Beat the Heat with Water Balloons

Summer Fun with Water Balloons

Who doesn't love water balloons?  They are one of the best toys for summer fun!  The only thing I don't care for is filling them, but it's a small price to pay for a ton of fun.  Water balloons are the perfect toy to help beat the heat and play outside during the summer.  Of course we love traditional games with water balloons like a good old fashioned water balloon fight.  We also love experimenting with water balloons and creating new ways to play with them.  

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Frozen Water Beads in Water Balloons

Sensory and Gross Motor Activities with Water Balloons

We have been a bit obsessed with frozen summer fun around here lately!  Frozen fun is my favorite way to beat the heat without sacrificing play.  I have no interest in sitting in the house all day when I could be outdoors, and neither do my children.  A few of our recent favorite ways to have fun with ice include frozen Oobleck with real lemons, make believe snow cone stand (with a recipe for whole foods snow cones without any sugar or artificial ingredients), and homemade smoothie paints.  Last summer we froze water beads for the first time, and all four of my boys enjoyed that sensory activity.  While planning to freeze another batch of water beads I decided to combine frozen water beads with another summer favorite:  water balloons.

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Frozen Summer fun with Lemon Oobleck

Frozen Lemon Oobleck Recipe for Play

Making Oobleck is an incredibly fun sensory activity, and frozen Oobleck is perfect for summer fun.  It is inexpensive and easy to make.  A few of our favorite ways to play with Oobleck include mixing in the play pool, glowing Oobleck and making Oobleck with real watermelon.  Because our chilly watermelon Oobleck kept us cool on a hot summer day I wanted to recreate the activity with a couple simple twists.  This frozen lemon Oobleck is a whole new recipe for play!

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Funnel Painting - Art for Kids

Pour Painting with Funnels

We love trying different ways to paint.  A few of our favorite techniques for painting without brushes include good old finger painting, ice painting with frozen watercolors, making prints with cookie cutters, and splat painting with fly swatters.  At the beginning of summer I bought a couple sets of funnels from Dollar Tree to use for water play.  Peanut and Tank, my two year old twins,  love to paint and to pour, so I knew they would be thrilled to combine their two favorite activities with some funnel painting.

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Giant Kool Aid Eruptions

Eruptions with Kool Aid and Soap

Do your kids love making eruptions as much as mine do?  No matter how many times we experiment with baking soda and vinegar or other materials that cause reactions like Kool Aid, watching eruptions never gets old.  A few of our favorite ways to create eruptions include color mixing with baking soda and vinegar, color surprise eruptions, and eruptions with Kool Aid and paint.  Since we are obsessed with our squeezy bottles lately I thought it was time to set up a new invitation to create eruptions.  The best part is that our giant eruptions were made without vinegar, so they didn't have that overpowering smell.

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Sensory Activity with Shaving Cream and Water Beads

Shaving Cream and Water Beads

We love shaving cream play, and ever since I first saw the combination of shaving cream and water beads on Dirt and Boogers last summer I've been wanting to try it.  Would you believe it took me until now to do it?  It's been on my to do list far too long.  The other night I had a bin full of water beads and saw my opportunity.  The best part about this sensory activity is that the set up literally takes a minute (assuming you have already hydrated water beads).  I grabbed a can of shaving cream, filled up a sensory bin and invited my boys to join me in some messy play!

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Frozen Summer Fun with Watermelon

Frozen Watermelon Sensory Activity

What kind of play is best for summer fun?  Frozen play, of course!  There is no better way to beat the heat than with ice and water play.  Beyond ice we love experimenting by freezing our favorite sensory materials and experiencing them in a new way.  The other night we bought a giant watermelon at Costco, and immediately I had an idea.  Watermelons are yummy any way you eat them, and frozen watermelon is the perfect cool treat for a hot day.

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Whole Foods Snow Cone Recipe

Make Believe Frozen Snow Cone Stand

Last week our family went to an event at a local church where free snow cones were offered.  Of course our boys devoured them and thought they were the greatest thing ever.  I don't mind giving my children the occasional treat, but generally speaking a snow cone is not something I would want my kids to eat.  Since making our frozen smoothie paint the other day I have been brainstorming more ideas for frozen summer fun.  The smoothie paints greatly resembled ice cream or sherbet.  I originally planned to set up a make believe ice cream shop, but after seeing how much the boys loved snow cones I knew that a make believe snow cone stand would be a huge hit.  Better yet, making edible snow cones made from whole foods would combine a sensory activity, imaginative play and a healthy summer treat!

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Scented Cloud Dough - Recipe for Play

Sensory Play with Scented Cloud Dough

Cloud dough is so easy to make and can be stored for many months.  It is one of our favorite recipes for play!  We have made two ingredient multisensory cloud dough, day and night sensory bins with cloud dough, candy cane cloud dough, and cloud dough heart cakes to name a few.  Since we've been having so much fun with Kool Aid lately I got inspired to see if I could add it to cloud dough.

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Play Dates {Water Balloons}

Fun in the Sun with Water Balloons

This week when we hosted our playgroup we had a water balloon theme.  Past play dates include newspaper snowball fight, Kool Aid play, and pool noodle games.  We have so much fun at our weekly play dates, and this water balloon day was no exception.  My only complaint was how quickly the children went through the balloons.

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Frozen Smoothie Paint Recipe

Homemade Smoothie Paint - Recipe for Play

We have been having so much fun painting this summer!  I enjoy creating new recipes for homemade paint, and Tank and Peanut (24 months) are thrilled to test them out.  A few of our recent favorites include scented finger paint, scented puffy paint, and scented sidewalk chalk paint.  Can you tell we've been having a lot of scented fun?  These smoothie paints aren't scented, instead they are frozen!  Frozen paint is perfect for summer fun, and this recipe for play is perfect for a hot day.

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Sensory Materials for Summer Fun

Summer Fun Sensory Activities

Summer is in full swing, and we are soaking up every minute of summer fun that we can!  We enjoy sensory activities year round, but there are a few sensory materials we use most during the summer months when the sun is shining and our days are spent outdoors.  I love the ability to hose everything off after messy play, including my boys!

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Shaving Cream and Watercolors

Sensory Activity with Shaving Cream and Watercolors

One of our favorite sensory activities is playing with shaving cream, and one of our favorite art mediums is liquid watercolors.  For a super simple sensory activity we love to combine the two!

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Frozen Art for Kids

Beat the Heat with Ice Art

Being right in the middle of summer we are all about ice and water play.  In addition to play, my boys still look for their daily art activity.  What is the best way to create art in summer? By focusing on ice art!  Here are our favorite frozen art activities for kids.

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Watercolor Ice Art

Frozen Color Mixing with Watercolors

I am so excited about the beautiful watercolor ice art JZ (6) created today I am bursting to share it!  Watercolor art is a favorite in our house, because no matter what you paint it almost always turns out gorgeous.  I knew when I froze liquid watercolors yesterday that this would be a fun art project, but I had no idea it would be this phenomenal.  Ice art is one of our favorite ways to beat the heat summer brings.  We love ice paint and ice art sculptures, and now we love frozen watercolors!

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Scented Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk Chalk Paint Recipe for Play

Sidewalk chalk paint is one of our favorite recipes for play.  It is inexpensive, easy to make, and it rinses away with a hose for easy clean up.  Best of all, it's FUN!  We've been on a Kool Aid kick lately and have enjoyed adding Kool Aid to our homemade paint recipes for scented art and sensory play.  Our favorite Kool Aid scented recipes include Kool Aid puffy paint, Kool Aid finger paint, and Kool Aid water colors.  Like the other paint recipes, the Kool Aid sidewalk chalk paint did not disappoint!  It smelled divine, and the colors were exquisite.  

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Toddler Made Homemade Paint Recipe

No Cook Soap Paint Recipe

I have been having so much fun sharing our favorite homemade paint recipes.  Recent favorites include Kool Aid puffy paint, scented sidewalk chalk paint, and Kool Aid finger paint.  Looking through older photos I realized I have never shared this simple no cook paint recipe.  My favorite part about this homemade paint recipe is that it is toddler made!  That's right, my toddlers love to whip up a batch of this paint.  It is one of our favorite recipes for play and art.

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Kool Aid Finger Paint Recipe

Scented Finger Paint Recipe for Play

If you regularly visit Learn Play Imagine you know that we love homemade paint and trying new paint recipes.  We also love revamping old recipes for play to make new art and sensory experiences.  Since we had so much fun with our Kool Aid water colors and Kool Aid puffy paint I have been brainstorming other paint recipes to mix with Kool Aid.  One of our favorite recipes is our edible finger paint.  It takes less than ten minutes to whip up, and it's a favorite of all four of my boys.  Of course I knew they would enjoy the added sensory experience of making Kool Aid finger paint!

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Whole Foods Ice Cream Recipe

Coconut Milk Ice Cream Recipe

I love play recipes that only call for two ingredients like our sidewalk chalk paint, silly putty and baby safe paint.  Why?  Because if a recipe only calls for two ingredients it is most likely inexpensive and easy to make.  The same goes for food and snack recipes.  With four young kids I need recipes that are quick and easy, and two ingredient recipes tend to be made from whole foods.  I do my best to serve my boys mainly whole foods and avoid processed junk.  This coconut milk ice cream recipe couldn't be more simple!

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Colored Water Play in the Play Pool

Summer Fun with Water Balloons and Color Theory

Bringing water balloons into the play pool is a summer favorite of ours.  Anytime of year my boys love water balloons in the bath tub for bath time play.  One activity they never tire of is popping water balloons filled with colored water and watching the bath water change colors.  Last summer I filled a bucket of water balloons with food coloring tinted water and let them pop the balloons in the play pool and watch the colors mix together.  The photos didn't turn out well, so I never shared the activity.  Today the summer weather was perfect for this summer fun color mixing!

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Kool Aid Puffy Paint Recipe

No Cook Puffy Paint Recipe

We love making homemade paint.  Of course we buy store bought paint, too, but it's so much fun trying new recipes for homemade paint and experimenting with colors and textures.  Our favorite paint recipe that we have tried is Homemade Puffy Paint.  The paint recipe calls for three common household ingredients.  All you have to do is mix up a batch then add the color of your choice, and voila you have a simple no cook puffy paint recipe.  

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