A fountain: water, plastic bottle and balloon

This experimant was such a fun experience for Santino! Oh, he loved watching the water flow from the straw, he loved how the balloon got smaller when the air escaped, and how the straw produced funny spitting noises as the water level would get too low. He couldn't get enough and continued with it in the bath.

A view from my world: Chocolate Rice and Dinosaurs

Sensory play: Chocolate Rice

St. Valentines day is approaching fast, and here is a fun sensory activity that engages not only your child's sense of touch, but also smell. And who doesn't love the sweet smell of chocolate?

Playing With the Coffee Grinds

 Here's a messy activity for your toddler! So much fun! I collected coffee grinds for several days, then put them in a tub, added dinosaurs and trucks, and a little water. Santino enjoyed this one for about 40 minutes.

Happy Birthday Babushka and Merry Ukrainian Christmas!

Today, January 7th Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas, a beautiful holiday, that comes after the New Years. We also celebrate birthday of Santino's babushka Tanya, who lives in Ukraine.

Cloud Dough and Golf Pins

This was a fun fun morning for Santino! He didn't mold the cloud dough into shapes, but oh my, did he ever love playing with the flour. We also utilized my little prize from a Christmas cracker - little plastic golf pins (well, at least that's what I think they are).

Flour and water is fun for a toddler!

I took out some flour, added water and a little bit of food coloring, and had my 2 year old son playing with this for three quarters of an hour!

Fine motor skills. Playing with tongs.

Santino's favorite utensil actually has a much greater purpose, other then just distracting him when I'm washing dishes or cooking. Tongs help children to work on the grip of their hands and fingers, preparing them for writing.

Welcome 2013 and a Cardboard Calendar

Here it is! It arrived, the New Year, 2013!

 

A view from my world

Introduction by Nataliya:
Pipidinko got ahold of my digital camera (very basic, nothing fancy) and walked around his playroom snapping random pictures. Now, these photos might not be of any artistic significance yet, but they are cool to look at, as we can see Santino's world through his eyes and from his level. Kinda cool, if you ask me, isn't it?

A Cardboard Christmas tree and other decorations to make together with a toddler

I love using cardboard in my son's playroom, its easy, cheap (or I'd rather say free, most of the time), fun, personal, different every time, and when we are done playing with it, I have no problem discarding it by putting in our blue bin for recycling.

Thank you Anna!

I was going to hold this report of our finger print art until tomorrow, but it so happened that I felt motivated to publish it asap by a nice something-something! Santino's personal "secret" Santa... or I would rather say Ded Moroz,... or even Snegurochka had yet again surprised us with a thoughtful present: truck stickers, dinosaur stickers, finger puppets! And chocolate, yay!

Homemade playdough fun. Dinosaur, fire truck and hippo tracks

I actually made playdough before, like half a year ago. Pipidinko wasn't interested much in it. I made some playdough pictures for him, and he admired those, but that was it. Then I bought a playdough set a few months later, and he enjoyed stuffing it in different tubes and kept asking me to open a new jar until all the playdough was dried out. I find commercial playdough very tough, not really suitable for a toddler.

Christmas sensory play

Sensory play is so much fun! It is an easy activity to make with the things you already have lying around your house, occupies your 2 year old for a while, teaches him new words, lets him practice colors and shapes, develops fine motor skills.

Christmas holidays with Santino

We had a Christmas eve dinner at our house last night. Family members came to celebrate the occasion together. There was lots and lots food, Santino got cool trucks as gifts, and I managed to fill the house with the smoke from the fireplace. Yay, fun times!

Santino's Christmas concert

I took Santino to the mall to meet Santa. Santino wasn't interested, he didn't want to wait in line, didn't even want to say "hi" to him.

Then we went to a Holiday brunch at a golf course. There was Santa, but Santino wasn't interested to even come close to him. I understood, that there will be no photos with Santa this year. Not sitting on his lap, no holding his hand, not even standing close to him.

Simple DIY quiet activities with a toddler

Here is a simple set of activities I like to offer Santino. It is something inexpensive, actually more like free, very simple to do, although promoting hand-eye coordination, attention, concentration, and a whole bunch of other skills.

Yay! He is coloring!

Santino never liked coloring in the color albums. Usually I would sit there coloring dinosaurs and Elmos, while Santino is stuffing markers and crayons in whatever odd place he would find at the time.

But a few days ago, he - yay! - took out a coloring book and actually started coloring! This is such a big step in his development! I am so happy :)

Creative play - a present for nonna Lucy

Santino loves painting, holding a paint brush and mixing the colors. Well, for now he mixes all the colors together, until they turn brown, and then he paints careful stripes here and there, swooshes, calling them dinosaurs and fire trucks.
 

I wanted to channel his love for painting and help him make a present for nonna Lucy for her birthday.

Me T-rex

(a short one) Santino now not only roars as a dinosaur, he says "me t-rex! Big! Rroar!"
When I asked him "are you a big dinosaur?" He said "yes. And you baby T-rex". Lol