Glow sticks and a bath

On winter nights, when it gets dark early, and the kids are crazy because it's winter, get some glow sticks, run a bath and turn off the lights. Oh, and toss the kids in.
Michaels has containers of 15 braclet glow sticks for buck! What a deal! The kids just love those things. West spent 45 minutes in the tub last night just playing with the glow sticks. Stick them between his toes, puting them in containers, waiving them around etc etc. Truely cheap, clean fun!
I couldn't get any good pictures of this activity.

Pom poms and tongs and containers, oh my

I bought a variety of sizes of pom poms Michaels.  These big ones are the safest with Lula around and are the easiest to pick up with tongs.

Lula loves the texture and transfering them from container to container.

With how much fun they had, I'm sure we'll be doing this a lot this winter.

Lula likes to get in and kick around.

West thought it looked like fun.

A large kitchen ladle was fun too.

pulling apart cotton balls

Of course, watch your child closely to make sure nothing ends up in their mouth.

Cotton balls have an interesting texture. 

As you can see from the look on her face, she kind of didn't like the way they felt. But she got over it quickly and started using her pincer grip to pull the cotton balls apart.

This is a great activity for using and perfecting fine motor skills.

Surprise box

This is a stationary box that I hot glued ribbons and a plastic mirror to. The shapes on the ends are two pieces of felt with the ribbon hot glued in between. Lula enjoys pulling each shape out and looking at herself in the mirror.

homemade puzzle

Cardstock, contact paper and velcro.

Make shapes, numbers, letters, etc etc.

 Make a matching game with animals and their homes.

Use patterned paper to make a matching puzzle.

The options are limitless and the cost is basically nothing.

Glass mosaic tiles for the light table

New light table materials.

I found these flat marbles and tiles at Michaels today. The tiles are great to stack or line up and the flat marbles have a cool swirl of color in the middle. We had fun sorting, counting and stacking these today. Lula had to be kept far from us though, as these pose a choking hazard.

Pom poms and toilet paper rolls

I gave West some large pom poms and he decided that they'd be fun to blow across the floor. Great idea! He also liked to kick and throw them. It's important to find safe things like these for toddlers to kick and throw.

A scarf and a toilet paper roll. I let Lula pull it through and stuff it in.

Pom poms and a toilet paper roll. She loved to pull out the pom poms. This is great for problem solving and fine motor skills.

Sensory quilt

This project is a lot more involved and potentially more expensive than the rest of my activity ideas, but I thought I should include it in my blog.

This is a sensory quilt I made from scraps of fabric I happened to have. I sew a lot. There are many different visual and physical textures as well as a zipper, a button and button hole, tassles, ribbons sewn on and a velcro panel.

If you want to make one, you don't need as many fabrics as I used. It can be as simple as 4 different fabrics.

Lula likes exploring it.

How to make a rain stick

I used the sturdy cardboard tubes from the glow sticks we get at Michaels. They have nice plastic caps on the ends

I pushed in nails in a spiral pattern following the seam in the cardboard (see first picture as well). Next time I would use longer nails. Also, I would use a larger tube, this one is very small.

I hot glued the bottom cap into place and added dried black beans. Then I hot glued the other end on and put several layers of packing tape around the whole thing. I only let the kids play with this while closely supervised. I can't imagine them getting it open, but stranger things have happened.

Ribbon pulling

Lula loves to pull diaper wipes out of the container, so I knew she'd love this! I used a large, sturdy plastic container and drilled holes in the bottom (because it is more sturdy than the lid.) Then, I cut ribbon into about 2 foot lengths and fed them through the holes. I tied knots on either end so the ribbons couldn't be pulled out. I left about 2 inches of ribbon for her to pull above the knot, as you can see in the picture below.

I have been having an issue with the picture uploader not orienting the pictures properly even though I turned it the right way before uploading.... But you get the idea.

Velcro play tray

I found this small wood tray at Michaels along with some wooden people. The trees were from another toy we had. The soft side of the velcro goes on the tray and the hook side goes on the people/trees/whatever. You can use any kind of small toy instead of the wooden figures. I painted the people and tray too. This will be great for traveling. The wooden people are choking hazard size, so use caution if you choose to use them.

indoor sandbox

Have a sand and water table or a sandbox?

Bring it inside for the winter! Add rice, beans, dried corn etc.

We used about 25 pounds of rice.

A shower curtain taped to the floor and wall make clean up easy.

Don't have the space for an indoor sandbox? Use an enclosed shower stall and tape off the drain.