Give Mom a Hand

Mother's Day Art Project

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Colors, Mother's Day
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Large thick white paper
• Red construction paper
• Washable paint
• Markers (you can stencil the letters as well)

Adult Prep Work:

1. Write the words "These will always have my" on the paper (again, you can use stencils), leaving a space for the hands and the heart
2. Cut a large heart out of red construction paper
3. Glue heart on the appropriate place on the paper

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Dip both hands in paint
2. Place hands on the appropriate place on the paper

You can customize this any way you wish. And it makes a wonderful keepsake for any mom or grandmother!

These Boots are Made for Painting

Rain Boot Painting

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Colors, patterns, weather
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Large thick white paper (3 or 4 pieces)
• Scotch tape
• Washable paint
• Rain Boots

Adult Prep Work:

1. Tape pieces of paper together to make a long track
2. Tape the paper to the floor so it doesn't move out from under your child
3. Drop different colors of paint on either sides of the paper track - enough to pick up the entire boot tread

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Splash his boots in the paint
2. Walk up and down the track in his boots (with your help, of course!)

This was a fun rainy day activity with very little clean up or bundling required!

You Spin My Plate Right Round, Right Round

Painting with Paper Plates

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Colors, shapes
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Large thick white paper
• Paper plates
• Washable paint
• Washable markers

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Color the paper plates with different color markers
2. Then the adult can pour washable paint on to separate paper plates
3. Turn plates upside down, and twist and turn them around the paper (repeat)

My son loved this because it was basically painting with his hands but on a much bigger (and messier!) scale. We found the color from the markers came through on the paper making really cool designs.

Overcrowded and Much More

Explore & Much More

Address: 3827 N. Southport, Chicago

Hours: Monday - Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. & 2:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Admission: $12 per child; $9 for each additional sibling

YAY!

• Offers hands-on learning? Sort of
• Engages an active toddler in play? Yes
• Provides interaction with other children? Yes (too much)
• Allows children room to play without long waits? No
• Is clean? Sort of

I begrudgingly give this one "YAY!" They don't make it easy on parents and it's hard enough to get the kids ready and wrangled, it shouldn't be misery once you get there.

After driving around for 30 minutes trying to find parking, we walked four blocks in the cold to the smallest, most unwelcoming play place. I do realize rents are very high in the city, but they just did not think through the space requirements for parents with multiple children and multiple layers. They require shoes to be removed (to be expected), but then don't offer enough room to do so or enough room to store them. So kids were throwing other people's shoes around, and parents are trying to corral their children and remove their shoes before they sprinted through the front gate, which other children kept opening.

The admission process would make a great case study for an operations research class. None of us knew when or where to pay and each person had to fill out a waiver (to be expected), but then she couldn't make out anyone's name so she re-wrote it and re-wrote each person's phone number. You just don't have time for inefficiencies when your child is about to take off headlong down a flight of stairs.

It is a two-story play place, but they have crammed too many structures and toys into the narrow space. It is just far too small so you're tripping over toys, kids, and other adults. And the poor toddlers kept getting smacked in the head by diaper bags.

Finally, the crawler area was a total joke. It was too small for them to move or roll or really do much of anything. I had to pick him up at one point for his own safety.

There are so many great play places in Chicagoland, you can skip this one.

A Happy Shade of Winter

Color Wheel

Address: 2016 W. Concord Place

Open Play Hours: Monday 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.; Wednesday 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Friday: 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Admission: $25 per child

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Offers hands-on learning? Yes
• Engages an active toddler in play? Yes
• Provides interaction with other children? Yes
• Allows children room to play without long waits? Yes
• Is clean? Yes

As you know, my son loves art projects so I was really excited to check out this children's art studio. It did not disappoint. We went during open studio time and painted with watercolors, drew with charcoal, and colored with crayons. He was a giant mess, but a happy one!

It hadn't dawned on me that he has really only done art projects with mom & baby brother. So at Color Wheel Studio, he had a big time watching the other kids paint, helping them paint, admiring their art, and playing chase.

It is a true artist studio as the owner is local artist Donald Jackson. He has transformed it into a great space for kids - low tables, small easels, and sinks with temperature controls.

And he doesn't just throw the supplies at the kids and walk away, he worked with each child teaching them about art and listening to them. He was really engaged and I imagine his classes must be excellent. You can learn more about them on the Color Wheel Studio website.

One side benefit of my grand experiment is getting a chance to talk with the owners. They are usually parents who were looking for something that just didn't exist. They always have such interesting and varied backgrounds and experiences. In this case, Donald is an artist with a background in psychology, which he says he draws on for his classes.

It seems to me he's teaching kids about a lot more than art. He's teaching them about self-expression and finding one's voice, self-confidence, and the importance of giving back to one's community. It's quite a special place. Check it out...

Sponge Mom Yoga Pants

Sponge Painting

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Colors, shapes, nature
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Large sponges
• Scissors
• Large thick white paper
• Paper plates
• Washable paint

Adult Prep Work:

1. Cut sponges into shapes (I cut circles, squares, and triangles, but you can certainly go wild!)
2. Pour a few colors of washable paint on to separate paper plates

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Dip the sponge in the paint and dab on the paper

On one sheet of paper, we used all the shapes. And on another, we used the circle-shaped sponges to make spring flowers. I think my son is probably so sick of painting spring flowers, but mom's impatiently waiting for spring....

What are the Places in Your Neighborhood?

Create a Town

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Urban planning (ok, this might be over reaching)
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Coloring and construction paper
• Tape
• Scissors
• Washable markers
• Toy cars

Adult Prep Work:

1. Cut pieces of paper to create roads in a town
2. Tape them together on a table (I just taped them to our wood floors) so you create the basic outline for your town
3. Cut square pieces of construction paper (I used different colors to make each section unique) and place them around your town
4. Place some toy cars on the road

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Talk with you about what makes up a town
2. Color the construction paper to match the different places (e.g., school, housing development, church, grocery store, fire station)
3. Play with and color their town (just let their imagination run wild)

We saw this on an episode of "Curious George" and sort of made it our own. It was really fun to talk with him about what makes up a town. At first he wasn't that into it, and I thought this was going to be a total dud. But once we started talking about the different places we go, he had a lot of fun with it. And he loved coloring the road and driving his cars through his town.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

C&A Robot Factory

Address: 326 Peterson Road, Libertyville

Hours: Monday - Thursday: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.; Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Admission: $5 per child; free for infants

YAY! YAY!

• Offers hands-on learning? Yes
• Engages an active toddler in play? For a bit
• Provides interaction with other children? No
• Allows children room to play without long waits? No
• Is clean? Yes

The C & A Robot Factory is brand spanking new. But it is a bit of a misnomer as kids don’t really get to play with or build robots. They can play with legos, and toddlers can play in a walled off area that has a train table, a workbench, and a little tikes kitchen (kind of like home).

It was just us so we had a lovely chat with the owner. She opened about two months ago, and it feels like she is focused more on lego play & education for the older set (K - 3rd grade). She offers some great classes for elementary school children using the Lego Education curriculum, which actually looks quite good. She also offers summer camp. But again for a slightly older set.

After about an hour, my son happily climbed back in the car to head home. While a non-meltdown departure was great for me, it is usually not a ringing endorsement for the venue.

I wish her all the luck in her new venture. And look forward to returning in a few years.

Huevo de Art

Three Fun Easter Egg Activities

YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Holiday, colors, patterns, sizes, shapes, music
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• A set of colored, plastic easter eggs
• Paper plates
• Washable markers
• Washable paint
• Large rectangular cake pan
• Tape
• Scissors
• Small toys, rocks, rice (anything that will fit into the eggs and make a noise)

Activity 1: Rolling eggs in paint

Adult Prep Work:

1. Tape white paper to the bottom of your cake pan (make sure the sides are high enough so the eggs can roll around without falling out)
2. Squeeze out 2 or 3 paint colors

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Roll each egg in a separate color (we only used three eggs & again chose spring colors)
2. Shake the eggs in the cake dish to make colorful patterns on the paper

I thought this would be a fun activity because it is both messy & loud! But I was surprised by the pretty final product. It ended up looking like three jellyfish!

Activity 2: Making music shakers

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Find toys, rice, blocks that fit into the eggs
2. Shake them up & make some music

This turned into a fun scavenger hunt around the house in which my son had to figure out what fit inside the egg. Some items were too big and didn't fit so we learned about different sizes.

If you use rice or beans, you might want to put tape around the eggs so you don't end up with a huge mess.

Activity 3: Matching colors

Adult Prep Work:

1. Color or paint three or more plates to match each of your eggs

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Put each egg on the plate with the matching color

We are having a little trouble learning our colors so this was a fun, learning activity!

Take These Painted WIngs & Learn to Fly

Painting Butterflies II

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Nature, colors, patterns
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• White construction paper (large)
• Paper plates
• Scissors
• Washable paint
• Glue
• Colored markers
• Pipe cleaners

Adult Prep Work:

1. Cut a large butterfly shape out of the construction paper (make sure it is thick enough to handle a lot of paint)
2. Pour different colors of paint onto separate plates (we used cool, spring colors)

What Your Child Will Do:

1. Swirl the paint around with his/her hands (or use small wooden blocks as stamps)
2. Fold the butterfly in half and rub the unpainted side with his/her hands
3. Unfold the butterfly and check out the cool patterns

Once the paint dried, I glued our pipe cleaners to the head, and colored a face using our markers. You could also cut a body out of green construction paper and glue it over the top, but I didn't want to cover up any of our design.

The Butterfly Art Effect

Paint Colorful Butterflies

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

• Does it offer an educational experience? Yes
• What does it teach? Nature, colors
• Is it age (i.e., 2 - 3 year old) appropriate? Yes

What You’ll Need:

• Gallon size ziploc bags
• Packing tape
• Washable paint
• Pipe cleaners (you can probably use twist ties, too)

Adult Prep Work:

1. Drop some paint in the bag (we used blue and yellow for one butterfly & pink and orange for the other)

What Your Child Will Do:

Swirl the paint around with his/her hands (you can do this inside or outside the bag)

Then, you seal the bag with packing tape (we used clear, but you can use something more colorful if you prefer), and twist the pipe cleaner around the middle to make the body and antenna. We used pink pipe cleaners, but obviously you can customize this craft any way you wish.

It is a wonderful activity for toddlers; a perfect balance of tasks for children and adults. And the final product is really cool. My son points them out and says, "Oh wow!"