As I thought and researched over how to provide meaningful activities for my twinkies, I decided that I wanted to have a time each day devoted to developing fine motor skills through a variety of art projects. When my two older children, now 12 and 10, were toddlers, I had an intense fear of the mess created from any sort of art project, so I tended to avoid them at all costs. At my oldest daughter's first parent/teacher conference her kindergarten teacher fixated on my daughter's lack of glue skills. It seemed to be really quite traumatic for this teacher. So, in an effort to not scar any additional kindergarten teachers, I opted to have twinkie table time.
Twinkie table time is a designated time (30 sec to 30 min. - totally child directed) where the twins are provided with an opportunity to engage in a variety of art mediums such as the ever important glue, paint, playdough etc. As the title describes, all of our art projects take place at the table. We have a tendency to struggle staying in one spot for more than 2 seconds, so this has been a great way to increase our ability to sit still.
I am all about themes, so I enjoy centering our twinkie table time around weekly themes. While I wish I had all the time in the world to design and implement toddler themes, I just don't. So I have opted to use Tot Packs from Little Adventures Preschool. They can be found here. I have only purchased the January - May bunch ($12), but have really enjoyed them so far. We don't do everything listed in the packs, but I like the option to pick and choose from something already completed. We alternate these activities with more open ended ones - such as dot painting, finger painting etc.
For as much as I used to hate art projects, I have come to adore them. Bring on the finger paint (as long as the babies are only in their diapers)!
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