Happy Monday Evening Funky Fans,
I hope you had a good week last week and you managed to get out and about in the sunshine.
It looks like the curve is flattening so all our efforts to stay in are working! I know it feels like it’s getting harder and it isn’t easy as we don’t know how long it will go on for but we do at least know it won’t last forever ( I hope!)
Here are some of our latest ideas that we have done, I hope you find them helpful and if you try them please let me know and send me some picture if you want!I would love to see them.
Multi coloured bubble popping
This is a lovely idea sent to me by my wonderful Mother in Law. It didn’t work quite as well as the picture above she sent but we still had fun.
You need some bubble mixture or washing up liquid and water works well too and some bubble wands and food colouring.
You will need to be quite generous with the food colouring, I don’t think I really used enough to get the full effect.
Encourage your little ones to blow the bubbles towards a big piece of white paper and then watch the bubbles pop leaving behind pretty coloured rings and circles.
The more colours you use the more effective it looks.
Blowing is a great activity for toddlers as it exercises their mouth muscles and is good practice for learning speech.
Hanging socks out to dry.
Little ones love to copy you and they love to be given jobs to do and this ticks both those boxes!
I strung some string between a tree and a post but you could use anything, even 2 chairs in your garden.
I gave toddler G some pegs and some wet socks that had just come out of the washing machine but you don’t have to wait for the washing to be done, you could use dry socks or flannels or anything small that you have which is easy for little hands to manage.
Show them how to hang them up on the line, this is a little tricky so it takes a bit of time for them to get the hang of it, no pun intended!
Once they learn to take the items off and on though this will entertain them for a while and plus how cute does a mini washing line look in the garden!
I have kept ours up as toddler G hangs all the small things up now every time I hang the washing out and he loves the fact that he has a special job to do.
Once you have your line up you could even use it to hang leaves which you could paint if you wanted an extra activity once the socks are dry!
Obstacle run in the garden
We did this indoors but as the weather has been so nice we moved the idea to the garden and it worked really well.
If you have a young toddler you may have to do this with them so they get the idea of what to do.
We used some foam mats, the dogs agility tunnel and the stand from the tuff tray but you can use anything.
If you want a tunnel how about two chairs and a blanket you can use cushions or blankets as stepping stones, sticks on the ground to step over, a rope or string on the floor to walk along like a tightrope and as it’s such nice weather you could even pop the paddling pool out to splash through.
Toddler G really enjoyed this, especially when we got daddy and the dog to do it too!
Hammering paint splats
This is such a fun thing to do but it is a super super messy one so make sure you do it outside and you and your little one are wearing clothes you don’t mind getting splattered.
We used our tuff tray for this but any flat surface would work well outside.
I Sellotaped some paper to the tray and squirted some different coloured paint all over.
I covered the paint blobs with bits of paper but you don’t need to do this it just made the paint splats stay a bit more on the paper.
Use paper that isn’t too absorbent if you are going to cover the blobs.
Hand your small person a hammer, we used the little wooden one that came with one of his toys but any sort of hammering implement would work well and them go to town!
Toddler G thought this was great fun and we had a great piece of artwork after this.
I am very tempted to do something similar using fabric paint and a white t shirt or a cushion cover, I think it would look fantastic! Maybe an idea for a new bandana bib design too!
Inserting craft sticks into a box
This is a good quiet activity, perfect to finish off the day with or a rainy day activity. Previously I haven’t done many things like this because I thought toddler G wouldn’t find them that fun but I was really wrong.
This was fun to make and play with afterwards.
You will need a box, some Sellotape, lolly sticks and colouring pens or pencils.
I taped up the box to give it some stability and also to make sure it wouldn’t open.
I then taped a piece of white paper over the top and then cut a few holes in it with a sharp knife.
Please be careful if your small person is around and you have a sharp knife!
Colour in the little slices in the box and then I cut a small door in the side of the box so that could be opened and the lolly sticks retrieved.
Toddler G loved colour matching the holes with the lolly sticks and posting them in to the box and he really loved opening the little door to get the lolly sticks out.
He also liked carrying the box around and shaking it so it’s a toy with multiple purposes!
That is it for this blog but another will be up soon. Have a wonderful week together all you lovely families, stay safe and stay happy. Sending you all much love. XX