Activity: Yarn Outlined Letters

This is a fun, slightly messy way for your child to help you make some cute decor for their room (and get some more exposure to letters). We just used my daughter's first initial, but you could do this for all the letters in their name if you wanted to.

Write letter on craft foam.

Trace letter with white glue and help your child "trace" over the glue with yarn.

The finished product! (It will look better when the glue dries)

Activity: Window Painting

This is another great activity to do with your kids! You can help them practice letters and numbers, or just let them express their artistic side! The best part is, you can keep your child entertained for quite a while, with minimal effort on your part :)

Paint this washable project paint all over a glass door (or a big mirror would be really fun too).

Dip Q-tips in water and use them to "reverse paint" (the paint washes off wherever the Q-tip touches). Lots of fun, and easy clean up (thank goodness!)

Activity: Letter Sculptures

This is a fun, hands-on activity for kids to work with letters. If you want to preserve your child's work (I'm thinking about using it to decorate her room), this air-dry clay is great. Otherwise, any sort of play dough is good.

Give your child a ball of clay.

Help them roll it out so it's long and thin.

Help them create the letter (we did her initial, which is why I think it would be a fun decoration).

And you can make a handprint in some of the extra clay, because that's always fun to do!

Activity: Number Cookie Monster

This is an incredibly fun way to work on numbers (or letters) with your child! It's quick and easy to make, and they will love feeding their cookie monster the number cookies. Here are the directions (along with a couple ways to use the number cookie monster to teach your child). There's also a bonus activity at the bottom!

Start with an empty Pringles can (or similar container). Measure and cut a piece of plain paper so that it will wrap around and cover the container. Have your child color the paper while you cut out a "mouth" in the container.

Using regular ol' white glue, adhere the paper to the container. I stuck on one edge first, put some glue around the mouth, then wrapped the paper around, finishing by gluing the other end.

I just made a hole in the paper where the mouth was, then folded the paper back and into the container. I didn't bother gluing it, but you can if you want to. Attach googly eyes to complete the face. I made two holes in the lid, and weaved some yarn (about 8 inches) through the holes so that the ends were coming out the top. Take a long piece of yarn and fold in half multiple times, until you end up with a little bundle that is about 6 inches long. Center the bundle on top of the lid and use the long strands weaved through the lid to securely tie the bundle to the top. Then cut the loops so that all the strands are equal length, and trim the ends of the long strands too.

Make circles that will fit into the mouth and container. Label them 0-10 (or whatever numbers you want to work on, or letters if you want to do that instead).

While I was making the number cookies, my daughter decorated her monster with foam number stickers.

Now we're ready to work on numbers! Method 1: Ask your child to pick up a specific number. Help them find it if they are having trouble. Have them repeat the number to you, then let them feed it to the monster. Method 2: Have your child pick up a number. Ask them what number it is; help them if they are having trouble. Have them repeat the number, then feed it to the monster. If you think of other methods, let me know!

Bonus activity: Let your child be a number cookie monster too! Cut out sugar cookies in the shapes of numbers (or decorate them with the numbers on top), and use the same methods as above before allowing your little cookie monster to eat his/her own cookie!

Activity: Mess-Free Painting

Can mess-free painting really exist? Yes! And my little girl had so much fun doing this for a Valentine's Day activity.

You'll need a closeable disposable box, paper shapes, craft paint, an applicator item (either disposable or something you don't mind washing paint off of), newspaper, and tape. Here's what you do:

Cut out shapes to be painted (we did hearts for Valentine's Day) and tape to the inside of a shoe box or similar container with enough space for an item to move around inside.

Add craft paint to the box -- it should not actually touch any of the paper.

Add applicator item(s). I loved the foil ball because it made cool patterns and I just threw it away when we were done. The little candle made some cool marks too, but I think I would have been fine with just the foil.

Tape the box closed and shake. Shake, shake, shake.

Shake more.

Open up the box and see your pretty painted shapes!

Lay them out on newspaper (or scrap paper) to dry. They all turned out different and beautiful. And my daughter was so excited to show everyone her Valentines (especially her daddy!)

Close Ups:

Activity: Egg Carton Counters

I was in charge of teaching a math lesson for my daughter's educational toddler school. We made egg carton counters to focus on number recognition and counting. This is a very easy, inexpensive way to work on numbers with your child. Below, I describe five different activities you can do with your child to work on different aspects of number. Today we focused on the first three: recognizing and naming the number, counting up to a specific number, and learning what each number represents. The other two are more advanced, teaching the concepts of addition and subtraction.

Label the compartments of an egg carton with the numbers 1-12 in order.

I made little number cards (2.5"x1.75") out of cardstock and had each number on one card. I got all fancy and pulled out my Cricut machine to ink the numbers on. But you could just write them on scraps of paper if you didn't want to put that much effort into it. Anyway, there are several different activities you can do with these!

#1: Number recognition - teaches them to recognize the numbers out of sequence

I had my daughter randomly choose a number card, then I would ask her what number it was. She knew some of them. If she got it right I would say, "That's right! That's 2!" or whatever number it was. If she got it wrong or didn't answer at all, I would say, "That's 9. Can you say 'nine'?" Then I'd say "Okay, where does 9 go?" And she would find the spot. She likes pairing things up with their match, so this was probably her favorite part.

#2: Simple Counting - teaches them to count in sequence

I forgot to take a picture of this one, but this is what you do. You have the child select a number card, and you can repeat the steps for the number recognition activity. Once they put the number card in the corresponding compartment, you help them count up to it using the counters. We used Cheerios, which proved a little too distracting for some of the kids, but I was worried about them trying to eat beads or stick beans up their noses. Anyway, any small item will do. Then starting with the first compartment, you put one counter in each compartment -- counting out loud -- until you finally put one where the number card is. So your child picks 4, you have them say the number and put it in compartment #4. Then help them put in one Cheerio at a time as you count "1... 2... 3... 4!" Hopefully they count along with you.

#3: Number Values - teaches them what each number represents

Start the same way as before, by letting the child pick a number card. Then find the corresponding compartment and put that many counters in it. So if your child picks 5, you help them find the compartment labeled 5 and count out loud as you place five Cheerios (or other small item) into it. This helps them to see the number written, hear its name, and see that it represents a certain amount of things. You can leave the counters in the compartment as your child picks a new card, until they have gone through all 12.

#4: Addition (Advanced)

As your child becomes more familiar with numbers, you can use these to begin teaching them the concepts of addition and subtraction. For addition, set two small piles in front of them. Have them count how many Cheerios are in each pile. Let's say one pile has two and the other has four. You say, "We have two, and we have four. What is two plus four?" Then using the method described in Activity #2, use the compartments to count up to 6. Then reinforce, "Two plus four is six!"

#5: Subtraction (Advanced)

For subtraction, start with the counters already in the compartments. So let's say we start with six. Say "We have six Cheerios! What happens if we take away two? What is six minus two?" Take the counter from compartment 6 and sit it in front of the child while saying "One." Then take the counter from compartment 5 and add it to the pile while saying "Two!" Then explain "We took away two. How many are left?" Now help the child count the remaining four Cheerios. Reinforce: "We had six. We took away two. Now there are four. Six minus two is four!"

Activity: Play Dough Letters

My daughter's preschool group, "Little Harvard," started off the year with a literacy lesson. We had large capital letters (2 printed on a landscape 8 1/2"x11") which they traced using play dough. I actually made edible play dough for my daughter to use (see recipe here).

First, you help your child roll small balls of play dough into long strips. Have them choose a letter, and ask them what the letter is. If they get it right say, "You're right! That's an E!" or whatever letter it is. If they get it wrong or don't answer, say "That's an E! Can you say 'E'?" Then you show them how to use the strips to trace the letter. When they are done, reinforce the letter: "Look! You made an E!" It's a lot of fun, and really simple. And you can focus on just a few letters at a time. I'm sure this would work great for numbers and shapes as well.

Note: The edible play dough is a little bit greasy (especially compared to the regular stuff), so I would recommend laminating the letters so they can be reused. These ones got a little gross and just got thrown away. Even if you are using regular play dough, you might want to laminate the letters just to make them a bit more "toddlerproof."

Recipe: Edible Play Dough

We have never purchased Play Dough for our kids. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff, and I think it's super fun to make things. But then the colors get mixed, or it drops on the ground and picks up hair and lint, or (heaven forbid) your child decides to eat some. So when we needed to bring some to my daughter's toddler school activity for the lesson, I wanted to make edible play dough instead. She had great fun playing with it, and then continued to snack on it for the next few days until it was gone. And now I don't have to worry about storing all those containers either! It's super easy to make, but it does have some common allergens as the main ingredients, so be careful if you will be sharing this or using it around any kids that may be sensitive.

The little frog I sculpted.

To see the letter activity, visit my post about it.

INGREDIENTS:
1 C powderedsugar
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1/4 C honey

DIRECTIONS
Put all ingredients in a bowl (or container with an airtight lid), and mix until well combined. If it's too soft, add more sugar. Store in an airtight container. That's it!