Texture Play

Babies, toddlers, and children all around need to be comfortable with experimenting and texture play is one of the best ways for them to grow accustomed to different things.  There are a lot of different textures children can play with, fuzzies-like teddy bear furs or cotton balls, slimes like Goblin Goo and Shaving Cream Paints, and doughs of all sorts - edibles, snows, sands.  Not to mention dozens, if not hundreds of toys and books.

Don't forget when playing with your kiddos as they work with the different textures to help them learn descriptive words, if they're very young, like rough, slick, soft, hard, hairy, fluffy, or if they're older help inspire them to think, like what happens when we stretch it?  What happens when we squeeze it?  What happens when we roll it?  Does it hold its shape when you let go?

Involve your young one with things you do in your daily life that have different textures, like baking, cleaning with sponges and water, involve her in the art projects, the fun and the work.  Talk about the difference between pastas, and the texture of the carpet versus the tile.  Let your babies ask questions.

She-she and I played with Oobleck, (Corn Starch and Water) she's young enough that we didn't discuss polymers, or the actual physics behind it, but we did discuss that sometimes things are liquid and some are solid.  We came up with a few other things that are in solid and liquid states that she's familiar with, water and ice, cake and batter, ice cream and milk.

Remember though, that any sort of learning through play is about the play first to your child, don't make learning un-fun!

Yummy Fruit "Cake"

So my dear She-she turned four in October (thus the painting of a jack-o-lantern on her cheek) her birthday party was on the Saturday after her birthday, but her grammy wasn't able to be there on the day of the party so we wanted to throw a bit of a party on her actual birth day.  We are striving really hard to reduce processed sugar in our diets, striving to make changes with the level of red meat, the level of unhealthy foods, and we already had cupcakes planned for the party, but honestly Grammy was a life-saver in the cake department.

I was concerned; how can you ever say, "no birthday cake" to a young child?  So when Grammy suggested a fruit "cake" we gently asked She-she if she'd be ok with it.  I was floored when she got excited.  Part of it I'm sure was our excitement (even if a bit mocked on my side) and promises that it would be special.  So then we hit Pinterest, hunting for kid's style fruit cakes... I was...less than impressed.  Again Grammy came to the rescue and brought up the idea of a ball gowned princess fruit cake.  Frankly it ended up being adorable.

Watermelon, grapes cut in half, blueberries, strawberries in half, oranges, peaches, and a bit of cream cheese and marshmallow fluff fruit topping, all of it was designed to bring joy to my baby girl and joy it did, with not near so much undesirable calories.