Toddler Poke & Peg Activities

One of the biggest challenges of having a kid is KEEPING HIM BUSY. I wish he was the kind who would just play for hours on his own, or at least ONE damn hour a day with his toys, but that fantasy is a far cry from reality. There are a million articles on being a Helicopter Mom, but what about Helicopter Children?? Children who hover and just don't leave you alone for more then ten minutes at a time! Sigh!

 

These are a few DIY Poke & Peg activities that would keep him busy, not for an hour but for at least a while when he was a toddler (they are also a good fine motor skill practice).

My Kid Swallowed a Marble!

I had written earlier about how I LOVED leaving babyhood behind. Babyhood is cute and adorable and LABORIOUS AND BORING! You don't sleep well for months, and years, have to carry your baby around and watch him like a hawk for HOURS and HOURS, doing nothing else but watching your child. Then there's the poop. I thought it was all done and dusted after he turned 2, but I got a rude flashback of it recently, just before he turned 3 years old!

I was having a sick day. Sick day, not sick leave! His school had a holiday so I took him to a neighbourhood bookstore to while away time. It's kinna like an air-conditioned playground as it has a train engine, a Lego station etc. he runs around for an hour while I browse thru books. I bought him a marble run that day. This was the first 'toy' in technical terms I bought for him in ages! (Otherwise it's usually books, stickers, paints etc)

After we got home and set it up (he was quite excited!), I finally took a mini nap for ten minutes or so. Didn't think he needed to be "watched" since "he isn't a baby anymore to put things on his mouth". He kept playing for a good 3-4 hours which was excellent, since I was steadfast at my sneezathon (I live in the allergy capital of this country+ winter was slowly making its way in)

By the time it was 6 pm, I.e. His bath time, he turned to me with a big giant smile saying "mummy! I ate a marble!"

What??!!

"It's now in my tummy!!"

Oh boy.

Toddler Painting with Shaving Cream

I have already posted earlier on mixing tempera paint with shaving cream, yet I am posting again since the pictures come out so damn delicious! Not to forget all the fun my tiny tot has!

Toddler Activity: Paint on Salt and Glue Squiggles

Who knew an eye dropper would play an integral part of the art process! We have tried transferring colored water to tiny ice cube trays earlier. And now we added salt in the mix.

It's a popular technique: On a sheet on paper, make squiggles with a tube of glue, (or proper drawings!) and sprinkle salt all over it. Some of the salt will stick to the glue and the rest will have be shaken off the paper. Then with a dropper, put drops of different colored paints on the squiggles and watch each drop spread over the salt.

Ahem, the caveat here is that my neat freak son wanted to sponge and sweep all the excess salt off - completely- before even picking up the dropper! So buffer in sometime for that :D

Toddler Fine Motor Skill: Cutting Grass

My tiny tot had 2 weeks off from his preschool so we were out on vacation, which was spent wandering on the beach, dipping in the pool, sun bathing, chasing cats, swinging on the swings, riding the tricycle, taking pictures, running around all day till his skin got tanned and whole body was covered with so much sand mud and dirt that he had to be scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed clean every night!

The first few days were pure bliss, since my ebullient boy was outdoors after a really long time. But after a week he started coming to me every now and then, asking the dreaded "what do we do now mummy?" So I made a run to the local stationary store and got him the basics: colored glue, crayons, Watercolors and brushes. But forgot child safe scissors.

He is still hesitant with the scissors, except for cutting playdoh caterpillars into bits. So I need to encourage him from time to time to cut at least a little! But here since I didn't have child safe scissors, I handed him a big adult one to cut grass (not leaves from plants, cuz if I open THAT door...!)

He sternly looked at me saying "mummy this is dangerous!"


*facepalm*

Pretend Play: with a Stethoscope

Living in his own world of imagination is the best thing about being a toddler!

Sometimes when he cycles around the house, asks me for my "ATM card", goes to the "ATM machine", withdraws "money", then goes to the "shop" to buy some "chocolates/soaps". He does not forget to return my "ATM card" and even parks his cycle, leaving his "keys" on his shelf after the shopping trip. Sometimes the ATM machine is not working, so he tries another one. Sometimes soap is not available so he "calls" me to check what else I want.        

DIY Felt Rainbow & Stars Puzzle

It will be fun to do rainbow activities a few months down the line- i.e. When my tiny tot is able to paint different arches with different colors. But for now he is loving the rainbow puzzle.

Felt is such a fun material! I bought a set with the intention of cutting them out into elaborate puzzles but it'd been lying in the drawer for a long, long time. When I realised they are a set of 7 colors, I cut the arches out since that could be done quickly using a compass (& while watching greys anatomy!). And while doing so, I realised that they 7 left over semi circles can be used as a rainbow puzzle too.

On a mat, I drew the rainbow arches along with colored star shapes, to place the felt arches and the colored star shaped buttons

Psst! Obv not falling vibgyor. Maybe I shall someday. When I finally know the diff between blue and indigo ;)

Until later! Stay in touch!

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Toddler Activity: White Board Marker on Glass Doors

When I was a little girl, I had a whole wall to express myself. Full of drawings and scribblings, what fun! 

While we've dissuaded our tiny tot in doing so, I got him a White Board Marker (Dry Erase Marker) to scribble over our glass doors. Which is like a wall of glass to himself!  

I put a shiny pink cello tape on the white board marker telling him that this is a "special" pen, so ONLY THIS ONE can be used on the glass door. I don't know what he finds more fun: scribbling or rubbing off with the duster! I'll be getting him more colors soon! 

(only the lower two scribbles were made by my tiny tot!)

Cheap Pattern blocks and DIY boards for Toddlers

Every time I stumble into Melissa and Doug products, I wonder about the price. With my tiny tot's ratio of rejection to acceptance of a playing and learning material being 1:1 or even more, I seldom have intentions of actual purchase. A M&D pattern blocks and board set is sold at a discounted price of ₹1300/$22- maybe because it's a big brand, organic, nontoxic, etcetera. But then I stumbled into a locally made pattern blocks set for ₹50/$1 at a neighbourhood stationery store and immediately bought it!

The mats are my handiwork that took a few minutes with crayons, permanent marker and a ruler. I pasted these mats on mdf boards only because I had some left over from a previous craft activity.

Until later! Stay in touch!

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Toddler Fine Motor Skill Activities: Transferring Colored Water with Dropper & Stones with Tongs

This was pure improvisation - what to do with excess paint? Transfer it to ice tray compartments using a dropper!

Began with a big ice tray with big compartments, since I wasn't sure whether he would get the dropper concept at all. While I was awkwardly showing him, he just took the dropper from me and began the activity. Phew. Soon I pulled out the tiny ice trays with teeny tiny compartments (I'd used them to transfer tiny pom poms not too long ago) and poured out more paint!       

Painting Earthen Lamps for Diwali- the Festival of Lights!

Painting objects is always welcomed with excitement, I guess because it's easy. By easy I mean painting it all over with one color of course! Diwali is a big festival in India and my tiny tot just couldn't contain his excitement about having painted an earthen lamp orange at school! He would narrate the whole activity to anyone and everyone he met the whole day! So I thought why not bring some lamps to paint at home too.

He chose the lamps at the store himself and he chose to paint them orange (again!) and added blue glitter as a finishing touch. 

looks like he painted his nose orange too!

Play Dough Mats for Toddlers: The Human Body

I introduced playdough just a few months back, since he's inching towards being all of 3 y o and isn't as messy as he used to be. Although it was his favorite playing material, and would ask for fresh dough every few days, I would wonder what he did with it! It was a mystery that could be probably solved using nanny cams! Since I never saw him balling it in his palms or using cutters or the rolling pin or any of the usual stuff.

But one fine day he asked me to make "chapatis" with the rolling pin and he started using cutters. I know that because I saw a neat row of hearts and circles stuck on the main door! Then he was very excited with the new alphabet and numbers cutter pack and asked me to make many chapatis. By bedtime, I saw all colors back into their tubbies and an adorable row of random alphabets stuck on the door!

Toddler Experiments with Paint: Milk Powder

A little twist to simple tempera paint. Got my tiny tot to mix 2 tbsp milk powder with 1 tbsp water and then mixed colors. He had a bowl of blue and a bowl of yellow paint that he mixed over paper to make it green. Gave a nice thick consistency and after drying, gave an oil paint feel. 

DIY Montessori Red Rods: & other size discrimination activities

'Red rods' is sensory Montessori learning material and can be made at home. The purpose is to have your child arrange them in a descending (or ascending) order to get a grasp on visual discrimination of various dimensions (you can read all about it in detail here)

Raw Material

Toddler Experiments with Paint: Shaving Cream

Had been dying to try this one out! I bought two small tubes of shaving cream and had my tiny tot squeeze them out in his sensory tub. He then mixed in paints and thoroughly enjoyed the next half hour! Next time I’ll get a more quantity and allow him to mix it around on a large tray.

Toddler Art Time: Painting Rainbows with Tissue Paper Rolls

I have collected many, MANY tissue paper rolls hoping they would be of some use someday. So after I once saw how he quickly painted a few building blocks, I cut some arches out of these rolls to paint. He called them rainbows and happily painted them in different colors, even grey. With this idea, every time he says "More!" I am more than willing to cut more rolls!

In Our Little "Tinkerlab": Painting in Goop!

This idea came straight out of Rachelle Doorley’s book “Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors” which I highly recommend! She has an arts degree from Harvard, conducts workshops on visual thinking and hands on creativity and has also dipped into her experience with her own daughters. The cover says 55 experiments but it seems like a lot more! Salt & glue paint, marble rolling, paste painting, rope and pulleys, DIY robot, vinegar & baking soda concoction, milk powder paint, egg yolk & tempera paint, slime, salt & ice experiments, yeast & sugar experiment, DIY light box, naked egg, lemon invisible ink are few of the many explorations that little children will love.

Some ideas are super simple yet had never occurred to me, such as chalk drawings on sidewalks! It is also a mini trip back to chemistry class – Did you know vinegar dissolves the shell of an egg over a period of 24 hours? Or when you write on a paper with lemon juice and hold it near a heat source, the lemon part turns brown before burning the paper , hence the idea of invisible ink? It is not only a helpful guide for parents with little children but also a fun read!

Sensory Bins: With wheat, rice, marbles,coffee beans, & what not !

The idea and the logic behind a sensory bin is best explained by Sharla in her blog and book, but what I understand is it is a means to engage and calm a child's mind with his senses : tactile (touch), vestibular (movement and balance), proprioception (body awareness), auditory (sound), visual (sight), olfactory (smell). The sensory experience is usually given outside a box, such as when my kid walks back home from school he spends an hour gathering stones, chasing cats, drawing circles in the sand. Or when he takes bath, he spends an hour pouring water from one bucket to another, squeezing sponges, bathing his toys, blowing bubbles. Sensory bins however gives that experience in a bin.

A sensory bin (or a box, or a basket) comprises of a base (such as colored rice, beans, marbles, stones, sand, pebbles, rocks, grass, tinsel, beads, cotton balls etc) and additions (such as magnets, erasers, cars, diggers, feathers, toys, etc). They may be themed (color, Christmas, Independence Day, zoo, aquarium, garden, birthday, etc).

 

DIY Montessori Color Tablets, with Jenga Blocks

The Original Montessori Color Tablets have 9 colors in 7 different shades that are to be arranged by children from darkest to lightest or vice versa. For further details you may click here. I made them because they seemed fun to paint! I don’t remember doing any painting in school and I’m thoroughly enjoying this new interest in my life!

Final Product!

Busy activities for toddlers : Sorting, Transfers & Playdough

I bought trays for displays, pom poms, straws, mini ice trays, wafer tongs, big tongs, colored balls, marbles (my maids though warned me that they could be swallowed easily!), dropper, pencil and sharpener, buttons, colored matchsticks, cotton balls, little farm animals, little zoo animals, little creepy crawlies, toddler safe scissors, color palettes, even more play dough, measuring spoons, and from Hobby Ideas I picked up decorative sets for scrap book use (that is after one round of tsk tsk-ing, why cant these lazy girls cut their own flowers instead of pasting this ready made stuff, how unimaginative ! But I soon realised that it gave me over twenty combinations for sorting, so ..umm , WTH why not!)

One of the shopping sprees!