Friday, 14 March 2014

5 Simple DIY Activities for Toddlers

I have not been able to write much lately as I have been busy making something or the other to entertain my 18 month old. It is a bit more than just feeding changing and sleeping when your baby is completely mobile. They are no longer babies but not exactly a child well they are learning so fast that they will soon become the one teaching you how to do things rather than being taught! I love it when E wakes up in the morning and the very first thing she wants to do is say "please toys" "cum on now" it makes me feel happy and content, my child enjoys playing and especially when it is the activity I have set up for her.Thanks to many blogger mums it has been very easy to set up some very simple activities for E and here are my versions of some that you may have already come across on the web.



Like any other child colours and paints fascinate E the most. She loves painting and drawing. I only recently introduced non toxic paints to E before that I would make some paints at home with food colouring and flour and give it to E to explore. This one is my favourite as she does a Jackson Pollock with these paints. I mixed food colour, cornflour and a pinch of salt with boiling hot water(make a thick consistency). E tried using her paintbrush with these at first but then H showed her how to pinch up the paint with her fingers and then let it drip on the paper. E loved the texture and how easily the solid paint drip down from her finger like water. Most of the times I make an activity but H really shows E how to play with it, he is very good at inducing exploration and ideas.



Inserting objects into one another is another favourite activity for E. E has quite a few toys where she can insert or "put" objects in a box and then take them out again. Cover a tubular container with some paper or fabric, I used Cat in a Hat print fabric. Make a slit in the lid of the tube and make some cardboard or paper coins to insert in the box. E can put them in and take them out by simply opening the lid. She loves the cat in the hat prints as well as she has a few books so she can relate to the characters.



Feed the fish. I have come across quite a few blogs showing pom pom drop activities with their toddlers and I though of making it a bit more fancy. So I rolled a sheet of paper and made it look somewhat like a fish (that was the word E was learning then) and made some pompoms which she could feed the fish. E loves it and she interprets the game as she wants. Sometime E would put all the pom poms in together and other times she would feed the fish some crayons! It is the sort of activity that she would do whenever she passes in front of it so maybe a few minutes at a time.



Blocks were never E's favourites until now. The soft blocks I bought her when she was only little did not quite work for stacking more so for gnawing on them. Then the wooden blocks again she didn't quite feel that the towers went high enough! So I painted some cardboard boxes in solid colours and set them up in the backyard, there you go E would stack anything and everything now. Big and tall seems to work just perfect for my little darling.



Covering some cardboard tubes with solid coloured paper helps introduce colour play and they are so easy to make. I don't quite like the idea of using toilet paper tubes so I use the paper towel tubes instead, hence the uneven lengths of these tubes. I used them to match the bugs (E loves her plastic bugs, they go everywhere) colour with the tube colour. E likes to use them as bowling pins as well.



If you like these then you might also like my older posts Sensory Boxes and Water wall. Being an adult who can think is a great gift and using it to help your child learn and play is the greatest gift your child can ever get. Get creative!

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