Mr Postman – a Toddler Trick for indoors

Dear reader,

It’s very rare in our household to get mail thats not either bills or junk so our family decided to go back to writing some old school “snail mail”. Not only does my toddler love receiving letters but she also gets a huge kick out of posting and delivering them too! I’m sure this will bring a lot of fun into your house hold like it has in ours!

What you need:

- Stamps

- Paper

- Envelopes

- Markers, crayons, colouring pencils of your choice.

- Optional: Make your own letter box – you will need scissors and a small cardboard box. You will need to make a slot in one of the sides of the box so your toddler can post letters in it.

What to do:

1. Ask your toddler who they want to send a letter to.  Give them a range of choices as making the decision about who to send to is part of the fun – you could suggest grandparents, Aunty, Uncle, a sibling, a friend, even a favourite toy or tv character.  If you think about it they will have lots of options I’m sure!

2. Let your toddler go wild drawing on the card! You will need to help them write a message -make sure you ask the receiver to send a letter back so that your toddler gets double thrill of giving and receiving.

3. When the letters are completed you can help your toddler deliver them. This can be another adventure on it’s own! If the recipient lives close by you could walk down or drive to their house and post it personally. Or if the recipeient lives somewhere else your toddler will be able to help you put a stamp on it and post it in the real postbox. Even better, if you have made your own postbox your toddler can post the letters them selves then pretend to be the postman and deliver them to all their toys and mum and dad!

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!

Life Size Drawing – a Toddler Trick for indoors

Drawing can involve a large variety of materials and be done on all sorts of surfaces – and as well as being lots of fun for all ages – it’s exceptionally important to help develop your toddlers fine motor skills. It also helps develop a wide range of other developmental skills. This toddler trick is fantastic in developing your toddlers thinking skills and language development, as you encourage him to label and discuss their body parts.

What you need:

- Large sheet of paper

- crayons and/or felt tips

What to do:

1. Lie the paper down on the floor (make sure it’s a hard surface) and get your toddler to lie down on top of it.

2. Now, use a crayon or marking pen to draw around your toddler from head to toe. Don’t forget to draw in between fingers and around ears. Get as much detail as possible!

3. When you have finished the outline, you and your child can fill it in. Name the body parts, like arms, elbows, fingers and items of clothing, like shirt and pants, as you color them. I find taping it to the window makes it easier for your toddler to fill in.

4. When your child’s picture is finished, hang it up where everyone can admire it. You can repeat this activity every few months, or at each birthday, so you can see changes and talk about them, ”See how much bigger you are getting” “Your hair is getting longer” or “You’re wearing a dress here.”

Note: If you have a mirror, bring it out where you are drawing so your toddler can have a look at their features before drawing them on!

Pretend Driving – a Toddler Trick for indoors

The number of times my toddler has seen me drive is too many to count but she has been there and unknowingly she has been observing and watching every action and every movement. There are so many different ways your toddler can pretend they are driving a car, some variations are: sitting on a chair, sitting on an up side down foot stool or small table, walking around or physically sitting in a parked car. My daughters favourite is walking around the living room!

This toddler trick is perfect for all toddlers. Please note if you are pretending in a real car it is SO IMPORTANT that you are sitting in the car with them and DO NOT let them have the keys!

What you need:

• - Round plastic lid
• - Keys (if you have a key chain that’s even better as they can pop the keys around their necks)

How to play:

1. This is such an easy game to set up and play with your toddler. Simply give your toddler the lid and keys. You may need to show them what to do first by walking around pretending to steer the car with the lid. Pretend to beep the horn a couple of times and say “beep-beep” and put the keys into the ignition “broom – broom”.

3. I found this great song online that is fantastic at teaching your toddler about traffic lights and what the different colors mean! So have a go at singing the song with your toddler and get them to stop at the red light and go on the green!

Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light
Standing on the Corner Bright
Green means GO, this we all know
Yellow means WAIT, even if you’re late
Red means STOP……
Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light,
Standing on the Corner bright

This song would also be  a great sing a long song for the car on long trips!

Stepping Stones – a Toddler Trick for indoors

Think twice before you throw away any old cardboard boxes this week as they can make perfect stepping stones for your toddler. After emptying all the muesli bar and cereal boxes into tupperware containers this week we were left with 5 boxes which I flattened down to  make an awesome path way through our apartment. There are heaps of fun games you can play with these stepping stones.

What you need:

•  - A number of flattened cardboard boxes. ( cereal, muesli bar and cracker boxes are perfect!)
• - couch and or a couple of chairs

How to play: 

Hot lava

 1.  Place the stepping stones around your lounge from one couch to another.  Make sure they aren’t too far apart for your toddlers wee stride. Explain to your toddler that they have to make it from one chair to the other by stepping only on the stepping stones without stepping on the hot lava (carpet).

Footpath

1.  Line all the stepping stones in a row in an open space. Your toddler will enjoy helping you do this and picking what stepping stone will go next. Once your footpath has been built let your toddler walk on top of them! As they are walking on them, talk about what colors they sees or what color his foot is on, or what object he is standing on! You can point out some letters too!

Rainbow Rice – a Toddler Trick for indoors and outdoors

A friend from my coffee group back home in New Zealand got me on to making this amazing “rainbow rice’! I think it’s a great alternative to sand and is vibrant and fun for your toddler to play with! Your toddler can play with it pretty much any where!!! at a sand table outside, in a empty bath tub, paddling pool or in big bowls/containers you have lying around the house. It’s cheap, fun, easy to make and any spills are easily vacuumed up in minutes!!!! Joey also suggested you add in some shells, spades, cars, rakes which I thought was a great idea!

This toddler trick is perfect for any toddler! Parent supervision at all times to ensure none is consumed! =)

Go to african babies don’t cry blog to find out the amounts and how to make this amazing rainbow rice!

What you need:

• - White wine vinegar
• - Food coloring
• - Zip lock bags
• - Rice

This rice is also great to pop inside old plastic bottles to make maracas or I-spy bottles!

Joey has started her very own business called Rainbows which specializes in selling colorful cloth nappies. Check it out!!!

3-pin bowling – a Toddler Trick for indoors

This is a great game for wet days and one that you can generally convince older siblings and adults to join in too.  If you have a hallway this is a perfect game.  If you don’t – create a ‘lane’ with pillows or cushions. You can use more than three pins but it is the minimum to make a wall that is relatively easy to hit.  You will find that many toddlers will have just as much fun righting the ‘pins’ and putting them in a row as they will bowling the balls to hit them.

What you need:

•  - Three(or more) empty large soft drink bottles
• - A length of tape or piece of string to mark the start
• - A tennis ball
• - A hallway or a ‘lane’ created with pillows or cushions either side.

What you do:

1. Put your pins up at one end of the hall or the lane.

2. Mark the starting point with a line of tape on the floor or a piece of string

3. Each player takes a turn bowling the ball from behind the tape/string  to try and hit the ‘pins’.  You may need to help your toddler to get the right action going to bowl the ball forward and to release it along the floor…after a few ‘assists’ they usually get the idea.  Or they may lose interest totally in bowling and get more involved in putting the pins upright once they are bowled.  If you have more than three ‘pins’ try putting them in a ‘v’ formation like you will find in a real bowling alley.  This is a cheap, simple, fun game that will help burn a bit of energy on  wet day.

Carrot Tops – a Toddler Trick for indoors

This could be one of the easiest toddler tricks you could do but it will provide a point of interest for several weeks.  Now that winter is approaching the ability to grow something indoors is a real bonus too. “Carrot tops” can also create some interesting discussions around which part of the carrot we eat and where it really does grow.  You can never be too young to start understanding that our food doesn’t really grow on a supermarket shelf.  This trick was a favourite with my twin sister and I when we were young.

What you need:

•  - The ends off a carrot; just make an extra thick slice the next time you are preparing carrots for eating.
• - A saucer
• - Water
• - Patience

 What you do:

1. Simply place the end of your carrot top-side up in a saucer and place  enough water in the saucer to just cover  the bottom of the carrot.

2. Add a little more water every day and watch the fronds start to sprout from the end of your carrot.  In a few weeks you should have a nice fern effect!!!  Just like a carrot growing from the ground.  You can expect some failures however as we can’t tell how the carrots we buy have been treated; so put two or three ends in a saucer at once to hedge your bets.  Sometimes you can find one that is already starting to sprout – as we did – and this can give your project a head start.

Sign up to our Facebook page and follow progress as our carrot tops grow.

Magic Colored Milk – a Toddler Trick for indoors

I found this wonderful toddler friendly experiment online today on Steve Pangler’s Science website. It’s so hard to believe you can have so much fun with milk and food coloring. I thoroughly recommend you give this a try.

Go to Steve Pangler’s Science Website for all the amounts and instructions.

What you need: 

• - Plate
• - Food Coloring (number of colors)
• - Milk
• - Soap
• - Ear bud

What we did:

1.Place the plate on a hard, flat surface and get your toddler to sit down next to it.

2. Pour the milk on to the plate. Make sure you keep sneaky hands out of the way!

3. Place 2-3 drops of each colored food coloring into the milk. Your toddler will love watching this. Once again make sure no sneaky hands get in the way!

4. Give the ear bud to your toddler and get them to dip one end into the soap. With guidance get your toddler to place the soaped end of the ear bud into the circles of food coloring and hold it in there for 10 seconds(get your toddler to count with you.) This is when the magic starts happening! Your toddler will get very excited so make sure you have a camera ready!

NOTE: This is for decoration only, it’s NOT to be consumed!

Food Painting – a Toddler Trick for indoors

We all know that painting and eating are two things that toddlers love so when a friend told me about about food painting I knew this was something that I had to try with my daughter and share with you all! With such a simple paint recipe using only milk and food coloring it really is too easy to set up for hours of fun for your toddler! The foods you can paint are endless! I guarantee both you and your toddler will have a blast with this trick!

This toddler trick is perfect for those toddlers who love to paint and eat! =)

What you need:

• - Milk
• - Food Coloring (a variety of colors)
• - Food to paint! I would recommend foods that are white or neutral in color so the paint shows up on them the best!
• - Paint brush/es
• - Containers to put the paints in. Muffin trays are great!

How to make:

1. Start by mixing the paint colors together. Pour the milk into your container first then add 1-2 drops of food coloring. Stir till thoroughly mixed and repeat to make the other colors.

2. Set your toddler up with the paints and the foods you have chosen. They may need a little help getting started so show your toddler first how to paint on the foods. Once they have watched you do a couple of strokes I’m sure they will be eager to grab the paint brush off you and get under way!

3. Let painted food dry then let your toddler eat their art work! They will think it’s very neat that they get to eat it!