Scribble Card – a Toddler Trick for indoors

My toddler loves to draw!! We have books and draws full of her “toddler art work” that I have seemed to have hoarded over the last few years. I mean kids spend hours and hours covering pages with crayons, markers, and paints, and of course it’s always hard to throw away their artwork. However, I’m sure many of you will agree with me, there’s only so many scribbles you can keep! So, without feeling very guilty or getting caught throwing them away, I have been trying to up cycle them in many ways possible. My favourite is making scribble cards. This is a very easy activity to do together with your toddler – I promise you will both love the end result and so will everyone you give them to!!

What you need:

- Crayons, felt tips, paints or colored pencils for your toddler to create their master piece OR you can use already finished artwork that you have collected

-  White paper

- Pieces of A5 card – colour of your choice. (I tend to choose white so the colours stand out)

- Scissors (Adults or older siblings to do the cutting)

- Glue stick. (Your toddler will love helping spread the glue on!)

How to make: 

1. Get your toddler to create their masterpiece!  Or select from your existing collection.

2. Take the A5 blank piece of card and help your toddler fold it in half. Explain to them what you are doing while you are doing it. Talk to them about matching the ends up together.  Your toddler will love making the crease in the paper for you.

3. Together with your toddler decide on an identifiable shape you want on the front of the card…Heart, flower, boat, etc.  The options are endless!  Next draw the shape on the front of your card – make it big and bold. Depending on how old your toddler/pre schooler is you may need to help them by drawing the shape for them.

4. When the shape has been drawn the next step is to help your toddler cut the  shape out from the middle so you are left with a hole of your shape in the A5 folded card. Make sure you only cut one side of the folded card! =)

5. Open up the card. On the reverse side, around your cut out shape, get your toddler to apply the glue stick liberally around the edge of the shape and right to the edge of the card on that one side of the fold.

6. Place the glued card face down on your toddlers art work in the place that you both love the most! Get your toddler to help you push down the card firmly.

7. Last step – you will need to trim your toddlers art work around the edge of the card. Once that is done you can write your message inside.

8. If you want to recycle the shape you have cut – place it on newspaper and get your toddler to cover it in glue using the glue stick.  Select another piece of artwork and stick it – artwork side out – to the shape.  Trim to fit and then glue your artwork covered shape onto the front of another card.

These designer originals will be a great hit with your family and friends.  Happy creating!

Dyeing Eggs – a Toddler Trick for Easter

Easter Eggs are famously chocolate but there is just so much chocolate a toddler-sized body can (or should) consume.  We made these brightly coloured eggs as children to extend the Easter festivities – we ate them for breakfast or  lunch and delighted in having our handiwork on display.  The most important part was the satisfaction of creating your own brightly coloured Easter eggs with very little effort, expense or time involved.

What you need:

• - Hard – boiled eggs
• - Food Coloring (a few different colors)
• - White vinegar
• - Water
• - Spoons
• - Coffee Mug

How to make:

1. In a coffee mug, mix about 20 drops of food coloring with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Add 1/2 cup room temperature water. (Repeat the steps to make different colors.) I know food coloring and toddlers together is a pretty dangerous combination so just get your toddler to watch you drop the food coloring into the mug. They will find it fascinating watching the color spread through the water.

2. Gently lower eggs in the cup. The longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the darker the colors will be. Make sure the egg is dipped into the dye is completely submerged. Once the egg reaches the desired color, remove from the cup with a spoon and place into the egg carton to dry. (your toddler will like doing that!)

3. Once they have dried your toddler may like to decorate them by drawing on the eggs with crayons, felts or even stickers!

4. If your toddler is a fan of eggs they will have a lot of fun cracking their egg open to eat!

Happy Easter!

xx

Jelly Easter Eggs – a Toddler Trick for easter

I just love everything about Easter! The food, the crafts and of course the chocolate! With Easter weekend only days away I thought I would share a few toddler friendly Easter activities to get you in the spirit. This one a friend told me about a few weeks ago and I think it’s the perfect Easter treat for toddlers! Jelly Easter Eggs!!! They are really easy and fun to make and defiantly even more fun to crack open and eat. Unfortunately there is such a thing as too much chocolate and at Easter it’s hard not to go overboard! I personally think Jelly eggs are a great trick to divert your toddler from a chocolate over kill!

This toddler trick is for parents to make and toddlers to consume! 

What you need:

• - Eggs (as many as you want to make)
• - Jelly – a few different colors.
• - Funnel, small jug or syringe. (I used a new syringe that I had lying around that came with Paracetomol.)
• - Spoon.

1. Use the end of a spoon to crack the bottom of the egg open.

2. Carefully remove a small part of the shell, and empty contents into a bowl.  Place the shell immediately into a bowl of hot soapy water.  After all the eggs are empty, thoroughly rinse the shells with very hot water, preferably boiling.

3. Prepare the jelly – Mix each 85g box with just 1/2 cup of boiling water so the jelly will hold up when the eggshells are peeled.  Each box will fill 3-4 extra large eggs.

4. Fill the eggs with the different coloured jelly using either a funnel or syringe.

4.  Allow jelly to set in the fridge for 4 hours, however I always leave them over night so I know the jelly is defiantly set.

TIP – pop your eggs in the freezer for 10 minutes before trying to peel the shell so you decrease the chances of breaking the jelly!

Enjoy! I would love to hear if you have already tried this and how they turned out!