Homemade Toys

I have finally finished Little J's b-day toys from November.  Yes, November.  He has been playing with his cloths and clothes pins so much he hasn't even realized I had not glued the pieces together for his mushrooms and finished sealing the blocks.

All of the toys are made from wooden pieces from the local craft store.  I painted each piece using milk paint and sealed them with a glossy polyurethane.  Milk paint was a bit tricky to get use to as you are mixing the paint from powder.  Once you get the hang of it though you will be hooked.  The colors are very basic with a primitive feel. 

To learn more about milk paint, click here.

As for the polyurethane, I used it basically out of convenience.  I knew that I would not oil the pieces often enough to keep the color of the toys from bleeding.  The polyurethane did the trick.  I wish I could find a healthier alternative that did not require more than a one time application.  I just do not know of any.

If you have any ideas, please share.

I plan to reuse a basket from our home to store his newly finished treasures.  The basket will contain:

• stars
• blocks
• mushrooms
• & eggs

as well as some numeral cards to use for creating sets.

J is sure to have a blast counting, patterning, sorting, and going math crazy with these little gems.  Now, if Daddy will make us a gnome home we will be set.

Hammers, Nails, and The Home Depot

Home Depot offers the absolute best projects to get dad involved in some creative activities with the kiddos. A couple of weeks ago, Big G and T Man went on an outing and came back with this awesome ramp that had 2 cars to race down the track.

T patiently waited for a day that everyone was able to partake in such an adventure. Little J always wants to help, but sometimes gets in the way.... just a bit.

As you can see, J was not happy to come home from the grocery store to see all the fun happening at home of all places. Was he sticking his tongue out at me? Little toot.

T wants to be an architect when he grows up and I would say he is well on his way. He has been reading Lego directions and putting them together since he was 4. In kindergarten, he began drawing out detailed instructions on how to build boats and the such... material list included, of course. Now, he has moved on to the actual building. I have told him many times that he can do anything he sets his mind to and T has proven that to be true.

I'm so proud of my not so little guy.

Want to link learnign to a book?  Consider One Big Building: A Counting Book About Construction.  A simple counting book about construction.