More Fun with Toddlers

If you missed my first installment of Fun with Toddlers you can check it out here.

So although cereal can be fun to play with the Jellybean has a 15 minute attention span at the most so we need more than just cereal to keep him occupied. That's when these next few items come in handy. Any of you with a toddler know that the baby wipes are the most fascinating thing in the world to them. That is evidenced through the fact that they can pull all the wipes out in under 30 seconds. (There's another $3.00 down the drain!)

One day, as I was working on the no sew fleece blanket it took me two months to finish, inspiration struck me. I had a bunch of left over fabric pieces from the corner's I had to cut off for the blanket and an empty rubber glove box from the C-diff incident of 2012. I placed the pieces of fabric in the container and handed it off to the Jellybean.

Fabric Square

 Glove box

 Lazy toddler

 Mom, I'll just lay here and you hand me toys to play with. Ok?

 No one is yelling at me for pulling all these out? SAWEET!

Let me see if there's anymore in here...

A toy that I'm supposed to make a mess with? I have the BEST mom EVER!

  Let's do it again, Mom!

That really is the best part of this toy. After he pulls them all out we just stuff all the pieces back in and go again. If you don't have fabric squares - use some wash cloths, post it notes, business cards! The thrill is in pulling stuff out and putting it back in.

I also have a variation on this using one of those hard plastic travel wipe containers. When we go out to eat I fill it with Sugar packets and other things that are right there on the table and let him go crazy with it. It's not like he is ready for the crayons and coloring on the kids menu yet. Unless they consider crayons an appetizer!

So total cost for this activity - $0.00. The blanket on clearance was $6.00 but I would have tossed those fabric scraps away anyhow.

Have you found any fun and inexpensive activities to do with your toddler lately?

Fun with Toddlers

I have to say - once Jellybean hit the toddler stage I was a little lost as to what to do with him for awhile. The baby stage is easy peasy for entertainment. You put them under their baby gym or hand them a few toys and they are entertained for awhile. Then you have the exersaucer or feet! Feet were always a huge hit with Jellybean.

Then came toddlerhood. He started walking before he was a year old. He can climb. He talks. He knows what he wants.

He also gets bored.

Quickly.

Thank you Pinterest for coming to the rescue! I turned to Pinterest to research toddler activities and used them as inspiration to create my own.

Toddlers love sensory activities and Jellybean is no exception. They also love to fill containers up and dump them out.

I took Jellybean's love for those things along with a blanket, some bowls and three different kinds of cereal. I used Cheerios, Kix and Cocoa Puffs.

Use different sized bowls and different materials. He liked the different ways the spoons sounded against the metal versus the plastic.

Throw in some spoons and other things you can bury and dig out too. We used some jar lids and the little plastic dohickey for changing out the led light bulbs.

You're going to be tempted to help and show them how to play with it. 

Don't! 

Let them explore. It gets messy. After these pictures he dumped the cereal out everywhere.

Then he had a blast scooping it back up.

The best part to this activity for Jellybean though?

Finally a toy you are ALLOWED to eat while you play with it.

This is just the first in a series of posts I am going to do as I find new and inexpensive ways to keep the Jellybean entertained. I'll be placing them here along with on this board. My board will also have ideas I have come across in other places.

As I grow as a mom I'm learning that sometimes the simplest things are the most entertaining. We pretty much bought out the toy stores for Christmas and his birthday. He plays with a quarter of those toys. So to keep you from breaking the bank and from going insane as your toddler runs around like a maniac I want to share the things we do. Let me know what fun activities you've done with your little ones too. 

Next week I'll share one of his favorite toys. We always have plenty of them to spare and they come on so many different sizes that he never gets bored!