Week three of alphabet adventures is complete! You can find the original post explaining what this journey is by clicking below

Alphabet Adventures

For this week we focused on: COLOR!

Logan already had so many wonderful toys that focus on colors, so this week was going to be easy to put together! This theme in itself is great because it is so aesthetically pleasing .

Plus, I was pretty excited to make this sensory bin! I had a vision in my head of how I wanted it to look and it came out pretty darn close to how I imagined.

We have already started working on colors with Logan, but this week we got some excellent play based practice with our colors!

At this age, children learn through play!

Most the time if you asks Logan what a color is, he will say “blue!” Everything is blue. Until you prompt him to slow down and try again, then he usually comes up with the right one! If you ask him to hand you a color, he can do that correctly. However, he still has a hard time saying the colors. He can say blue, purple and yellow.

During Alphabet Adventures, every week needs to include these things:

1. Craft

2. Food

3. Outing

4. Books/Activites

5. Sensory activity

I also decided that every week we are going to do a handprint craft that we will eventually turn into an “ABC” book!

Here is our third page!

Pro tip- don’t do this on white paper (like I did at first 🤦🏼‍♀️)

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Craft

For our crafts this week we made cloud dough, color clay mixing , chalk paint, made our friend Charlie a card, introduced charcoal pencils, oil and water color mixing, egg carton caterpillar, and did a construction paper collage!

Even though this may seem like a lot of projects, it’s only 8 crafts….thats about one a day! And most of these are very low prep! For a lot of these crafts, I try to utilize things we already have in our home. It’s all about exposure, the process and having fun!

Cloud Dough

You guys, cloud dough is so cool! If you haven’t made it before, I highly suggest it! It’s so easy, only requires 2 ingredients and it’s cheap!

The ingredients are conditioner and corn starch. You can get both from the dollar store. Get the super cheap conditioner, it works the same! It’s fun if it has a scent to it, we chose strawberry this time.

I don’t really have a recipe, I just go by how it feels. I’m pretty sure it’s just 2 parts corn starch, 1 part conditioner (depending on how much you want to make. For example 2 cups corn starch, 1 cup conditioner) If it feels too wet- add starch. If it feels too dry- add conditioner.

Color Clay Mixing

Logan is very into playdoh right now and I love it! Usually I give him only one color at a time to play with, but in the name of color mixing I gave him a couple colors!

First I gave him one of each color (first picture) then we mixed the two colors together (middle picture) then Logan wanted to add all the colors together in one big ball (right picture)

Chalk Paint

If you do anything from this week….. please do this chalk paint!!

This was so easy to do, yet turned out so cool. You can see by my rainbow in the picture above it had a cool water color effect to it!

All you have to do is :

• Put a piece of chalk in sandwich bag
• Hit with hammer until it’s turned to a powder
• Place powder in muffin tin/bowl/container
• Add water
• Enjoy!

Couple tips-

-I used a whole piece of chalk and it was a lot for a toddler! He ended up just mixing the colors together and dumping it out to play with. So maybe only do a half of a piece of chalk each.

– I knew this was going to happen, but with only three paintbrushes and six colors, the double dipping turned the colors different colors. It actually wasn’t all that bad because when you used it to paint, the paint itself had different dimensions to it, so it was kind of cool!

-If you really don’t want the colors to run into each other, maybe have a separate dish and separate paint brush for each color. Good luck trying to get your toddler to switch paintbrushes every time and not double dip though 😉

Card for Charlie

If you ever wondered who the sweet little popsicle with glasses is in the logo, that’s Logan’s bestie Charlie!

What better way to start off “c” week then to celebrate our sweet friend Charlie. Charlie’s mom knows I’m a big fan of snail mail, but this is the first time Logan has sent a card!

I let him choose the colors for the front himself and taped it down for him to color. I like how it made a border too.

Logan was into coloring this and came back multiple times to work on it because he knew it was for Charlie.

He finished it off by writing a message on the inside for her! But that’s for Charlie’s eyes only 😉

Charcoal Pencils

I knew these were not going to be a big hit, however I was excited to introduce Logan to a different art medium! He was so confused why they squeak!

Oil & Water Color Mixing

I loved doing this kind of stuff when I was a kid! If you have older kiddos, it’s so fun to find like 5 or more liquids and add them to a bottle and see how they separate and which ones come out on top and which ones go to the bottom!

Logan- not so much.

He first tried to drink it. Then he really enjoyed shaking it, but then looked at it waiting for something cool to happen and when nothing was happening, he set it down and walked away.

It’s all good. I pointed out to him when it separated again, and he enjoyed shaking it up once more.

Egg Carton Caterpillar

We had an old egg carton that I cut into one strip and let Logan paint it! Add googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennas and you have yourself a carton caterpillar!

Construction Paper Collage

This was Logan’s first time using glue and he did great!! Didn’t try to eat it once! Which I believe is a big toddler parent win

We started by handing him pieces of construction paper with glue already on it and then he stuck it to the paper, kind of like a sticker

Then we went to us putting a day of glue on the paper and Logan putting a piece of paper on top of it. This would have been more helpful if the glue was a color, not clear, so Logan could see where we put the glue.

Of course it ended with Logan attempting to do the whole process by himself. And he didn’t do too shabby!

Food

The alliteration could not be more perfect- Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Logan has never had a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. So one day we decided to make these bright and early at 7 am. We had to do it before it was hot or else the oven would heat up the house like crazy.

I know baking/cooking with a toddler is so beneficial for them, however it does make it more difficult. As mentioned in a previous post about sensory bins, Logan is very into scooping and pouring right now. This does not mix well when you need the measurements of the ingredients to be near perfect.

These cookies turned out a little funky looking (probably from Logan scooping ingredients out of the bowl) but they tasted delicious! You would have to try really hard to mess up chocolate chip cookies.

Logan’s rating- 9/10. Immediately “mmmmmm!” And savored his last bite so it didn’t end, but didn’t ask for more. Might have been because his favorite song came on.

A lot of Logan’s favorite foods also start with C and we have those every week- Chicken, crackers, cherries, carrots and cheese just to name a few!

Outing

Logan and I started our week by going to Costco! Sadly, that doesn’t count…. That’s just a normal thing for us. Even though it costs probably three times as much as an outing🙄

We did find a great book about colors there though! It’s so great!

We decided to brave a restaurant for dinner with Logan this week as our “c” outing! We went to a craft kitchen & brewery! We had pickle chips for the first time and they were so good. Logan also had a cheeseburger. We had a family “cheers!”

Logan also decided to continue “b” week and practice his balancing outside with dad. Highly recommend taking your toddler somewhere with an outside area so they can get their wiggles out if needed!

Then on another day, Logan and I went to a coffee shop after gymnastics for a quick treat!

I really love taking him on little outings like this because he’s a fun little sidekick to have around! Also, a sweet elderly couple sitting next to us told me he was adorable and looks so much like me. Which I never hear that, so it warmed my heart.

Books/Activites

There were a lot of easy ways to incorporate the theme of this week into our everyday lives! Color is everywhere! It could be as simple as mentioning what color shirt you are wearing, or what color car you are driving.

Speaking of colors of cars, for some reason we started a new game with Logan that we had no intention of it actually turning into a game now but now Logan will ask, “dada, beep beep, blue!” And walk to the front door.

James and Logan will sit in our rocking chairs on our front porch and name the colors of the cars. The goal is to find a blue car. If they do, they shout “BLUE CAR!” and get very excited.

That’s it….. that’s the game. And Logan LOVES it!

We also can’t forget about our three family members that start with “c”! We love our chickens!

We spent some time outside collecting some treasures! Logan picked some seeds off the bush, found some cool rocks, a couple flowers and a handful of plums and carried them around in his bucket

Toy Rotation

This looks like a lot when it’s all piled together like this, and it is! I just set his activities/toys up like this for a picture and then I put them on his open shelving, one item per shelf, so it’s not overwhelming.

From left-right

Colored cube blocks– Etsy

Color xylophone- Amazon

Fisher Price wooden stacker– Walmart

Color caterpillar- Melissa and Doug Amazon

Barnyard colored animals- Amazon

Popsicle sticks- Michaels

Cleaning Supplies- Melissa and Doug (Target)

The barnyard colored animals is one of our top toys! I bought them for Logan when he was about 7 months old and he still plays with them every day. We bring them on trips too because they are such great open-ended toys. Highly recommend!

The xylophone was definitely a hit! Logan is a big percussion fan thanks to his music class, so I knew he would love this.

Magnetic Board

I used some colored tape to make boxes on the board and placed the corresponding magnatile in the square to scaffold the activity for him.

I then placed the rest of the magnatiles underneath the squares so he had to find which colored square they went in!

I only chose two magnatiles of each color so he didn’t get overwhelmed.

I was surprised when I first introduced it to Logan and he figured it out right away and completed the whole “puzzle”. He never ceases to surprise me!

Logan also got his first set of hot wheels cars!

Sensory Activity

Another win in the sensory bin department this week!

Sensory bin filler- diy dyed corn kernels

Silicone muffin cups- Amazon

Colored caps- yogurt/ applesauce pouch tops collected over a while

Scoops- from old sensory bins

Pantone Colors book -amazon

Usborne Big Book of Colors– Amazon