My daughter in law Shay has a degree in special education, she works with Autistic kids, Downs Syndrome kids and others. I think that’s all wonderful, however the thing that comes out of all that for me as a grandmother is how those lessons focus her on teaching her children. She has a 3 year old and a 1 year old and she gives them hands on experiences that help them to learn, grow, explore, have fun, pretend, all sorts of good things. They live in snow country so several months of the year there isn’t much small children can do outside, so the creative mom that she is helps them to have fun indoors.

Recently they came to visit and she brought some of her activity gems with her so that the cousins who are the same age could participate too. They all had a great time. One of these fun things was pudding painting.

It’s simple really, some pudding cups, construction paper and little fingers for paintbrushes. It’s the same thing as finger paints but if they start licking their fingers you have nothing to worry about, in fact you may want to lick some too!

This is the way a 3 year old will paint

And this is the way a 1 year old will paint

Who do you think had more fun?