Day: August 13, 2020

Walking Through the Jungle

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Walking Through the Jungle (4)

Stuffed animals lend themselves so perfectly to imaginative play. Here are a few ways that Veronika and I turned our home into a jungle with them today!

We started out with a fun nursery rhyme. For each verse, swap in the name of a stuffed animal and the noise it makes. So, for example:

Walking through the jungle,

What did I see?

A baby monkey laughing

At me, me me.

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We repeated for a bear growling and an owl hooting.

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In between verses, we stomped like were on a jungle mission. Here was a slippery snake hissing! Encourage lots of animal noises or motions to mimic each particular animal.

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To continue the fun, stage a classic animal “safari” afterwards. Hide a few stuffed animals and have fun finding them with a flashlight just before bedtime.

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Big brother Travis loved being the animal hider, and guiding Veronika and her flashlight to the right spots in the room.

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Again, make lots of animal noises as you spot each one! We finished with a read of Way Far Away on a Wild Safari and used a flashlight on each page to “find” the animals.

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Today it was definitely a jungle out there.

Beanbag Toss

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Beanbags are such a versatile toy for kids of all ages and I highly recommend having a pile of them on hand. Today, Veronika used them both for target practice and shape learning.

I loved that the first part of this game was a chance to make art together. I unrolled a long piece of craft paper and set out markers.

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I had just started a green square when Veronika said, “Let’s draw a blue rectangle!” So a blue rectangle it was. She drew “shapes” alongside me while I made larger ones all over the paper, including purple hearts, orange circles, and more.

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Now it was time for some toddler sports! I asked her if she could toss a beanbag onto the blue rectangle. Easy shot! It was harder for her to throw towards shapes further back on the paper, so this game was great for strengthening little muscles.

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Sometimes she preferred to run and stand on the shape I named, instead of tossing the beanbag.

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Leave out your big piece of paper and the pile of beanbags, and no doubt your toddler will find ways to play with it solo throughout the day, too.

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Water Beads Sensory Bin for Boats

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Water Bead Boats (1)

How had I possibly forgotten about water beads? They’re one of the greatest ways to keep a toddler busy plus engage them in sensory play, but I literally had forgotten they exist. Well, a friend happened to remind me, and it was high time for Veronika to get her first experience with this awesome material.

If you’re not familiar with water beads, they start out the size of about a mustard seed, but expand overnight into marble-sized squishy balls. Look for them in the floral section of craft stores. As with all small, round objects, supervise play closely to avoid choking.

I soaked the water beads in a bin and then in the morning we added… boats! I thought the maritime theme would be perfect for summer.

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Veronika loved that she could sail the boats through the beads. She also loved loading the beads into one boat and then pouring them into another.

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At first our bin didn’t exactly look like an ocean since I had all the colors of the rainbow. I started to separate out just the blues and greens. It was starting to look a bit more like the Atlantic…

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I didn’t finish the task, though, because then Veronika wanted the cup I was filling with the non-ocean colors so she could practice her pouring and scooping.

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She then started carrying some of the beads around in the cups, at which point I had to direct her back to the bin. Because yes, the one problem with water beads is that they get real messy if you let them escape!

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Pull Box

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Your toddler will be so proud of this little box, his or her very own toy to pull, push, fill, or play with any way they see fit. Veronika dubbed it her “wagon”, and played with it all morning.

And all I did was pierce a hole in an old box and loop a piece of string through. (Note: thick rope would have been easier for her to grip onto, since the string was a bit slippery. I solved this by wrapping a little masking tape near the top almost as a handle).

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I asked if she wanted to decorate the box with crayons, but the lure of tugging it around was too great. She was off!

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At first she had to walk backwards and pull it towards her. As the day went on, she mastered the art of facing forward and tugging it along behind her.

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After a few trips around the house, we took it outside!

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Her “wagon” was prefect for filling with treasures we found along the way, like little pebbles, flowers, and leaves.

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Back inside, it was the perfect spot for her dolls to ride in.

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She loaded it up with her favorite doll and other toys and walked circles around the apartment for at least half an hour. A box and a string, that’s it folks!

Shark Ball Toss

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Here’s the perfect sport to bring along to your family’s next day at the beach. The homemade charm has a leg up on all the koosh ball competition!

To assemble, cut about 2 inches off the ends of two empty (1 L) soda or sparkling water water bottles. The edges were rough, so we sanded them until smooth with squares of sandpaper. Travis thought this was neat, wondering if the roughness of sandpaper can ever be completely worn away.

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Paint the bottles with two coats of blue acrylic paint; let dry overnight.

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In the morning, we drew shark features on craft foam, including jagged teeth, dorsal fins, and eyes.

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Because our wiggle eyes had long lashes and our foam was pink and purple, our sharks had a decidedly feminine appearance!

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Now simply head to the beach (or another outdoor location) and bring along a tennis ball. Toss back and forth, catching the ball in the shark “mouths”.

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A word of caution: This is hard! The players really should only be a few steps apart and it takes some practice to give the ball the right toss out of one shark’s mouth and into the other.

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So don’t worry if kids just end up rolling the tennis balls into the shark bottles. That was fun, too!

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