Toddler Olympics

Going for Gold

The Olympics are upon us and theres no escaping them, wether your sporty or not (like me!) you have to admit its quite a spectacle. Not only that but its a great excuse to get up and moving and have some fun doing it! We set up a few different events in our house which used every day items and didnt cost us a penny unlike the opening ceremony which was out of this world.

The first event in our Toddler Olympics was the hurdles and for what took very little time to set up provided hours of entertainment. I simply rolled up 4 towels and placed them on the floor a small distance apart and thats really it! We didn't even have to explain to Dylan what to do he just took off running backwards and forwards, giggling and trying his hardest not to step on the 'hurdles', he roared with laughter as we cheered and clapped each length! This one even got mummy and daddy moving and we explored different ways of clearing the 'hurdles' like hopping, jumping, stepping and skipping.

Our next event was the shot put and wasn't quite as successful but fun nonetheless. For the shot put we decided to use splash balls which are absorbent balls designed to be used in swimming pools and water fights to splash eachother. The reasoning behind this was that Dylan would be able to throw the ball on the paper and it would leave a mark so he could see where he had thrown it but in the end the marks left where more fun than throwing the 'shot put'

In the end we just had fun making marks on the paper and exploring how manipulating the ball in different ways made the pattern on the paper look, for example when we squeezed the ball it made a puddle but if we dabbed it we where left with a circle. This lasted a long, long time and required several bowls of water but it was fascinating to be able to sit back and enjoy watching Dylan create his own game out of the materials we had provided. Its a fantastic way to nurture the imagination to allow your child to develop the play session to suit themselves and not be concerned about the final outcome or what you had originally envisaged for the project.

After an exhausting morning of sport and a well deserved nap we headed for the pool, the imagination pool that is! This one was really simple all it took was a duvet cover and we where transported to the Olympic pool and it was time to get wet. We practised our back stroke, front crawl and who could forget the doggy paddle we gently shook the duvet cover as Dylan lay on top and it provided a brilliant sensory experience for him. This was fun but didn't hold his attention in the same way the other events had so we brainstormed and came up with diving! Now this was fun!

This one involved a lot of imaginative play as we climbed the steps to the diving board, walked to the end, bounced a couple of times and then jumped and swooped down into the 'pool'. Dylan thought this was hilarious and the build up created by the imaginary diving board ment that he was anticipating the dive and his giggles built up us he got closer to be being flown down into the 'water'. Again we added another sensory element by gently creating waves with the duvet cover and this caused Dylan to squeel as he got closer to the 'water' and that in turn made us all laugh!

Our final event was rowing and as you can see its a very fine vessel we chose to compete in! I have come to know that all children love washing baskets and Dylan is certainly no exception, every time I try to get the washing done we end up playing in the basket for hours so this activity was right up his street! We used wooden spoons for oars and I couldnt resist adding a little flag to his boat, daddy was on hand to provide a bumpy ride on the open water and I offered words of encouragement at the finish line.
Overall we had a great time recreating some of the Olympic events and I look forward to planning more sporty events for now and long after the Olympic buzz has died down!

Squidgy, squashy, splishy, splashy!

Water Beads

How beautiful are these little gems?! Water beads are actually designed to be used in flower arrangements and although not designed to be used as a toy are 100% non-toxic and brilliant fun! They are widely available in stores and online (I purchased these from Amazon) when you buy them they are tiny little crystals which you then soak in water to hydrate. I'm really lucky and my son isn't a big "taster" when it comes to sensory play but please make sure that when playing with these you supervise your child at all times. Now this post will be based around our second session with water beads as our first encounter was much less enjoyable and mighty stressful! I had not read enough about them to know just how bouncy these little balls of water are and within 2 minutes of starting the play I decided it would be a great idea to pour them from one container to another which resulted in them bouncing all over my living room carpet! Dylan thought this was amazing especially when he discovered they "exploded" when stood on and we couldn't pick them up as fast as he could smash them! Also in the scramble to pick them up the bowl was then knocked over another 2 or 3 times and the slippery little blighters ended up under the sofa, in the kitchen, behind the TV basically everywhere!!!

 This time we decided to opt for the safety of the water table and thankfully all the beads stayed in the table for the entire session. I was really pleased as after the disaster the first time around I was worried I would have to abandon water bead play until Dylan was older and that ment I couldn't play with them either and they really are amazing. They feel like really soft marbles and running your hand through them or even over the top of them is some how soothing and extremely hard to resist when "supervising" hehe. What I really loved about using them in the water table was being able to have one section with the hydrated beads and one section with water and beads as they look completely different when submersed, like bacteria on a slide or frogspawn even!

I felt this was a great sensory experience for Dylan as he could see how the beads appearance changed when he dropped them in the water or subsequently fished them out. Another aspect which I had not considered until we put the beads in the table was how the colour of the beads would change depending on there background, for example the beads seen here are in fact blue but when placed on the yellow table they appear green. All these factors made for a lot of discussion during this session and Dylan, although still unable to properly talk never shut up!

We then introduced a funnel to the session and let Dylan practise his fine motor skills by placing it upside down and showing him how to pop the beads inside. This for some reason was highly addictive and I found myself sitting filling the funnel long after Dylan had moved on to splashing in the other side! We also used the funnel to scoop them up and let them pour out, this was great fun to try and catch them as they flew out the bottom but unfortunately due to the uneven size it got blocked quite often. The great thing about these is they can be kept for future play and just rehydrated as and when needed, that is if they don't all end up smooshed and in a million pieces of course!

We kept ours and used them to set up this table in the garden this morning, water beads and shaving foam. I wasn't brave enough to attempt this one in the house and it turns out with good reason as it resulted in Dylan and daddy having a shaving foam fight and all of us ending up soaked but smelling lovely! This really did feel amazing but didn't really keep Dylans attention for nearly as long as just plain beads and water, I don't know wether this was due to the distraction of being outside or that despite feeling great it just didn't hold as many possibilities as the previous session, who knows!

As you can see it was definitely a messy activity and one I would save for the garden if possible but it genuinely got more fun as we got messier and we will be doing this again as long as the weather stays nice!

Rainy days!

Indoor activity table

If like me your wondering where the sun is and exactly when he's going to put that hat of his on then you'll probably also be wondering what to do with the little ones and all those exciting garden toys you bought in anticipation of summer. I have simply brought those toys inside and am making the most of what we have to hand to keep Dylan amused as I personally find that the noise of frustrated whinging is 100% more effective at grinding down my nerves when trapped within the same four walls for any length of time. Here I am gonna share some ideas we have explored using our sand/water table, minus the sand!

First of all the most obvious and straight-forward use, water. I added an extra visual element using bath water colour tablets which can be purchased at Tinti along with some other fun bath things.
I purchased these water changing tablets as I was concerned about food colouring staining the bath and more importantly my son! I certainly didn't want to have to explain to a passing stranger why my son was bright blue or face concerned mum's when I turned up to class with a scarlet Dylan. I have since discovered that only a miniscule amount of colouring is needed to colour a bath and we have experienced no staining of the tub or otherwise but please check your own before diving straight in as it where.
We explored all shades of red by letting Dylan pour different amounts into the two halves of the table with a watering can which he got very, very excited about and which now needs to be hidden out of sight when water play isn't an option! I tried to show him the difference between objects that sink and those that float but splashing was far more interesting and not every idea I have is "fun" in his eyes!

 Now for something all together less wet. We uhm'd and agh'd for some time about wether to put sand in the table indoors but decided it would not only be easily trod into the entire house but it would also be near impossible to transfer out of the table when we felt the need for something else. After searching the web for ideas I came across coloured rice it was perfect, it would be easy to remove and store and also let me play with food colouring again! I found several conflicting ways for colouring the rice and in the end settled on vinegar and food dye. Its a really easy method and gave great results, all you need is a ziplock freezer bag (there slightly stronger than regular food bags and trust me you don't want to find out why that is important, its messy) approx. 1 tbsp of vinegar, some greasproof paper and a few drops of colouring. Lay the paper out ready to put the freshly dyed rice on and then pop everything in the freezer bag and shake till its all evenly coated. Its that easy! The instructions said to dry overnight but we found it only took a few hours and surprisingly didn't smell too strongly of vinegar.

 




















We made 2 colours, one for each side of the table and then chucked in some beach toys - a rake, a spade and some moulds.  The colours didn't stay seperate for long but thats ok and the great thing about this is we can just pour the rice into an airtight container and store it away till the next time. I have to say I really enjoyed this activity as the rice feels really nice to run your fingers through and although we spent a lot of time the first day saying "On the table!" and "Keep it in the table!" it was really good fun and we have returned to it many times since.

I couldn't finish this post without mentioning that these tables are also great to have in the house purely to be used as tables as silly as that sounds. We use ours daily for arts and crafts such as painting, drawing and play-doh. Dylan also occassionally demands a layed back breakfast as you can see below...

Paddling pool fun!

Indoor pool

If you had a read of my first post you'll be familiar with the blue material featured in this picture if not then it is simply a throw away tablecloth cut into strips and it makes an appearance during a lot of our play sessions. The inspiration for this indoor pool came when I managed to get my hands on a bag of duck shaped play balls which I am still in love with to this day. The are just adorable and I love playing with them as much as Dylan does. I set this up while he was sleeping and his eyes lit up when he awoke to this! I lined the bottom of an inflatable paddling pool with a survival blanket which is a definite must have in my opinion and I will share why in a future post but for now back to the ducks! The survival blanket and tablecloth strips made a lovely swishy crinkling noise which provided a great reward for Dylan's leg kicks and resulted in lots of squeals and laughs and the ducks, well they are just damn tasty!

I am a big fan of getting the most out of something while we have it out and it just seemed a shame to deflate the pool (we certainly didn't have the weather to use it outside!) so we had to think of something else to do with it. Then it hit me, we can't use it outside so lets use it inside. So we did! We already had all the ducks out so decided to just add some playballs and go for it, although we did dig out a swim nappy as well just to be on the safe side!

 We literally only filled the pool up maybe a couple of inches and just let Dylan splash in the water and play with the toys as he so wished. With him still being so little here we really didn't have to worry about our living room flooding but I think if we where to try this now we would all be soaked! While splashing in the pool we realised that Dylan's stacking cups each have 3 very small holes in the bottom and watching the water trickle out was fascinating for him and he oooh'd and aaaah'd while reaching out to touch the streams. We now still use these every bath time and as Dylan has grown he has learnt to fill and pour the water between them himself and I would recommend cups for bathtime for a child of any age.