Homemade Puffy Paint

We have had a lot of rainy wet days here in Florida, you can usually set your watch by the afternoon thunderstorms. It is so easy to quickly run out of stuff to do with your little ones. The moment the sky starts to turn dark my children start to immediately lose interest in all of their store bought toys. No matter how many toy trucks, dress up clothes, puzzles, baby dolls or Tinkerbell fairies my children have its never enough to keep their attention when the storms roll in. I immediately see them running crazy through the house, forgetting all of our house rules and driving this mama crazy!


Time to get Creative!

Being a first grade teacher I have tackled my fair share of messy fun projects. Which I minded much less when I knew a janitor would be coming through to help me tidy up before the first bell rung the next morning. Doing messy projects at home can sometimes feel overwhelming...but they are so worth it! Messy play is a developmental must for little hands and minds. They need to be encouraged to explore their own curiosity with minimal guidelines (or rules) from you....after all it's only a mess, nothing a Clorox wipe can't clean up.

We decided to make our own puffy paint. We followed this simple recipe, comprised of things that were already in our pantry.

3 Tbs. Flour
2 Tbs. Corn Starch
2 Tbs. Water
1 Tsp. salt
Food coloring

You want the mixture to be like cake batter consistency. If it's too runny just add a little more flour and corn starch.

I used an over sized muffin tin to hold our puffy paint. Plastic squeeze containers work great too...I just didn't have any on hand and lord knows I didn't want to run to the store in the rain with two kids!  I had the kids use some baby q-tips to apply the puffy paint, even my 16 month old was able to create his own masterpiece using the puffy paint. Once they are done with their creation put it in the microwave for 10 - 15 seconds ( depending on your microwave you might need to do a little more or a little less...please watch it and don't walk away for safety)
When you take the paper out you will see it start to puff up immediately. Viola you have made your own art using homemade puffy paint!

We moved our painting party to the bathtub once we ran out of paper...the kids painted the tile walls and themselves with the paint...cleanup was pretty simple we just rinsed the shower/tub with hot water. The kids had a blast and before we knew it those afternoon thunderstorms rolled through and the sun was out again!

 

What homemade recipes have you tried with your little ones? We would love for you to share your favorites below.....leave us a comment!

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Lil Sprouts Book Club: The Rain Came Down

Summer in Florida is a wonderful thing, plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures, lots of daylight which makes for lots of outdoor fun for the little ones. However there is a phenomena that strikes our town about 3pm every day, it is so predictable you can set your watch by it....afternoon thunderstorms. These aren't just any kind of thunderstorms these are the lightning clashing, thunder booming monsoon rain type of thunderstorms. So what better book to curl up with on a  rainy afternoon than David Shannon's The Rain Came Down 

This is a great book about a busy little town where everyone is out and about when a torrential rainstorm hits. It stops everyone's plans and keeps them from their normally busy routines. While the little town is effected by the rain, it makes a great point for little readers...when its raining stay inside. Because everything is crazy when it rains, the cars, the stores the people...so it's best to stay indoors until the rain is gone and everything returns to normal. 

 

In our house we have introduced a rainy day activity bucket (looks a little familiar doesn't it?) Inside are clouds that I cut out of sturdy felt from my local craft store. On each cloud is a label with an activity that is just for a rainy afternoon. I keep a few special types of activities on hand that are just for those rainy afternoons like aqua sand, markers, and homemade playdough, just to name a few.

You can use these labels below and print them to attach to your clouds or just print them, on carsdstock and cut out as is. A few are left blank so you can add some ideas of your own.

 

Having a rainy day activity bucket on hand is great for those stormy afternoons. My daughter gets so excited now when she starts to hear the rumbling of thunder. She can't wait to see what type of activity she will get to do. Today she pulled out a fun one that I was a little nervous about...but it sure was a lot of fun! We had an indoor water balloon fight ( in the shower of course). I blew up all the water balloons and filled them with water. We put a stopper over the drain and filled up the shower floor with water and Mr. Bubble. I added the water balloons and the kids went to town, at first they would chase them all over the shower floor as they squiggled out of their hands, then they would try to throw them into a bucket I put in the shower...I only had three rules, once they popped they gave it immediately to me ( so my little one wouldn't choke on any pieces), no water balloons in the mouth ( for the same reason), and Have a great time! I must say the kids had a blast, before I knew it the thunderstorms were over and my kids were squeaky clean!

What fun things do you do to keep your little ones occupied and distracted as those dark clouds roll in?

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Some rainy day learning fun

Rainy afternoons can be down right terrifying when you have little children in the house. The chaos, tantrums and rowdiness is sometimes more than I can bear. So when the weather forecast calls for afternoon thunderstorms stop what you are doing and take a few minutes to work play with your little ones.

Hi Ho Cherry-o is one of my favorite games for toddlers. It covers all the basics, color recognition, sorting, fine motor skills, following the rules, counting and most importantly manners.

Encourage your little one to set up the game without your help. Have them sort the apples, cherries, blueberries and oranges into the matching color basket. Once they have done this have them put the fruit on the matching tree counting as they go. Picking up those tiny fruits and placing them on the tree is great fine motor skill practice and helps them with their coordination and dexterity. Explain the rules of the game and have your little one repeat them back to you. As you take turns spinning be sure to model good manners and taking turns with your little one....and no getting mad when you lose. Because you will lose. My daughter beat me 4 times in a  row! Playing board games often takes a backseat to video games and movies which is a shame because developmentally they play such an important role in your child's development. While technology is great and definitely has its place in the educational world sometimes you need to get back to basics and teach your children through personal interaction and modeling.

Some more of my rainy day favorite activities

Scavenger Hunt: Give your little ones a bucket or a bag and make a few lists. Suggested lists: Things that: are Red, yellow, green, have wheels, are edible, soft, hard, round, square, float, can be used in the kitchen, the possibilities are endless. Write them down on a card and mix all the cards up in a small jar. Have your little one pull out a list and give them 4 minutes to search the house finding items that would match their list. The more they find the more points they get!
Fashion show: Break out the purple eyeshadow and fancy clothes let your little one raid your closet for the perfect high heel shoes and have a fashion show
Design an amusement park: Have your little one get creative with their colored pencils, markers and crayons. Have them draw pools and roller coasters, animal areas and playgrounds. Then give them a box or shopping bag and encourage them to go around the house and find some items they could use to build their amusement park. Work with them to set it up...and let their creativity go wild!
Build a fort: Have your child draw out blueprints for their fort, labeling the parts and making a materials list for what they will need to build it. Then get to work helping them build their fort.
Pillow hop: Have your little one gather all of the throw pillows, if your house is like mine there are plenty to choose from. Arrange them in a row on the floor, practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's as they hop to the next pillow.
Puzzles: Having your child put together a 35 piece or higher puzzle is a great way to get their brain working. It challenges them to think, problem solve and use clues to help them solve their problems.

Come and check out our Rainy Day Ideas on Pinterest

Leave a comment and let us know how you spend your rainy days with your little ones. We would love to hear your ideas!

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