Baby/Toddler Fun Archives - ResearchParent.com

Inventor’s Box for Little Kids

Michelle — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 13:00:07 +0000

Recently, I made my 4 and 6 year olds their own Inventor’s Boxes. I didn’t want my 2 year old to feel left out, but I also didn’t want to give him a bunch of tools and electronic components. I came up with this Inventor’s Box for Little Kids as a compromise. It’s really more of a craft box, but so far he’s had a lot of fun playing alongside the big kids. I just need to be sure to supervise my little one when he uses it (you know, to make sure he doesn’t try to eat any of the pieces or stick glue all over the furniture).

I made my 4 year old her own big kid inventor’s box, but really, I think she had just as much fun playing with this little kid version I made for her younger brother. She’s always encouraging him to play with his kit when she plays with hers, I think so she can talk him into lending her some of the more fun items, like fake jewels and glitter stars.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: As with the Inventor’s Box, the box itself is the biggest investment. I added items we already had lying around the house to a $10 box, but you could probably make one from scratch for around $25 (with a lot of supplies left over).

Materials, Supplies, and Tools:
(These are just some suggestions. Honestly, I don’t think my 2 year old cared much what I put in the box.)

A box to keep everything in. (I used a child’s tackle box which was much smaller than I was expecting, but ended up being a good size for my toddler.)
Craft sticks
Kid scissors
Pieces of flower foam and Styrofoam
Lids of various sizes
Metal frozen orange juice discs
Clothespins
Rubberbands
Straws
Stickers
Clips
Pipecleaners
Craft jewels
Glue stick

Instructions:

Place everything in the box.

If you want, you can use the Inventor’s Box label I made for my kids’ boxes. Cut it out and tape it to the lid.

HAVE FUN!

Click here for more Homemade Fun activities for kids.

Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag

Michelle — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:00:01 +0000

I’m a little ashamed to say, but I don’t really worry about entertaining my preschooler and kindergartener. They are pretty good at entertaining themselves. However, if they start to melt down and I ABSOLUTELY need a minute, I can put on a movie and be confident they will leave me alone for at least a little while.

My toddler, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. The times that I really need my kids to all play nicely by themselves seem to coincide with the times that he most desperately needs my attention. Wouldn’t it be great if there were one place to go to find a bunch of ideas for keeping these young kids occupied during moments of desperation? There is. I am happy to be a part of Teach Me Mommy’s A-Z of Busy Bags series, bringing up the rear with Z is for Ziplock.

To be honest, I signed up for the letter Z, because it gave me the most time to come up with an idea. I was pretty sure I wanted to do something with zip-locking bags, because there are plenty of easy ideas for entertaining young kids…you could put any fun substances inside (paint, shaving cream, ketchup) and kids will have a great time just squeezing it. I thought maybe an I-spy bag would be fun, filled with sand and objects to hunt for like a coin, button, or marble. However, my husband thought all those choking hazards combined with tiny granules that get everywhere was a disaster waiting to happen.

I ended up settling on this Solar System I-Spy activity. It’s a fun sensory experience for my toddler, while using the checklist as a game makes the activity both educational and fun for my preschooler and kindergartner as well. With older kids, this activity could be combined with my free, printable Solar System cards or Relative Sizes of Planets activity for extra astronomy learning.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $2 in used supplies

Materials:

paper (for printing first 2 pages of Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag printable)
2 laminating pouches
1 quart size ziplock bag (brand not important)
inexpensive hair gel (preferable clear, blue, or purple — I used about 10 ounces)
glitter (preferably gold, silver, or both)
blue food dye

Supplies & Tools:

laminator
scissors

Instructions:

First, print out the first 2 pages of the Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag document, if you haven’t already done so.
Laminate the checklist to make it reusable when using a dry erase marker.
Cut out all the objects on the first page.

Laminate all the objects that you just finished cutting out.

Now that they’ve been laminated, cut the objects out again leaving a border to ensure liquid does not seep inside.

Fill the ziplock bag with hair gel. I used approximately one third of my 26 ounce bottle, but you can use more or less as desired.

Sprinkle in a little glitter to represent “stars.” (I didn’t really use too much. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon each of silver and gold, though again, exact quantities are not important.)

Add the space objects to your bag. I added mine in one big pile, but I also had to spend 10 minutes separating them all from each other. I recommend adding a few at a time so they don’t overlap, and then sealing the bag and squishing them to the bottom before adding more. Almost done!

Lastly, add some blue food coloring to your bag and squish it around to make the “I-Spy” aspect of the activity more challenging. I added 6 drops total.

To use the busy bag, your child simply has to press on the outside of the bag to find each of the items on the checklist. Depending on how much food coloring you use, this task can be easy or hard.

If you like this activity, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to be notified of all new projects and free printables as well as obtain access to a page filled with exclusive subscriber freebies. Also, be sure to check out all the wonderful ideas in the A-Z of Busy Bag series!

HAVE FUN!

Click here for more Astronomy activities for kids.

5 Quick and Easy Activities for Toddlers

Michelle — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 13:00:42 +0000

Whether I’m cooking dinner, playing checkers with my kindergartner, or reading a story to my preschooler, there are moments throughout the day when I really would like my toddler to play by himself for short periods of time. He’s actually very independent generally speaking, but the times when I most need him to be independent are the times when he vocally and unequivocally demands my attention. Here are some quick and easy activities for toddlers I’ve put together for my 15 month old in the past couple weeks. They may not be pretty and pinnable, but they are fun and inexpensive.

All of these activities were put together with material I already had lying around the house. Like my homemade ball can, these activities all gave my toddler practice with his fine motor control. If you’d like more suggestions for fun activities and learning ideas in the future, please consider subscribing to my newsletter.

Milk Jug Drop

This idea comes directly from The Toddler’s Busy Book (click for my full review). This book has so many great ideas. Toddlers love a challenge. The dexterity required to put a skinny object like a clothespin through the opening of a milk jug provides just the right level of difficulty to be enticing.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: ~1 minute to prepare
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free

Materials:

Empty milk jug
Clothespins, plastic baby spoons, unsharpened pencils (whatever you have on hand and trust your toddler with)

Instructions:
Show the child how to place the clothespins or other skinny objects through the hole of the milk jug, then give them a supply. After they’ve put a few in, show them how to flip the milk jug over to get them back out. (Of course, if there is any possibility of the child chocking on whatever objects you supply them with, make sure you stay near by to monitor.)

Ring Toss

A simple homemade ring toss is another idea inspired by The Toddler’s Busy Book. My toddler found something about all those canning rings clanging together extremely appealing. I spread the rings out near our kitchen and he pitter pattered around collecting them one at a time and putting them on the pole.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: less than minutes to prepare (provided you already have play dough)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: The cost of play dough

Materials:

Empty container with plastic lid
homemade play dough
wooden spoon or other kitchen utensil with long wooden handle
canning rings

Supplies & Tools:

knife (kitchen or x-acto)

Instructions:
Fill the plastic container with play dough. It should probably be filled at least half way, but it doesn’t need to be all the way filled. Cut a little “x” in the center of the plastic lid. Stick the handle of the wooden spoon through the lid and push the spoon end into the play dough. Put the lid back onto the container. Next give your child some canning rings and show them how to put the rings onto the handle.

Pencil Poke Box

Given how much my toddler likes to put small objects through openings, I decided to make him a box with a bunch of holes in it to stick unsharpened pencils into. I can’t believe how much he likes this new “toy.” It’s been a few days now and he keeps coming back to it. Since the holes are just barely big enough for the pencils to fit through, this is also probably the most challenging idea of the five on this list. To me, he seems good at getting the pencils into the holes, but he must not think he’s quite mastered it yet, because he keeps coming back to it on his own to spend time practicing.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: less than 10 minutes to prepare
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: The cost of a box of pencils

Materials:

Empty box about half the height of unsharpened pencils
Several unsharpened pencils

Supplies & Tools:

Scissors
Single hole punch
Packing Tape

Instructions:
Cut the 2 inside flaps of the lid off, then hole punch various holes around the rim of the 2 remaining flaps. Tape the box shut being sure not to cover up the wholes. Put unsharpened pencils into many or all of the holes. For each hole, you’ll want to wiggle the pencil around to make the hole a little bigger so the pencil can easily slide in and out. Show your toddler how to take the pencils out and put them back in.

Ball Tunnel

Babies and toddlers love cause and effect. I think they are a little power-hungry. All I did was tape together a bunch of paper towel rolls, then give my toddler a basket of ping pong balls. He puts the balls in one end and watches them come out and roll away the other end. (Then goes squealing after them.) ALL of my kids actually loved this activity. I kept having to tell the 3 and 5 year olds to give the baby a chance.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: less than 5 minutes to prepare
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: The cost of a few ping pong balls

Materials:

Empty paper towel rolls
A few ping pong balls

Supplies & Tools:

Scissors
Packing Tape

Instructions:
Tape together several paper towel rolls. The ping pong balls do fit through, but they frequently get stuck if the tube is not perfectly round and the joints precisely lined up. Therefore, we cut a slit through the whole top of the tube. Tape the tube to some elevated surface that a toddler can reach, like a chair or bench. Show the toddler how to stick the ping pong balls into the top hole and watch them travel through the tube and come out the other end.

Porcupine Foam

Floral foam is too much fun. I actually made this activity for my bigger kids so they could make some “sculptures”. I gave them each a block of floral foam and various supplies they could poke into it, like straws and popsicle sticks. After they were done, we displayed their artwork for awhile, but eventually I was going to throw them away. Instead, I decided to just take everything apart and stick the supplies in a big Ziploc bag. My bigger kids don’t like reusing their floral foam with all the marks already in it, but my toddler is not so picky. He loves doing this “big kid” activity too with the left over material.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: less than 5 minutes to prepare
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: The cost of a block of floral foam. I cut mine into pieces so more kids can use it.

Materials:

Floral foam block
Pokey supplies (straws, tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, plastic silverware, etc.)

Instructions:
Give your toddler a block of floral foam and some supplies to stick into it and watch them hard at work.

HAVE FUN!

Homemade Ball Can

Michelle — Tue, 05 May 2015 16:00:01 +0000

I made one of these for my first child when he was about 14 months old, based on the wonderful book by Tricia Kuffner, The Toddlers Busy Book. My son LOVED this toy so much I dragged it with us on a cross country flight to Maine even though I packed as lightly as humanly possible. (It may have been a little disconcerting for airport security, but I didn’t regret the decision.)

I don’t now if he had a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder or if this is normal toddler behavior, but he could play with this toy literally endlessly. Mid tantrum? Tired? Hungry? It didn’t matter. If someone dumped out the balls from the can, he had no choice but to scurry around as quickly as possible to put them all back in. Now that I’m reflecting on the experience, we grown-ups sound a little mean, but really, this activity brought him great joy. I think he felt he was doing productive work and didn’t seem bothered by our amusement.

Over the years and after another child, the lid did start to break, so we just made another one for my third child. He’s only 10 months old, but I can’t even describe how appealing the sound of the balls rattling around in the can is to him. He can’t quite get the balls in by himself unless I place them over the opening and let him push them in, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this eager to explore a “toy” (store-bought or otherwise). I ended up taking the lid off for him so he could get the balls in and out by himself. With the lid, I know this is going to entertain him for quite a few months to come.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: 10-30 minutes depending on amount of time spent decorating
Difficulty: Relatively Easy (hardest part is cutting the circular hole, so go slow)
Cost: A couple dollars for ping pong and golf balls, though I did use some supplies like a drafting compass and calipers that everyone might not already have.

Materials:

A can with a plastic lid (coffee can, formula container, peanut container, Ovaltine container, Gerber’s Lil Crunchie snacks…we used a Happy Bellies rice cereal container)
Ping pong balls (ping pong balls make the best sound and are the least dangerous, but can use golf balls, bouncy balls, or anything similarly sized)
2 sheets of paper (optional, if you want to decorate the can…we didn’t the first time we made one)
glue
markers (optional, for decorating)
contact paper (optional, for decorating)

Supplies & Tools:

calipers (optional, for making hole precisely the right size to require them to be pushed through the hole)
drafting compass (could also use a template for drawing circle)
x-acto knife
self-healing mat (or other cutting surface)
ruler (optional, for decorating)
scissors (optional, for decorating)

Instructions:

Measure the diameter of your balls. I used calipers. My ping pong balls were 40 mm. The biggest ball in my assortment was 44 mm.
Find the radius (half the diameter) of the biggest ball and spread the needle of the compass and the tip of the pencil to that measurement (see below). I went with 22 mm. One negative aspect of having a variety of ball is that only the biggest ones can be set on the hole and pushed through. The smaller ones just fall in easily. With my 10 month old, I kind of wish I had cut the hole to 20 mm, so I could place the ping pong balls on top and he could have the satisfaction of pushing them through. When he’s a little bigger and has better hand-eye coordination, it won’t matter.

Draw the circle on the plastic lid using the compass. Place the needle in the center of the lid and move the compass all the way around. You may need to press hard to get the pencil to show up.

Cut out the circle with the x-action knife on the self-healing mat. (Note: This is harder than it looks. My method involved making several (like 100) very small cuts, picking up my x-acto knife and re-positioning it between each cut. However, remember that your baby won’t care if the hole is not perfect. On my first “model”, 4 years ago, the hole was pretty lopsided, but it got tons of use with both my first and second children.) After you cut the hole, you can be done! There really is no reason to decorate it. I just wanted my picture to look a little nicer.

If you want to decorate the can, use a ruler to measure the height of the can, then cut strips of paper that wide.
Assuming your can is too big for one piece of paper to go all the way around, glue your strips of paper together to make a bigger piece.
Decorate the paper.

Glue it on the can.
Cut a strip of contact paper the same width.
Cover your decorated paper with contact paper.

ALL DONE!

Personalized Picture Book

Michelle — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 21:03:27 +0000

When I had my first child, this personalized picture book was seriously the most useful “toy” I owned when he was around 16 months to 2 years old. He LOVED this book. Sitting down and looking at this book with him could honestly stop any meltdown dead in its tracks. He loved pointing out and saying all the words he knew, but he especially liked the pictures of family. This had the added bonus of him not being as shy around family members he rarely saw AND making them extra flattered that he knew who they were.

This book was so useful, I made a couple mini-albums to stick in the diaper bag and in my purse so that I’d have something to distract him no matter where we were (restaurants, doctor’s offices, etc.). When we took a 6 hour plane ride across country though when he was 17 months, even though it took up more space in our carry-on bag, I went with the original thick book shown and was glad I did.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler
Time Required: ~2 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $10 to buy the album and have all the pictures printed at Costco (for ~13 cents/picture). You could save money by printing the pictures at home on regular paper (which would actually have made the book less thick and more transportable) and not using as nice an album as I did.

Materials:

pictures or a camera
photo album
plain white paper

Supplies & Tools:

scissors
glue
pen or markers

Instructions:

Gather a bunch of digital pictures. I choose to collect pictures of family I had already taken, but also to take pictures of various types of objects (“Animals” – I took photos of pictures in calendars and books, “Around the House” – things your child will recognize and be able to name (i.e. stove, table, shoes, clock, etc.), “Food” – various things your child eats, “My Toys” – pictures of your child’s favorite toys, and “Outside” – things that you child might see outside (i.e. wind chimes, satellite dishes, flowers, etc.)). Tip: When you’re taking your pictures, don’t hesitate to put multiple items in the same pictures (like 4 toys in one picture), that way when they’re printed as 4″x6″ photos, the item will be fairly small. It doesn’t need to be big for the child to recognize it.
Print the pictures at home or have them printed.
Cut several blank sheets of white paper to be 4″x6″.
Cut around each object you would like your child to be able to name (so that the background is not distracting) and glue the cut-out pictures to 4″x6″ pieces of paper keeping like categories together.
Slip the picture covered paper into the photo album, using one slip of paper to label each section as shown below.

ENJOY!

Pocket Matching Game

Michelle — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 03:06:49 +0000

This idea was taken straight out of The Toddler’s Busy Book by Trish Kuffner (pg. 177). Now that I have multiple kids, I don’t need ideas to keep my toddler busy. The bigger kid does that without trying for the most part. However, when it was just me and my first toddler home alone all day, I used a lot of the ideas in her book. This is a really cute way to teach the concept of matching, a skill with can later be used in a more conventional matching game. All kids are probably a little different, but my kids were unable to match the little cards to the pockets without help around 18 months, but were able and excited to show me they could do it all by themselves by their second birthday.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler, Preschool
Time Required: ~1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: A couple dollars in used supplies, though I was able to use material I had lying around the house.

Materials:

2 sheets of card stock (or cardboard/poster board/etc.)
contact paper
scraps of 5 or 6 types of fabric or wrapping paper

Supplies & Tools:

glue
scissors
x-acto knife
ruler or paper trimmer

Instructions:

Cut out 6 squares (each 3″ x 3″) from the card stock.
Cut out 5 or 6 squares (each 3″ x 3″) from the fabric or wrapping paper. (I chose to leave one of the squares as plain cardstock and instead write “Pocket Matching” on that pocket.)
Glue the fabric squares or wrapping paper squares to the card stock squares to make pockets.
Glue the “pockets” to the remaining whole sheet of card stock by gluing around 3 of the edges excluding the top.
Laminate the whole sheet of card stock by affixing pieces of contact paper slightly bigger than the cardstock to the front and the back, then trimming around the edges.
Use the x-acto knife to cut the top of each pocket open. (Note: I used a sharpie to draw a line along the top of the opening to make it more obvious.)
Cut out 6 rectangles from the card stock to fit inside the pockets. Mine were 3″ x 1.5″.
Cut out scraps of fabric or wrapping paper of the same size and styles as the pockets and glue them onto the card stock rectangles.
Laminate the card stock rectangles using contact paper.

ALL DONE!

Homemade Toy Mailbox

Michelle — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:22:59 +0000

I made this mailbox for my son when he was about a 18 months old (so almost 3 years ago). He played with it for a long time as a toddler, then ignored it for awhile, then started playing with it again about a year ago when he wanted to play a more elaborate preschool version of “post office”. Now I toss junk mail in it for my toddler daughter to open at her leisure. I save business reply envelopes for my preschooler’s fantasy play. We write or draw letters to each other, put them in a spare business reply envelope, put on a sticker for a stamp, write the recipients name on the outside, and stick them in the mailbox. My son stamps them using an inkpad to “cancel” them and delivers them to the correct person.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler, Preschool
Time Required: ~1 hour
Difficulty: Easy (hardest part will be cutting box with x-acto knife)
Cost: Hardly anything

Materials:

cardboard box (as big as you want your mailbox)
blue construction paper
white paper (to make “Collection Times” sign)
small piece of Velcro to hold the bottom closed

Supplies & Tools:

x-acto knife
scissors
glue
duct tape (or other strong tape)
black marker

Instructions:

Find an old cardboard box of about the right size. I used an Amazon delivery box.

Cut on the red lines shown in the diagram above. Exact dimensions are not important, but make sure you make the gap at the bottom small enough that the flap covering it will overlap enough that you can use Velcro to hold it closed.
Fold the top flap in and tape it to the inside top of the box. You could probably just cut the whole flap off, but this way the flap that you pull down to stick the mail in will stay closed if you push it into the box.
Tape the two sides together.
Cover the whole box in blue construction paper. I used both glue and tape.
Make a sign on the white paper and glue it to the box. Mine says: Collection Times: Before My Nap and After My Bath
Write U.S. Mail (or whatever you want) on the box.
Attach a little piece of Velcro to hold the bottom flap closed.

ENJOY!

Baby/Toddler Fun Archives - ResearchParent.com

Inventor’s Box for Little Kids

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Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag

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5 Quick and Easy Activities for Toddlers

Milk Jug Drop

Ring Toss

Pencil Poke Box

Ball Tunnel

Porcupine Foam

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Homemade Ball Can

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Personalized Picture Book

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Pocket Matching Game

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Homemade Toy Mailbox

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