Hey That's Pin-tastic! Toddler Edition

I pin a good amount of toddler activities and crafts. In fact, the boards that include that category are probably the fullest. This is where I don't understand where Pinterest gets a bad rap. On any given day, I can find something to do, whether creative, active, "school-ish," or just for cuteness sake, with The Sheriff. That, my friends, is lovely.

For a few weeks I focused my efforts on my own crafts and projects, and it was time to get back to some "lesson planning" for a change. It takes time, for me at least, to put a few activities together for W and I to do together that revolve around some sort of theme, and I want to dedicate more of myself to this. Preschool or a MDO program isn't for us just yet, but I also know that kids are such sponges at this age. He's a bright boy (they all are right!) and I want to fulfill that part of my parenting roll that calls me to challenge him and keep him growing and learning.

This week's Hey That's Pin-tastic will be toddler style for me!


All Saints Day sneaks up on me after all of the Halloween hoopla. I wanted to do something with W to start participating in more of our Catholic traditions, but this year I didn't get it together in time to do a more encompassing activity. Instead we talked about a couple of Saints and introduced the concept. Craft time attention span isn't that long after all. This Saints garland pin was my inspiration, but I was pretty sure we wouldn't accomplish that much. Instead, we read about St. Francis and found the animals in the coloring page one day. The next day we focused on St. Joseph which I thought would make a nice introduction to Christmas and colored pictures, talked about carpentry, and did a bit of our own work with tools.

This past week we had lots of fun with the letter H. I've got a board dedicated to letters, admittedly one of my favorite boards; these pins are all linked there.

After reading But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandy Boynton, we made our own hippo puppet. I prepared all of the pieces and W helped me color and glue everything where it needed to be.
Funny how toddlers will do things they don't want to do too when a puppet tells them to do them. We'll see how long that trick works.

I loved this next project. I lied, and I'll link the original pin here. I did the prep work during nap time and made our hippo cutouts. The Sheriff enjoyed pasting, but more so eating, marshmallows to create a mouthful of hippo teeth! 

The H madness didn't stop there! H is of course for Hand so we did some handprints,

 
and practiced writing (one line down, another line down, one line across)

and ended with reading The People House and making our own letter H House inspired here

 Yes, it was complete with working door and our little family inside. Apparently The Sheriff thought Daddy needed a halo of purple hair.

 I'd say we had a Pin-tastic week of fun, and I'm so thankful for the ability to jump on the computer quickly and find some meaningful activities that not only keep a toddler engaged but help him learn more about the world around him. I don't have time to come up with all of these ideas on my own!