Winter Arctic Animals - Ice Sensory Bin

January 29, 2023 Kylie Tuosto

Winter is such a tough season for Sofie because she loves being outdoors and playing outside. And when it’s rainy and yucky I just hate letter her get soaked, not to mention sick, and muddy. So I’m always in search of and trying to create fun winter-y play that we can do indoors together. And since Sofie loves playing in water and chewing on ice, I thought what better way to have fun that to take our polar animals to the ice for some snowflake and ice cube fun.

5 Steps to an Arctic Adventure:

Sensory bin: Make sure you have a sensory bin at the ready because anything with water and ice, well, melts. So you’ll need some towels and a bucket to catch the water.
Ice cube tray/mold: I found this awesome Snowflake Mold at the grocery store and it was perfect for this activity. We filled each of the trays with water. And then I let Sofie drop a few drops of blue food coloring. First one drop, then two, and so on. You can see how each snowflake got progressively darker in color. We used this as an opportunity to talk about colors and how they have different shades depending on the water to food coloring ratio.
Arctic animals: We gathered our arctic animals collection including our Arctic Animals Memory Game, our Polar Animals Textures Board, and of course Polar Bear Bear Slumberkins which Sofie got this Christmas to join the fun.

We’ve been looking into getting some Polar Animal Figurines so that the next time we do this setup, we can have even more fun!

OuTdoor animal safari

February 15, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

Today we decided to take our Safari Animal Flashcards outside for a little outdoor animal adventure. We took them around the yard and matched the colors of nature to the animals on each of the cards. We also laid them out on our IKEA Flisat table and pointed out each one! Sofie can already say “tiger” and “hippo” but the other animals are taking her a little while longer to get. We enjoyed a little fun in the sun in our adorable sunflower peplum from Eighth Day Creations.

Check out these Safari Animal Flashcards at Goodnight Fox!

These flash cards are the perfect way to get your toddler’s education started off on the right foot. They’re durable and you can take them on the go!

Valentine’s Day Waterbeads

February 13, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

Still looking for that last minute Valentine’s Day activity? Setting up these water beads was so fun and so simple! Inspired by @mama.jots I cut a heart out of card board and placed it on top of an old box. Then I filled a plastic ziploc freezer bag with water beads. Sofie loved scratching at and poking at the texture. She played with it for like 30min and then again while I was getting dinner ready. It was the perfect toddler Valentine’s Day activity. And it took maybe 10minutes to prep. We did go to the park while we waited for the water beads to expand.

Pink and red water beads
Old cardboard box
Tape
Plastic ziploc bag
Water

Looking for more great Valentine’s Day Activities?

Check out GoodnightFox for these awesome Valentine’s Day toys & games.

Desert Animals Practice

February 13, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

Today we spent our morning with our Desert Animals Flashcard set from GoodnightFox. It was so much fun teaching Sofie about some animals that she doesn’t see regularly in her books or outside. She’s great at starting to mimic the sounds I make for each animal name. And she’s getting close to being able to recognize some of them as well. These flashcards are such a great little educational activity to pass the time, especially while I’m cooking or cleaning up around the house.

Check out these Desert Animal Flashcards!

Head on over to the shop to snag a set of these Desert Animal Flashcards for yourself!

Learning Fruits for Breakfast

January 27, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

For breakfast today we practiced our fruits! So far Sofie can say “nana” for banana, “opple” for apple, and “oshg” for orange. She’s learning so many new words everyday is just fascinating. This morning I was trying to hold her off until she was a little hungrier for breakfast and this was the perfect entertainment. I could quiz her on each fruit and she would practice saying each word. I love our little bonding activities — it’s so fun to watch her learn basic words.

Want to play the fruit for breakfast game too?

Snag these Fruit Flashcards by Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com and use code FRIENDS15 to save.

Fruit, Veggies, & color practice

January 26, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

Today for dinner we decided to use what we were cooking as an opportunity to learn our colors and fruits & veggies. Fruit is so colorful and beautiful and a great way to help match the concept of color. Sofie loves holding the different textures of each food we tried. She doesn’t quite know her colors yet, but she’s always learning!

Looking for great color learning activities?

Check out these at Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com and use code FRIENDS15 to save!

Quarantine Valentines Activity for kids

January 24, 2021 Kylie Tuosto

For Valentines this year, kids aren’t at school or day care and can’t bring sweets to share. And without seeing family, it’s so hard for Sofie to connect with family and friends. So this year we decided to do some coloring postcards to send out to family and close friends. It was so much fun to color these. It was Sofie’s first experience coloring and she’s clearly still learning. But she loves holding the crayons and trying to eat them hahaha!

So if you’re looking for a great Valentines activity I highly recommend checking these out! They even come with stamps so you don’t have to go out and get any supplies. Friends and family will love the hand drawn effect. And if your kids are a bit older, their friends will love connecting through snail mail.