St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Marble Painting

We've been on one heck of St. Patrick's Day binge! My last posts were a St. Patty's Day Sensory Bin and a St. Patty's Day Science Project, but now I need some little crafty something from my daughter to hang up for some green decorations for when the day finally is upon us. And here is what I settled on.

I have some leftover paper heart doilies from Valentine's Day that I had bought from the Dollar Store in February. I'm sure you could find some year round at a big craft store near the wedding or cake-baking area. Anyways, my idea is to take 3 hearts to make a clover and let my daughter finger paint them. Well...they are very deliate and tear easily, so I needed a way she couldn't get her little finger on the doilies. Enter, marble painting. I have always loved this idea on Pinterest, but have never put it into use. For our first try, it went fantastic.

It was the very first thing we did in the morning after breakfast (my little one wasn't even out of her pjs). Set up was a snap, literally only taking less than 3 minutes. I taped 3 doilies down on the bottom of a cake pan, speckled some green paint in there, and threw in 10 marbles.

Then I handed it to my daughter and showed her how the marbles moved when she shook it or tipped it. She did the rest.

Afterwards, I pulled up the doilies and set them to the side to dry. Once dry, I glued them down to a piece of paper and used a green popsicle stick as a stem. Now, I have an adorable marble-painted clover for my daughter's craft wall in the kitchen and I love it.

"My Little Easter Egg" Craft

Rose got this adorable finger-puppet book from her Grandma and absolutely loves it. Since she is forcing me to get into the Easter mood so early, I decided to do a quick Easter egg craft with her this morning. I won't toot my own horn, but I didn't even get this idea from Pinterest and it turned out pretty good. Also, I love how quick it was to set up.

Simply stick some painters tape in fun designs on a piece of construction paper. Then let your child finger paint like normal on the paper. After he/she is done painting, carefully take the tape off and let the painting dry. Once dry, cut out an egg shape. There you have it. A refrigerator-quality Easter toddler craft.

Name Scavenger Hunt

Here's a fun and easy learning game to set up for your child during his/her naptime. Plus, it only take 10-15 minutes of prep time so that leaves the rest of little one's naptime for you to complete that never-ending list of chores.

Use some scrap paper and write your child's name over and over again. Then cut them out. Don't worry about them looking pretty. They're for your 18 month old and she won't care if all the angles are 90 degrees.

Then tape them up around the house where you child might see them. Once naptime is over, help your child find them around the house. Use a basket and prep for Easter hunts!

Talk about each letter and make funny noises for each. For example, when I point to the letter "R" I say "Ruh, ruh, ruh" loudly and enthusiastically and when I point to the "S" and run my finger over the curves of the "S" and hiss like a snake, etc. After making a fool of yourself, remember to finish up by saying their name slowly while pointing to each letter in turn and then repeating their name quickly. For "Rose", I have to explain that the "E" is silent. That's the English language for ya.

After all your letters and name cards have been collected you can keep them for another day. I keep some posted around the house so throughout our normal day we can stop and spell our name. It's the first step to learning the alphabet!

DIY Shape Book or Flashcards

After making some simple window clings for Rose, I had some left over foam that needed to be used. I've seen some felt DIY shape books online and decided foam could be an alternative and just-as-good material. The foam I used came from a 36-pack bought from the Dollar Tree.

For this project, I only needed 12 sheets to make the book. I began by cutting 6 sheets of foam in half to make two pages. I then punched a hole in the top left corner of each in case I wanted to string them together later.

After that, I carefully cut out two identical copies of 11 different shapes: heart, circle, oval, square, triangle, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, and star. One of each shape was then glued onto a page of the book while the other one was traced with a sharpie and then set aside. Lastly,

I labeled each shape that was glued to the page. And that's it. You can string the pages together to make a book or keep them flat to use as flashcards

Rose surprised me when I handed her the heart and circle and she correctly placed them on the corresponding card. I was so proud of her. This fun learning activity will now be a part of our daily routine.