Mud painting affords rich opportunities to develop muscles, coordination, cognitive skills, and their imagination.
What You Need:
- Dirt and water
- 4 disposable containers
- Paint brushes or sponges
- 4 different colors of food coloring or washable tempera paint
- Cardboard to paint on
What To Do:
- Help your child mix water and dirt in 4 containers to create mud. Experiment with different thicknesses by adding more water for thinner mud paint, and/or more dirt for a thicker paint.
- Add a few drops of food coloring (or tempera paint) in each container of mud (1 color per container). Mix together. You now have mud paint!
- Place a paintbrush in each of the containers and give your child a piece of cardboard to paint on. Have fun!
Safe solid stumps, a bench, rails, and other low-level structures affords infants a place to pull himself up to stand, hold on, and cruise along as he’s learning to walk.
What You Need:
- A solid tree stump, sturdy bench, or other low-level structure
- An interesting outdoor object (e.g., non-poisonous leaf), toy, or stuffed animal
What To Do:
- When your infant can stand while holding on to you, sit him down on the ground, facing you.
- Securely take hold of his hands and say, “Are you ready to stand up? Here we go! One, two, three!” You can also count in a different language. For example, “‘ekahi, ‘elua, ‘ekolu!” (Hawaiian).
- On the count of three, gradually and gently pull him up to a standing position.
- Give him lots of positive encouragement. For example, “Look at you. You’re standing!”
- To encourage your infant to use the tree stump or other low-level structure to pull himself up, put an interesting object or a toy on the stump. Ask him to get the object. Show him how to grab onto the stump to stand up and reach for the object.
! Safety Alert: Your infant may fall backward while trying to pull himself up into a standing position. Make sure there is padding under/behind him, such as soft grass or other padding. Move any unsafe items away from the area.
Create a looped, curvy pathway for running, riding, and other activities. It boosts physical activity because of its continuous, uninterrupted form, which encourages preschoolers to perform physical activities for an extended amount of time.
What You Need:
- White or bright sidewalk chalk
- Outdoor concrete surface, fenced-in garage, driveway, or other flat, hard surface
What To Do:
- Make a plan with your child for what you would like the path to look like. Keep in mind that you want to create a large, continuous, winding circular path.
- When you are ready, use the chalk to draw the outer border of the path on your concrete space.
- Next, draw the inner border– a few feet away from the outer shape (wide enough to accommodate your child and his wheeled toys), and parallel to the outer border.
- You now have a looped pathway – ready for your child to run, ride, jump, balance, etc. on!
Variation: Place rocks, stones (or cones if you have) on a grassy lawn to form a loop that your child can run, skip, and jump around.
This simple cheese puff recipe is a delicious addition to your backyard tea party menu.
What You Need:
- Puff pastry (two sheets)
- 1 egg and 1 T (tablespoon) water
- Cheese, grated (you can use Cheddar, Colby, Mozzarella, Romano or Parmesan, or a combination of your favorites)
- Star-shaped cookie cutter, baking sheet, parchment paper
What To Do:
- Lay out your puff pastry sheets to defrost. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat the egg and 1 T water together to form an egg wash.
- Cut stars from the puff pastry using a star cookie cutter.
- Lay star shapes onto a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and brush with egg wash.
- Sprinkle a little cheese onto each star shape.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and pastry puffed.
- Enjoy warm or store cooled cheese puffs in an airtight container overnight. Enjoy these snacks outdoors with your child as part of a backyard tea party!
