Showing posts with label Homemade Toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homemade Toys. Show all posts

Sunday, September 8, 2013

PomPom Pusher: Toddler Busy Bag Idea

As we've been looking forward to a nice LONG car ride to the beach with the babies, I've been spending a lot of time putting together our our Busy Bag!  I'm going to be posting each activity that I included separately so it's not too overwhelming so stay tuned for a future compilation post covering everything plus my favorite honorable mentions.

First up with a fabulous little PomPom pusher inspired by Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers.  This is the first home-made toy I created for the Busy Bag and Brayden was quite pleased to test it out!

Home Made Toy Toddler Busy Bag Activity


Supplies Needed:
Plastic Tub with Lid (Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, or Butter work well)
Pom Poms - we used the ones with shiny filaments
Exacto Knife or Sewing Blade


What I did: This was pretty self explanatory - I removed the tub lid, put it on a cutting board, and sliced little shapes into the lid.  Since we did a variety of sizes, I needed to make some larger than others - but generally, shapes slightly smaller than your pompoms are ideal so baby pushes through the hole vs. just dropping them in.  For us, there was one larger hole that the babies preferred since it was a little larger which to me, defeats the purpose a bit.  All in all, they used all the holes and shapes to squish the pompoms into the tub.

Pros: Cheap, easy, and occupied the babies for quite some time!  Because of my (too) large hole, the babies enjoyed the added benefit of shaking the smaller puffs out of the tub once they were all in which worked out kinda well in the end.  This one is one of Brayden's favorite activities and especially likes the shiny pompoms for some extra interest and texture.

Cons: Younger toddlers could swallow pompoms without appropriate supervision. This may or may not be super for your kid while eating out.  We did end up with a few pompoms on the ground, but for us - it was well worth the effort to pick them up in the end since they were content using it for so long.


Home Made Toy Toddler Busy Bag Activity

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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Most Magical Homemade Toy for Toddlers

Magical Homemade Toy for Toddlers #Homemade #Ikea #Babies #Cheapfun


We took a visit to Ikea today, and it was there in the aisle that inspiration hit.

If your toddlers are like mine, they are absolutely fascinated with pulling out and putting back the straw in the top of their "take out" cups.  While this can be a bit frustrating as milk drips down your arm as you wrestle the cup from said toddler in the middle of the restaurant, properly redirected this fascination can make for an awesome fine motor practice.  And who am I kidding - something great to keep them occupied for a while.

Loosely inspired by an idea I saw at Full Hands Full Hearts, when I saw the ORDNING Kitchen Utensil Holder at Ikea I knew it would be perfect for practicing dexterity. 


Ikea Kitchen Organizer
We added a pair of SNÄRTIG Silk Flowers and a pack of SODA Drinking Straws  and we had something that kept their busy hands and minds occupied throughout our trip, and well into our afternoon at home.  What I really appreciated about these flowers is that while they are bendable, they have an excellent coating preventing sharp ends from becoming dangerous.  



And while it may look a little less glamorous in normal lighting, the true magic is that a few random items thrown together can occupy two toddlers for literally hours - all for around $10.  That's definitely magical in my book!





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