Month: September 2020

Car Busy Bag

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Car Busy Bag (3)

We’ll be in the car a lot more this fall than back in the spring, but I don’t want Veronika feeling bored as we shuttle big brother to and from school each day. I created a toddler-sized tote full of goodies for her to make car rides feel special.

For the tote itself, I repurposed an old craft, a bag with her handprint from when she turned one. It was just the right size to tuck in a few items.

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First, add something to read. Small board books are great, but Veronika especially loves flipping through her Hello magazines.

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Next, I tucked in a few small toys. Alphabet robots and mini toy trucks were perfect. These are small enough that she can stash them in her seat’s cup holder when she tires of playing.

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Don’t forget the tunes! I’m so thankful for all the Music Together CDs we can rotate through so we never get stuck with the same song on repeat. That said, Veronika definitely has her favorites from each collection!

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Finally, don’t forget a snack. Think mess-free and easy for a toddler to self-feed, like a dry O cereal or crackers.

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We’re ready to roll!

Busy B’s Basket

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I raided our toy bins today and filled a basket with items that can keep Veronika as busy as a bee by herself. Although the basket for your “busy bee” might look a little different than mine, here are some categories of toys she could manipulate solo.

To start, we went through all the items together for special mommy-and-me time. That way, I knew she’d be able to handle the toys solo later!

Busy Building: The first category includes any toys a toddler can build or manipulate, to hone fine motor skills. I gave Veronika a set of take-apart eggs with matching shapes. She loved looking inside. “I got a blue egg!” she might say before cracking open the next.

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These were great because she could take them apart, fit them together, stack them back into the egg crate, and numerous variations thereof.

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Busy Basket: Next up, look for anything with baskets or barrels that a toddler can fill, dump, refill, and repeat. I included a veggie farm set for Veronika. She loved “planting” the veggies in the pretend farm and pouring them from one bushel into another.

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I love that this one tosses in a little learning for colors and counting.

Busy Board: For a board to keep her busy, I gave Veronika a magnetic tracing set. Although she’s too young to know her letters, this activity is excellent for future pen control. Plus she loves the click of the magnets as they pop to the top! Another option in this category would be a classic toddler latch board.

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Busy Band: Finally, I included a magnet animal band set, featuring lots of magnets for her to mix and match. As always, supervise magnet play to make sure none are ingested. Veronika is interested in articles of clothing right now, so she was particularly interested in the outfits she could give each silly animal.

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Needless to say, she was a busy little bee! What’s Busy B’s would you include? Please share in the comments!

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Butterfly Pasta Salad

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Butterfly Pasta Salad (1)

Butterfly-shaped farfalle pasta add a whimsical touch to this easy lunch. With my son home from in-person school by lunchtime now, we’ll be making lots of new midday recipes in the weeks to come!

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces farfalle pasta
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
  • 1/2 cup vegan Parmesan
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  1. Combine the pasta and water in a large skillet. Bring to a boil; continue to cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.
  2. Add the mixed vegetables, Parmesan, and olive oil, stirring to combine. Let cool before serving.

Cherry Apple Coconut Rice Pudding

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Cherry Coconut Rice Pudding (1)This dessert pudding couldn’t be easier to put together or bake, making it easy enough for even a weeknight.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • 1 (15-ounce) can coconut milk
  • 1 cup frozen cherries, thawed
  • 1 cup applesauce
  1. Combine all the ingredients in a 2-quart casserole dish.
  2. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Cookie Dough Log

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Cookie Log (2)

Cookie dough is one of the easiest and earliest ways to get toddlers in the kitchen. I loved this variation on simply making cookies together, allotting Veronika her own portion of dough to play with in a log.

I kept this activity as simple as could be, whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies from a mix instead of from scratch. Because this only required three ingredients (the bag of mix, a stick of Earth Balance butter, and a flaxseed egg) it meant Veronika could stir it all together. She was so proud to help!

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Once the dough came together, I divided it in half. Half was for real cookies (of course) and the other half I rolled into a log. I handed across a craft stick and she used this as a knife to “slice” the cookies.

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And of course the stick was also useful for tasting. Then we divided the log into separate portions, and I showed her how to roll it into balls.

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I thought she might want to play pretend bakery for a little while, but she was more interested in the real cookies that were now baking in the oven, asking when they would be done.

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So then it was snack time!

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Puzzle Pail

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Puzzle Pail (1)

What do you give your toddler to play with after a Building Bin? A Puzzle Pail of course! Today’s “invitation” for Veronika was a pail (from our beach toy collection) appropriately filled with puzzles. I liked the alteration here, but of course any container would work, not necessarily a sand pail.

I set out the puzzles in a few different ways. Bulky ones (including one with latches and another with farm animals behind flaps), I simply set out on the ground.

But for more standard puzzles, I separated them into pieces and each puzzle got its own zip-top baggie. I then put these baggies into the pail. Veronika immediately grabbed at all the bags, emptying her pail out.

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She wanted to tackle the shape puzzle first. There must have been a leap in her brain, because she solved the entire puzzle without any help!

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All I had to ask was a prompt (“Where does the rectangle go?” and she immediately knew.

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When it was complete, it was fun for her to load the pieces back into their zip-top baggie.

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In fact, your child might find the bags and pieces the most interesting part of this activity, rather than solving any puzzles.

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Next up was an animal puzzle. And she solved this one without any assistance, too!

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I guess my girl has earned her animal stripes (and spots).

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I also included an animal sound puzzle to add a fun auditory element.

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I loved seeing her busy with all the different puzzle varieties throughout the day, and only occasionally needed to jump in for assistance. This one truly lived up to its intention as a solo activity.

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Building Bin

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Building Bin (1)

On the heels of a Book Box, today I kept Veronika busy during big brother’s school Zoom with a building bin! I kept this one very simple, initially filling a basket with three types of blocks: Duplo, alphabet blocks, and foam shape blocks.

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Although she frequently plays with all of these, she hasn’t ever combined them. I was curious to see how she might mix and match.

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Of course there were standard towers to build…

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…but I also helped her form her name from the alphabet blocks. We could do this in two ways, either finding a block for each letter, or making a big version of her nickname.

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She was most interested in discovering that block towers easily toppled, but not so her Duplo towers, because she could link the pieces.

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She loved waving her big stack of Duplo around, almost marveling at how it didn’t break like other block towers do.

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“Look what I made,” she proudly ran to tell me a few times. Of course she also just loved making little block castles in a more classic manner, and I gave her a “king” and “queen” to play with in her creations.

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Later in the day, I did a quick rearrangement, this time filling the bin with a creative interpretation of “blocks”: individual toilet paper rolls and cans of cat food. Both of these make great toddler blocks because they’re small enough and/or soft enough not to hurt little toes.

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At first she just stacked the toilet paper rolls. I showed her how to do this standing instead of sitting, so the tower grew taller than her head.

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What a reach!

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Then I demonstrated how she could alternate cat food tins with toilet paper.

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She loved decorating the tops of her towers with cat food, almost like little castle decorations.

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This version of the Building Bin kept her busy solo for quite some time.

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Mission accomplished!

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Painting the Driveway with Water

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Paint the Driveway with Water (9)

The season for outdoor water play is nearly at an end, so we’re taking advantage while we still can! Veronika has painted with water on a small scale this summer, but today we went big. Driveway-sized big, that is!

I have a paint roller which I thought would be novel for spreading water around, so we headed out to the driveway with the roller, a tray, and a few smaller paint brushes and sponges.

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I filled the tray with water from our watering can and Veronika instantly wanted to dip the sponges in.

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She liked pressing down and watching triangles and rectangles appear.

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I then showed her how to dip the paint roller in the tray and transfer to the pavement for big streaks of water “paint”. She gave it a few experimental sweeps, but it wasn’t her favorite. 

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She much preferred a wide bristle paint brush. “I’m sweeping!” she told me, as she dipped it in the tray of water and then brushed over the driveway.

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Kids love the instant gratification of watching pavement turn from light to dark with this activity.

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What a big bold canvas for making art!

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Flying Balloon

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Flying Balloon (9)

There’s some neat science behind making a balloon fly with a hair dryer, whether the push of the air on the balloon that directs it up, or using “fins” to catch the air and make the balloon hover and spin. But truth be told, Travis and I went light on the science this morning, and more just had fun because, well, balloons + hair dryers = excitement!

Travis was stoked when he saw me pull out the hair dryer for an experiment. After I inflated two balloons, he just liked scooting them along the floor with a flow of air.

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Meanwhile, I rolled two pieces of construction paper into tubes, securing with tape. Cut the bottom into fringe and then tape onto the balloons. These will act as weights for the balloons.

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If you want the balloon to spin as well as fly, you’ll need to add fins. Cut strips of construction paper, then fold in half. Bend the ends, so they make little tabs.

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If you’re going for exact science, you’ll need to wind string around the center of the balloon to mark the equator, then draw two meridians (the horizontal and vertical lines that intersect the equator) with a sharpie. Glue your fins along this equator at a 45 degree angle.

Well, we weren’t that exact. We just used double-sided tape to add the fins in a circle roughly near the balloon’s center.

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So… it wasn’t perfect, but it did get some spin and some air. It was unfortunately difficult to hold the camera and the hair dryer and launch the balloon, so we never got great photos or videos.

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But we did have fun!

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Spoon Match

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Spoon Match (4)

Veronika loves playing with spoons, whether little measuring spoons or big cooking spoons. I decided to sneak a little learning in while she had them out as a toy today.

I broke apart two sets of measuring spoons and lined them up as large (tablespoon), medium (teaspoon), and small (1/4 teaspoon). Then I encouraged Veronika to match big with big, little with little, etc.

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Grated this task was tricky because one set was heart-shaped and the other a standard oval, so they weren’t necessarily intuitive as a “match”. But she sort of got the idea, especially with the two small ones.

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She fairly quickly returned to just playing with the spoons, but it never hurts to sneak in some quick learning!

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