Highchair Fun

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Babies and toddlers love to play “dropsie” off a high chair tray, and this game lets them do that to their heart’s content!

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Choose a light-weight, favorite toy (around here that’s Daniel Tiger figures!) and tie a piece of yarn securely to one end of the toy. Tape the other end of the yarn to the high chair tray. I used lots of tape, knowing Veronika might be tempted to rip it up, or throw the toys so strongly the tape came loose.

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Then it was just a matter of sitting her down and demonstrating!

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She giggled when the toys dropped, and eagerly looked over her tray: where did they go?

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You can make the dropping silly and not scary by adding sing-song words like, “Uh oh trouble!” or “Dropsie!”

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I then showed her how she could pull on the yarn to retrieve a toy back all by herself. This took a few tries, but she started to get the hang of it.

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Now it was her turn to impishly dangle the toys off.

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As you can probably guess, this is a great way to occupy a toddler when dinner is almost ready.

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Where’s Teddy?

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This cute version of hide-and-seek will have your toddler busily chasing strings on the way to find a favorite toy!

For set-up, tie a string around a teddy bear’s leg (or another stuffed animal), and hide the animal somewhere in the house. Be sure to leave the yarn or string dangling where your toddler can easily spot it.

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The favorite bear around here is little British teddy that Veronika calls “Paddington”. “Where’s Paddington?” I asked her, signing “where” in baby sign language.

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She immediately started towards the stairs, since normally “Paddie” is up in her crib. I redirected her by tugging on the string.

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It was a little hard for her to wrap her head around the game on the first round. We followed the string together until we found “Paddie” behind a pillow.

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Next I hid him in a drawer, and this time she understood a bit better about how to follow the string.

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As with any game that involves string, be sure to supervise closely during play.