School is out for many districts and homeschoolers and the summer fun has started. How can you keep the learning going over the next few months? We put together ideas to play your way through the ABCs this summer. We thought these featured posts from Share It Saturday were the perfect way to learn and play the summer away. Have fun playing (and learning) this summer!
For the summer months, we’ll be doing Share It Saturday just a little differently. Instead of weekly link up, there will be a month long linky going on. Stop back each week to add your posts to the party. We’ll be pulling a few features from each month’s link ups, so be sure to add your new posts all month long!
I am so excited that my bloggy friend from The Sugar Aunts is expecting another baby (and perhaps has already had it by the time this is published!) This, of course, brought back memories of baby showers past, and particularly our celebration before Little Monkey was born over a year ago. Since it was my shower, my friends, of course, took care of most of it, but since I can’t help myself, I had to get involved in the planning, too! In addition to making candle favors with one of my favorite inspirational quotations, I also helped organize some of the games. Here are some games we had fun with!
1. Decorate onesies!
One thing we tried to do was have activities for people to do as they are arriving. If your showers are anything like mine, not everyone will know each other at first: Some guests were from where I used to work, some from my religious community, some from my mother’s group, and so on. So having a little something for people to do as they came in helped ease them into the party and gave them something to talk about.
My friend told me about this super fun (and practical) idea to have guests decorate onesies for the baby. People have done this in all sorts of ways, but she kept it simple with fabric markers, so people could decorate at their seats. (Be sure to insert a piece of cardboard inside the onesie. This makes it easier to draw without having to be at a table, plus it keeps the color from bleeding through to the back). This is a really fun activity and easy to put together. I also love that she included all different sizes of onesies, plus some with long sleeves, since I was having a winter baby. We got to enjoy them throughout Baby’s first year! The only thing I would have done differently would be to have people initial or sign their artwork, since – especially months later – I really could not remember who had drawn what.
At the end I got to be the judge of the best/most creative onesie – not an easy task!
2. Thank you card envelopes
This was another brilliant idea my friend introduced me to. Have guests self-address envelopes that you can later use when writing thank you cards. Talk about a time saver for a tired pregnant mama! And it’s fun for the guests, because later during the shower you can draw an envelope to pick a winner for another prize!
3. Favorite names
Our friends knew that we were having trouble settling on a name for Baby, so I decided they should help us out! I laid out a piece of poster board and had everyone write on it their suggestions for boys’ names. It was fun to see what they came up with! In addition, when they came in, on their name tags we had them write their actual name, plus what their name would have been if they had been a boy (all the guests were women). (In case you are curious, my name would have been Matthew!) If they didn’t know then they could write the name of a close male relative, such as a brother, or a boys’ name that sounded like their actual name (like Leonard for Leanna).
4. Guess the number of…
Another popular baby shower game is to have people guess the number of some baby related item. Again, this is a good game for people to play as they chat and enjoy refreshments. Since I do cloth diapering, we had people guess how many scoops of laundry detergent we had poured into a jar. (Be sure to count before you pour!)
5. Scavenger Hunt (Free Printable)
I had so much fun creating this scavenger hunt. I really wanted the guests to mingle and get to know each other, but I know that it can help to give people something to talk about. So I came up with this scavenger hunt, which can only be completed by talking to other guests, preferably ones you don’t know well. Grab this Baby Shower Scavenger Hunt in Word, so you can adapt it for your party!
What are your favorite baby shower games?
Leanna is a stay at home mother to a sweet, funny, rambunctious four year old boy and his adorable, smiley baby brother. She draws inspiration from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and tries to raise her Monkeys in a fun, spiritual, loving environment. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their boys to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” All Done Monkey is dedicated to sharing this journey with you!
We love sensory art and play activities at my house. We also love making our own DIY sensory play recipes for playtime and art. This Liquid Chalk recipe is just one of our favorite ones to make. It is cheap and easy and my kids love it. It can be a little messy but clean up is pretty easy. Liquid chalk is a fun way to spend time with the kids outside on a nice sunny day while engaging in some tactile sensory challenges.
These liquid chalks would be a great addition to a rubber duck painting activity too, and a great way for kids to explore tactile sense with creative art.
Liquid Chalk Recipe
I mixed up a batch of liquid chalk in a muffin tin. I placed it on a tray and sat it outside for the kids.
The kids had foam brushes to paint with. They painted the driveway and garage floor.
Liquid chalk is fun to explore sight and touch. Creating art on the concrete is a fun change from paper inside.
Painting outside like this gets the kids up and moving around too. I have so much fun painting with them, when they let me.
This day we wanted to mix it up with the typical chalk painting we usually do. I had seen a fun Fizzing Sidewalk Paint Recipe by Kids Activities Blog and had wanted to try it out. Today seemed like as good a day as any.
After the kids had painted a while, I brought out spray bottles with vinegar in them. I let the kids spray the chalk paint. We watched to see if it would fizz? A little added simple science too.
We got a little fizzing action but not a lot. They kids still had a blast spraying the vinegar on the ground either way. This was a hit at my house and we hope you can enjoy it too.
This is a guest post by Jaime at Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. Jaime is an everyday stay at home mom. She has 3 boys ages 5 yr to 1 yr. Jaime loves to find fun activities, crafts, recipes…. for us to do together. When she is not washing clothes and chasing the boys around she enjoys sharing our activities and crafts on her blog.
