Day: May 25, 2020

Sticky Board

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Sticky Board (6)

I needed to keep Veronika occupied while I cleaned today. Enter a classic toddler activity: a contact paper sticky board! Thinking quickly, I taped a square of contact paper, sticky side out, onto the patio door.

Next I put together a little tray of odds and ends: squares of tissue paper, pieces of ribbon (too short to be choking hazards), and pom poms.

Sticky Board (1)

Now it was up to Veronika to decide what should go where!

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This was the perfect activity to leave her mostly solo as I cleaned, since she loved discovering that the contact paper was sticky, pressing curious fingers against it.

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Then she could explore the various materials at her own pace.

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Wouldn’t you know, her favorite part was the painter’s tape I had used to hang the contact paper! So I ended up ripping off a few extra pieces of that for her, and she quickly added them to her collage.

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By the end, she had pulled the whole thing off the patio door, which was just fine of course; it simply meant that the play continued on the ground! And I had time to finish my cleaning.

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Vanilla Raspberry Sorbet

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Vanilla Raspberry Sorbet (2)

This easy three-ingredient sorbet comes together in moments, and makes a great sugar-free treat for kids.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups fresh raspberries
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons apple juice
  1. Combine the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
  2. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze. Every two hours or so, fluff the mixture with a fork, then conitinue to freeze and fluff until ready to serve.

Vanilla Raspberry Sorbet (1)

Pouring Station Activity

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Pouring Station (3)

Here’s an activity that I had originally intended to do outside, but the day was colder and cloudier than anticipated. Thinking quickly, we moved everything inside, which worked just fine! In addition to being pure fun for a toddler, a pouring station like this is a great way to promote dexterity for pouring, a necessary life skill.

To set up the station, I placed a storage bin on the floor, and then filled it with various measuring cups (both liquid and dry varieties) as well as toy pitchers and cups.

Pouring Station (1)

I added a few outliers, too, like a lemon juicer that almost looks like a red boat. I left the bin itself dry (knowing it would get wet soon enough) but filled all of these various cups with water. Most contained clear water, but I added a few drops of food coloring to the see-through measuring cups. In retrospect, this meant we soon had muddy brownish water, but the color was a nice added sensory element.

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It took Veronika no time at all to begin scooping and pouring. She was most interested in the dry measuring cups, using these more like little ladles.

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To pique her interest in pouring from one of the larger “pitchers”, I dumped one out and then she took over. Now we had a fun layer of green water in the bin!

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Soon she had a little “coffee shop” in operation. She loved filling cups from her toy pot, and transferring the water back and forth from cups to pot.

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She happily mixed, poured, ladled, and stirred for over half an hour by herself!

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I had stripped her down to her diaper just in case, but remarkably she didn’t get too wet, either.

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A fantastic way to let a toddler learn to pour.

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