The Mom I Want to Be

 

• Package of colorful sponges

• Scissors

• Bathtub full of water

 

1. Cut colorful sponges into basic shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles.

2. Fill a tub with warm water and seat your baby inside.

3. Drop sponges into the water and let your baby explore them.

4. After your baby has enjoyed the sponges, take a sponge and press it to the inside of the tub. As you press most of the water out of the sponge, it will stick to the tub, as if by magic.

5. Attach more sponges to the side of the tub, and let your baby pull them off.

6. Talk about the shapes as you play with them.

 

1. Run a warm bathtub of water for your baby (and yourself, if you like).

2. Slowly place your baby in the water, allowing him to get used to the water.

3. Show your baby the properties of the water by lightly drizzling, splashing, and pouring water over him.

4. When your baby is ready to play Water Wiggler, hold him firmly on his tummy with both hands, and move him slowly back and forth over the surface of the water, being sure his head is above the surface.

5. Make motorboat sounds while you wiggle your baby back and forth in the water. Let your baby rest a few minutes between rides.

 

The tub makes a great place for your child to paint.  When they are finished, just rinse them off. 

 

Paint Recipe: 

 

1/2 C. Cornstarch

1 C. Cold Water

1 Envellope Unflavored Gellatin

2 C. Boiling Water

Food Coloring

 

Combine cornstarch and 3/4 C. cold water in a sauce pan and mix well.  Soak gelatin in remaining 1/4 C. cold water.  Add boiling water to cornstarch mixture, stirring as water is added.  Cook over medium heat and stir constantly until boiling.  When the mixture is thick and clear, remove from heat and stir in dissolved gelatin.  When it cools, divide it into separate containers and add a few drops of food coloring to each small container for different colors.

 

1. Lay a washcloth on the bottom of your baby’s plastic tub to help keep your baby from sliding around.

2. Fill the tub with warm water and add a small amount of baby bubble bath solution.

3. Place your baby into the tub, holding her securely at all times to gain her trust.

4. Sit your baby up so she can safely enjoy the bubbles and splash the water if she wants.

5. Wash your baby’s body parts while singing “This Is the Way We Wash”:

 

This is the way we wash our face,

Wash our face, wash our face.

This is the way we wash our face, Baby (name) and Mommy.

Continue the song with “…clean our neck,” “…rub our chest,” “…scrub our back,” “…bathe our arms,” “…soap our legs,” “…tidy our toes,” and so on.

Rain Bath

 

1. Use a turkey skewer to poke holes on the bottom and sides of the plastic bottle, making holes about one inch apart.

2. Place your baby in a baby bathtub or get into a regular bathtub with him, if you like. Lower your baby into the water gently, to give him time to get comfortable with the strange sensation.

3. Fill the plastic bottle with bathtub water.

4. Hold the bottle up so your baby can see the water pour out from the holes.

5. Hold the bottle over your baby’s body and let the water gently tickle him.

6. If your baby’s game, hold the bottle over his head to make it rain!

 

Sink or Float

 

As your baby begins to understand how the world works, you can help her begin to classify items according to similar properties. At this age she’ll think these differences and similarities are magical, but soon she’ll learn they can all be explained scientifically.

 

5 items that sink, such as heavy toys, teething ring, spoons, baby bottle full of water, a key chain, and so on

5 items that float, such as soap, plastic toys, hairbrush, sponges, and so on

Baby bathtub

 

1. Fill a baby bathtub with warm water and gently lower your baby into the water.

2. Place one floating item into the tub and say, “It floats!”

3. After a minute, place a sinkable item into the tub and say, “It sinks!”

4. Alternate items to keep your baby’s interest, then let her drop the items in the tub herself.

 

Bubbles are the next best thing to singing when it comes to cheering up a fussy baby. Blow them within reach of your seated baby so she can bat at them; say “pop” when they burst as they hit the ground. Later, your baby will try to “catch” them, and later still she’ll want to blow them herself (good training for blowing on hot food). Even if your baby just sits and watches the bubbles cascade down around her, she’s getting a good visual “tracking” workout–essential for reading skills later on. Hint: Bubbles are inexpensive enough to buy several bottles. Keep one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, one in the backyard, and one in the stroller to pull out at the beach or playground.

The next time you’re on the road or waiting for a meal, give this classic family game a mathematical twist.

 

1. Play this game with your child while riding the bus or driving in the car, waiting at the doctor’s office or shopping together in the supermarket. For starters, find something in clear view and choose one attribute for a clue. For example, you might say, “round like a ball” for an orange. Then say, “I spy with my little eye something round like a ball.” Invite your child to look around and figure out what it was you spied. Once your child spies the object you’ve chosen, switch roles and invite your child to ‘spy’ something for you to look for.

 

2. As you look, talk about one or two different things you see that don’t have the attribute your child has given you. (“Hmm …That box couldn’t be it – it’s not shaped like a ball…”) until you find the object your child has chosen. As the game continues, increase the attributes to two. For example, “I see something with 4 legs and that is smaller than this car.” (A dog.)

 

Parent Pointers:

 

This activity helps your child figure out how to recognize an object’s attributes and sort objects into groups with similar attributes – skills related both to math and science.

The ability to group by number, shape, or measurement helps develop your child’s mathematical thinking. Grouping by color, texture, or hardness will introduce your child to scientific classification.

 

As an extension, help your child practice organizing objects by similar attributes. In the supermarket, encourage your child to organize the purchases in the cart in some way of his own choosing. Invite your child to tell you the rule for the grouping (maybe “green with leaves” or “boxes”) so you can place additional items in the right group.

 

You might make a mistake in placing an object so your child can have fun showing you the “right way” to group things.

 

Teach your children how to find information rather than concentrating on the information itself.  There’s so much to learn and so many sources of information, that you have to know how to find what you want.

 

PROJECT: To find information using different library reference materials to encourage kids to learn how to do research

 

AGES: Eight to 12

 

PREP: Your job consists of preparing the questions your child will be researching at the library. If it’s been a while since you did any library work, you should begin by soliciting the advice of a reference librarian. Try to come up with a list of questions to fit your child’s interests, sense of humor and ability.

 

List the resources you’d like your child to make use of, figuring that 10-year-olds will be able to track down the answers to about 10 questions in an hour and a half. Start with the library’s computerized catalog (or card catalog) and the basic reference materials your child is already likely to be familiar with (dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, almanac, etc.). Check out other resources such as the READER’S GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE, CONSUMER REPORTS magazine, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DESK REFERENCE book and every child’s favorite reference work, the GUINESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS.  Write your questions. Examples might be:

 

• You want to buy a CD player. What brand is the best buy for your money?

• You’re doing a research paper on the great flood of 1993. Name two magazine articles you might use.

• Who was the fattest person who ever lived and how much did he or she weigh?

• In which New England state did the Morgan horse originate?

 

Type up the “find” list and include some ground rules: Your child has one trip to the library to get as much of the information as possible and she should write down the answer and the source of the information. Let them know that reference librarians are the best resource in the library. Don’t waste their time with questions you can answer on your own, but don’t hesitate to go to them for help. They hold the keys to the kingdom. Let your child go off on his library quest. Allow him to decide whether to set a time limit. Some kids love to race the clock, others hate it. Keep track as she works and offer help in figuring out how to work with the different resource materials once she has found them. When the time is up (or the sheet is complete), examine the list together and compare notes. You might even find you both checked good sources but came up with different answers. Discuss why. Then take him out for a treat: an ice cream or a new paperback at the local bookstore.