Infant Activities?

[Miss A]

Hey Ladies! I know some of you have an exclusive infant/toddler enrollment, and I have a few questions for you. I did not plan it that way, but I have 5 under 20 months, including my own 4 month old DS.

I am wondering how often you guys do "organized" activities. It isn't really developmentally appropriate to schedule too many throughout the day for them currently, but I am thinking of implementing a form of Circle Time for my big 3, as the third is almost 1. I want to do this at the table, and I was thinking of doing it at afternoon snack, as breakfast and lunch are pretty hectic. I was thinking songs, colors, numbers 1-10. Have any of you done this?

Also, for this age group, how often are you doing art? I worked in a 5 star QRS center, and at this age I had to offer an art project every day. I feel that is excessive, as my group isn't really into that. I aim for 1 handprint/footprint activity, and 1 open ended activity a week. I would be fine skipping the hand/foot activity, but mommies and daddies like having them to look back on, and I totally get that now that I have my own little guy.

I am just having a feeling of inadequacy. Being in a 5 star QRS center meant I had to mealet a lot of state requirements, and our days were jam packed. My kiddos are so into free play right now, and I don't want to structure that too much. They want to crawl and explore, push and pull toys, climb, run, walk, you name it they are an active bunch.

[CityGarden]

I strongly suggest looking into RIE and have that sort of approach with children that age.

[Miss A]

I strongly suggest looking into RIE and have that sort of approach with children that age.

I do a lot of RIE and Follow Magda Gerber's theories pretty closely. I love Magda!

[finsup]

I would keep doing what you're doing. Let them play, read to them, put out new sensory experiences, add in numbers/colors etc (if you want) as they play. If you do want to do circle time, keep it short and active but personally, I wouldn't do it this early. Put pillows or cushions on the floor to let them climb over for something new. Art? With the older ones, finger painting, coloring, stickers. Stuff like that a few times a week. I know it doesn't feel like "enough" but it really is!

[jenboo]

We do one organized activity a day to keep parents happy. We will read a book, sing a song or two and then ill bring something out that they typically don't play with. Such as a basket with only red items, a box with holes cut in it and a few balls, etc. I keep it super simple.
We do an open ended art project once a week

[Miss A]

We do one organized activity a day to keep parents happy. We will read a book, sing a song or two and then ill bring something out that they typically don't play with. Such as a basket with only red items, a box with holes cut in it and a few balls, etc. I keep it super simple.
We do an open ended art project once a week

I like this! We read books ALL day long! My 20 month old is a book addict, and she will pick out books constantly to read. Yesterday due to ice and illness, she and her 2 month old sister were the only DCK. I read through my entire sling bookshelf (20 books) twice!

We have been pulling out chunky puzzles in the mornings, or building with mega blocks, doing edible playdough or cool whip sensory play, playing with alphabet magnets, putting lids on Tupperware and taking them back off (the most recent favorite activity), and they are in to animals right now, so we do lots of animal sounds.

[MarinaVanessa]

If you're doing a lot of RIE keep doing that!

As far as art goes remember that there's a difference between art and crafts. Crafts are result oriented and need adult instruction where art allows for complete creativity.

You can do sensory art and take edibles like plain yogurt or infant cereal and add food coloring and either put it directly onto a flat surface like a tabletop or high chair tray or tape down plain paper and let them finger paint. This way it's all about sensory and motor skills and if they eat some it's not really a big deal. It's messy though so prepare.

The same idea but frozen into ice cubes works well too and adds cold to the sensory part.

You can also make your own scented paint for a smell sensory art activity.
1 cup water, 1/4 cup flour, 4 tsp corn starch, 1 tbsp ground spice (thyme for green, cinnamon for red, nutmeg for orange, clove for brown), food coloring for more vibrant colors (to yellow add 20 drops of yellow, to red add 20 drops of red, to orange add 5 drops red & 15 drops of yellow, to brown add 8 drops of green and 4 drops of yellow). This is more like painting with watercolors and though it does work on regular paper watercolor paper works better. Also using brushes is better with this activity than like finger painting but most babies I do this with do experiment a little of both (using their fingers and with a brush).

You can also put a piece of paper inside a plastic zip bag and add a couple of drops of paint inside of different colors, seal it up and tape it down to a flat surface and they can "finger paint" over the plastic. No mess for them, much less mess for you and you take the paper out to dry and give it to the parents.

You can also cook your own play dough (just in case they try to eat it) and let them mold their own "sculptures" that they can take home.

If weather permits I like to lay down a tarp and lay paper down over and squirt water based paint right on it and let them "finger paint". They rub it all over, sit on it, make tracks on it etc. Sometimes I add objects like sensory balls and they track them on the paper etc.

A less messy version of this is to take a box lid about the size of a printer paper box (something else with shallow sides like baking pans work too) and I tape a sheet of plain paper to it and one or two plastic sensory balls and a couple of dallops of paint on the paper in different areas. The babies tilt and shake the lids and track the paint on the paper with the balls.

Chunky chalk and chalk boards is art. So are dry erase boards and markers (plain paper inside of a sheet protector works just as well and can be taped down).

Then you don't have to make so many hand print/foot print crafts.

Anything that can't be taken home (like if you have them paint directly on a surface) you can take a picture of the before, during and after of the process and send those to the parents.

This is all I can think of right now for art HTH