Category: 12 to 18 months

Peanut Butter Play Dough

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I guarantee this is the yummiest play dough your kids will ever play with, and it’s unbelievably easy to make!

In a bowl, combine 6 large marshmallows (we use Dandies) and 4 tablespoons peanut butter. Microwave for about 15 to 20 seconds, until the marshmallows sotfen. Stir together.

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Add about 2 to 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, stirring with a spoon to combine and then working the dough with your hands until it is no longer sticky. Although there were still some chunks of marshmallow visible, our dough worked great.

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I had intended this as a sensory project for Veronika, but big brother Travis loved it, too! First Veronika just enjoyed picking up the dough…

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…and was delighted when she noticed it tasted sweet!

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Her favorite thing to do was poke at it with craft sticks, or tap it with her fingers.

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Meanwhile, Travis had fun forming the dough. We rolled it into snakes and patted it into flat pancakes.

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Then we used leftover Halloween cookie cutters. It made fantastic shapes!

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Note: Make sure to cover the play dough if you want to play with it over multiple sessions, as it will dry out and become crumbly.

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Corn Meal to Explore

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It’s getting too cold for outdoor sandboxes, so today I made one for Veronika indoors… with corn meal! I simply dumped an old container of corn meal on a pizza pan, set out a few scoops, and let her begin to explore.

The scoops themselves seemed to delight her with their bright colors, First she just wanted to play with these…

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…but soon found her way over to the corn meal.

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Unlike anything gloppy, she had no hesitation getting fingers in dry corn meal. She picked up little light fingerfuls and watched it rain down into a cup, then dumped them out and started over.

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What fine motor skills! Next, I added cars, because you can make great tracks through cornmeal. If you have any toy construction vehicles like dump trucks or diggers, this is the perfect way to use them. But for Veronika I added a few favorites: a fire truck, school bus, and mail truck.

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She loved vrooming them in the corn meal, especially once she had a thin layer of it on the floor.

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I let the happy play continue until we had to leave the house.

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To clean up, I dusted off her pants, swept the cornmeal into the dust bin, and that was that!

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Sensory Activity: Dry Pasta Noodles

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The last time I gave Veronika pasta as a sensory item, it was cooked and she was tiny (she looks so little even though this was only 5 months ago!) Now for my bigger girl, the item of the day was dry pasta! I’ve seen sensory bins like this done with dried macaroni, but I chose larger cavatappi noodles just in case she tried to eat one. Little did I know how much fun would be had with this simple activity!

I set out a bin with the pasta, along with a few containers that it could be scooped into, a big plastic spoon, and a larger jug.

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Veronika instantly knew she wanted to transfer the pasta to the jug but couldn’t quite figure out the mechanics.

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I helped her along with the ladle. What fun when it landed in the jug with a plink!

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The smaller containers I had set out were great for scooping up pasta. With the lids on, these were just like maracas.

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Veronika also loved transferring pasta piece by piece from the small container back to the big bin. Over and over!

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What I hadn’t anticipated was how much even my 5 year old would love this sensory tray!

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He loved filling the jug, shaking it, and playing some imaginary game involving the pasta pieces. Soon they were happily sharing, and I loved seeing them play together.

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Once the jug was all filled up, Veronika looked so pleased!

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Go to a Police Station

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Whether your kids are in grade school or still just babies, a visit to a local police station is a fantastic outing for the whole family. Older kids can learn about the profession and have a positive experience with our brave workers in blue, while younger kids will just have so many sensory elements to take in. We were lucky enough to win a behind-the-scenes tour of our local station at a raffle. Here we are about to go in; Veronika looks so psyched for the tour, and Travis looks a bit nervous!

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The first obvious draw is the chance to meet real police officers! This meant posing with the chief of police and all his medals.

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Plus checking out all the computers and controls in the 9-1-1 call center.

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For little kids who don’t understand what they’re seeing on the tour, there was so much to look at: computer screens, shiny medals, bold blue uniforms, and all those badges!

Bigger kids of course will understand what they’re looking at, and get to check out stuff with serious “wow” factor, like a a real policeman’s handcuffs…

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…and real jail cells.

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Has your family visited a local station? Please share in the comments!

 

High Chair Painting

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I’ve loved my first forays into making art with Veronika, and today I dared to give her real paint for the first time, meaning it wasn’t sealed up or homemade. The verdict? She did not eat any! In fact, there wasn’t much of a mess at all.

For this age, though, I do recommend strapping baby into a highchair before pulling out the paints, resulting in the safest, least messy location. You can cover the floor below with newspaper if desired, and tape down the paper to the high chair.

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I started this way, using a few blobs of store-bought finger paint. But this time I gave her paintbrushes, and showed her how to dab into the blobs and swish it around. She looked so proud to hold the brush!

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After a few strokes, though, she preferred to pick at the masking tape. Hmm…

Thinking quickly, I gave her a fresh sheet of paper with no tape, and just held onto it firmly.

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Now, Veronika loved it. The serious look on her face was her way of really processing how it worked to smoosh down the bristles and see new paint appear.

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She kept at it for quite some time.

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You’re an artist, Veronika!

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A proud first paintbrush painting!

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Rice Cereal Sensory Tray

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One-year-olds are a tough age when it comes to devising activities. They’re old enough to want variety and to do things with those little hands and bodies, but not skilled enough yet for the games and projects they can enjoy once true toddlers (closer to 15 or 18 months).

Here’s a fantastically easy sensory bin that’s sure to engage a baby at just this age. If you have a box of rice cereal, just dump it in a bin! I added a few of her favorite little toys (Duplo figures, plastic farm animals) and buried them somewhat in the cereal. Now everyone was hiding in the rice paddy!

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I also added a rake for her to explore with, thinking this would make less of a mess than shovel. This wasn’t necessarily the case, but the rake became a fast favorite, and she trotted over to her playroom with it once the sensory play was done!

I also added a spritz bottle. Toddlers can practice squeezing the handle themselves. For Veronika at age one, I spritzed the water so she could watch the droplets in the sun-lit room.

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The instant the water hits the rice cereal, you’ll also get a scent sensory bin, with the homey smell of cereal for breakfast wafting up.

The water also means the rice cereal will clump together. She delighted in handfuls, picking them up, marveling when they stuck to her little palm, and shaking them loose with glee.

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And of course, trying a taste!

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She had fun raking through and finding the toys.

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Then it was lots of scattering the rice cereal around for ages.

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But don’t worry about clean-up. The rice cereal (even when wet) sweeps up like a charm with a simple dustpan.

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This was definitely a winner!

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Circle of Objects

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If you’re looking for a simple way to encourage your one-year-old to start using nouns and names of favorite toys, a circle of objects is a fantastic idea.

I cleared other distractions from the room and set out a few items for Veronika in a big circle, keeping the number manageable (aim for 6 to 8 things). I included: a box, stacking rings, a ball, a scarf, a toy car, a small book, and plastic cow. The idea was to have a variety, but also things that could be named with one word.

I placed her in the middle, and the choice was hers! When she trotted over to the box first, I named it. “Yes, that is a box.”

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She wanted to put the stacking rings inside it. More great opportunity for talk! “You found the ring. You found the green ring. Can the green ring go inside?

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Next the scarf caught her eye. “You found your scarf. The scarf is soft.”

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I draped this over a few of the items in the circle that she hadn’t made it to yet, to draw her attention. Soon she was happily uncovering and then playing with the car and small book.

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“The car goes fast!” I chimed in, as she spun the wheels and drove it around. This could go inside the box, too!

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You get the idea. Whatever it is your baby picks up from the circle, say the noun and some simple sentences to go along with it. And wait for that thrilling moment when your baby says the word back!

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Tape Resist Letters with Homemade Edible Finger Paint

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It was Daylight Savings today, and parents know what that means: an extra-long day where the kids wake up extra-early. Here’s just the right kind of messy project to help fill those extra hours… Daylight savings or any day the kids are up early!

I knew I wanted a messy art project for Veronika, but she’s still too little for paint since those little fingers go right to little mouth. This homemade finger paint recipe was perfect. After breakfast, I made the following:

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Combine 2 and 3/4 cups water in a saucepan with 1/2 cup cornstarch. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, dissolve 1 packet of vegan jel dessert (such as Simply Delish) in 1/4 cup cold water. I used the orange flavor, meaning our paint would be nice and sweet, but unflavored is fine!

Once boiling, remove the saucepan from heat and stir in the jel mixture. Let cool completely.

Transfer to plastic cups and add food coloring if desired for other colors. Since the finger paint was naturally yellow, I added a few drops of red for some orange cups and a few drops of blue for some green ones.

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Next, I added masking tape to a few pieces of construction paper for the tape resist portion of the project. A big V for Veronika seemed just right, and we made a T for Travis, too. Give the paper to your little one and add a few big blobs of paint.

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Veronika was more hesitant than I would have thought to get her fingers in there at first! I showed her how to smear the paint all over the paper, mixing and mushing the colors.

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I moved her down to the floor at one point, thinking she might want to get messier with lots of paint and paper spread out, but even then, she was a touch hesitant.

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No matter what, your paper will be very wet once completed, and will probably take all day to dry; I know ours did!

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Once the “paint” dried, I peeled off the masking tape for the big reveal.

You could also do this activity with more complicated patterns or pictures, simply applying the masking tape in whatever design you like. Big kids might just want to get their hands in there too!

Baby Flying

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Veronika went flying today! Ok, she didn’t really board an airplane, but here are three fun ways to turn your little one into a plane. Play them now before he or she is too heavy! Photo credit for all three versions goes to big brother Travis, who mostly managed to capture the antics in frame.

For the first method, stand with your baby between your legs, lying down on his or her tummy. I lifted Veronika up, supporting firmly beneath her stomach, and gently swung her back and forth.

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For this one I love to sing the “shake them low” verse from Shake Those Simmons Down; it gets a laugh every time!

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For the next version, she was in higher airspace: Do more of a football tuck with your arm under your baby’s chest, and zoom him or her back and froth. Airplane noises encouraged!

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The final version suggested actually holding one hand and one foot and swinging baby around in circles. This sounded like a good way to pop a joint from a socket, so I held Veronika a little more firmly, but she loved the circling spins. Whee!

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Ribbon Play

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Ribbons are one of those great toys you can return to again and again with your child as he or she grows; at each age, children will engage with the same item differently.

Today, I made a new set of ribbon wands for Veronika. This time, I let her be very involved in the set-up! She loved sitting in a big pile of ribbons that I had cut, pulling them through her fingers and lifting up big handfuls. (Obviously supervise any ribbon play closely).

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She also loved the spools that the ribbons came on, pulling them down to unwind in big long strands.

I began tying lengths of ribbon onto the ends of dowels, alternating patterns and colors. Although I only had two kinds of ribbon to work with, you could make these with as many as desired!

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I also cut some pieces of ribbon that were short and some long, to talk to her about opposites, and we also talked about the colors and patterns on the ribbon.

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Once all the knots were tied, we had ribbon dowels to play with! She loved when I waved these above her and she could grab at the ribbons.

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Then we put on slow soft music and I made big circles over her head and beside her, for some magical music play.

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Alternate songs with fast and slow tempos, since the ribbons will help your little one visualize the speed. These are also great for taking along on car trips, as long as you cut the ribbon lengths on the shorter side.

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