Thursday, March 26, 2015

Life With Kate: Tummy Time Art

When you are home all day, every day with your baby you start looking for interesting things to do with them. In our particular case, Kate hasn't enjoyed her tummy time much. She used to love it and was rolling over really well and then all of a sudden she didn't want to have anything to do with it!


Her pediatrician told us that we need to continue to push her in this area, so I decided to research pinterest a bit!

Today we tried Tummy Time Painting. I've seen this idea floating around the internet and thought it would be a great sensory activity while making a miserable activity more interesting. It was really a fun experience for her!

You start by putting drops of paint on a piece of paper and then putting the paper inside of a ziplock bag. Then it's best to tape it to the ground. I tried putting it in a sheet pan and then just on the floor but it bunched up and she just wanted to pick it up and eat it! So I pulled out some tape... worked great.



The more paint you use, the more fun it is because there is more to squish around. I ended up adding some more to what we started with. I'll be honest this did not hold her attention for a super long time because she just doesn't like being on her stomach. So I'd let her sit up for a while and play with it, then move her back to her tummy for a few minutes. I talked to her about how it was cold and squishy, and of course, the colors!



After she'd had about all she could take of being on her tummy, I taped the bag to the back of a sheet pan and propped it up so she could study it and kick it with her feet. She really liked this. I sang her Thomas Moore's song, At The Easel, and used the colors we had in our own picture. (If you'd like to hear a sample of the song click here: Song Sample ) We also sang some other Cradle Roll songs like "There are So Many Colors in The Rainbow". 




After she lost interest with that I moved the pan down to her lap (resting on the boppy pillow!) and showed her how to beat the pan like a drum. 
So we sang some more songs and beat on our "art drum".
Oh, that was fun! 


All in all, we spent maybe 25 minutes with this activity, which is a pretty long time for Kate! Especially since all she wants to do these days is eat her toys! 

Afterwards, I cut the plastic bag to remove the picture. (I tried to just pull it out but it tore a bit.) I hung it with some chip clips on the fridge to dry. We have her first painting! 

Of course, we don't always do extra activities like this but I'm trying to do it at least once a week. It really is a lot of fun watching her discover new things! 



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