Definitely not as nice last week and lockdown with toddlers is a bit different when you can’t get outside in the sun.
Here are some activities you can do inside that will hopefully make staying inside while it’s raining a bit more fun.
Thanks to a good couple of friends for suggesting some of these activities!
Faces on plates
Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon that causes people to see faces in random things, clouds, shapes in trees etc.
We love looking at faces as soon as we are born and it stays with us. This is why this is such a great activity with toddlers as faces are something that are easy to create and then fun to play with.
I cut different shapes with different coloured paper and encouraged toddler G to place them where he thought the eyes, nose and mouth should be.
We got a few abstract faces but it was fun to make silly faces, grumpy faces and happy faces.
Toddler G added tongues, hair and anything else I could think of with any crafty scraps I could find.
Once we had made a few faces on the plates we then used them to talk to each other and I also got Toddler G to copy the facial expressions.
Great for emotional development as well as a lot of fun for you to do together.
Stone painting
Toddlers love doing something slightly out of the ordinary so this is why this is a great activity and often captures their imagination.
You can do this with little pebbles but we decided to get some larger stones out of the garden and pop them on the tuff tray along with paints and brushes and let toddler G go wild!
I would suggest using washable paint, especially if you are doing this activity inside but if you want to keep your painted stone in all of it’s colourful glory you can seal it with a spray sealer once the rock is completely dry.
If you paint little pebbles and seal them, you can take them out and hide them around your walk for other families to find.
There are lots of painted rock groups on Facebook so you can show off your creations and you can even ask people to take pictures of yours and re-hide it!
Playing musical statues
If you need a way to get your little one moving then this is it!
Put some super bouncy music on and get them dancing and running around the room. When you pause the music they have to stop and freeze.
You can make this even more fun by trying to make them move or giggle when they are trying to stay still!
Pasta necklaces
Pasta is becoming less scarce now so you should be able to find some in the shops. You will need tube type pasta for threading.
Pop the pasta, paint and to make it more exciting you could add some glitter too on their high chair tray or table.
Encourage your little ones to experiment with how they cover the pasta in paint.
They could use brushes or their hands or even dip the pasta straight in to the paint. As extras you can add feathers, sequins, glitter or mini pom poms.
Once they are are all decorated and fabulous you can get your little one to thread the pasta on a string and make sure you wear it, after all it’s not like anyone is going to see you!
To make threading the pasta easier I tied the string on to an end of a pipe cleaner so they could thread that, this worked really well.
Painting on cling film
I am constantly finding different ways to use the enormous amount of paint I bought from hobbycraft just before lockdown!
This was such a fun one and toddler G got really into painting and then turning the stand around to see the other side.
You will need clingfilm and something with legs like a small table, stool or tuff table stand.
Wrap the cling film around super tightly and let your little one paint it as much as they want.
Toddler G really enjoyed me painting one side of the cling film and then he painted in the other side.
Finally, it is VE Day on Friday and not just any old VE Day but the 75th anniversary.
Normally there would be lots of celebrations going on but sadly because we’re in this awful pandemic that isn’t going to happen so we will have to make our own.
Lots of streets and closes are doing their own socially distanced street party by decorating their houses, putting a table and chairs out in their front gardens with a picnic and listening to 1940’s music.
I think this is a lovely idea, not just to commemorate a very important event but also to bring us all a little closer and cheer everyone up.
Toddler G and I have been busy making some decorations and here are our poppies we made.
Super easy to do, paint a paper plate red with a black dot in the middle and cut out 4 small triangles.
They look really effective and they are fun to do!
I hope these give you some more ideas to entertain your gorgeous little ones Funky Fans.
Share with me any pictures or any things you have been doing and enjoyed! I would love to see!
Stay safe and happy mums and dads. Sending you all love.