Candy Cane Can Stilts

So you remember our candy cane striped tape resist art? 

Remember I said I wanted it for another project? Well, today is the day you get to see my favorite of all our Christmas activities. We made can stilts! I was sitting looking at the growing stack of infant formula cans that was piling up in my kitchen and all the sudden I remembered this activity and knew these would be perfect. I used a nail to poke two holes in each can (one hole on each side of the can) then ran a length of string through the holes. Tie the ends of the strings together to make loops and there you go!

 Now, to be honest, this may have been a bit above Erik's ability level, but he has been determined to figure these things out. I've never seen him work so hard at something before! It's been impressive to watch his tenacity as he figures out how to balance, coordinate hand and foot movements, and just have fun.

I do think I got the strings a bit too short, they probably should come up to about his waist, but they work well enough for us.

Walk (and Skip, and Hop, and Run, and...) on the Line

*Warning: If you have a problem seeing a mommy blog where the child is not dressed in a perfectly coordinated outfit (or even wearing any pants), and the home is messy and actually looks lived in then you better not read this post. :) 

Ever since he could walk, Erik has loved to see how close to the edge he can get. He loves trying to balance on things and see if he can walk on them. If he loses his balance though, he's okay with that because it means he gets to jump off of whatever it is and that's dare devil enough for him. 

I've toyed with the idea of making some kind of balance beam for him, and had even considered doing this particular idea, but I just never did it. Our new apartment is TINY so I don't have a place to put any kind of balance beam, and tape on the floor just didn't seem like it would be all that exciting. 

Then, I started seeing pins for games using masking tape all over pinterest, and thought that if everyone else thinks it looks like fun than maybe Erik will too. One day when he was bored and driving us both crazy I grabbed my roll of painter's tape and let him help me make a line on the floor. It looked too narrow, so I ended up putting three strips side by side. 

We started out walking on the line...

...but that soon turned into jumping.

 His "Ta Da!!!" pose: 

 Next he wanted to find out what else could walk the line. Various toys were put to the test, starting with this toy horse.

 It quickly became apparent that his toys were as good as he was at this game, so it was time to see what else could do it. Suddenly all the books off of my bookshelf were taking turns sliding down the line.

 Then, he decided he needed a bigger challenge. Would a can of pumpkin roll down the line? It turns out cans are a little more prone to wandering wherever they please. To be fair though, he gave a good number of cans a chance at the line, with generally the same results for them all. Cans just aren't good at rolling straight.

It was so fun to watch Erik work those legs muscles as he walked, tip-toed, jumped, skipped, hopped, and crawled along the line. It was even more fun to watch his little brain work as he tried sending object after object along the line. Amazingly enough, this simple little strip of tape kept this kid busy for well over an hour, and that's not including the time he spent the next day playing with the ball of tape we made when we pulled up the line. 

Discovering Textures; Sticky

I've seen ideas for sticky tables/activities all over Pinterest. I finally grabbed a roll of contact paper last time I went shopping and we decided to give it a try. Despite all the fun ideas of making DIY sticky tables and boxes, we decided to take our inspiration from "Child Central Station" and go for a sticky spot on the floor. In the end I was glad I went this route. 

  

I put the contact paper sticky side up on the floor and taped it down with Duct tape. I have to admit I've never worked with contact paper before (except for rare occasions as a kid when my mom used it for something, but that doesn't count) so my expectations were not quite realistic. I was expecting something WAY stickier. Erik and Paisley weren't disappointed though. 

 I had envisioned them sticking toys and things to the contact paper and building their little muscles while they pulled them off and stuck them back on again. In reality, there were very few toys that actually stuck to the paper. Most everything just brushed right off with the slightest touch. We tried to stick some little felt shapes I had to the paper, and while they sort of stuck, they didn't stick hard enough to keep Paisley from pulling them off and trying to eat them.

Paisley's socks sure stuck though. Any time she'd crawl across it one or both of her socks would get left behind. I finally quit putting them back on her after each time. 

  While the contact paper may not have turned out to be great for making toy collages, it did give the littles a chance to discover "sticky" and to explore it. They both had a super great time!

Too Nice to Tug

I've been trying for about a week now to get Paisley interested in playing Tug-a-toy but she just won't have anything to do with it. Basically it's the same as tug-o-war, except you encourage your child to grab one end of a toy while you gently pull on the other. The idea is to have some fun while building balance and upper body strength. Our problem is that Paisley is just too nice to fight over a toy with me. I'll make sure she's really excited about the toy, and let her play with it for a moment, but as soon as I reach for it she drops it. I've tried and tried, but it's just not gonna happen.

I considered just pretending that in this picture she was pulling on the toy and we were making it work, but that just seemed silly. Of course everything we try isn't going to be perfect, so why pretend. 

So why even post this if it didn't work? Well, I'm sure that there's someone else out there who has a baby who would love this game, and maybe that someone reads this blog, so here you go mysterious someone. I hope you and your baby have a grand game of Tug-a-Toy.

A Mile in Mom's Shoes

One thing that I really love about all the activities off of Productive Parenting is that for the most part you don't need any special materials to make them work. No last minute run to the store for supplies, you just get to have fun. Take today's activity for example:
All I did was give Erik a pile of shoes, and let him go to town. It was really fun to watch him pick through them all and decide which ones to try on first, and it was even more fun to watch him try to get some of them on.

Which ones to wear first?!

He's actually trying to put my shoe on MY foot. He thought at first that we were getting ready to go outside to play, and he knew I wouldn't go out that door until we both had shoes on. 

He finally caught on to what we were doing though. 

Erik loves trying to walk in our shoes. He loves trying to lift the weight of the heavy shoes, and trying to figure out how to balance while walking in them. This is such a great way to build up those leg muscles!

How's a kid supposed to get his toes in these things, they're so darn tall! 

I did it!

One of the biggest things a child is working on with this activity is balance. Make sure you're there to catch them if they topple over. 

 It was cute to see how proud Erik was of himself when he managed to take some steps in a big pair of shoes. Such a great confidence booster!

Roller Coaster

This post contains affiliate links.

The idea for this activity came from a couple of different places. This is something I did as part of our daily occupational therapy routine for one of the special needs students I used to work with, and I also saw the idea HERE as I was looking around for ideas. The link I posted has great details about how and why to do this activity if you're interested.

Let's gather our supplies:
-As you can see, I used a large exercise ball for this little game, and it works really well. It's a comfortable height for me to sit in a chair and have the ball positioned between my knees.

If you've never done this before, make sure you are holding the ball firmly between your knees as you place the baby on it. Make sure you always have a firm hold on the baby, both so they are safe and so they feel secure and comfortable enough to have fun. You can either place the baby laying down on the ball with your hands holding firmly on either side of the baby's chest, or (this can be a little trickier, so maybe work up to this one) hold the baby in an upright sitting position, with your hands placed on either side of the baby's waist or hips (how high up the baby's torso you hold them will depend on how well they sit up alone. The lower your hold the more work baby has to do) Let baby just sit and get used to feeling the ball under her for a minute before you start moving it slowly around. Rock it back and forth or side to side, or even bounce the baby gently up and down. Remember to always watch your baby, and when she is done don't push it, just let her be done!

The benefits of this activity are amazing. Having to balance on the ball helps to strengthen baby's neck and back, making sitting up and rolling over easier in the future. When you are holding your baby in a sitting position and rocking the ball, you are helping them to learn to lean to one side or the other to help keep their body balanced and avoid falling over (a handy thing to know how to do as baby is sitting, crawling, and walking). Babies crave rhythm, so using a gentle bouncing motion can help soothe a cranky or upset baby. You are also helping your child learn about their surroundings in a new way as they get a new point of view from the different angles presented by the moving ball.

*Diedre Mower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.