The Mom I Want to Be

  

 

• Take a walk and talk about the sounds you hear and the things you see  
• Sing a song
• Read a wordless book in your favorite language  
• Make up a new song
• Create a “To Do” list   
• Become an author by creating your own book
• Mark off the items on your list as you do them  
• Eat alphabet soup
• Retell a favorite story in your own words          
• Talk about your family history
• Find the letters of the alphabet on signs           
• Talk about your community’s history
• Name every part of your body, from head to toe           
• Play with letter-shaped sponges or stamps
• Make a play out of a favorite story       
• Take a trip to the library
• Keep a journal (a picture journal is okay!)        
• Read a “Big Book”
• Illustrate a story while you listen to it   
• Find opposites in your environment
• Invite a guest to tell a traditional story  
• Play “I Spy”
• Learn how to tell your own story          
• Talk about your favorite family or class field trip
• Discover the letters in your name         
• Build a word wall
• Create a rhyme           
• Trace around alphabet shapes
• Clap the syllables in your name
• Read a favorite book
• Decorate alphabet-shaped cookies        
• Read a new book
• Make up a story           
• Use a play phone to have a pretend conversation
• Learn how to say one word in as many languages as you can      
• Talk about the weather
• Create a sign in sheet  
• Feel Braille
• Sign in each day          
• Read a recipe together
• Create a grocery list with both words and pictures        
• Type on a computer keyboard
• Talk about the fruits you might see at a grocery store   
• Talk about the different sounds animals make
• Experience writing with a variety of writing tools         
• Talk about the pictures in a newspaper or a magazine
• Experiment by writing on different textures, colors and sizes of paper   
• Read old family letters together
• Find out what day of the week and what month it is     
• Create a card for someone special
• Read together every day for at least twenty minutes!

·       Have a Year-Round Easter Egg Hunt

·       Sponge Paint

·       Bake Cookies Together

·       Clean Together

·       Put scarves in an empty kleenex box to pull out and put in

·       Put plastic easter eggs or small stones in a cardboard egg carton

·       Paint the house, car, etc. with a bucket of water and clean paintbrush

·       Make your own picture book

·       Use a paint brush to learn parts of the body

·       Play with “Goop “

·       Kick and Roll a Large Ball

·       Practice marching on lines of Masking Tape

·       Make Horns out of toilet paper rolls

·       Use a magnifying glass to take a closer look at the world

·       Make a tunnel out of a blanket and chair

·       Give pretend haircuts

·       Have a Science Experiment with Baking Soda and Vinegar

·       Have a Parade

·       Make Cup Dolls

·       Play a Color Recognition Game

·       Draw Chalk figures on the sidewalk

·       Play Airplane

·       Blanket Peek-a-boo

·       Go Color Shopping

·       Discover Musical Instruments

·       Make Kitchen Ceramics

·       Create your own zoo

·       Giggle with Nonsense Syllables

·       Check out the Library for free children’s activities

·       Make your own Alphabet Book

·       Make Hanger People

·       Experiment with Rainbow Water

·       Make and decorate Trees made out of handprints

·       Try Fruit Painting

·       Make your own paper food plate

·       Play the Popcorn Game

·       Make a “Me” Mask

·       Fill the sink with water and discover what sinks and floats

·       Put your child in the bathtub and allow him/her to paint the sides with washable watercolors

·       Plant some green bean seeds (they grow quickly)

·       Put extra change in a piggy bank

·       Play an echo game, take turns repeating each other

·       Make a dry food collage

·       Create sandy designs

·       Personal Picture Puppets

·       Play “Eye Spy”

·       Make sewing cards

·       Draw a chalk plate for your fine feathered friends

·       Pick Berries

·       Make a necklace out of macaroni (for fun colors, see number 69!)

·       Make Flubber

·       Make Index Card Books

·       Turn your home into a neighboorhood in need of mail

·       Popcorn Art

·       Make Styrofoam Ornaments

·       Make your own Playdough!

·       Let your child do her own Cooking

·       Play the game of “The Crawling Hand”

·       Build Snow Castles at home!

·       Have a color day

·       Make Silly Putty

·       Do fun activities with Contact Paper

·       Make a Bird Feeder

·       Try Tubular Tunnels!

·       Make Photo Placemats

·       Learn some Picture Poems

·       Design your own Wrapping Paper

·       Play water games in the bathtub

·       Color Macaroni and Pasta Shapes

·       Play The Driving Game

·       Make and eat Painted Toast

·       Make a Sidewalk Storyboard

·       Wash cars together

·       Make and use your own Mailbox

·       Make up new stories from old books

·       Make your sidewalk a World of its own

·       Rotate toys so they’re always like new

·       Make Craft Stick picture frames

·       Have a Baby Powder Race

·       Make UFO’s

·       Make a collage self portrait

·       Make colored ice cubes

·       Make a Chef’s Hat

·       Make a Magnetized foam jungle

·       Play with a Bean Bag board

·       Try Rocking in a boat

·       Try Riding a pony without a grown-up’s knee!

·       Construct your own Bridge

·       Let your child Dig up dinosaur bones

·       Give your child a flashlight and watch what happens! (Hopefully not your good one)

·       Let your child try on your shoes (You’ll need to supervise this one closely)

·       Go Bowling!

·       Try Apple Bobbing Without Water

·       Play a game of Color Go Fish

·       Learn to spell a name by Cheerleading Letters

·       Play Crab and Lobster Tag

·       Practice rolling wrists and ankles

·       Accordian fold Paper Butterflies

·       Trace thick foam shapes

·       Sort crackers by shape

·       Play sheepdog

·       Color

·       Blow Bubbles

·       Play Hide-and-Seek

·       Peek-a-Boo

·       Play Chase

·       Do Fingerplays

·       Sing a song

·       Collect rocks in a basket

·       Make an obstacle course out of cushions and/or furniture

·       Make a fort out of cushions and sheets

·       Go for a Walk

·       Make a Car out of a box

·       Read a book

·       Go to the park

·       Fingerpaint

·       Play with Clay-Dough

·       Toss Bean bags into a Bucket

·       Play the shell and pea game

·       Dance to music

·       Download games for toddlers from the Internet

·       Practice putting things in and taking things out of boxes and bags

·       Make a temporary slide out of a table leaf and your couch

·       Roll a ball back and forth on the floor

·       Scoop dirt or sand into a child’s bucket (or use a serving spoon and bowl)

·       Practice climbing by stacking boxes on top of each other

·       Put on a puppet show

·       Go fishing with a yard stick and yarn

·       Make a Horseshoe game

·       Make a Shape Puzzle

·       Play paper basketball

·       Run through a Sprinkler

·       Play with a bucket of water and a sponge 

·       Make a Drum out of an oatmeal box

·       Play with a kazoo

·       Wash windows together

·       Bang on Pots and Pans with a spoon

·       Brush each other’s teeth

·       Play dress-up with stuffed animals and your child’s clothes

·       Stack canned or boxed food on top of each other

·       Let child stack mixing bowls inside each other

·       Make a playhouse out of a large box

·       Let child play with a sticker sheet 

·       Put stickers on fingers for finger puppets

·       Play a musical instrument together

·       Go on a Smelling Hunt

·       Frost Cookies

·       Plant a flower or vegetable plant together

·       Roll a tennis ball into an empty trash can or bucket

·       Draw on a mirror with dry-erase markers

·       Play hide and seek together- trying to find a stuffed animal or other object

·       Have a splash party together in the bathtub

·       Put a leash on a stuffed animal and walk around the house

·       Record each other on a tape recorder (great for scrapbooks or journals!)

·       Make and try on paper hats

·       Give a piggie back ride

·       Play “Horsie”

·       Talk into an electric fan (it distorts your voice)

·       Play tug-of-war with a blanket

·       Collect flowers (felt, artificial, real…)

·       Make a camera and go on a Safari

·       Play games with frozen juice lids

·       Disconnect your phone and pretend to make phone calls to relatives

·       Leave your phone connected and really make phone calls to relatives- let your child talk too

·       String large beads onto or along a shoelace

·       Squirt each other with squirt bottles

·       Glue shapes onto paper

·       Make sock puppets

·       Make paper puppets

·       Fill an old purse with toys

·       Use a paper towel tube as a megaphone

·       Make binoculars and go “Bird Watching” or “Stuffed Animal Watching”

·       Put snacks in different fun containers (paper sacks, empty canisters, etc.)

·       Act out a story from a book

·       Walk on a balance beam- use a 2×4 placed on the ground

·       Draw with chalk on the sidewalk

·       Sketch an outline of your child on the sidewalk or paper with chalk

·       Paint child’s palms with tempura paint and blot on paper. Makes a great card for loved ones!

·       Put lipstick on child and kiss a mirror

·       Make a puddle on cement and splash barefoot in it

·       Let child decorate and eat an open peanut butter sandwich

·       Make a toilet paper barricade for child to go under, over, or through

·       Do the Hokey Pokey

·       Make a super-hero costume out of household items

·       Do Knee-Bouncing Rhymes

·       Play “Red Light, Green Light” saying “Go” and “Stop”

·       Make a shoebox train for stuffed animals

·       Make a pillow pile to jump on

·       Make an easy puzzle with felt and velcro

·       Make bracelets or collars for stuffed animals out of pipe cleaners and jingle bells

·       Learn numbers from a deck of cards

·       Play the matching game with a deck of cards

·       Make a domino chain

·       Have a picnic in the park, backyard, or living room!

·       Play dress up in Mommy or Daddy’s clothes

·       Make a tin cup telephone and talk to each other in it

·       Make a nature collage

·       Mirror each other

·       Make a “Mummy Mommy” with toilet paper

·       Make a tape recording of short music selections and instructions to move in different ways

·       Make and walk along a toilet paper trail

·       TAKE A NAP!!