Toddler Theme: Night

Daylight savings time was observed over the weekend and now nighttime descends on us well before bedtime.  Mia noticed the change right away so we spent the week focused on Night.  I haven't really seen Mia show signs of a fear of the dark yet but I did put an emphasis on celebrating night this week.  Talking up the positives to make it less scary.  If you have a child that does show some fear then it might be fun to make a Monster Spray together.  I've seen many recipes on Pinterest but I can imagine it's as simple as distilled water and some lavender essential oil.  Or even play up the silliness and figment of imagination that monsters are by setting up a Build-Your-Own Monster station with play dough and pipe cleaners, googly eyes, etc.   We made dreamcatchers with paper plates, paint, string and feathers.  Last year, we made dreamcatchers using an embroidery hoop instead of a paper plate and actually used it as decor for her room.  Put it right above her bed and it worked like a charm.  Another fun evening activity was a glow stick bubble bath.  I picked up a bunch of glow sticks from the Target Dollar Spot -- all leftover from Halloween -- and threw them in the bottom of the bathtub.  Both girls really enjoyed this special bath and it made something routine a little more special.  Another fun evening activity we did was make shadow puppets on the wall.  I discovered that the iPhone flashlight is perfect for this.  Just prop your phone up on its side with a pillow or something similar.  

All Souls' Day fell during this week and even though we touched on it a little bit last week as we learned about Dia de los Muertos, we did a special activity that paired nicely with our night theme.  I found paper sky lanterns online and ordered a few.  I let Mia color them with pictures for our deceased relatives and then one evening after dinner we went across the street to the park and sent them off towards heaven.  There's a little science lesson in this whole activity and Mia was able to see how hot air rises.  She even equated the floating lanterns to the hot air balloon show she went to during Up in the Air week.  She's learning & retaining stuff from these theme weeks!  Eeeeeeee!  (NOTE: We did not in fact release these off towards heaven, but simulated it.  Colorado already has enough issues with wildfires and I didn't feel good about sending flaming lanterns off into space.  So to improvise, I tied a few pieces of fishing line to the bottom of each lantern and then the other ends to a 5 pound dumbbell I brought over with us.  The balloons hovered for a little bit -- 10 minutes max -- and then they came back down.)

We're hoping that Santa brings a teepee this year because Mia is really into pretend camping.  She just roasted marshmallows over a campfire for the first time last week and is still talking about it.  So when she's really into something, I try to exploit that interest a little.  All in the name of learning, of course.  My idea was to figure out a way to make a pretend campfire for our possible new teepee so we went to Joann's to scout supplies.  While we were there, Mia said a lantern would be more fun because she could carry it.  I like how she thinks.  We walked up and down the aisles looking for potential vessels & light.  We ended up finding plastic mason jars and they sell wire handles, too!  Mia wanted to use a candle for the light but we decided that we should avoid the whole flame thing.  Ha!  We did, however, find a cool battery-powered flickering votive candle.  We were able to make two lanterns for under $10.  Another fun spin on this project would be to somehow tint the jar a blue color and then use one of those battery-powered LED strands to simulate fireflies.  We're going to be watching the holiday clearance bins for one of those!  Here are the supplies we used in case my descriptions above didn't make sense. 

Mia has been very fascinated by the moon and the stars this last year.  We have a telescope on our wish list, but in the meantime, I use my DSLR camera and zoom lens to create a simple telescope of sorts.  If you have these items, it's pretty easy to set up.  I just put my camera with zoom lens on a tripod.  My Canon camera has a Live View mode so I switch to that and this mode lets you use the back screen as the viewfinder.  The Live View mode allows you to do a preview zoom (it won't take the picture that zoomed in but it allows you to fix your focus if you were using it the traditional way) and it's in that zooming that we can see details like craters on the moon.  One of Mia's favorite iPad apps is Star Walk Kids (find it in the app store) and many evenings, she and I can be found out on our balcony with our iPad & camera telescope watching the sky.  We took this photo of the full moon the other day.

And this is a picture we took of the Milky Way earlier this summer.  We saw lots of shooting stars (Perseid meteors) and even captured two in this photo!

Buzz Aldrin was in town a few weeks ago and I was able to get an autographed copy of his new book Welcome to Mars.  She enjoys looking through it and reminding me that a guy from outer space signed it.  Ha!  And to wrap up the week, we made a trip to our local science museum and watched the space show in the planetarium.  It mesmerized us all -- baby, toddler & mom!

A summary of all Night week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Watched the night sky and looked for constellations using the StarWalk Kids app (find it in the app store), Made monster spray with lavender essential oils, Took a bath in the dark with glow sticks, Crafted our own Mason jar lanterns, Made shadow puppets on the wall before bedtime

ART PROJECTS: Created dreamcatchers out of a paper plates and embroidery hoops, Built our own monsters with a play dough monster creation station, Colored paper lanterns to release at night

OUTINGS: Visited the planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

BOOKS: Welcome to Mars by Buzz Aldrin, Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, The Cat at Night by Dahlov Ipcar

BIBLE STORY: The star guiding the 3 Wise Men to baby Jesus, The Creation story (night and day created)

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Halloween & Dia de los Muertos

This theme week took shape naturally because of the upcoming holiday.  There wasn't much extra effort required so it allowed us to focus more on having fun.  We've been watching Wizard of Oz a lot recently and Mia expressed interest in being Glinda the Good Witch for Trick-or-Treat night.  After some thought, it seemed like Millie would make a perfect lion since that is her favorite animal (although she's hardly cowardly...more like a courageous lion).  Our two Boston Terriers seemed like perfect Flying Monkey material and dad called dibs on the Scarecrow.  I decided to be Dorothy because you can't not have a Dorothy when you do group Wizard of Oz costumes!  And gosh, a Wizard of Oz -themed Halloween is pretty perfect for the family about to finally settle down in their new home.  There's no place like home, right?  The chaos of the upcoming move made me hesitant to create homemade costumes for everyone, so I outsourced the girls' costumes from Pottery Barn Kids.  Then Mia helped me make a long star wand from a dowel, wooden star cutout, and silver paint.  Another day, we drafted some patterns and created Flying Monkey vests & wings out of felt.  Mia glued all the black feathers on the wings for me while I sewed the vests together.  For dad's scarecrow costume, we kept it simple with a plaid shirt, jeans & a burlap hat, but we measured his wrists and created "straw" felt fringe cuffs for his sleeves.  And my Dorothy costume was easy to put together with a blue gingham shirt from H&M, white jeans, and red shoes.  We can't wait to Trick-or-Treat in our new neighborhood later this week.   

We carried our theme over into our pumpkins as well.  Dad carved a house on one and I carved a ruby slipper on another one.  Mia picked out the funniest looking green gourd at the pumpkin patch she said looked like the Wicked Witch's nose.  And Millie, well she kept herself busy playing with all the pumpkin guts while we worked.

I don't typically do a lot of kid-styled food but for this week, I made an exception.  We made mummy dogs out of crescent roll dough & hot dogs.  These are all over Pinterest but in a nutshell, you wrap the dogs with strips of crescent roll dough and bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees.  I used a toothpick to make mustard eyes.  Easy!

Our Halloween theme week also coincides with Dia de los Muertos, All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day (Nov. 1 & 2).  As a nod to these holidays, we created our own painted rock sugar skulls and shared fond memories of our deceased relatives.  I pulled out several photo albums so we could show Mia pictures of these special people gone too soon.  An extension of this exercise would be to create a special altar (called an ofrenda) to welcome the souls back to visit.  The belief behind Dia de los Muertos is that if people are celebrated and remembered, they never truly die.  What a beautiful and hopeful thought.  

A summary of all Halloween week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Learned about Dia de los Muertos and told stories about deceased relatives, Carved and painted our pumpkins

ART PROJECTS: Painted found rocks like sugar skulls, Made color-resist watercolor spiderwebs

OUTINGS: Went trick-or-treating, Celebrated Dia de los Muertos at the Denver Botanic Gardens

SNACK: Made mummy dogs for dinner

BOOKS: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

BABY BONUS: Pumpkin guts sensory bin

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Weather

Transition seasons like spring and fall usually usher in all kinds of wacky weather (or at least a little weather variety) and make it a perfect time to explore Weather further.  I recently learned that the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is located here in Boulder, Colorado.  A perfect field trip for us this week!  If you aren't local, don't despair; their website is chock-full of wonderful resources like videos, simulations, games & activity ideas (check out their Learning Zone here).  We spent a whole morning exploring their public exhibits.  Mia created her own microburst storms in a special tank, made lightening, watched tornadoes form, and even touched clouds.  If you diffuse essential oils at home with an ultrasonic diffuser, then you already have access to a cloud machine.  Open it up while it's running and check it out!  You can also look to see if your local science or children's museum has a weather exhibit.

We decided to do a bunch of weather science experiments at home this week.  One day, we placed a cup out on our balcony to measure rainfall.  Nada, dry as a bone here in Denver.  Another day, I pulled out a prism and we made rainbows on the walls.  And do you remember the old tornado in a soda bottle trick?  Yup, we did that, too.  Hobby Lobby sells both the prism and the tornado tube in the science aisle.  

As a special data collection & recording activity, we called up some of our family around the country and asked them what their weather was like that day.  I also reached out to my Instagram friends so we could get more data points.  Then we recorded it all on a blank map (find one here) and created our own weather map thanks to all of our friendly weather spotters around the world.  We also took a walk around a local pond one afternoon and I was able to show Mia the wind.  Back when I was learning how to sail, I realized that you can see the wind on the water before you can actually feel it, and I was excited to teach Mia the same thing.  Can you see the wind coming across the pond towards us?

After reading the book Windblown by Edouard Manceau, we did a little windblown collage creating of our own.  I cut out shapes just like the ones in the book and Mia created animals with them.  Here's the one from last year that I've kept all this time...makes me giggle.  Or maybe you could make a wind chime with found items as well.

I'm starting to get little sister Millie involved in these theme weeks a little more so I planned a very tactile weather art project.  The goal was to create skyscapes with finger paints but not just any old paints -- weather paints.  To prep, I stuck a tray of blue & purple glitter paints in the refrigerator and then a few tubes of red, yellow & orange paints in a pot of warm water.  I set out the cold, snowy paints with the warm, sunny paints and also some watercolors & straws and let the girls paint away.  You can use the straws to blow drops of watercolor paint on the paper almost like rain drops.  Last year, Mia did a very similar painting project and then while she was napping, I doodled all over her works of art and cut them up to create a weather station.  We still use this station to this day as we check out the weather each morning.  In fact, we did another little data gathering project this week.  As Mia updated the "today" arrow each day, we also recorded it in her notepad.  At the end of the week, we made a little bar graph to summarize the data.  A nice little counting activity and it's never to early to start learning how to make sense of lots of data!  

A summary of all Weather week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Created our own weather station, Did several simple weather science experiments, Watched The Wizard of Oz

ART PROJECTS: Created our own Windblown inspired animals with assorted paper shapes, Created sky paintings with various weather-inspired paints (warm red, yellow & orange finger paints and cold blue and purple glitter finger paints and watercolor "rain" droplets)

OUTINGS: Visited the Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder

SNACK: Made cloud sandwiches (fluffer nutters) for lunch

BOOKS: Windblown by Edouard Manceau, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paolo

BIBLE STORY: Rainbows, a sign of God's promise

BABY BONUS: (see weather art projects above)

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Fall & Trees

There's a change in the air.  The days are getting shorter, the air crisper, and the leaves crunchier.  Fall is here and it's brought pumpkin patches and corn mazes and leaf piles with it.  My Instagram friend Ruth (@just_the_kids_nextdoor) is doing these toddler themes with her son and she had a great idea -- why not use a Fall theme to focus on trees.  And that's just what we did!  Our first activity, I'm sure you guessed, was a Fall scavenger hunt.  We set out to find Fall treasures, and boy did we!  Mia had an eagle eye and found so many great items all within a block of our apartment building.  We laid them all out and took a few pictures so we could research some items further.  I've been wanting to start nature journaling with the girls and this seemed like as good as time as any.  I made a little on-the-go-kit with a Moleskin blank notebook, colored pencils, and some compact field guides in a little pouch.  We also recently purchased a flower/leaf press on Amazon.  Once we got a good picture of our treasures for the journal, we picked out a few flowers and leaves to press for future art projects.  As we gathered some leaves, I pointed out the different kinds of trees we were seeing -- deciduous & coniferous.  While she had a hard time saying those words, she easily grasped the concept that some trees have leaves and some have needles.  We were even able to find one of the trees in our field guide.  We made a leaf rubbing in our nature journal to mark the occasion.  Before we headed back inside, we collected a few more pieces of the tall grasses so Mia could make a vase arrangement.  Ruth suggested making leaf collages as a simple but fun art project, too!

I admittedly didn't pick the best week for a Fall theme because the leaves are all still green in Denver.  However, the leaves higher up in altitude are already changing so I packed the girls up one morning for a leaf drive.  My original plan was to scope out all the brilliant, golden aspens up at Kenosha Pass but as I pulled into the trailhead parking lot, I realized that we were a few days too late.  Most of the leaves had already dropped.  So it seems that late September is probably the best time to go; I've already made a note for next year.  Ha!  There's an old rail line from back in the mining days still visible right beside the trail, so the girls had some fun playing on the train tracks for a bit.  Mia burst into an impromptu Hokey Pokey on the trail.  Of course, I took a picture.

I backtracked east and took Guanella Pass towards Georgetown and finally found some golden aspens running up and down the mountainside.  Aspens stands are created by many aspens all networked together underground by their roots.  It makes them one of the largest (if not the largest) living organisms.  Tree fun fact for ya!  Mia and I collected some aspen leaves to compare to the ones we found closer to home.  We could see that there were a lot of brown spots on the yellow leaves and we later learned that the spots were caused by a fungus.  We had one of the wettest springs on record and it caused this fungus all these months later, dulling their fall colors.  

Our other big Fall week activity was picking out a pumpkin.  I took the girls to Anderson Farms in Erie one afternoon.  There's an entrance fee but the girls were both free.  Anderson has a huge corn maze with a smaller (simple looping) one for young kids.  We got a map and I let Mia lead us through the maze.  The maze always dumps you back out at the entrance but it still provided a little spatial awareness learning.  A short tractor ride took us to the pumpkin patch and we tried to pick out a few good pumpkins.  They grow white ones, pink ones, green ones, and, of course, orange ones at Anderson Farms.  A really good variety and I was pleased but I didn't really think out the logistics of two young kids and pumpkins that I needed to get back to the tractor.  Needless to say, we only ended up picking one from the actual patch...but it's the prettiest, most perfect, little white pumpkin and Millie picked it out (er, gave up right next to it).  Luckily, we were able to snag a few more at the farm store.  Two more white ones, a green gourd that looks like the "bad witch's" nose (The Wicked Witch of the West, of course), and a jar of pumpkin butter.  We showed off all of our farm spoils to my husband when he got home from work.  "Where's the orange one for carving?"  Sigh.  Sooooooo we decided to check out another pumpkin patch, this time Rock Creek Farm in Broomfield.  Get this, you can drive your car on the farms roads through their fields and park right next to the patch you choose.  Genius!  This time we were able to get a proper gigantic orange pumpkin and everyone is happy.  Ruth had a great idea for a Fall/Tree outing -- the apple orchard.  Our local orchards are in bad shape after the late frost so there were no U-pick options this year.  Hopefully, next year will be kinder to the farmers.

I was wracking my brain trying to think of a simple Fall-themed snack when Ruth mentioned syrup since it comes from trees.  And then I eyed up that jar of pumpkin butter I purchased from the farm store.  What about pumpkin hand pies with a maple glaze?!  These are essentially the exact same as the poptarts recipe in my Valentine's Day post except I used pumpkin butter instead of jam and I added a little maple syrup & cinnamon into the powdered sugar glaze.  So good! 

I really appreciated getting some ideas from another mama this week.  Thank you, Ruth!  If you ever have a theme suggestion or other ideas or want to collaborate on a week, please let me know.  I'm just working through a list of themes I created over 2 years ago so there's always room for improvement!

A summary of all Fall & Trees week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Went on a fall scavenger hunt, Navigated our way through a corn maze

ART PROJECTS: Pressed leaves we found on our fall scavenger hunt, Started our first nature journal and made leaf rubbings on paper

OUTINGS: Went to a few pumpkin patches and drove through the mountains to view the fall leaves

SNACK: Made pumpkin hand pies with a maple syrup glaze (find my basic poptart recipe here)

BOOKS: The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger, Leaves by David Ezra Stein, Nature Anatomy by Julie Rothman

BIBLE STORY: Adam & Eve and the Tree of Life

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Construction

Last Sunday evening, I was reviewing my calendar for the week and saw that we had a meeting with our landscape architect planned later in the week.  I'd been meaning to do a Construction theme week and this seemed like a perfect time since we could take advantage of existing activities.  This is one way I keep things simple but it's really effective because it's real life.  I let Mia tagalong to the landscape meeting and she sat on one side of the table with me reviewing the plans and looking over plant lists.  I wasn't totally sure how much she would take away from that encounter, but when we got back home she set up her little table and chairs and reenacted the whole thing with me.  She had her own scribbled "plan" and everything.  The imaginative play is my favorite part of these theme weeks and Mia is at the age where she immediately picks up on things we are doing/saying.  It was really neat to see her initiate this imaginative play all on her own.  When we did our weekly family drive out to check on our new house construction, Mia brought along her tape measure & note pad and walked around mimicking me by taking her own measurements and scribbling away.  I took a few minutes to show her exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it.  I have no idea if she really understands the concept of space planning or if she will remember any of this, but she did spend the rest of the week talking about her new room design.  Another little activity we did is walk around downtown where some big construction projects are happening.  There were all kinds of heavy construction equipment onsite so we talked about what each machine is called and what it does.  I've heard of some communities doing "Touch a Truck" events where kids can see similar big vehicles up close.  Might be a good construction week activity.

We did all sorts of indoor construction projects as well.  We built things with Legos and I put an emphasis on reading & interpreting Lego construction diagrams.  Just a little spatial awareness activity.  And you don't need to limit building activities to kids' toys.  If you happen to be assembling anything for your home (IKEA furniture, etc), let your kid help.  I was very mechanically driven early on in life and my parents always got me involved in these sorts of things.  I see similar abilities in Mia so I make sure I give her opportunities to explore further.  She's been involved with little projects like assembling her easel and her table & chair set but I've also included her as my little helper on household repair & DIY projects.  One afternoon, I set up an invitation to construct a blanket fort.  I laid out a few light blankets, some twine, a bowl of clothespins, and some chairs & stools in our living room. I found yellow caution tape in the Target Dollar Spot this week so I taped off the whole area as a construction site.  Then I told her that I was hoping we could make popcorn and watch a movie together but first we needed a fort.  She was really excited by this and figured out a decent design within minutes.  She did need a little help spreading out the large blanket, though.  Some other construction activities we did this week include playing with our construction vehicle toys in the sandbox at the playground (or you could make a sensory bin), role playing with our pretend tool kit, and spending some time playing the Little Builder app on the iPad.  And have you seen this reflective vest in the IKEA Family section?  It's only a couple of bucks and perfect for construction dress up.

Instead of doing an art project this week, we did a construction project.  Home Depot offers building workshops for children (check for them here) and if you are local to Denver, there is a really cool place called The Craftsman & Apprentice that offers them, too (offer listing here).  We did our own because I really wanted to impress upon Mia the ideas of project planning, sequential events, and order of operations.  I settled on a string art project because it's simple yet calls for some hammering and the finished project can be used in her room in the new house (the first rule of good design is usefulness!).  The first thing we did is look up string art projects on the internet so she could see what a finished project looked like, a goal to work towards.  Then I gave her a wooden star from the craft store and some blueprint paper.  Blueprint paper is THE most important part of this whole project.  Make your own with blue construction paper and a white crayon.  I drew a rectangle border and then a title box with "Mia's Plan" on a few sheets.  Then we traced her star and she planned where she wanted to put nails.  

After some careful consideration, we decided that it might be best to paint the star before hammering in the nails.  I gave her a paper towel tube to store her rolled up blueprints in while she painted.  Super official.  Once the paint was dry, she marked the spots for her nails and I showed her how to hammer them in.  This is tricky and we had to work together on this.  Watch your fingers!  Haha!  Lastly, we wrapped colored embroidery floss around the nails to create a fun pattern.  A really good fine motor exercise, too.  What do you think?

A summary of all Construction week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Played with building blocks, Also spent some time playing the Little Builder app, Construction vehicle sensory play in the sandbox, Built a blanket fort

ART PROJECTS: Made string art by hammering nails into a wood plaque and then wrapping string around all the nails

OUTINGS: Took a walk in heavy construction areas around town to scope out all the big equipment

BOOKS: Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker, Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (or try Iggy Peck, Architect), That's How by Christoph Niemann, A Year at a Construction Site by Nicholas Harris

BIBLE STORY: Solomon building the temple

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Colors

It's officially Fall and the leaves are starting to change colors here in Colorado.  It made me think that it was about time we did a whole Color theme week.  Mia knows her basic colors so we focused on some more advanced topics like lighter vs. darker, transparent vs. opaque, color mixing, and even a little about complimentary colors.

You've probably noticed by now that one of my favorite learning activities is the scavenger hunt.  Mia is an active kid so it's my way of tailoring her learning experiences to her personality.  A color scavenger hunt is particularly fun because you can create a rainbow with your findings.  Last year, we made this collage with all of Mia's colored findings.  This year, she's really into scribbling in her notepads so I made her a whole page list to check off instead.

For a little extra fun one day, we took a walk through the alleys of Denver's RiNo neighborhood.  Street artists have been covering buildings & walls with their beautiful murals.  So many colors!  This week there happened to be a whole street art event, Colorado Crush, and Mia actually got to see several artists in action.  

We had to have a little conversation on the way home about how those artists had permission to paint on the walls, but in general, we shouldn't paint on our walls.  Haha!  Instead, she and I rolled out a long piece of art paper and worked on a colorful mural collab.  I started with some overlapping abstract shapes as an invite to create with me.  One day we used markers, another day paint, and another chalk so we could talk about their color textures and also saturation.  There were some lessons in color mixing too -- "Look mom, brown!"  Last year's Color week project was the creation of this pretend makeup kit using little travel containers and a thin layer of nail polish (watch Target Dollar Spot for bags, brushes, and even travel containers).  This week, I picked up a few more travel containers so we could add to her "eyeshadow" collection.   

Have you heard of Mr. Printables?  It's a really great website with lots of free learning printables and they have a few that are perfect for Color week.  The first one is a color wheel.  You can print it in color or not for a bigger challenge and it's great to use for a little independent sorting activity.  I had our color wheel laminated so that I can use it over and over but especially so that I can use it during snack time.  I gave Mia a bowl of Fruity Cheerios and she sorted them into piles one afternoon.  Once she had them all sorted, I taught her a little about complimentary colors (the ones opposite on the color wheel).  We wondered if the Denver Broncos knew their blue & orange colors were complimentary.  Something tells me they do know...clever!  Mr. Printables also has these color overlay cards (shown below).  You can submit the printable file online to Staples.com and they will print them on transparencies & cut for you.  I like to outsource when I can.  Mia played with these on a white table top and I kept Millie simultaneously busy with a mess-free paint bag (poured red, blue & yellow paint into a food storage bag and sealed).  I chose the primary colors intentionally because as Millie mashed and squished the paint, she helped us see that red and yellow make orange, and so on.  

As a last special treat, I took Mia out on a very rare one-on-one date to the nail salon for pedicures.  Knowing how excited she gets about my nail colors naming each one of them off as she rifles through the little box, I just knew she'd love this experience.  They had a whole wall of nail colors -- "Wow, look at allllllllll the colors!"  And then she chose an iridescent white polish.  The irony!  

A summary of all Color week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Went on a colorful scavenger hunt, Played with Mr. Printables color mixing transparencies (find them here), Sorted cereal with the Mr. Printables Color Wheel (find it here)

ART PROJECTS: Made a colorful mixed media mural, Made a pretend makeup set with travel containers and nail polish

OUTINGS: Went to Colorado Crush in the RiNo neighborhood to see the street artists in action, Had colorful pedicures done at the local salon

BOOKS: Press Here by Herve Tullet, Pantone: Colors by Pantone, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr

BIBLE STORY: Joseph and his colorful coat

BABY BONUS: Ziplock bag painting and color mixing, Read Alice in Wonderland: A BabyLit Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams & Andy Warhol's Colors by Susan Goldman Rubin

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Oktoberfest & Germany

This is one of those toddler themes that is made easier by exploiting community activities.  In this case, we leveraged local Oktoberfest celebrations as we learned about Germany.  Denver hosts Oktoberfest over two weekends in September each year.  We went late morning and it wasn't too crowded yet which made it easier for us to sample lots of traditional German foods -- wursts & kraut, spaetzle, boiled potato salad.  The German music intrigued Mia...or maybe it was the lederhosen the band was wearing.  Her curious stares as she tried to make sense of it all were pretty funny!  

Another great time of year to learn about Germany while utilizing community activities is near Christmas time.  Denver hosts a Christkindl Market downtown between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'm sure other cities do as well.  I've been to a few of these famous markets in Frankfurt & Dusseldorf and one thing I particularly loved is the way people congregated and drank glühwein (mulled red wine) huddled together on a cold winter night.  Inspired by that, we made our own kid-friendly version of glühwein.  I picked up a huge jug of apple cider from the orchard last week and Colorado peaches are in their prime right now so we put those two items plus some cinnamon sticks in a heavy pot and let it simmer on low all afternoon.  It made our apartment smell so good!  The key to glühwein is serving it in festive ceramic mugs so I pulled out our pair usually reserved for hot cocoa and we enjoyed a nice warm pre-dinner treat.  Once the girls went to bed, my husband and I added a nip of bourbon and enjoyed a second mug.  Totally not German mulled red wine but we just couldn't let this mulled cider go to waste.  Just in case you needed some ideas for leftovers, too.  Wink, wink.

Another popular German street food is soft pretzels.  They are very dense and chewy and delicious.  There are quite a few recipes available online for replicating these at home but you know how I like to keep things real simple...We just used a tube of Pillsbury pizza crust to create our own pretzels.  I divided the dough into 4 pieces -- two for Mia & two for me.  We worked on rolling them out into long snakes and then I showed her how to fold it up into a pretzel shape.  I dissolved about 2 tablespoons of baking soda in 2 cups of hot water and we gave the pretzel shapes a quick dunk and then laid out on a baking sheet.  We sprinkled them with some coarse salt and baked in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Once they were done, I brushed them with some melted butter.  They were yummy!  Although, I'd say our pretzel rolling & twisting skills need some work!  Ha!

On one of my many visits to Germany, I picked up some traditional children's books for the baby growing in my belly (Mia!).  This week we pulled them out and read them together.  Mia's favorite is Der Struwwelpeter written by Heinrich Hoffman in 1845.  It's a collection of 10 short stories with morals, one being about the title character Der Struwwelpeter (or Shockheaded Peter) who doesn't keep himself groomed and gets teased.  I'll warn you that they are a tad morbid as was the style when it was originally written.  If you've read any of Grimm's Fairy Tales, then you won't be surprised by this style (the brothers Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm were German, too).  Since this book is so old, I was able to find it online with the original illustrations so you can check it out for yourself (find it here).    

Our own last name is German and after doing some research, we learned that a schlosser is a locksmith or one who works in a castle (a schloss).   Last year we made a lock & key charm necklace so this year we thought we'd try a castle art project.  My plan was to cut out various shapes and let Mia piece together her own castle but she wanted to draw with me so we ended up collaborating on a castle.  I drew it out under her very careful art direction and she watercolored it.  During the whole process, we were able to talk about shapes and different types of lines & patterns.  It was really nice to work on this so closely together and I think it turned out quite well.  You could do a German castle art project, too.  Did you know that the German castle Schloss Neuschwanstein (translated as New Swanstone Castle) was Walt Disney's inspiration for the design of Sleeping Beauty's castle?  And lastly, we did our usual Children of the World art project and watercolored the German flag (you can find country flag coloring sheets here).  

Until next week, tschüss! (said like juice with a ch- instead of j- and means bye!)

A summary of all Oktoberfest week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Learned a few German words and the translation of our own last name

ART PROJECTS: Drew & painted our own schloss (castle) by using different shapes, Painted the German flag (find the printable here), Made a schlussel (key) charm necklace after learning that our last name means locksmith

OUTINGS: Attended the Denver Oktoberfest and sampled different types of German food while listing to traditional music

SNACK: Made non-alcoholic glühwein with apple cider and soft pretzels

BOOKS: Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Farms

Fall makes a wonderful time to learn about farms because it's harvest time (Spring is great for seeing baby animals, though).  Check out what's available in your area for berry picking or apple picking for a fun field trip.  Admittedly, we put all of our energy into farm visits this week so I'll share some highlights from our adventures.

Our first field trip was to Berry Patch Farms in Brighton.  They are open several days a week for U-pick berries, basil, flowers, and pickling cucumbers.  They also have a great farm store.  Check their website for specific operating hours and berry picking status.  Strawberries are not available for picking this year because of the rough spring weather, but we were able to pick raspberries.  Mia & I picked a couple of pints together.  I'm pretty sure Millie ate a third pint during this whole process.  Hey, whatever keeps her happy!  Then we picked several cucumbers for pickling and perhaps the best part, Mia was able to pick some flowers.  In the farm store, we purchased some zucchini bread (picking berries is hard work and requires snacks!), tomatoes, garlic, basil, kale, and okra.  

The second farm we visited is Ya Ya Farm & Orchard in Longmont.  Unfortunately, the wacky spring weather and late snow storm did damage here too so apple picking is not available this fall, but the farm is still very beautiful and worth a visit just to explore.  Plus, they sell the best apple cider donuts at the farm stand which is the ENTIRE reason I go anyways.  Ha!  I have so many great childhood memories of apple picking in the fall with my family and it's made me continue the tradition with my kids.  Those sensory memories tied to the taste of apple cider donuts & fresh apple pie and that crisp autumn morning smell on a farm really leave an imprint.  So even though we couldn't pick the apples ourselves, we had a good time making our own new memories at the orchard and we snagged a bushel of apples from the farm stand and the girls were none the wiser.  Plus, local farmers need our support even more during the bad seasons.

We've visited both of these farms numerous times but this was the first time I felt Mia really made the connection with food and where it comes from.  To further this understanding, we made some of her favorite foods with our farm goodies.  Her current favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs so we took all of our tomatoes and made a roasted tomato sauce.  To do this, I cut all the tomatoes in half and put them cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet coated with olive oil.  While I was doing that, Mia separated out the cloves of a whole head of garlic and we added those to the pan.  All of it roasted at 450 degrees for about 35 minutes (right before the skins blacken).  Once everything was cool enough to touch, we squeezed the tomato pulps into a saucepan, discarding the skins.  Then I fork mashed the garlic and added that to the pan.  You could blend the sauce at this point if you like it smoother.  Lastly, we added a quick pour of olive oil (around 1 tablespoon) and salt to taste and brought the heat up for simmering meatballs.  We also made pickles with her cucumbers using this recipe.  And all those raspberries? ...We turned them into a simple jam with this recipe from Martha Stewart.  Towards the end of the week, we made an apple pie with our orchard haul and surprised daddy returning home from business travel.

I've mentioned Sunflower Farm in a few other posts but all for good reason -- this place is pure magic.  From 9:00-1:00 Monday - Friday, they open up their farm to children & their parents to play and explore as they wish.  All seasons, all types of weather.  There are rope swings & ziplines, hammocks & porch swings, treehouses & rope bridges, and hay bale mazes & sand pits.  Horses, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, cows, llamas, sheep, and many more animals.  Even old tractors and a bulldozer and an airplane to climb all over.  Every time we go there, we discover more things to love about this place.  And we always come home exhausted and dirty and happy.  This time around, Mia rode a horse, explored a teepee, played house with a few friends, and climbed in the treehouse.  We also got to see a baby calf born just this week.  A little tip if you plan on visiting: you need to purchase tickets ahead of time on their website (the day of is okay as long as it's not already sold out).

Some other central Colorado farms that we didn't visit this week but we love are Four Mile Historic Park, Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, and Littleton Museum.  

A summary of all Farms week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Played farm with plastic animals and farm set

OUTINGS: Visited 3 local farms: Berry Patch Farms to pick raspberries & veggies, Ya Ya Orchard to pick apples, and Sunflower Farm to see the animals

SNACK: Made apple pie, raspberry jam, roasted tomato sauce, and refrigerator pickles

BOOKS: Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

BIBLE STORY: The Parable of the Sower

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).