Pick the Songs

I sing poorly, but a crying kid will get you to try anything. At first, I used the classics. But soon row row row your boat and hush a bye baby were gnawing at my soul.

One car trip I was running out of ideas, and gave a shot at whistling the theme song to Super Mario Bros, and the Water World music. Hey, why stop there? Portal's Still Alive came to mind, and was actually not mind numbingly simple.

So I thought of what other songs would be enough to keep me from degrading further mentally, but were simple enough that even I could sing them. The current top songs:

• The Big Rock Candy Mountains
• Yellow Submarine
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• Oh Danny Boy
• Cleveland Lounge Drowning

Some are still on the children's songs side of things, but at least have verses. Others are probably not typical for kids, but Still Alive and Drowning get more requests than you might think.

The moral: kids will love whatever songs you're happy to sing, so pick songs you'll enjoy singing.

Colored Rice

More fun with food colors!

• Put some rice into glass cups or small bowls.
• Add a few drops of food coloring and stir, stir, stir.
• Find some sturdy cardboard and cover with lots of glue. Spread it around to a thin layer.
• Sprinkle the colored rice over the glue.

The idea is inspired by sand art, but is a tad easier to clean up. A warning though, the food coloring takes a long while to dry on the rice, and will rub off on hands in the short term.

Food Colors in the Bathtub

There are lots of toys you can get for the bathtub, including crayons etc. But the best fun and learning I've found to date are simple food colors.

First, stock the bathroom with lots of fun cups. For example: plastic measuring cups, dishwasher cleaned containers with lids from snacks or butter tubs, funnels, etc.

Play time is just adding a few drops of color to kid's cups and letting them mix and splash them out. I often run the shower with the drain just partially open, letting the colors drain away. But sticking with just one or two colors and letting the whole tub turn a nice shade is good too.

What!? Something needs to come first?

I've jotted down the essentials of this simple blog: What!? ...is this all about?.