Sticky wall

The girls love this craft and it's a good way to use up all of those odds and ends you might have lying around from past craft activities.

All you need is some contact (preferably clear, but atleast transparent!), Blutak, scissors and an assortment of craft items (cotton balls, buttons, sequins, paper cut outs, pom poms, feathers, paddle pop sticks, etc)

   

Cut the contact into large squares, and Blutak it (sticky side out) to the wall within your child's reach. Peel off the paper backing and let them decorate it with the odds and ends you have available.

I always talk to the girls and ask them questions about what sort of items they're using (for example "What colour is the circle?", "The feather feels soft", "Can you find a triangle?") and I really find this sort of interaction helps out in other situations too. Ladybug is very descriptive and relates things she encounters with things she has experienced before - during this particular activity she learnt what a 'love heart' was and now points them out to us all the time!

       

   
Once your child has finished place another square of contact on top of the masterpiece to preserve all the little pieces and to keep everything else sticking to it!

 

 

Ladybug and Petal enjoy this activity which seems to be different every time depending on what we have handy around the house. Interestingly, Petal (4) uses this activity to make a picture whereas Ladybug (23mnths) uses this activity to match up the similar items she can find in the container.

     

When the weather is nice we sometimes do this activity on the other the outside of the house and the girls find things in the backyard to stick on the contact (leaves, twigs, grass, dirt, seeds, etc - they like to see what will stick) rather than ones I provide.

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Colour matching

Here is an easy to make colour matching game using items you're likely to have laying around the house.

All you need is some coloured paper, coloured textas, an egg carton, paddle pop sticks (coloured work well, but they don't have to be!), glue (I used super glue) and I also used a laminator.

First draw flowers on your coloured paper:

Then colour in the bottom of an egg carton (obviously using the same coloured textas as the paper you have) then use a knife to cut slits in the middle of each colour - not too big otherwise the paddle pop stick wont stay up!

Cut out the flowers, then laminate (you don't have to laminate them if you don't have a laminator, but it will prolong the life of your flowers!)

Use super glue to attach the flowers to the paddle pop sticks (I used super glue - I find craft glue and kids glue don't hold strong enough for rough little hands!)

Match the flowers and to the coloured patches on the egg carton:

Ladybug loved trying to match the colours. She would hold a flower up to each colour and say "Match? Noooo", "Match? Noooo" until she found the correct colours and say "Match? Yes!"

Sometimes she needed some help getting the paddle pop stick into the hole but good practise for her fine motor skills:

She also practised naming her colours, apparently this one is "Yellow green"

And she also practised her counting:

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Pom pom sorting

So, I'm not the only one who has this happen when I try to cook?

Emptying out of the cupboards

Or this?

Emptying out of the tissue box

It happens to us all, right!? (please say yes!) Well the easiest way to keep my little one entertained is to give her some things to 'cook' herself. I keep a ziplock bag full of pom poms in the kitchen cupboard right for these moments (and trust me, you want them in a ziplock bag!)
If she wants something to do while I get dinner on, then all I need to do is take out some pots and pans and wooden spoons and she can cook her own little masterpiece!

Mixing and stirring with wooden spoons and whisks are her fave, but you could also use scoops, tongs, jugs, etc (NOTE: If your child likes to mouth things you might want to keep an eye on them the first time they use pom poms to 'cook'!)

When we do this activity together we also spend time talking about the colours (she remembered "yellow" from the other day!) and sort them out using muffin trays (I've also seen people use ice cube trays or egg cartons)

At 16 months she doesn't do this herself yet, we talk about each colour and sort them out together

She also spends time practicing her fine motor skills by pushing pom poms into a container. I used an empty punnet of strawberries and cut a cross on the lid. She loves to push them all in then open it up and tip them all out again.

  

This activity used to be one of my Ladybugs favourites but she is beginning to grow out of it now and doesn't ask to do it as much, so I thought I had better get a post done quick before she moves on to new things with it... As she gets older we will begin doing trickier activities like creating patterns and sequences:

You could use pom poms to create patterns and ask your child to follow the sequence

Or using them as counters like this

There are many other variations of this activity you could try to mix things up a bit. Check out these blogs for a bit of inspiration:

Toddler pom pom push by Learn with Play at Home 

Surprise pom pom sorting by Toddler Approved

Sorting colored pom poms with tongs by Tot School

Easy peasy travel game by Just For Daisy

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