Things to do with a one-year-old in winter

My friend Paige recently posted a "Things to do with a one-year-old in winter". She's awesome and her post is too. Check it out!

http://tobeperfectlybrunt.blogspot.com/2014/02/things-to-do-with-your-one-year-old-in.html

Activity: Music and Movement

Kids love music. They also love to move and wiggle, and best of all, dance! And of course it is easier to dance along with music, than without music. Here are some fun variations that you can do, instead of just normal dancing.

1. If you have a full length mirror, bring it out to where the dancing is, and let your child watch themselves dance. They will love making the person that they see move, even if they don't quite understand that it is themselves yet.

2. When I was a kid, we had a cassette tape (remember those?) that had all sorts of music activities on them. It would tell us to dance like an elephant, very slow and deliberate, and there was even a song that was very fast and we would run around in circles until we fell to the floor laughing. Try something like playing "Flight of the Bumble Bee" and have you kids pretend to be Bumble Bees. Better yet, turn on Fantasia (the original) or Fantasia 2000 and have the kids dance along with the animals/people/etc. that they see. The whale song should be interesting - better get the camera out ahead of time!

3. Dress up like princesses, gypsies, belly dancers, etc. and find some music fit to dance to!

As always, there's really no limit to what you can do, imagine, or create. What type of dancing/movement activities have you done with your children?

Activity: Cardboard Kazoo

I'm super excited to try this one. Anything that kids Mia a new musical instrument without spending tons of money is awesome in my book! This one is super easy to do, too.

You will need:
Toilet Paper tubes (I always save these regardless of what activity we are planning to do. That way they will always be available when I need them).
Wax paper
Rubber Bands
Hole punch

Cut the wax paper into a circle about 5 inches in diameter. Then attach it to the type with the rubber band. By the opposite opening, punch a hole (see video for clarification). Then you get to start playing!

What other musical instrument can you make with items from around the house? Do you have a link for a video or instructions?

Activity: A New Kind of Old McDonald

I found a really cute idea the other day to change the words of Old McDonald. You can use it for a lot of topics too. Here are some examples:

Old McDonald had a cold, EIEIO, and with his cold he had a cough, EIEIO.... etc.
Old McDonald had a house....
...Pet store...
...Candy store...

So basically, you just sing Old McDonald, but you change the words depending on what you want to sing about. Easy as that! My husband and I like to talk about the family. Here's how we do it....

Old McDonald had a family, E-I-E-I-O
And in that family he had a mommy, E-I-E-I-O
With an I love you, and an I love you,
Here an I, there an I, everywhere an I love you!
Old McDonald had a family, E-I-E-I-O.

As you can see, you can really change the words many different ways. Have you ever tried anything like this? What words, topics, or phrases did you use?

Activity: Dance Party!

As the name of this post suggests, we had a dance party today! Mia's cousins, Brooklyn and Jenna, came for visit and asked me to put on some music. So then we all started dancing! It was a great way to get out some wiggles. Most of the kids tuckered out after about 10 minutes. Here's more of the details....

Items Needed:
Music (I vote for kids music, or whatever you feel is appropriate for their age)
Music Player (iPod/iPad, DVD player, CD player, Computer/tablet (for using Pandora), etc.
Your Voice (in case the power is out and you want to create music anyway)

Here's how it went:

I turned on the music and the girls just started dancing!

Results:

This activity was a lot of fun. And adults can do it too if they want. Mostly the girls just stomped their feet, twirled, and jumped with their arms in the air.