{Playing Through Autumn Day 13} Scooping Seeds

Most toddlers find such joy in the simple act of scooping and pouring. L is no exception. It is one of her absolute favorite things to do, which is why sensory tubs are such a huge hit in our house. I recently decided to ramp things up a bit with a Montessori-inspired scooping and pouring activity for L, with a little added autumn flair.

I filled a bowl with popcorn kernels that I nicked from our popcorn sensory tub and put it on a tray with three miniature Halloween pumpkins (the plastic kind with an opening at the top). I placed everything on a cookie sheet to help minimize a big mess and added in a tablespoon-sized measuring spoon. (Note: I went with a tablespoon based on the size of the opening on the pumpkins. Anything smaller wouldn't have picked up many of the kernels and anything larger would have made it very difficult to pour into the pumpkins without creating a big mess. I wanted to help L be successful in this activity and limit potential frustrations.)

This activity required a lot of fine motor control in the scooping with a smaller spoon and pouring into small containers. Some of the kernels didn't make it into the pumpkins (but of course!) which led to another wonderful opportunity for fine motor practice: using those fingers to pick up the rouge kernels.

In addition to her love of scooping and pouring, L has also been very interested in counting recently. It was fun for her to count, "One, two, three..." as she poured into each pumpkin, and we were also able to count a few of the runaway popcorn kernels.

How are you engaging your kids this autumn? What sorts of activities do they enjoy?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 10} Cinnamon Play Dough

There is just nothing like home made play dough - it's softer than store bought, it smells divine, you can personalize it in almost any way, and it can be made with things you most likely already have in your house. I love the stuff. So when I came upon a recipe for cinnamon play dough in an old resource binder, I knew I couldn't let autumn pass us by without making it.

Cinnamon Spice Play Dough

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 tsp cream of tartar or alum

5 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 cups water

2 Tbsp oil

Combine dry ingredients in a saucepan. Add the water and oil and mix well. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken and form a stiff ball. Remove from heat and knead when cool enough to handle. Store in a Ziploc bag when cooled to keep from drying out.

This stuff smells amazing and will get your whole kitchen smelling of tasty cinnamon! And the really great thing is, it falls right out of a no-stick pan. I plopped mine onto a plate to cool, then kneaded it as soon as I could touch it.

Play dough is such a multifaceted material: it's a great sensory experience, it's fantastic for fine motor and dexterity skill development, it's creatively open-ended. I presented the finished product to L with pumpkin and leaf cookie cutters for that added autumn flair. We were both engaged with this stuff for nearly an hour!

We have been playing with this dough for the better part of a week now, and it has yet to lose its luster. It still smells fantastic and we have yet to run out of new ways to play with it. Play dough is seriously awesome!

Do your kids enjoy play dough? What other open-ended activities do your kiddos enjoy?

The Magic of Dry Erase

Recently we found ourselves in the pediatrician's office, getting L checked for an ear infection. (Seriously?! I breastfed! My kid is supposed to be immune to those things!) Anyway, while we were waiting for the doc to arrive, we began to doodle on a dry erase board in the exam room. It was an AMAZING way to pass the time! L loved it and it totally took her mind of her (should-be-non-existent) ear pain. It was fantastic!

When we got home later that afternoon, I pulled out a rather large dry erase board I had purchased some months before with the motivation of getting organized. (You'll notice I said nothing about having to take it off a wall somewhere.) L instantly recognized what it was, and was so eager to start doodling again that she could barely contain herself. Needless to say, my child is now an expert at the magic that is the dry erase board, and I have another tool in my repertoire for helping her learn through play. Huzzah!

We wrote and erased letters (okay, mostly I wrote and she erased), shapes, doodles, the names of our family and friends, numbers, all sorts of things. It was so engaging and so much FUN. We even traced a few items from the play room, which I loved because it showed L how you can integrate all kinds of stuff into your artwork. It was a blast!

What kind of non-toy toys are your wee ones digging these days?

Montessori Inspired Life Skills Practice - Pouring Pasta

I'm not much of a cook - by any stretch of the imagination - but I do like to flex my culinary muscles in the fall and winter with lots of baking.  Given that L had only just started toddling around late last fall, I didn't invite her into the kitchen too often. This year, that's all going to change. I am so excited to have my little gal by my side making all kinds of delicious treats! I had sort of been wondering what I could do to help prepare her for our big baking adventures, when I found an idea in a book of Montessori-inspired activities (my apologies for not being able to cite which one - I've been reading a host of different early childhood books lately and they were all very overdue at the library!). In this particular activity, the child practices pouring pasta from one measuring cup to another. I thought this would be a really great activity for L - fun, but also practical in terms of preparing her to hit the kitchen. Plus, I already have tons of rainbow pasta on hand, so I decided to give it a go.

L found this activity fantastically entertaining, and after only a few small spills, she got pretty good at getting all the pasta from one cup into the other and back again. This was such great fine motor practice, in addition to all of the thought she put into doing the job correctly. (And hey, what's a few spilled ingredients between friends, right?) I have complete confidence that, come autumn, we will be having many great adventures in the kitchen!

Do you do any kind of baking or cooking with your little ones?

Table Top Traffic

Want an easy peasy way to bring new life to all those toy cars you have lying around? (I mean, that's not just my house, right?) A little tape, a table top or other flat surface, some toy cars, and you're ready to go!

I just stuck some tape to the table in patterns of roads and parking spaces (and one sad little house), threw in some peg people, and of course, the cars. L was instantly enchanted, which I find endlessly amusing, as those same cars have been sitting in one of her toy bins for weeks completely untouched. The power of novelty, eh?

Of course, after the wonder of the cars and people wore off, there was still a tabletop full of sticky tape just waiting to be unstuck!

Who needs silly old cars when the bright blue roadway will do?

Open-Ended Play with Discovery Bins

One of the great things about kids is you never know exactly what they'll do when you present them with new materials. This fact of life inspired me to try something a little different with L recently, in what I'm calling a Discovery Bin.

I'm always looking for ways to invite L to engage in activities that are open-ended and without a lot of structure. I like to watch what she does with certain materials, the way her little brow furrows as the cogs in her brain start to turn. In this case, I took a small plastic bin (about the size of a shoe box) and filled it with cotton balls, buttons, pom poms, and bells. Then I threw in a cardboard tube for extra fun, set it out where she'd be sure to find it, and let her take it from there.

The first thing she did was pull out each type of material for exploration. It didn't take her long to discover that it would be really fun to start dropping those materials down the cardboard tube.  It was such fun to watch her giggle when each item came out on the other end. I loved the fact that there was so much to discuss: the sound of the bells, the smoothness of the buttons, the soft and fluffy texture of the cotton balls and poms. She stayed engaged with this activity for quite some time and even when she did move onto the next thing, she watched me like a hawk to keep track of where I put the bin.

This was a super simple activity that hit on fine motor practice, new vocabulary (smooth, fluffy, jingly) and offered lots of opportunities for L to practice her emerging language skills. All in all, a roaring success!



Pom Sorting = A Bevvy of Skills Practice

So, I know that pom pom sorting is nothing new under the sun, but I wanted to give it a shot with L now that she's getting a bit older and becoming aware that objects are different from one another.  I offered up this pom pom sorting activity using a muffin tin and spoons and was quickly surprised (and pleased) at just how many learning areas were addressed in one simple activity.

Fine Motor: L got a kick out of using the spoons to scoop the poms out of the muffin tin into bowls or from one cup to another in the tin. She quickly learned that the bigger the pom, the tougher it was to keep it on the spoon.

Sorting: I chose a variety of poms that were basically one size big and one size small. We had a lively discussion using the words big and small, as well as large and tiny.  Great vocabulary lesson for a gal who loves to chat!

Patterning: While I don't expect L to grasp the concept of patterns at this point, it was still fun to make lines with the poms - big, little, big, little, etc.

Color Recognition: L is really interested in color words of late and has been asking frequently about the colors of things she encounters. This was a fun and organic way to talk about some of the new color words she's working so hard to master.

This activity was so simple and yet had lots to offer (the best kind, in my opinion!). L enjoyed it so much that I just added the muffin tin and poms to her play area for her to explore at her own leisure!



Fine Motor Fun: Open & Close Basket

Not so long ago, I was clicking around on the Montessori at Home section of the fabulous Carrots Are Orange and found an idea for an activity that I couldn't wait to try with L. I just love a good fine motor activity and the great thing about Montessori activities is that they are really practical and encourage kids to play in ways that will help them figure out real life. This particular activity, a basket full of items for L to practice opening and closing, was a fantastic example of how simple activities can create engaging play for even the littlest hands.


I started out with a basket of various items from around the house that open in different ways (twisting, snapping, pushing, etc.) and gathered them all in a basket.

The other real beauty of this activity was that I just used things I already had lying around the house, so prep time was pretty minimal. I invited L to take a peek at what was in the basket, and with very little explanation or modeling, she was off and ready to explore everything before her.

Some containers were easier for her to manipulate than others, but I was close at hand to offer help in case she got frustrated. My little gal has a busy body, but this activity kept her engaged for quite some time. It was so much fun watching the little wheels of her brain turn as she tried to figure out each new container. I plan to leave this basket in her playroom for continued exploration.

I just adore activities that are so simple, yet so engaging. How are you engaging your little ones these days?

It's Party (Tub) Time!

Here's a quick and easy sensory tub that is loads of fun: the party tub!  This one is guaranteed put you in a good mood!

I filled our sensory bin with gift bag filler (that shiny, Easter grass-type stuff you find near the wrapping paper in any store), shiny pom poms, and segments of colorful Mardi Gras beads. (Note: necklaces pose the threat of strangulation, so it's a good idea to go ahead and cut the necklaces into short pieces.)  Viola! Instant party in a bin!

L wasted no time digging into this tub! The gift bag filler makes an excellent crunching noise as it moves about the tub, and digging those pom poms out of the stuff is wonderful fine motor practice.

Who wouldn't want to party with this girl?!

Stickers are Awesome! Or, Sticker Play for Fine Motor Practice

One of L's very favorite things to do is play with stickers.  In addition to being a great art tool that has virtually no mess, stickers can be used to work on a wide variety of developing skills in kids.  Providing kids with stickers featuring shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and a large collection of various objects not only encourages those concepts, but also provides a fantastic opportunity for kids to practice language. But the best part is, stickers are AWESOME. Period. Stickers rock. They are tons of fun and with so many different types to choose from, they rarely get boring.


I encourage all of the above with L while we work with stickers, but another wonderful thing about sticker play is that it is great practice for fine motor skills. All of the precision required to pinch those flat little stickers goes a long way in helping prepare kids for the future task of gripping a pencil.  As a teacher, I know this to be true. As a mom, I just love it that my kid is having fun.

I like to offer L stickers featuring things she's already interested in, such as the dogs in this masterpiece.

I also encourage L to use markers or crayons along with her stickers for additional fine motor practice. This work of art featuring sea creatures was created after a trip to the aquarium.

A novel canvas is also a fun element to add to sticker play.  This piece of aluminum foil was anchored to L's art table for two days and as a result there was quite the eclectic party happening by the time we hung it up on her art wall.

Confession: I love sticker play as much as (maybe more than) the kiddo. I don't even mind when the back of my T-shirt becomes that novel canvas! Because stickers rock! Seriously!

Easy Peasy Fine Motor Games

Lately I have been all about home made games for L. They are wonderful for so many reasons: they're inexpensive, they help clear the house of clutter, and they are novel, so L is easily engaged and entertained.  Here are just a couple of fine motor games that I've recently introduced to the tot.

The first is super duper easy peasy.  I just took an empty peanut butter jar and filled it with one-inch sections of pipe cleaner.  Throw in a cheap magnet wand and this thing is a fun fine motor activity, in addition to being a feast for the senses. L and I talked about the different colors, we listened to the interesting sounds the pipe cleaners made as they moved around the jar, and we even shook the jar like a musical instrument.  When she gets older, this will be a great introduction to the science of magnets.

The next activity is this fun fill and spill activity.  I used a box cutter to cut out the front section of an empty juice bottle. I taped off the jagged edges with some cute duct tape and filled the hole with pom poms of various colors and sizes.

I left the bottle on L's art table that evening for her to discover the next morning.  It didn't take her long to figure out the concept of putting the poms through the hole at the top and retrieving them through the opening on the front.  This is an excellent way for kids to work on fine motor control, and of course we also discussed the colors and sizes of the pom poms.

Forty minutes later (forty minutes!) L was still going at it, and I promptly gathered the materials to make several more of these little gems for my classroom.  Now I'm constantly on the prowl for more containers to see what else we can come up with!

Fun with Pool Noodles

The summer seasonal aisle in department stores is really a treasure trove for people who spend their days with kids. You can only find certain items when they're "in season," making a container of sidewalk chalk feel like a Christmas present when you first see it at the beginning of the season. (I always stock up on those huge bottles of bubble solution that you can only seem to find in the summer. I mean, who doesn't love bubbles in November?) This year, an unexpected treasure has tickled my fancy: pool noodles! They are absolutely everywhere at this time of the year, and they can be used for so much more than whacking your brother in the head at the pool.  Observe:

Pool noodle lacing beads

Pool noodle lacing beads - a breeze to make and much easier for those little hands than traditional lacing beads. My dad actually helped me out with these.  He simply took a box cutter (don't you find that to be such a magical tool?) and cut a couple noodles into sections.  Clean up any little tatters and you're ready to lace away.  I used a length of clothesline for my string and taped up the ends with duct tape to avoid fraying and to give L a sturdy jumping off point.

Of course, after you chop up three whole pool noodles, you're going to have a few sections left over.  What to do with them?  We threw a bunch in the bath tub (they are meant for water play, after all) and the rest went into our art tub to be used as stampers for ink pads or paint.

Use pool noodle segments for stamping with ink or paint

I absolutely adore it when I can grab one inexpensive item at the grocery store and find multiple uses for it. L has been having a blast with these pool noodle pieces...and she didn't even have to whack anybody in the head!