TBT: Cardboard

A quick look around my blog will clue you in to the fact that we are big fans of cardboard  boxes around here. We've used them for all sorts of things. 

On this particular day we took a large sheet of cardboard we'd acquired and worked as a team (Sharli included) to create an awesome play mat. I taped a couple of markers on either side of one of the kids' blocks and drew roads, then we all brainstormed on the details. 

We drew a pond like the one near our home, a place for the toy animals to live in their very own zoo, parking lots for the toy cars, etc. This thing got played with until it literally fell apart and had to be smuggled out under cover of darkness because:

Our neighbors got a new washer/dryer, and as soon as I found out I begged them to save the box for us. This thing provided more hours of fun than just about anything else we've had in our home. It stayed like this in the living room for almost a week for the kids to play in. They colored nearly every square inch of it with their crayons over the course of the week which would've been worth it all by itself. 

 When it started to get too beat up to stand up anymore, I chopped it in half so we could stand it up easily and we made a little house out of it, complete with door and windows.

 This box lived in our playroom for more than a month. Most of that time it was known as "Maddie B's Restaurant", though I actually have no idea where that name came from. So many imaginary delicacies were cooked in there! It was sure a sad day when this box had been played to death and had to be smuggled out of the house as well.

What amazing fun have you had at your house with cardboard?

TBT: Oatmeal!

This oatmeal sensory bin has become a favorite at our house. I keep a container of oatmeal in the cupboard just for sensory play, and it gets used over and over. If I need to keep the kids busy on a rainy day, or while I cook dinner, or if I don't feel well, etc then I throw a sheet on the floor, dump the oatmeal in a pan, and send the kids to get some scoops and bowls out of their kitchen toys. This will typically keep them both occupied for 30-40 minutes, which is unheard of around here. NOTHING has that kind of sticking power other than the TV.
Need a cheap way to keep your kids busy? Try some oatmeal!

TBT: Pom Pom Fun

Back when morning sickness was just starting to kick in I needed a way to keep Sharli busy for a while. I dug back in my blog archives and pulled out a few ideas that had worked really well with Erik when he was little. I needed something that was low prep and used materials I already had on hand, and here's what I came up with. 

An easy to assemble Pom Pom Tunnel...

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 ...and a simple Pom Pom Toy.

These kept Sharli busy for quite a while, giving me a chance to do whatever I needed to do (which probably means I was laying on the couch concentrating on keeping my lunch down).

Throw Back Thursday, Edible Finger Paints

We needed some paint for one of Erik's letter D activities, so we made some edible finger paint. After Erik was done with the paint, we took Sharli to the bath tub and gave her some to play with too. It's a good thing it's edible!

 Sharli loved painting so much she decided to roll in it! It was about this point we got rid of the diaper and washed the mess down the drain. One thing about this paint is (being flour and water after all) that it can be hard to wash off once it dries, and is not much fun to get out of hair. So, as soon as the mess started getting all over, it was time to be done.

TBT: The Carrot Conclusion

So this week we're going back to our Carrot on a String experiment to show you our results.

So, in case you missed the set up, here's what we did (you can go back to the first post for full details):

We made sure to water the carrot several times a day, and to move it to a warmer location at night in case things got too cold that close to the window. Each day Erik checked the carrot to measure its progress. Finally, on about day four this is what we had:
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Wait for it.....
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 Yum, right? So, good job to my Grandma, who hypothesized that it would rot. She is the winner!
Now, as any good scientist would, we didn't let this stop us. We analyzed where our experiment may have gone wrong, designed a few improvements, and gave it another shot.

I was worried from the beginning that coring out the top of the carrot like we did would remove the part of the carrot that we were hoping to have grow. So, this time we did two carrots, one with only half of the top cored out, and the other with a very shallow hole cored out of the entire top (so basically the same as our first experiment, just with less water holding capacity). I was hoping that one (or both) of these methods would create enough of a space to hold water while still leaving something left to grow.

 These were strung up in the window and given the same treatment as our first carrot. We waited several days, with Erik checking our progress each day. By day four this was our result:
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Did you really think I'd just show it to you?
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So, I guess this whole project was a great way for Erik to get introduced to the scientific method, as well as to learn that not all experiments turn out as you had hoped they would.
Maybe my kid is weird, but somehow we didn't feel this experiment lived up to this statement from the original source: "In a few days your kids will love the results." Maybe most kids like rotting carrots, who knows.

TBT: Color in a Bag, Plus More Color Mixing Fun!

For today's Throw Back Thursday post, we redid an activity that we've enjoyed before so that Sharli could get in on the fun too. This Color in a Bag activity is so much fun!

 It's been so long since we did this one that it was like a new activity for Erik. He loved it!

 I did have to watch Sharli carefully so that she didn't chew holes in the bags, but other than that this was a pretty low-stress activity.

 To add on to this one, we also added in some color mixing bottles. We found this idea on the same list of activities as our Carrot on a String activity. I've wished for a while now I could find some way to make a color mixing toy that would settle back into two distinct colors for long term play, so I was excited to try this idea out.

I was planning on making three of these bottles (yellow+red, red+blue, blue+yellow) but when it came time to put these together I couldn't find the other empty bottle I'd saved for this. Maybe we'll end up making the last bottle eventually, and if we do I'll be sure to share it with you all.

So, what do you need to make these babies? Let's gather our supplies:

- empty bottles with lids

-baby oil

-crayons (the original site calls for candle wax coloring, but crayons worked fine for us)

-water

-food coloring

-hot glue gun and glue

A few days before you want to assemble these, cut up the crayons (I used yellow crayons, it took 3-4 for one bottle of baby oil) into tiny shavings and put them in the bottle of baby oil. Let this sit for a few days until the crayons have mostly dissolved. 

When you're ready to assemble your bottles, fill them half full with water, colored with food coloring. Add your colored oil until the bottle is full, then seal the lid with the hot glue. You may want to shake up the bottle once before sealing it to make sure you didn't get too much of one color or the other. 

 When you shake the bottle, the colors mix together and you can see the bubbles of oil swirling in the water, almost like a lava lamp. They're really pretty! We found that the blue+yellow combo worked better, the red in the red+yellow bottle bled into the yellow oil a bit and so after a few shakes, the bottle just stayed orange. It was still really pretty though!

TBT: Large Group Toy Matching Game

For today's Throw Back Thursday post, I wanted to show you how I took the Toy Matching Game I shared a while back to the next level, and made it possible to use it for group play. Here's the original set-up:

A single sheet of paper, and a few toys. This is perfect for one child to play with, but not so great when you've got a half a dozen kids at your house for a play date. So, how do you make this work for a larger group? 

 We had children ages 2-10 coming to play, so I wanted this to be fun for as many of them as possible. The night before everyone came, I went through the kids' toy boxes and picked out all the toys I could find that would be fairly simple to trace, while still presenting a challenge. I especially tried to find pairs of things that were of similar shape, but not identical. For example, a toy hammer with a long skinny handle and one with a short fat handle, or a five pointed star and a six pointed star, etc.
Once I gathered the toys, I spread a sheet of paper (I used the back side of some leftover Christmas wrapping paper, but craft paper would work great too) across my coffee table and used painters tape to attach it all the way around. Then I laid out all the toys and traced them onto the paper.
When our friends started arriving this is what they found waiting for them:

I didn't give any instruction, just let them do with it as they pleased. This worked great as a way to keep kids busy while we waited for everyone to get here. It was fun to watch the kids work on figuring out where everything went. There was enough room that 4-6 kids could each work independently in their own little area, but most of them chose to work together in small teams or groups. 

So what if you don't have a large surface that would work for this? Or what if you're going to have more kids than will fit around a single table?

One other idea I toyed with when planning this activity was to make a bunch of individual papers so that each kid had their own to work on (like individual bingo cards). I think this would have worked out okay, but I think it would have kept the kids from joining forces to figure out the puzzle together. If that's the best you can do in your situation I'm sure the kiddos will still have fun. 

TBT: Fun with Contact Paper

For my next installment of Throw Back Thursday, I thought I'd share with you some of the fun we've had with contact paper. This stuff is pretty cheap and can be used in so many ways!

Get creative and build fine motor skills with a Sticky Story Board (here's a mini version of this for taking on the go)

Encourage imaginative play with a home made car mat.

Let your baby explore the concept of "sticky".

Create a unique work of art.

Expand on the story board idea and build those fine motor skills with some sticky fun.

Practice basic math skills.

Teach your preschooler how to spell their name.

Protect activities you've worked hard to prepare for your little one so they'll last months instead of minutes.


*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. This post contains affiliate links.

TBT: Paint

For this week's Throw Back Thursday post, I'm going to be featuring one of our favorite art mediums; paint. 

Painting has always been one of Erik's favorite activities. We've spent many hours painting, and I bet we spend hundreds more before he's grown. Paint is so versatile: you can make your own or buy it, it can be as cheap or as expensive as you choose, it can be edible or not, indoors or out. It's a great way for a child to create something unique to them with a lot more freedom than a crayon gives. It can be a great activity for fine motor skills, sensory play, learning colors, and so much more! Here are some of the ways we've enjoyed paint over the last several years.

Finger painting with store bought washable paints

Making pretty glossy creations with this easy home made (and edible) paint

Doing tape resist art with multiple types of paint (watercolors might not have been my best idea)

Making Mono-Prints with our favorite finger paint

Paint the sidewalk with this easy DIY sidewalk chalk paint

Make a brush out of a tree branch, great for Christmas time!

Get baby in on the fun with easy edible finger paint

Paint the perfect snow scene with ingredients from your pantry

Paint the bathtub then wash all the mess away with ease

Make stamps out of spuds

Toys make excellent paint "brushes", especially cars and trucks

We always love to learn about new ways to play with our favorite materials, let us know what you love to do with paint in the comments!

TBT: Foam Craft Sheets

In case you missed last week's Throw Back Thursday post, I am doing a series of posts highlighting some of my favorite and most used materials. Last week was Pom Poms, but for this week I'm showcasing ways to use foam sheets to put together lots of fun activities for your kiddo.

We have used our foam sheets  A LOT and I love coming up with new things to do with them. You can cut them into any shape you want or need just like you would paper, but they are so much more durable. This makes them ideal for activities where you need something easy for little fingers to manipulate but strong enough to hold up to some abuse. And they're super cheap, so that's always a plus! Here are some of the ways we've played with them:

Learn shapes and colors with these fun DIY bath stickers

Create some fun pictures with a Sticky Story Board (here's another way to enjoy this, and here's how to take this idea on the road)

Practice Hand-Eye coordination with these fun DIY lacing cards

Have some sensory play fun with this Ocean in a Bag

Teach your child how to spell their name with this cute Christmas Tree

Practice one-to-one number correspondence with your preschooler with this fun counting wall

Did I miss any awesome way to use these things? Let me know in the comments!


*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. This post contains affiliate links.

TBT: Pom Poms!!!

I realized there are several different materials that we have gotten LOTS of mileage out of and thought it would be fun to share those with you in a series of Throw Back Thursday posts.

So for this week, here is a round up of ways to play with pom poms.

A good sized package of pom poms is pretty cheap, and can provide hours and hours of fun. For example, you can:

Dump them in a bowl and enjoy some free play (why is free play so awesome? Check this out)

Strengthen finger muscles by poking them into a home-made toy (bet you have the stuff to make it without having to leave your house)

Work on hand eye coordination by dropping them down a tunnel you can make yourself (again, bet you already have the supplies)

Build fine motor skills by pairing them with some contact paper.

Work on pre-operational math skills by sorting them according to color or size

Create a work of art by painting with them

Keep your little one busy and entertained (and out of your hair) by sticking a handful in an empty egg carton

Enjoy some sensory play when you use them to create a sensory bin

Teach new vocabulary to your baby as you discover what "soft" or "fuzzy" means

How have you and your kiddos played with pom poms? Leave a comment so we can join in the fun too!


*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. This post contains affiliate links.