Tuesday, March 5, 2024
and HELLO EVERYBODY!
Both of us - Laurie and Laura - just returned from sunny vacays!
In early January we realized that we’d not only be traveling during the same week
but that we were also going to the same destination… Arizona!
Laurie and her hubby spent time with family
Meanwhile, Laura was enjoying a girls’ trip with two groups of dear friends!!
While it was definitely great to get away and spend time with loved ones,
we are both ready to be back at it!
We missed you, we missed our Littles and we missed our blogging world!
Today we are jumping back in
with a collection of GRAND activities to share with Littles,
our grandchildren (that's us), our own young kids or children we care for...
all with a St Patrick’s Day twist!
We know that we’re already a few days into March,
but we couldn’t resist sharing 17 ways to celebrate this upcoming holiday…
one idea for each day of the month leading up to the special day!
Time to scroll through and check out our GRAND ideas!
Some are taken from last year’s posts with new ideas sprinkled in for fun!
You pick and choose which ones make the most sense
for you and your Littles to enjoy together!
One of our favorite treats! A yummy and easy snack to make with OR for your Littles!
We even have the recipe… ready for you here!
More details can be found in this post.
Your Little will love dropping coins into an empty Pringles can! We decorated ours with rainbow colors and we cut a slit in the lid. Coins were found at our local dollar store!
Both of our Littles (at two and one years old) loved this activity! Just be sure to watch them carefully at all times so the coins stay out of curious mouths!
This activity works well for your infant Littles, too, especially those that can sit up on their own! As always for safety’s sake, keep a watchful eye on your Little! Have fun searching for green/rainbow objects with fun textures - we found ours at home and at Dollar Tree.. Then let your Little explore away! There is so much to see and feel and do!
For more ideas to enjoy with infant Littles
check out last year’s post,
If you have been collecting loose change all year, this is a great time for the leprechauns to hide them around your house or to leave a trail for your Littles to follow. Encourage sorting, coin recognition and adding skills as your Littles gather their coins!
Turn a handful of pipe cleaners into shamrocks and “plant” them into an upside down colander. This is challenging but provides great fine motor practice for Littles!
Awww! Sweet memories! How cute do our own Littles look…. All dressed up in GREEN for St Paddy’s Day!
And, of course, Littles will love searching for GREEN things in their worlds!
Finally, your Littles will be so surprised if their milk has turned GREEN when poured from the milk carton! Those sneaky leprechauns!
A Grand Tip for Distant Grands!
This is an awesome activity to do together virtually!
We love sending Littles on a scavenger hunt….
While on FaceTime, invite your Little to go in search of something green!
Give your Little 30 seconds, 1 minute or more to find a treasure!
Be sure you go in search of your own object, too!
Then share your items with each other!
You can repeat and go looking for a rainbow item or something gold!
Older Littles will love this challenge! Check out our post from last year for our ideas!
The next time Laura visits Little L, this shoe box filled with fun will make the trip, too!
Laura filled the box with dried green lentils and added little black pots and coins (both found at Dollar Tree) as well as rainbow pom poms and a set of tongs. Little L will love scooping up the coins and pom poms as she adds them to the pots! NOTE: Again, depending on the age of your Little, watch him/her closely around small objects!!!
☘️ - Make a Rainbow on Paper! To help young Littles, draw a line for each color of the rainbow (use markers of the same colors) first. Then let your Little add Froot Loops, matching colors as he/she creates a rainbow!.
☘️ - Make a Rainbow Stack Snack! This simple idea not only provides fine motor and color recognition practice, but it’s delicious, too! Sort a handful of Froot Loops by color. Then thread a mini marshmallow, followed by six Froot Loops in the colors of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple - onto a toothpick. Add one more mini marshmallow at the end! Create one or more Rainbow Stack snacks!
☘️ - Make an Edible Rainbow! Older Littles (school age) will find this activity especially fun! Push a pipe cleaner into one large marshmallow. Then add Froot Loops until the pipe cleaner is almost covered. Bend the pipe cleaner and push the other end into another marshmallow.
Find a fun tune on Spotify or YouTube and get some exercise!
Watch these little leprechauns dance their jig on Instagram here!
Here’s a sweet memory from last year when Little L was a year old. We had fun counting together as she added coins to the pot and then, of course, as she dumped them out!
Older Littles will have fun lining up coins next to shamrocks that have numbers written on them.
Here’s another project Laura is bringing with her for an upcoming visit with Little L!
Little L is at the stage where she loves matching colors! As shown in the photo, hang a large piece of contact paper to a wall, sticky side out. Draw lines with colored markers to the sticky side of the contact paper and let your Little add paper scraps or foam shapes of the same color to each line. Add a few gold coins for your Little to put in the black pot!
For Younger Littles - Give them one color at a time to add to the matching area on the rainbow. For Older Littles - Give them all the colors at once and let them sort and add as they go. You could even hide the colored paper/shapes (and coins!) for your Little to find, sort and add!
Depending on your Littles’ age, hide plastic gold coins (found everywhere this time of year!) or real coins in balls of Play-Doh. Have your Littles practice their counting, sorting or adding skills as they work on their fine motor skills to uncover the money!
Last year Laura brought a pair of Leprechaun Lookers for Little L to look through as we read a favorite story!
Laura found this link when making her pair!
This year, we may hide some coins around the house
while we go in search of the leprechaun!
Let your Little go hunting for gold as he/she practices identifying the ABC’s, numbers or the letters in his/her name. Fill a shoebox or plastic bin with paper shreds (or rice or lentils or...) and then add plastic gold coins - we wrote one letter or number on a sticker and added one to each coin (or, as another option, you could write letters or numbers on yellow circles of paper). Create a number, name or letter board for your Little to look at as reference. As your Little hunts through the paper shreds for coins, he/she matches each to the correct spot on the board.
For Younger Littles limit the number of numbers or letters they are looking for to maximize success. Then add more coins to the bin and show more letters/numbers on the corresponding board.
For Older Littles you can add additional challenges like find the coin with the letter that makes the /b/ sound OR find the coin with the number that equals 2 + 4 on it.
Collect all your Little’s GREEN toys and put them in a “fort” to surprise them with a leprechaun’s playhouse/playground!
You'll find more details about this fun activity on Instagram here!
This is the PERFECT time of year to tell your Littles how lucky you feel to be their Grand! What a blessing it is to build memories and share our lives together!
WHEW!
That’s quite the list! Hopefully it will inspire you and your Littles
to make a shamrock memory or two in the week ahead!
And… Just in case you are wondering,
we didn’t forget the Middles and Grands!
Once you’ve put your Littles to bed,
enjoy an adult beverage as you celebrate St. Paddy’s Day!
If Irish beer or whisky isn’t your thing, here are our two sweet alternatives! To make a grown-up Shamrock Shake blend vanilla ice cream, Bailey’s Irish Creme (or whisky or vodka - your choice!), green food coloring and a small amount of peppermint extract.
For a simpler option, pick up individual bottles of Bailey’s and serve that over ice! Laurie provided this beverage at a holiday dinner!
that we’ve started sharing our 17 Activities of Shamrock Fun there
Each day we’ll focus on one or more ideas shared in this post!
Don’t be surprised though, if we share additional content, as well!
And you can also find all of our St. Patrick's Day content on our Pinterest page, too!
We always love to hear from our readers,
so please feel free to comment at the end of this post!
If you have fun ideas to share OR content you’d like to see us cover,
please let us know!
We plan to be back next Tuesday with a new post,
so be sure to stop by and see what we’ve got for you!
Better still, subscribe to our blog!
That way you’ll be the first to know when our next post publishes!
As Laura’s SIL (our family leprechaun) would say,
❤️ We are delighted to join these link up parties and blog hops this week:
Oh boy, how fun! These activities are fantastic.
Thanks bunches and bunches for sharing these great activities with Sweet Tea & Friends this month sweet friends.
xo
You included so many great ideas! We enjoyed them very much.
Thank you for sharing your fun ideas with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #28.
~Stephanie
You have so many great ideas on here!
Oh my, so many great ideas here! I can't wait to try some with our sweet little Evie. Because of her brain injury from birth, all of the fun activities we can do with her are more forms of "therapy" and ways for her to learn. Thanks for sharing so many fun options!
Niky | The House on Silverado
These are wonderful! I love the coin drop idea, and I like that you have suggestions for distant Grands as well--a scavenger hunt works pretty well for that! Thank you for sharing this post at the Will Blog for Comments #28 linkup! Hope to see you there next week, too.