Magic Fix #14: Toddler Art Made Fun!

Lately, I have been more than a little challenged by my three year old son. He has been getting quite restless and bored with the same old, same old activities and toys I pull out for him each and every day. When my son gets bored, he empties my make up down the drain and does other similar activities that cause some major hair pulling on my part. With desperation, I scrambled for  inspiration from my Pinterest here and here and I think that I've found the perfect activity to keep a 'car mad' little boy happy for quite a while!

Take a boy and his dinky cars.

Give him two colors of paint and a long piece of paper.

Now let him loose for hours of fun making car tracks for miles and miles.

He will even do the washing up for you!

You will end up with some abstract expressionist art to boot.

If it was up to my hubby, our son will spend his day at the park. I like to muck about with art and craft, so that is what I do during my time with him. I've been reading here about how mums tend to compare themselves with other mums and feel guilty that they are not good enough. I say that we are all great mums, if we love our children. What is important is 'being' with them and not what we 'do' with them or even 'give' them! I have found that the 'magic fix' for feeling not 'good enough' is to do, as often as possible, what inspires and bring joy to both my son and I. Its all the little moments that you share together that matter the most, after all! 

Magic Fix #9:Toddler Art Made Easy

I must be a slow learner because it took me two goes at raising toddlers to figure out that letting a toddler create art with paint need not be a humongous headache. I had to find a 'Magic Fix' that would make pulling out the paint and giving it a go worth my while. After a few experiments, I finally found a 'Magic Fix'. Follow a few simple rules and you too could actually end up with a masterpiece created by your very own darling.

RULE #1: Never paint indoors. Always in the garage or outdoors. This might seem quite obvious to you but it took me many disastrous attempts painting indoors to work it out!

RULE #2: Paint on the floor. This allows the  toddler the freedom to be their own 'Jackson Pollock' and  drizzle, pour, splash, squirt, slosh and maybe paint freely. I found that my toddler liked to use his feet to stamp and spread his paint around.

RULE #3: Use only TWO colors of paint. Add any more and you'll end up with a painting that's the color of MUD! Unless of course you would like a mud colored painting...

RULE #4: Mix the tempera paint with cornstarch and dish soap. This makes the paint much more manageable and tactile for the toddler. Besides that it makes washing up a breeze!

IMPORTANT: As you all know, toddlers do not have immense amount of concentration, so enjoy the moment while it lasts, the masterpiece will come together like fireworks and finish all too quickly. Be quick to pull away the masterpiece when you believe it has reached its maximum potential or else your little maestro might overwork his/her art.

I loved my toddlers painting so much that I framed it. IKEA frame of course. ENJOY!

Magic Fix #3: Yummy Toddler Food!

My toddler can be super fussy with his food and then not! Once he even ate pasta with anchovies, olives and chilly in it!?! Some other times he won't even eat ice cream. I'm always on the lookout for fast but nutritious toddler food that he'll like actually want to eat. Here are a couple of recipes that I tried yesterday that was the 'magic fix' for the day!

Savoury French Toast

This is a quick fix meal that is nutritious and healthy that my toddler liked and even I LOVED!

You need the following ingredients. I used a homemade bean mixture, but I guess canned baked beans will work too if you are in a hurry.

You will need a bean mixture, one egg and some milk with salt and pepper, grated cheddar (I like Tasty)

Beat the egg mixture well until frothy, Get two slices of bread of your choice(but it must be toast cut) the combine the bean mixture and cheese as shown.

Once you sandwich the bread, you can go ahead and dip it in the egg mixture and get it well coated.

Now fry it in a saucepan with some butter. Voila! It is best served with some good ol' tomato sauce.

Blueberries with Greek Yogurt

I always like to keep several types of frozen berries, mango and banana in the freezer. These are fantastic, especially if you have the time to whip out the blender to create some instant low calorie, low sugar and low-fat ice cream made with greek yogurt(leave a comment, if you want the recipes). Today I didn't have the time to blend, all I did was heat the berries in the microwave for 30 sec or so and added the greek yogurt and added some castor sugar/honey to it. Instant hit!!! He loved the silky deliciousness, and I loved the pink and white swirls.

 Blueberries with Greek Yogurt