Bath time FUN

There are days that we need to take quick baths and get on with our evening and there are other days when were not in any rush, so why not have some BATH TIME FUN* For those types of nights here's what we like to do* 

We made two different types of bath paint. For one you need baby shampoo/soap, corn starch and food coloring. For the other type you just need shaving cream and food coloring.

For the paints on the right I put a squirt of baby shampoo a small scoop or corn starch and a drop of food coloring in each ice cube slot. I did not measure it. On this blog they have actual measurements...you can see here

For the shaving cream paint on the left of the tray, I just squirted some shaving cream into the ice cube slots and a drop of food coloring and mixed it with a toothpick.

I liked the shaving cream bath paint better but they are both fun* We also figured out that the plastic ice cube trays floated in the water which made it easier to paint with for my son. 

Foam shapes in the tub. They stick to the sides of the tub*

making fun designs

We also did GLOW STICKS in the bathtub......talk about FUN*** you can see that previous post here

prewriting skill building

Helping children develop their writing skills through multisensory play-based instruction is a great way to introduce writing.  Activities with hands-on materials address different senses to teach correct formation, spacing, sequencing, and other writing skills.
Children move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects as they learn the habits and skills essential for writing. Here are a few great ways to get started with pre-writing**
  

wooden box (or tray of some sort) sugar (or flour or salt) and a few upper case letters.

We did a few pre-strokes, straight lines 

curves and circles

Then we used our finger and traced the letter on the paper first and then made the letter in the sugar.

After a few times he got it all on his own***

It's fun to roll dough snakes and make capital letters and numbers. These are from Handwriting Without Tears you can buy them here. Or make your own, just print out large capital letters and laminate them. Let your kids roll play-dough to form the letters.

Children form capital letters using magnetic stamps. Magnetic chalk-like writing tool promotes important fine motor skills and lets children form letters/numbers on their own. Basically a manga-doodle with curved shapes and lines to create each uppercase letter. Another great product from Handwriting Without Tears, you can find these here

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Another great sensory way to learn to form letters are sandpaper cards. You could make your own but I found these and they are fairly reasonable. It would take so much less time then making them yourself* I found them here.                       Keep in mind that young children learning pre-writing skills should focus solely on forming uppercase letters only.