What I Learned Wednesday - Rainbow Mobile

I’m starting a new series here called What I Learned Wednesday and today I’m sharing a fun Rainbow Mobile.

Let me tell you a little about this new what I learned Wednesday series that I’ve thought up. You’ve probably seen those “What I’ve Worn Wednesday” series, where people share their fashion choices from that day. They are inspiring and beautiful and I love them. However, they aren’t me. Because if I did those, 95% of the time you will see me in yoga pants or leggings, a tshirt (that if I’m lucky will not have any stains or holes in it) and a top bun. Even the 5% of the time that I am my version of “done up”, it’s not very fashion forward or inspiring. While I some how am able to pick things and create things for my kids that are really popular, I’m just a little challenged in that area for myself so I’ll spare you my fashion sense.

I love creating things and incorporating playful learning with my kids. My daughter is 7 months and my son is 2 so they are still very little and from what I’ve read, it’s not a good idea to have too rigorous of teaching / learning opportunities but rather focus on play. We go to story time at our local library every week. Each week is a certain topic and they read 3 stories that include that topic. At the end they have a little craft the kids put together. My son and the other kids love it! The crafts are cute and simple. There isn’t much discussion or learning with the topic outside of the books so I like to expand and incorporate the discussion into our lives a little after. I’ve been thinking for some time that it would be fun to pattern that idea and create some things we haven’t learned about to have some more opportunities to learn.

I’m excited to get started on this new series and share some fun and unique ideas to help you teach your child while playing together. Let’s get started!

This week it’s been really rainy and windy so we’ve been talking about weather. I like to ask my son in the car what kind of weather he sees outside and what he feels when we go for a walk. I’ve explained to him how water comes out of clouds and after rain sometimes you can see a rainbow. After rain, he likes to look for a rainbow. We don’t get too into depth on the science but it’s a good introduction and starting point for weather. I’m sharing this rainbow mobile as a free printable.

I’ve made it really easy for you. If your child is a little older and can use scissors, this is a great project to have them help with the whole way through. Since my son is so young, he can’t help with the cutting part. I printed the pages out on a heavy weight paper.

Then cut all of the pieces out.

Then I laid them out on the table to arrange them how I thought they looked best. I cut some string at different lengths and got some scotch tape pieces ready and put them on the side of the table so my son could easily grab them. He and I then went to work taping strings to the pieces. We put a hoop of string at top to hang it. We decided to hang it in our sliding glass door since that’s where we usually go to check what the weather is like before picking out clothes. It’s a cute little addition and was a fun and pretty quick project for us.