{"id":7429,"date":"2011-12-31T08:39:21","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T14:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/?p=7429"},"modified":"2011-12-31T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T14:39:21","slug":"top-11-kids-art-and-activities-of-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/31\/top-11-kids-art-and-activities-of-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 11 Kids’ Art and Activities of 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Littlest Apple and I discovered some new favorite activities this year, several of which I haven’t even shared with you yet (including marshmallow guns, water beads, glow in the dark fun, and more…coming soon in 2012! \u00c2\u00a0One of my goals for 2012 is to be more intentional about planning fun activities, crafts, and science experiments for The Littlest Apple. \u00c2\u00a0I found the Activity Advent Calendar<\/a> to be really helpful for the month of December, and we did more fun stuff in December than we did all year long. \u00c2\u00a0When I was prepping for each week, I looked over that week’s Advent Activities and purchased supplies and prepared each activity accordingly. \u00c2\u00a0The rest of the year, I may have thought<\/em> about a particular activity or craft, but didn’t have supplies on hand. \u00c2\u00a0Or I just never planned it in the first place. \u00c2\u00a0With Baby Slingshot arriving soon, I know this will be a challenge, but I also think this will be a great way to spend some quality time with The Littlest Apple. \u00c2\u00a0We probably won’t do something like this every single day, but I may aim for 2-3 crafts\/activities a week. \u00c2\u00a0(Blogging about them all is a whole different story!)<\/p>\n

So, here are some things The Littlest Apple and I did in 2011….<\/p>\n

1. \u00c2\u00a0Mardi Gras Sensory Bin<\/a>– \u00c2\u00a0This was a new sensory bin for us this year, and The Littlest Apple and I BOTH loved it! \u00c2\u00a0The colored rice, the beads, the feathers, and the masks made this one really special. \u00c2\u00a0Can’t wait to break it out again in a few months!<\/p>\n

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2. \u00c2\u00a0Does It Dissolve?<\/a> Anything that involves pouring and stirring is usually a hit with The Littlest Apple, and he’s asked for this activity over and over again. \u00c2\u00a0We also used the index card labels to incorporate some letter and word recognition into this activity.<\/p>\n

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3. \u00c2\u00a0Easter Cross Suncatcher<\/a>– My favorite of all the suncatchers we’ve made over the last few years. \u00c2\u00a0The black outline on this one really makes the colors pop, and the colors are bright and lovely for spring.<\/p>\n

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4. \u00c2\u00a0Fizzy Fun<\/a>– This was probably the biggest hit of the entire year. \u00c2\u00a0We’ve done this many, many times, and since it just requires a few household ingredients (that I usually<\/em> have on hand), we do this one as a default activity when we’re looking for something to do.<\/p>\n

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5. \u00c2\u00a0Milk Magic<\/a>– This experiment is so mesmerizing to watch. \u00c2\u00a0The swirly, bright colors look beautiful on the backdrop of white milk. \u00c2\u00a0We definitely need to revist this one!<\/p>\n

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6. \u00c2\u00a0Cup Stacking<\/a>– \u00c2\u00a0The surprise hit of the year. \u00c2\u00a0Who knew that kids liked to play with plastic cups so much? \u00c2\u00a0Note to self: Always have a stack of cups on hand for The Littlest Apple when I need a minute to get something done.<\/p>\n

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7. \u00c2\u00a0Slime<\/a>-There are so many neat-o recipes like this floating around on the internet for slime, gak, oobleck, etc. \u00c2\u00a0I plan to try more of these in the future, because it’s a really great sensory experience for The Littlest Apple (as well as a good lesson in following the recipe!). \u00c2\u00a0This slime had a neat texture that was lots of fun to play with.<\/p>\n

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8. \u00c2\u00a0Autumn Cork Painting<\/a>– \u00c2\u00a0I LOVED this art project! \u00c2\u00a0I thought it turned out beautifully, and The Littlest Apple even joined in despite his initial rejection. \u00c2\u00a0This was one of YOUR favorite Picky Apple post this year too, judging by all the Pinterest interest<\/a> it received.<\/p>\n

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9. \u00c2\u00a0Gumdrop Sculptures<\/a>– This was another activity that I came up with spur of the moment using things we had on hand (including the several-years-old-yucky-gumdrops). \u00c2\u00a0The Littlest Apple is in a building phase, so this one kept him busy for quite a while.<\/p>\n

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10. \u00c2\u00a0Gingerbread Playdough<\/a>– This was a new playdough for us this year, and we played with it all through the month of December. \u00c2\u00a0It smells fantastic, and the rollers and cookie cutters made this extra festive.<\/p>\n

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11. Salt Dough Ornaments<\/a>– \u00c2\u00a0The Littlest Apple and I had a blast making these and painting them, then using them as ornaments and gift tags. \u00c2\u00a0Definitely a new annual Christmas tradition for The Picky Apple house.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Littlest Apple and I discovered some new favorite activities this year, several of which I haven’t even shared with you yet (including marshmallow guns, water beads, glow in the dark fun, and more…coming soon in 2012! \u00c2\u00a0One of my goals for 2012 is to be more intentional about planning fun activities, crafts, and science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7429"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7455,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions\/7455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}