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!

Travelling Toddler – a Toddler Trick outing

We all know that toddlers and confined spaces don’t go together very well so just thinking about travelling with my toddler is tortuous enough, let alone actually doing it. I have learnt a lot of things the hard way travelling on buses, ferries  and airplane’s with her. Even when I think I have it sussed she is still one step ahead of me. We have recently just flown back home to New Zealand for a short visit and I was adamant to have a smooth travelling experience with her, which I thankfully did! The biggest life saver was taking her very own carry-on backpack of tricks – a great tip I received from a friend. Let me know if you have any other ideas to prepare me for the journey home!

This toddler trick is great for any aged travelling toddler, on any form of transport.

What you need:

• - Small bag or backpack of their own.
• - Variety of small items: play set of keys, small book, old mobile phone, small toys, pipe cleaners, small container, old plastic loyalty cards, crayons or pencils, small note pad, small car , etc.
• - Wrapping paper and sellotape.

What to do:

1. Before you head out to the airport put together a bag of items for your toddler. The more the better!If you have time wrap a few of the toys up in gift wrap or newspaper. The wrapping won’t add anything to your load, but it will provide a little extra excitement and entertainment for your child.

2. I recommend you give your toddler their bag of tricks when they really need it and not a minute sooner. Your toddler will be amused for quite a while with just looking around, talking to the people next to them and having some one-on-one time with you. When you do give them their bag try to go through each item with them. For example: If it’s a pipe cleaner, show them how to bend it into different shapes, ask them what if feel like? If they can make a shape of their own? etc:

3. Some other great toddler-travelling tips I also have picked up from experience and friends are:

- Ice in a cup; When the air attendants are handing out the drinks, ask for a cup of ice. This is a great time waster and much harder to spill than water!

- Sick-bag puppets; If you have packed crayons or a pen, draw a face on a barf bag and use it as a puppet… your toddler will love this.

- Seat belt; Often when travelling with toddlers you are given an attachable seat belt for them. I guarantee your toddler will sit there happily clicking their seat belt together for at least 20 minutes.  Make sure you keep hold of it but it is a novelty.  If you have a teddy with you then putting it on teddy is a good variation on this theme.

Strawberry Picking – a Toddler Trick for outdoors

Strawberries are an absolute favourite in our household so we have come up with a great way of having a strawberry picking experience in your own back yard. Over the holidays we were lucky enough to actually go strawberry picking, so we have also  given you some tips and ideas of mounting your own strawberry exbidition if you are lucky enough to live near a strawberry garden as there is nothing like picking and eating sun kissed fruit on a summers day.

 This toddler trick is perfect for any toddler.

 Strawberry picking at home

 What you need:

• - Punnet of strawberries
• - 4 -5 small container lids
• - A toddler sized container to collect the strawberries in

How to play:

1. Divide your strawberries between the lids, 3-4 strawberries per lid.

2. Dot the strawberry filled lids around the gardenGive your toddler the container and demonstrate how to pick up the strawberries off the lid and place in the bucket – it won’t take them long to get the idea.

3. Encourage them to sample the strawberries as they go – as that is the best part of strawberry picking and all part of the fun.

4. Wash the strawberries when you get inside and chop up to serve with icecream or yoghurt and lots of praise for the strawberry picker!

Strawberry picking outing

Strawberries really are the perfect fruit for toddlers to pick;  with the plants being so low to the ground it makes it very easy for your toddler to pull off the branches and navigate themselves around the garden.  Most pick-your-own gardens are very tolerant of children but be sure to ask if there are any ‘rules’ before you head out.

What you need:

• - A pick-your-own strawberry (or other fruit) garden; local papers or a quick internet search should help you to find one
• - Sun block and a sun hat (there won’t be much, if any, shade)
• - Sturdy shoes in case there are prickles
• - Clothes that won’t show the berry stains- red is the best!
• - Water bottle because it is thirsty work
• - Wipes for a quick wipe down before jumping back in the car – strawberry tasting can be messy!

What to do:

1. Select a picking space that is away from others so your toddler can focus on the job at hand. It is best that you hold the container for the strawberries and that your toddler puts their strawberries into the communal lot.

2. Show your toddler how to lift up the leaves to find the red strawberries that are hiding there.  Show them the difference between the green and red berries and get them to pluck a few red ones and put them in the container with your close supervision.

3. I had expected an absolute over-kill of strawberry eating but inspite of strawberries being my toddler’s favourite fruit she turned out to be very intent on picking and not so interested in eating!  She did nibble on a few (as did we all) but by in large she picked far more than she ateIt really didn’t take long – probably 15-20 minutes of actual picking to fill two large containers between the four of us.

4. My toddler had a lot of fun just running up and down the rows, showing us the big berries she had found and checking out all the strawberries in the containers.

Zoo Visit – a Toddler Trick outing

We are very excited to be visiting the Taronga Zoo with my toddler’s best friend this week.  We have been planning  the visit for some time and over the past week we have had a lot of fun getting ready to get the most from the experience.  If you are lucky enough to be visiting a Zoo or wildlife park here are some ideas to make the visit a whole lot more fun for even the very youngest toddler.

This toddler trick is perfect for any toddler.