I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pinterest! Spending time on there just browsing and pinning is one of my biggest indulgences. As much as I love looking at the ideas, I find that I rarely actually put them into action. So this week, I decided to try some of the toddler play ideas to get my little guy engaged in some developmentally rich activities.
Of course all of these ideas and activities can be done with things around the house, or a quick stop at the dollar store!
Home Made Playdough
One day last week it was just too cold to go outside and frankly, I just wanted to lounge about in my pjs! So, I made my little monkey some playdough with ingredients around the house. Even though I had to improvise since I didn’t have a bunch of the regular ingredients, it still turned out great! See my recipe without vegetable oil or cream tarter here!
Colour Bombs
This was a huge hit! All I did was pour enough baking soda to cover the bottom of a ziploc plastic container and then made up 3 bowls of vinegar, each with a bit of food colouring added to them. I then gave Monkey a 1/4 tsp and he poured the vinegar mixture into the baking soda. The result was fun little colour bombs that he gleefully squished and explored the texture of.
This activity only lasted about 5 minutes, at which point he realize it would be faster to just pour the bowls of vinegar into the baking soda, rather than use the spoon. Again, this was a great experience and he loved stirring the concoction. Unfortunately, it turned into a tantrum when the temptation to pour the potion on the floor over powered stirring and as such, the mixture was taken away.
Regardless, this was a great activity that certainly got the gears turning in his head!
Pom Pom Push
For this one, I had to pop over to the dollar store. I bought a simple basket with holes in it ($1.25) and a bag of pompoms ($1). I then spent a few minutes pushing the pompoms part way through the holes.
I’m pretty sure the goal is to have your little one push the pompoms out, but not my monkey! Instead he pulled them out – oh well, likely took longer! He had absolutely no interest in putting them back in place, but was happy to have me do it!
So, a great activity that he quite enjoys, but not so independent.
So here’s 3 fun, frugal activities to engage your tot!
What are some of your favourite indoor toddler activities?
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