Tag: Toddler

Dear Readers

My kids love watching Ice melt. I think it would be rather boring, but they are constantly asking to have some ice to melt. Sure they don’t always stay in one place while it melts, but they love to play with the ice by setting it out on the hot pavement.

This activity is a sensory science experiment. Toddlers are called little scientists because they are constantly experimenting on their environment to learn how things work.

While simple, you can talk with them about how the ice goes from a solid to a liquid. This is something they can witness for themselves.

The great thing is that all you have to have is ice. Little to no preparation is involved, and it entertains them from anywhere between 5-20 min.

Dear reader

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I really wanted to buy some colored tape! I know, it’s a total splurge, especially when the whole point is to let babies play with it, but I could just see them having so much fun with it! I mean it definitely needed some tweaking and it definitely needed supervision to prevent tape getting wrapped around necks, but masking tape tears easily so I wasn’t that worried.

So I found some on Amazon (no, I’m not an affiliate, I ordered this at full price, I liked it, and I’m passing that info on) and I couldn’t wait to find a way to use it! I don’t know why I’m so much in love, it’s just tape. But colors make me happy.

Knowing I don’t have a radiator to put it on like in the picture, I searched my house for a safe place to put it. I didn’t want to risk losing paint on any walls or furniture, and my house is in a constant state of construction (for wayyyyyyy too long!) So I decided I’d use my vinyl deck rails. If you want to do this activity I highly suggest you consider the best place. I’m sure you can find some place in your house, but with the last warm days looming over us, the deck had an extra pull, anyway.

I remembered how chaotic it was when I set up the spider web so I definitely waited until naptime to set this up, and of course I put it in rainbow order. Not only because it’s so visually pleasing but because it makes a hidden learning experience. Especially when I got my preschooler involved!

This activity kept them entertained for a surprisingly long time! They’d run off for a second or two and then come back and rip off another patch of another color. And when they’d get a whole strip, they’d play with that strip, on their hands, on their shirts, or even just getting it stuck to their feet.

I would definitely call the activity a win! And now I have a lot more tape in fun colors to do it again! I’ve got cubbies in my front room that I think would be a good indoor place to play. Or even the fridge. I’m sure there’s a lot of ways we can adapt this activity. If you do it, please send me some pics!

Dear Reader

One of my kids favorite things to do is to play with the cans in my cupboard. They are constantly taking them out and stacking them. The great thing about this is that I don’t have to watch too closely while they play with them.

This is a game that even the youngest toddler can play. At a young age they may only be able to stack one on top of another reaching 2 cans high, but it is great practice.

My 11 month old was having a blast playing with the cans. I was surprised at how well he was doing.

All you need is cans and your kids will do the rest. Just be aware that your cans may end up dented, or missing labels. The younger ones won’t be able to stack very high, so you don’t need to worry about it falling on their heads.

This kept them busy for at least 20 min. So if you need to keep them busy while you get something done this is a great option.

Dear Reader,

The nice thing about toddlers is that when they’re little, everything is an adventure. Including busting out a camping tool! we bought this little tent when my preschooler was little so we could go camping without worrying that our adventurous girl would wander off while we were all sleeping. It also came in handy on trips. And now, it makes a great play tent for a couple of adventurous little toddlers! As long as it stays fun, it’s useful, eh? Just don’t make it feel like they’re stuck there, because that totally changes the mood. It’s not fun if they feel like it’s not their choice. Grown ups are the same way.

Actually I was digging through the camping stuff when I found it and decided it would be fun. And the truth is, the preschooler still enjoys playing in it too, so it couldn’t have been that bad of a purchase.

If you want to check it out, you can still find it on amazon here. I am not an affiliate, so clicking on any links will give me a whole lotta nada. But that shouldn’t change your opinion. Do your own digging. And if you don’t wanna buy anything but still want to play with your toddler, it absolutely would work to just throw blankets onto a chair or something. Especially if you crawl under and play, which is kinda the point. Read a book, throw a few toys in, let toddlers learn through play – and you can’t go wrong.

Dear Reader,

As I have stated before, my kids love water. They will play in it any form that it comes in.

As toddlers one of their simplest joys is the bath. They also love bubbles. Adding bubbles to a bath is a great sensory play activity. Obviously since this is a bath this is one of the more involved activities we do, but my kids could play there for quite a while. The biggest perk I have to this is that if they are playing in the tub they aren’t making messes everywhere else.

Expect to get wet. Kids love to splash, especially when they are in the tub it seems. Sometimes this is not a bad thing, but if you want your floor to stay dry, this probably isn’t the right activity.

That being said, my kids could play in this for quite a while, long past the bubbles. If you need to sit down this is the perfect activity because the bathroom comes with the perfect seat to sit on while you are watching them!

Okay, so to sum up: You get to keep the mess in one area, you get to sit down, and the kids love it! Plus you get a little sensory play in as well. Have fun!

Dear Reader,

Today for the toddlers I decided to do ice painting. I have been wanting to try this for a while, I just haven’t gotten to it until today. Life has been crazy, and since I didn’t have an ice maker it does require some prep work for me.

The Girls really loved it, but it ended a little too soon for all of us. Perhaps next time I will try to thicken the “paint”. Another option is to have one for each of my kiddos and paint for each of them too, so more stuff.

The problem I have with thickening the “paint” is that I wanted an easy cleanup and water and food coloring seemed to be the best for that, though some of the colors were not very bright, so perhaps I need to add something to it.

As I said earlier I don’t have an ice maker, so I had to make the ice myself. This also meant limited storage for the ice. If you wanted to spend money I guess you could buy a bag of ice, but I just wanted to do something easy.

For the paint I did water and food coloring. The red worked the best, as it usually does. Next time I will add more color for the others to make them brighter and maybe some flour to make it thicker? Flour would also help bring out the color as well, but it would not be as easy to clean up if they spilled on the ground.

If you have any ideas let me know, and we will be glad to try them out. Or if you tried a variation and want to share your success be sure to let us know! We would love to hear from you.

Dear Readers

My children love playing in water. If they could they would be in water at least once a day. Every once in a while I try to spice it up a little and do something different with the water. Today I decided to try Water Beads.

Water beads are a simple sensory activity. When added to a bath it seems like it would be lots of fun. This was my first foray into the water beads, and perhaps I should have tried something else first. I didn’t realize that they squish so easily.

My toddler did have fun playing with them, for a while. After a while though they started “following” her in the currents she created. This child is afraid of things following her, terrified actually. It doesn’t matter what it is, she will freak out. Once that happened she was done.

This activity does require some preparation before hand, the beads need to sit in the water for 6 hours before they are ready to be used. Once they are expanded you can use them at your convenience. When you are ready just add them to the tub and let them play.

If you decide to do this activity I would suggest a hair catcher in the drain so that no beads go down the drain.

Dear Reader

I confess, I totally stole this idea from Pinterest; and I confess, that as most things stolen from Pinterest, it didn’t go as planned. I saw the idea for sticking toys to painter’s tape and making a toy web and I thought, “oh! this should be fun.” What I didn’t account for is that I should have done it during naptime, because I barely got it set up before the toddlers had to get involved. I think I will do this activity again but I will take my own advice and set it up during naptime. If I do it again, I’ll update!

I had my preschooler fetch toys to stick to the web (she loved that!). Finding just the right toys is harder than you’d think. Painter’s tape isn’t really all that strong, so it doesn’t hold a lot of weight. And I didn’t want anything furry/fabricky because I was worried about how well they’d stick (although as I think about it after the fact, they’d probably have been fine). Fisher Price Little People are a great option, if you have any. They’re hollow and small, easy to grab with little fingers, and stick well to the painter’s tape. The preschooler actually grabbed an eclectic variety, but what did I care?

the “game” lasted all of 5 minutes in reality, but had I had time to set it up better (aka, not been bombarded with toddlers), I think it would definitely last longer. And they did come back over and over, to get more tape off of more toys. One toddler enjoyed crawling under the tape (ironically, she’s the one eager to walk more, and almost runs), and the other enjoyed freeing the toys and would sit and pull the tape off each one.

It was pretty fun, even though it was quick. And watching them try to get the tape off was pretty entertaining. And now I have a whole roll of painter’s tape (I know we have some somewhere, but I couldn’t find it when I went looking, and it cost me all of a dollar ninety-eight to go buy a roll) to do it again. But this time I’m setting it up during naptime!