Button Snake Busy Bag -- ideas for sorting sizes "big vs little"

Button Snake for big vs. little sorting

Now that our youngest is almost two, he's ready to start working on life skills that Busy Bags can teach. The first time I heard of a Button Snake, I thought it was such a simple concept. After making one, I handed it to my son to play with it but he just stared at me....like "And what do I do now?"  Here's the original post from 2012 where I realized that learning to thread a button can be hard and require practice; jsut as learning how to use a spoon, how to put on a shirt, and how to brush your teeth!

The basic instructions are: Provide the child with the materials and let them practice threading the felt shapes on and off of the ribbon “snake”.

For really young users or beginners, it may be helpful for them to see what the finished goal looks like. Plus you may have to work with them to teach how to actually push in and pull through with each felt piece.

There are lots of different button snakes you can create. For our toddler to work on learning "big" versus "little", I came up with a series of larger shapes and smaller shapes to be threaded on two different lengths of ribbon. Plus I also like our version since there are buttons on each end. When I made the first snake with just one button and left a 'tail' (= just the end of the ribbon), my toddler kept pushing on the felt shape and then pulling right off the other end so we never got them put on altogether. With a button on each end, specifically a larger button, it helps the toddler know to put on and leave until ready to practice un-buttoning!

Button Snake Busy Bags are available for order as well all other busy bags on the Master List...just email with interest!

For different versions, ideas can be found on my Pinterest page "BusyBagCentral" or by clicking directly on the following links:

Sorting shapes by colors or by pattern! Found at - www.memorizingthemoments.com

Layering food! Found at - therapyfunzone.net

Neat version without the ribbon and just using crazy straws! Found at - www.powerfulmothering.com

Movin’ Mondays – Domino trains

(Photo of my toddler using the Instgram app…isn’t is cool?!?)

One of our favorite family game night games is Dominoes.  We have the Mexican Train domino version. The rules are for the players to start with seven dominoes in their hand with a double-number domino placed in the center.  Then each person places their matching number domino and you take turns matching up your dominoes which form a train. If you can’t match, then you draw one and put up a plastic train on your line so others can play.

But playing games with a preschooler and toddler doesn’t usually involve rule-following.  Our two year old adores the plastic miniature trains so he is usually focused on playing with those while our four year old likes to count the dots on the dominoes.  

It’s important to try to teach the basic concepts but we also allow for a lot of ‘interpretation’ of those rules as well…which often leads to other really fun versions of game play! 

What “Moving” activities do you have planned for the week?
(Feel free to comment below)

Movin’ Mondays – Colored Ice Cubes

A fun activity idea for our Monday morning post is about colored ice cubes!  I came across a preschooler activity last fall called Ice Boats (will post later) in which you fill an ice cube tray with water and let the toddler color the water and then add a stick to make a boat.  My boys LOVED the activity and we’ve made a few fun versions of the game.

Coloring the water can be done with a variety of mediums…here are some we have tried:
1. Food coloring – Have the adult drop food coloring into the water and let the child mix! After frozen, drop into a bowl of warm water to watch colors swirl as they melt.

2. Sprinkles – These usually dissolve in water and it’s fun to watch what colors come off of each sprinkle! After frozen, drop into a bowl of warm water or they can be added to a drink!
We have a few sprinkles leftover from Christmas that are green trees and red dots as well as some of the typical multi-colored balls.  The balls never fully dissolved and made the water sort of brown while the Christmas ones floated so this discovery lead to some good communication about color mixing and sinking/floating.

3. Kool aid – Pre-mix in a pitcher so you don’t get liquid on the counters which may stain.  We have a Pampered Chef large pitcher with built-in sifter to mix the liquid so my little preschoolers like to take turns with the mixing!  After frozen, you can put in a bowl of water or, for a special treat, add these to a cup of water or Sprite!

As shown in the photo, we mixed three different packets of koolaid with water; one at a time.  We only used about 1/3 of the water that the directions call for and then poured into a few slots in the ice cube tray.  Two of the packets were the same color just different shades (berry and pink lemonade) so we added a little bit of our blue mix to make purple.  It turned into a fun science lesson and, once frozen, will turn into a fun drink with our soda!

What’s your "Moving” activity to start the week?

Twist-Ties busy bag

For this Busy Bag, you take a handful of twist-ties and a handful of objects and present it to the child then let them play.  We don’t use twist-ties in my house because our trashcans have either a bag with a built-in drawstring or they are recycled bags from the grocery store.  But I’m a saver and collect these each time we empty a bag of bread.

The interest of this activity comes because the primary object (the ties) are new and different for the preschooler. We’ve included a variety of items for the twist-ties to be twisted around – a pencil, an empty spool, tupperware, and so on. We also included a few pipe cleaners for more twisting fun.

So far, my two year old is not sure what to think of the activity.  Since we don’t use twist-ties, he is having a hard time wrapping the ties around and keeping them around anything.  He is more interested in stuffing all the objects into the green tub for the moment but he has asked to play with this again today and left all the parts out, as if he wanted to play with it again later.  So we’ll have to make an effort to develop his twist-tying skills to make this more interesting. 

I know my four year old can do this type of twisting motion so I’ll post again once he plays with the activity to let you know if it’s a winner or a dud of an activity for him.

 

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Play-Doh = Play-Quiet

Play-doh.  Honestly, it annoys me.  If you squish it, you get gunk in your nails.  If you kneel in it, your pants get stains.  If you don’t keep it collected in an area, little bits end up in the weirdest places and dry to the floor. Yuck!

But in my house….play-doh means quietness. My preschoolers just love to use their fingers to create on their own. We have a ‘bag of playdoh’ that came with plastic scissors, several shape-cutters and a rolling pin as well as a few other items to push/shove/squish. This past week, playing this activity hit the spot!



Do you have any tips for playing with play-doh? And do you have any tips for getting it out of the carpet? *wink*

Tennis Balls & a ‘safe’ indoor game idea

What little child doesn’t love balls?!?  But in the winter, there are few opportunities to play with balls since we like to keep our pictures hung nicely on the walls. *wink*  So a game we came up with for indoor ball play is with tennis balls and a pop-up tube.  It’s wonderful way to burn off a little energy, build skills at hand-eye coordination, and keep the walls safe!


History ~~ About a year ago, my preschoolers we were bored playing indoors during the winter and I wanted some sort of game that got us up and moving.  We had recently purchased a bag of tennis balls and I thought my two boys would enjoy rolling them around our living room.  The younger of the two kids was only 1.5 years so it was very hard for him to keep the balls on the floor – he desperately wanted to throw them!  I tried to find a way to allow him to throw yet keep the balls contained and then thought about our nylon tube that goes to our pop-up tent…it was perfect!



We pulled it out and I told the boys to throw or roll the balls inside the length of the tube.  Not realizing that both boys had very bad aim, we STILL had balls flying!  Haha!  That’s when I realized what a great tool this activity could become at building hand-eye-coordination as well as finger strength while also motivating them to get up and move.


Skip forward to this winter ~ Both boys have better throwing skills now but we’ve moved the game into the hallway because those balls sometimes jump out of their excited little hands. Having the bag of balls is very handy because it allows the ball-thrower multiple opportunities to practice and we're not having to throw-stop-pickup-then start again.


Sometimes we play with one kid on each end and see who can get all their balls to the other receipent (since some balls stop mid-way in the tube) or we have both on one end of the tube and see who’s faster at rolling.  And it usually ends with at least one person rolling around inside the tube along with lots of giggling!



You can always modify the activity if you don’t have a pop-up tube like this and just use a closed-door hallway.  Plus, you can challenge the preschooler to knock over items at the end of the hall (empty soda bottles?) or put obstacles in the way of ball rolling or whatever else may fit your playtime.

Please share any thoughts on the activity and let us know how your little one(s) did with building their rolling/throwing skills!

‘Rainbow Stew’ preschooler play – clean, messy fun!

We attended “Messy Madness” last week – an event hosted by our local elementary schools and the Parents As Teachers program.  The focus of the activity stations at the event was for children to use their hands to play with ‘messy’ items.  Stations varied from a tub of white, slippery clumps (which was shreds of paper towels, ivory soap, and water) to painting with toilet plungers (put the round rubber head in a tray of paint then stamp paper) along with several more activities. 

They gave a handout of the recipes to recreate messy fun at home and we decided to make one of them this week: “Rainbow Stew”  The nice thing about this activity is that is uses everyday ingredients and is really non-messy since it’s contained in a bag!  Plus we had fun ‘painting’ with our fingers to see how our rainbow colors would mix.

Here are the instructions for this craft ~
“Rainbow Stew”
Ingredients:
4 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup cornstarch

Directions: 
Mix the water and sugar in a pot on the stove. Slowly add cornstarch so as to avoid lumps.  Cook over low heat until thick.
(The directions didn’t note what “Thick” meant so I just made sure to stir often and wait until it became about the consistency of runny playdoh…at least 20 minutes.)


Divide into thirds.  (We placed into large soup bowls.)

Add food coloring to each bowl; one color in each bowl.  Mix until desired color is achieved.
(We just did three primary colors – blue, yellow and red…which was pinkish. But you could mix and make a lot of color combos….hint: This is a good lesson for kids to learn about how colors mix and change! We let them choose the colors and how many drops that I placed in the bowls. Then we saw the cause 'n' effect of adding more drops.)


Put a small ball of each of the three colors into each ziploc bag.  This quantity should make 6 bags.

Let the child use their fingers to make color combinations by pushing, squeezing, and kneading.
Have fun!

Notes:
--We only used half of the ingredients called for and it was enough for 3 bags…one for each of my boys and one for me too so I get to have fun with them!
--Our 4 year old really liked using his fingers as a 'paint brush'...as if he was painting the inside of the bag. And our 2 year old just went to town squeezing...so much that most of the colors mixed and turned gray/brownish.  But they had fun!

The 3 P’s busy bag – Pinchers, Pom poms, Paper clips

The use of clothing pins or plastic tweezers (or for this bag, called “Pinchers”)….oooh, it’s such a fun item.  At least according to my 2-yr old.  He actually hasn’t said that per say; but once he finds the pinchers, he carries them all over the house and tries to use them on a variety of items.  So I think it’s safe to say that he enjoys using them.  And really, the hand motion of ‘pinching’ isn’t a skill used with many toys; at least not with toys like we have such as tractors and trains.

This busy bag contains a variety of pom poms and paper clips to be picked up and dropped into ____fill in the blank___ and is great for growth of finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination.  Plus the pom poms are just fun to play with!  The large pom poms measure over 1 inch wide down to much smaller pom poms.  And the paper clips are standard and jumbo sizes. Obviously the balls are easier to pickup with the pinchers than the paper clips but I’ve noticed that it’s a good combo -- one item may get frustrating for tiny fingers so they’ll resort to the easier items but will regularly go back to the harder to grasp items…all the while building skills.

We’ve used a variety of ‘trays’ for the items to be placed into.  Ice cube trays work nicely for the pom poms or jars or plastic tubs or glass cups.  We found also that this became a more time consuming task if the tray had more compartments because my little preschoolers wanted to fill all the ‘holes’ (versus 3 cups).  But I know this will be a repeat hit because of those silly little pinchers!

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