruel things. 

I pray by God’s grace, I can raise my children in the fear and love of the Lord. My other prayer is that they grow up committed to love and serve the Lord, and influence others to do the same. 

How to save your play doh! 

Eversince my son got introduced to play doh (which was when he was about 20months old), it has become part of our daily playtime routine. We have successfully taught Josh not to mix colors so that he can enjoy his play doh for a longer time. We have also emphasized the importance of him putting the play doh back in the canisters so it won’t dry up.

But as much as we try, this play doh dries up… So what I do is, I budget to buy about 4 new colors every month. Thats about P175 a month! I’m thinking, this is too much buying. There must be a way to extend it.  So I tried putting water while in the faucet and squeezed the dough. It felt gross and yucky! I think I placed too much water. But as of recent we found a much better way of saving the play doh with my  toddler to assist me.

 1. First get the dry or semi-dry play doh and pinch it into small pieces. Put it all inside a plastic bag or better if you have a zip-closable plastic bag.
2. Use a dropper (I got mine from used medicines) and then prepare some water in a container. Get some water using the dropper and place just enough to wet the dough. Why a dropper? You may wonder. It is to control the water you put in so it won’t be too wet.

  
3. Close the bag and start kneading it from the outside. Keep patting, squeezing, and kneading until you feel the dough softening. 

   

Once it is back to the original play doh consistency, you can leave the dough in the bag for at least  half a day before transferring to the canister. Then you can use it again for play! 

This is a great bonding activity with your toddler. Plus, the dropper is a good motor skill activity. The kneading is good sensory activity. And getting the play doh back from its dryness is such a reward for any little kid!