sponge paint stencils

This was M's first attempt at a sponge paint masterpiece and I think these are some of my favorite pieces of artwork we've done. We recently went to the New England Aquarium so we're still on somewhat of a sea animal kick. We decided to make a whale and (M's favorite) an octopus. 

I cut the whale and octopus shapes out of card stock and then taped them to a solid piece of card stock. The octopus was a bit harder to tape because of all the legs. You really don't want paint getting under the stencil. 

Then we painted. I gave M three colors with each to avoid a brown mud-like mess. 

He did well and liked stamping the sponges. Finished products- 

shape sort

I recently found a huge bag of foam shapes with my school supplies. M loves them and we've used them for a few things. I wasn't sure how a sort with them would go but M ended up getting really into it and pretending each set of shapes were a family ("where does baby square go?"). 

I made some large construction paper shapes and gave him a bowl of shapes. I showed him two and he caught on right away. I think I will try this again another day with colors. M was calling the large shapes their "houses" so I think making colored houses to sort them into by color would a success. 

fingerprint flowers

For Christmas M got an art kit that came with ink pads and a book to make all different kinds of fingerprint animals.  It's pretty cute.  We used those ink pads to create a birthday card for G's Godmother last week. There aren't too many instructions needed but it came out cute so I wanted to share.  Thanks to Pinterest for "thumb-body loves you."

fun food

My child is many things (imaginative, funny, energetic, etc) but a good eater is not one of them.  I have a whole board on my Pinterest account dedicated to food ideas for him, although I'm not sure why since his menu consists of about 10 items.  One thing that I have found helps sometimes (hit or miss) is making his meals more "fun."  I know there will be people who look at this blog and criticize me for taking the time to turn a piece of toast into a fish or whatever it may be...truth be told, some nights I'd stand on my head and sing songs if it would get M to eat!

Here are our "fun food" ideas.  For more (and better) ideas check out my Pinterest...

Giraffe-

Snowman-

Rudolph-

 Monster Truck-

Flower-

Valentines-

Octopus-

Kite-

Bear-

macaroni valentines

It's Valentine time again. Even though M has yet to start school, we still make Valentines to give to our family. Last year we did a handprint heart. This year we decided to do some macaroni art. 

Before M got involved I painted some macaroni white, pink, and red. I did this by putting them in a Ziplock bag with the paint and shaking them around. Much quicker than painting each one. I let them dry on wax paper. 

I cut hearts out of card stock then cut holes in half of them to serve as picture frames. The ones without holes became the backs. 

We colored with red and pink crayons then added the macaroni with glue (M's current favorite art activity is gluing). They came out cute and we were able to write on the back sides.