Dried fruit adds a nutrition boost to plain old cereal, making this a great snack option for growing toddlers.
Ingredients:
Veronika is legitimately obsessed with stars, so when I found a swatch of star-print fabric in my craft bin, I knew I had to let her play with it. It prompted the idea to let her play with lots of fabric scraps, and this turned into great sensory and solo play!
First, I showed her how to simply pile the fabric scraps in and out of a small box. She needed no further demonstration, and loved moving the scraps in, out, into smaller boxes, back to bigger boxes… You name it!
Inevitably, your toddler will probably let the fabric rain down like confetti!
She then had a game going in her head with the big star-print piece, pretending it was her bed.
For some learning fun, point out any different colors and patterns you might have. I showed her the difference between big dots and little dots. Or between polka dots and stripes.
You can help your child sort them by color or pattern, too. Finally, you can turn this into movement and music play! I took the longest strips of fabric and tied them to a jingle bell ring from our music bin.
She loved shaking this in the air.
Later in the day, I turned to find her busy with the fabric swatches again. So busy in fact that I had time to bake a cake!
So before you toss any fabric scraps, don’t forget that they make a fantastic toddler toy.
Heading into the eighth week of home school, I have a much better idea now for how to entertain an 18 month old and teach kindergarten lessons at the same time. It felt like an apt time to share some of this newfound wisdom, breaking things down into six steps.
Step 1: Start with a “busy” activity. I’ve learned to find even mundane materials that keep little hands occupied, and this is usually enough to keep Veronika happy during the first lesson of the day. To wit: today she had construction paper to tear, put in a bin, and then attach to a sheet of sticky contact paper!
Step 2: Give them similar materials. This is usually the second tactic of the day to come into play, when Veronika tires of her busy activity. So, for example, today Travis had a math lesson involving gemstones. I gave Veronika an age-appropriate version: large wooden beads hidden in a set of nesting boxes that quickly became toddler gems and treasure!
Step 3: Give hugs. Inevitably about mid-morning, Veronika walks up to me and says, “Hug”. She’s tired just from watching all the home schooling!
I sit her on my lap, and soon she’s feeling better. She might just suck her thumb and watch Travis work during this period, or flip through a toddler magazine quietly as we snuggle.
Step 4: Contain them in a high chair. If we’re involved with something messy, I strap Veronika into the high chair and make it her work station. Some go-to activities? An empty paper towel tube to scribble on with markers is perfect. Or stickers. Or both! Veronika can never have too many stickers.
But if she fusses about being contained we head to…
Step 5: Help them feel like a big kid. Give your toddler the same thing that the older sibling has, but once more in an age-appropriate way. So if Travis is working with real scissors, she gets safety scissors. If Travis is using permanent marker, she gets crayons. You get the idea!
Step 6: Don’t forget the magic of food. I’ve learned to time Veronika’s snack around the lesson when Travis needs my focus the most each day. Set out favorites that your toddler can feed him- or herself. Favorite finger foods here are mini boxes of raisins, sliced olives, animal crackers, and juice boxes.
How are you keeping a baby or toddler occupied during coronavirus home schooling? Please share in the comments!
A big shipment of cat food arrived today, and before I put the cans away, I had a feeling they would make perfect toddler building blocks! Boy was I right. No sooner did I put the boxes of cans down on the ground than Veronika had her hands on them and started stacking.
These were 3-ounce cans, which I would declare the perfect size for toddlers; I didn’t worry about them being too heavy if they fell. You can play this game with more standard 15-ounce cans, but if so I would recommend making sure your child has shoes on, in case of dropped items. Alternatively, play with larger cans that are empty, but then you’ll need to make sure you’ve duct-taped over any sharp edges.
Meanwhile, these little cat food cans did away with any of that prep work! She loved building high, and seeing how many she could stack. And then of course she loved the kaboom of knocking her towers over.
The game looked like so much fun that big brother Travis came over to join in. The kids had a competition to see who could stack higher of course!
Bigger kids might get fancier with their blocks creations, too.
After a while we even had “bulldozers” to help clean up the debris from our toppling can towers.
In sum, little cans make great “blocks” for small hands.
Here’s a snack that your toddler can actually prepare for him- or herself! This cute project lets even young toddlers practice “knife” skills, proudly prepare their own food, and enjoy a yummy treat at the end.
I sat Veronika down with a plate filled with agave nectar in one compartment, wheat germ in the second, and half of a banana in the third. I asked her to help me peel the banana, which toddlers always love!
She was even more interested in the next step though, when I presented her with Popsicle sticks to “slice” the banana.
More so than the slicing, she loved dipping the sticks into the agave and wheat germ, and then sprinkling over the banana.
She took this so seriously, intent on her work. Scoop and pour. Scoop and pour. When the banana pieces were nicely coated, I showed her how to insert a Popsicle stick to hold up a piece of the snack she had created.
When I cleared the plate, she got a bit more into the slicing element of the project.
Once she felt brave enough, she lifted one of the banana pieces and touched it to her lips.
“Yummy!” she declared.
It was so neat to put her in charge of her snack this way, from start to finish. I could easily see this becoming a favorite food around here.
When Travis was little, there was a fire pit in our apartment complex filled with rocks, and he could literally spend hours standing at the edge and playing with them. Sorting them, taking them out, tossing them back in again, finding favorites, you name it. I lament sometimes that Veronika doesn’t have access to the same great game! So today, we brought some rocks inside to play.
After a walk at a nearby garden, we returned home with a big bounty of rocks. Make sure that you choose ones that are too big to be a choking hazard, but not so heavy that they’ll hurt a little toe if dropped.
First we gave our rocks a bath! Veronika loved swirling them in a little tray filled with soapy water, and helping pat them dry.
I then gave her a few buckets that she could transfer them into. She loved taking them in and out.
Next she started to fill her dress-up purse with the rocks…
…and even headed off for a walk with her rocks tucked inside!
For some artsy fun, we then pulled out paints and I showed her how to dab at the rocks with a paintbrush.
This was good fun…
…until she decided it was more fun to paint her hands, of course.
I let the paint on the rocks dry and set them aside for later use, because I know we’re far from done with them. There will be lots more rock play in Veronika’s future!
This fantastic sensory activity is perfect for entertaining a toddler… and it takes care of snack time, too!
I simply spooned a large glob of peanut butter onto a shallow tray, and set out a few craft sticks (or use plastic take-out knives) and circle crackers.
Your child can use the craft sticks to make lines and movement through the peanut butter, or to build their budding knife skills by spreading it on the crackers. Once the crackers are sticky with peanut butter, you can stack them into towers and make “art”.
Veronika loved experimenting with the peanut butter, as well as nibbling the crackers and licking peanut butter right off the craft sticks.
She also was intrigued by the peanut butter jar, occasionally dipping in a craft stick.
I wouldn’t recommend this activity for a toddler solo, since it’s bound to get a little messy and you’ll want to supervise.
But a great way to keep little ones busy! Note: Use another nut butter if your child has peanut allergies, or even jam for all nut allergies!
Much as with tape or tissues, it doesn’t take much to keep a toddler busy. For this game, I used an upcycled egg carton and spring-type clothespins for a simple fine motor activity.
Poke a hole into the bottom of each egg carton portion, just large enough for the clothespins to slot in (I poked the initial hole with scissors).
For the first round, I pushed all the clothespins in and presented the egg carton to Veronika, so it was her job to pull them out!
A few of them got a little snagged on the springs but she was very patient puzzling this out, and so proud when they came free.
Once she had a pile of clothespins next to her, of course she had to poke them right back in again.
And again.
And again.
I loved seeing her return to this throughout the day, pausing to insert a few or pull out a few and then heading off to other games. It was a great way to keep little hands busy!
Tape is a fantastic way to occupy a toddler – yes, just tape! Make the game especially fun by using lots of different varieties and vibrant colors.
To start out, I simply set up a tape station for Veronika.
Most of the rolls were masking tape (I had a full rainbow of colors), and I also had clear double-sided tape.
First I gave her two pieces of tape for her to try sticking them together.
This was intriguing, as was sticking tape to her belly!
She was in front of a wooden puzzle frame, which was a handy surface for layering down pieces of tape.
She kept quite busy sticking the tape pieces off and on for a while.
Then we moved on to a slightly more focused activity: Peeling tape. Peeling up layers of crisscrossed tape is not only a great cognitive challenge, but also excellent for strengthening finger muscles.
I laid down long strips of the colored masking tape on a wooden floor (a wooden table would work, too, if you have one large enough). Make sure there is lots of overlap and intriguing angles.
Sure enough, Veronika couldn’t wait to rip it up off the floor. When she encountered a spot where one piece of tape pinned down another, I could see her brain at work for how to get it all to lift.
She soon became adept at finding the ends that were curled up slightly in the air, and provided a handhold to start pulling.
Another success!
As she worked, I gathered up the strips until we had a big tape ball, which turned out to be fun to play with as the final variant on tape play.
All of this kept her busy almost all morning!
Going stir crazy and need to occupy a toddler? Look no further than a box of tissues. Seriously, that’s it. This is what I call a “sacrificial tissue box” and sometimes it’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
Put the box on the ground with the first tissue sticking out, and your toddler will immediately think they’ve gone to heaven. Veronika pulled out only a couple at first, and tried to clean the floor.
Then she discovered the great joy of pulling out one after another, making a big pile.
Then we got silly. I put some on my head and pretended to sneeze them off, which she quickly imitated.
You can also pick up big handfuls and have them drift down like “snow”.
She also lifted a tissue to her face and pretended to blow her nose just like mommy. “Mommy nose!” she said.
Aside from those interactive moments together, the real beauty of the tissue box is that it can occupy a toddler solo for quite some time.
The game needn’t end just because the tissues are gone. Re-purpose the box by stuffing in tissue paper. For this version, I started out with the tissue paper wadded up.
These were hard for her to pull out though, so we ripped each portion into smaller pieces, which she could stuff in and pull out again.
Scarves would work, too!
joyful parenting 