Our Favorite "I Love You" Books

It's no secret that we love books at our house! And what could be better for building a toddlers sense of self, and helping develop a strong bond between parents and children than books about the love you have for them? I gathered up our favorite ones here for you, and am providing links so you can look into purchasing them if you want. 

Now, these are ordered in the way they are in the picture from left to right, not by which one I like the most. I will say that my absolute faves are Yummiest Love and You Are My I Love You.

1. I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt  This is a little board book where a little boy asks him mom if she'd still love him if he was all these different atrocious things, and of course the mother would love him no matter what.

2. Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You by Nancy Tillman. This book is just lovely and heartwarming. It makes children know that no matter where they are, no matter how old they get, under any circumstance their parents love is with them always.

3. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. This is a very good book for a child who may be going off to preschool, or daycare, or starting a new activity where they will be separated from their parent for short amounts of time. I've seen many corresponding activities to go with the book to take it a step further too and make kids feel even more secure. The best part is, you can give your little one a kissing hand of their very own to use!

4. I Love You More by Laura Duksta. We just got this book recently and I was so excited to finally have a copy of our own! It's a flip-sided book and one side is a mother describing her love for her son in cute little ways that toddlers and preschoolers will delight in hearing. The other side the son describes how much he loves his mother, again with really cute comparisons using things kids are aware of in their lives. It's very cute to have this book include a lot about the parent child relationship and how the child loves their parent more than anything as well.

5. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. I think all of you probably know this book already! It was mine when I was younger. The characters are lovable and the illustrations are cute. Kids will crack up about trying to love you as far as they can reach, and hop, etc. after reading this book. And then you can always tell your children that you love them to the moon and back, and they will remember reading this sweet book with you.

6. You're My Little Star by Julia Hubery. This book has a touch and feel soft star on the front cover, and then adorable illustrations throughout. Read this to your little one to make them feel like they are the light of your life, since they are!

7. You Are My I Love You by Maryann Cusimano Love. This is a very close favorite of mine with Yummiest Love. Reading it to my daughter made me tear up a bit and made me laugh a lot too. Every word of it is so true. Phrases like "You are my quiet place, you are my wild" every parent can relate to in the most loving way. Each phrase is better than the last!

8. I Love You Through And Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak. This is such a cute book that my daughter absolutely loves. It's got glossy board book pages, and such cute illustrations. It's also educational and teaches some opposites and body parts in a fun way that kids aren't suspecting, all while making them feel loved!

9. On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman. This book is by the same author as Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You. It's a great one to read to kids every year on their birthday, or when just reminiscing about when they were born and were babies. It's sure to make kids feel special with the descriptions of how all the animals and the moon were doing things just for them on the night they were born.

10. Yummiest Love by Lisa McCourt. You would never know that the author of I Love You, Stinky Face is the same author of this book, they are very different! I saved my favorite for last. It's the absolute best book I've ever read. It's very humbling and a book that reading to your children makes you feel even more thankful for them than you already are. It makes you feel so lucky to have a little bundle of joy, and I can tell when I read it to my daughter she's feeling all the love that I am. It's just a marvelous read that words can't really describe. I definitely recommend it more than anything.

Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck

Oobleck is one of the funniest messy play sensory materials that there is! It's relatively cheap and easy to make as well, which is always a plus. I decided to make an oobleck that would go with our ocean unit. It turned out great!

To make Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck you'll need:
- a bin
- cornstarch
- water
- neon blue food coloring
- some seashells
- some small ocean animals. We used this tube from Animal Planet

Step 1:
Fill up your bin with some cornstarch, then slowly add water. Mix it with your hand until you get the right consistency. You want to be able to grab a ball of it in your hand like a solid and then have it immediately start to turn into a liquid and run off of your fingers. It's about a 60% cornstarch, 40% water mixture.

Step 2:
Add in a few drops of the food coloring and mix it around with your fingers or a spoon if you don't want to get a little stained up!

Step 3:
Add in the seashells and the small ocean animals for ocean play presentation. The kids can play with them in the oobleck ocean for a while like a small world, and then take them out to really get into the hands on oobleck play.

Note: above I mentioned staining, your hands would only get stained if you choose to mix in the food coloring with them. If you use a spoon to mix in the food coloring, and only put your hands in after it's mixed the color will not stain your skin at all. It won't stain the kids skin either. It's a good idea to put on some play/paint clothes though in case of anything getting on the clothes. This is really easy to clean up, and washes right away with water.

Finding Nemo Name Matching Tot Tray

 This tot tray was part of our ocean theme. It's very simple, great for babies, and a fun way to make toddlers feel proud to complete something all on their own. It also helps toddlers to learn some literacy skills, and labeling.

To make this tot tray you need to print out this tot book (or at least the part of it with the names of the characters). You'll also need to purchase the Finding Nemo characters from Dollar Tree. Set up is easy once you've printed the tot book. You lay out the cards with the names of the characters, and you lay out the characters as well. Then you show it to your child and tell them to match them up.

Once they've got them all in the right places, read the names to them and point out the letters to your toddler. Spell the names out to your child and have them tell them back to you.

Finding Nemo Sensory Bin (Baby Safe)

For our ocean theme we've been doing lots of fun things! We had a movie time where we watched Finding Nemo. My little cutie only watched the first 20 minutes and then asked me if we could read instead. Makes me proud! BUT she does love the Finding Nemo characters, so I put together this adorable sensory bin.

This bin is totally baby safe, provided of course you're watching your baby while they play. Nothing in it is edible, but I consider it totally appropriate for babies to play with. It's even great for honing fine motor skills!

For the base material, I actually used three different materials. They were all blue though to represent the ocean. Pom poms of different sizes/textures/shades, cut up plastic straws, and hair rollers. You probably have most of this stuff around the house, could easily obtain it for cheap, or can substitute something else for it.

Then I added toy characters from Finding Nemo that can be purchased at Dollar Tree. It's adorable and sure to delight!

Banana Dessert Breakfast

Around here, we like to occasionally make breakfast a little bit like a dessert by adding a fun and unexpected treat to it. Here's my recipe for a Banana Dessert Breakfast that works well as the main entree or a side.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 a banana

- Almond butter

- Chocolate chunks

All you need to do to make this is take a banana and peel it, then slice it carefully down the middle longways. Once you've got your half of the banana ready you spread almond butter over it, as much as you'd like. Finally, you top it off by adding some chocolate chunks on top across the banana in a row.

Your little one will most likely delight at the sight of chocolate on their breakfast and gobble it all up!

Making a Rainbow in Your Own Backyard

Who doesn't love rainbows? We love rainbows here and it's one of my daughter's favorite activities to make her own. She also loves playing in the sprinkler, and since that's involved it's even funner!

What you need to make your own rainbow is a hose, a sprinkler attachment like this one, and of course sunlight! That's what makes it such a good science activity, you'll be able to explain to your child what is needed to make a rainbow and how it's usually done with the rain in the atmosphere. You can also discuss the colors that make a rainbow! So, once you've got your attachment on the hose and your kid all suited up, you just start the sprinkler play and experiment with when a rainbow will be made. We usually get a great one on the mist setting. 

This also makes a great photo opportunity as you can see in the photo above of my daughter. It looks as if she's running across a rainbow! Pictures of kids and rainbows are so cute, and easy to get when you can make your own on any sunny day. It's sure to wow your kiddo!

Name & Erase The Letters - Dinosaur Edition

I came up with a great idea today to do on our dry erase board! I love doing lessons on the dry erase board, especially those that can be interactive. Don't worry if you don't have a dry erase board this could also be done on a chalk board. It's a great alphabet/literacy activity. 

Since we're in our dinosaur themed week this week I made it dinosaur themed, but you could make yours any words you wanted! 

So, I would write a word on the dry erase board, and then give my daughter the eraser and tell her to name and erase the letters that she knows. Even if your child doesn't already know their letters and isn't just practicing you can point out letters to them and tell them to erase whatever they are.