How to Be Awesome at Quarantine with Kids Part 3

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Previously, we talked about eight ingredients that we can use to help fill our days while we are social distancing at home.  Here are some specific activities for most of those categories to help get you started.  I tried to find easy, no or low prep options that you can do with whatever supplies you have at home.

Academics

• Flash Cards
• Sudoku
• Crossword Puzzles
• Workbooks
• Rhyming/Matching/Opposites Games
• Board Games like Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Solitare, Scrabble, etc.  My kids especially love the Richard Scary Busytown Game.

• Pick an animal, sport, historical figure, country, etc. that they are interested in and research it together
• Spelling Games
• Keep a Journal or Video Diary
• If you have a chalkboard, write spelling words or letters on there and let your child "paint" them off with a paintbrush and water.

Reading

As I mentioned before, reading with your child or setting aside time for them to read independently is probably the most important thing you could do during these next few weeks.  You can find free audiobooks on podcast apps or rent them from your library through Libby or Hoopla if available.  There are also some on Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube.  See my last post for some recommendations.

Gross Motor

• Masking/Painter's tape works well on hard floors.  Make shapes or lines and have them try to walk along the tape without "falling" off.
• Tape crepe paper streamers at angles through a hallway and have kids bob and weave their way through the "laser field."
• Simple songs like the Hokey Pokey or Father Abraham can get kids moving.  Or put on some music and have a dance party!
• Obstacle courses can be made indoor or outside.  Masking tape, pillows, and pool noodles can be used in surprising ways to create obstacles inside!
• "Heavy Work" chores can be a surprising source of gross motor activities.  Have small children pull all the cushions off the couch and help you vacuum it, then replace the cushions.  Help (and supervise) them climb on a step stool to dust the top of a shelf or table.  For older kids, vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing, etc. double as housework and gross motor!

Fine Motor for Young Children

• Have children paint some sticks from your yard and then when they dry, tie some ribbons on them.  Put them in a vase for a colorful centerpiece.
• Put different kinds of paper, TP tubes, ribbon, etc. in a box with a pair of scissors and let them practice cutting!  (Stay close and make sure to supervise this one!)
• Put sticker dots (or just draw them) on a page and have your child connect the dots with a pencil, crayon, or marker.  
• Lacing cards are available to print online, or you might have some from Target.
• Give them strips of fabric or ribbon to thread through the holes of a laundry basket, chain link fence, chicken wire, or anything else with holes big enough.  
• Playdough!  Have them roll snakes and then cut them with scissors, roll different size balls, make shapes or letters, etc.
• I have a whole Pinterest board full of more great ideas for fine motor activities here.
• Coloring books and mazes like this one are a hit with my four year old

• Both of my kids have really enjoyed these foam mosaic craft kits

Fine Motor for Older Children

• Rainbow looms and weaving looms are great for more advanced fine motor practice.

• Paracord bracelets, macrame, and friendship bracelets

• Simple cross stitch or sewing projects

• Adult coloring books or printable pages

• Spirographs

• Finger knitting

Art

• The more open ended the art, the better.  Put a bunch of supplies on the table and see where they go with it.
• Mirror painting or bathtub painting are fun alternatives to the usual.
• Magazine collages
• Stamps, foam stickers, or stencils
• Directed drawing activities give step by step instructions.  Do one with your child and hang them up together when you finish!
• Watercolor pencils are a fun and less messy way to paint.  You draw with them like regular colored pencils and then paint over them with water.  Or dip them in water and see how different they write!

• Kwik Stix are tempera paint sticks that make painting less messy and easier for young children to control.

Music

This one is easy to incorporate into other activities simultaneously.  

• Play classical music during art time or while coloring and knitting.  There are plenty of playlists on Pandora, Spotify, or YouTube.
• Play upbeat music for a dance party or while doing an obstacle course.
• Play name that tune with Disney songs or whatever your family listens to.
• Let your kids do their own cover of their favorite song and make a video.  
• Pull out some pots and pans, your old recorder, or whatever else you can turn into instruments and have a jam session.

Sensory

This wasn't one of my eight categories but it's worth listing because a lot of food items typically used for sensory boxes aren't available right now.  So here is a list of common sensory box fillers that aren't food.  I'm not saying go buy any of this specifically, but maybe it will give you new ideas. (Use caution and supervise young children to prevent eating or choking, of course.)

• Shredded paper (even better if you have a shredder and they can watch you make it)
• Marbles
• Bingo Dots
• Pompoms
• Buttons
• Flower petals or other nature items from your yard
• Cotton Balls
• Cut Up Straws (let them cut up the straws first!)
• Easter Grass
• Cut Up Foam
• Bird Seed
• Fake Snow
• Glass Gems (used as vase fillers in hobby stores and Dollar Tree)
• Aquarium Rocks
• Water Beads
• Soapy Water
• Poker Chips
• Rainbow Loom Bands
• Yarn, Ribbon, and Fabric Strips
• Feathers
• Beads

Housework

I know, I know.  Sometimes it's more work to get them to "help" than to just do the work itself.  Think of it more as an activity than actually helping. I'm pretty sure if you have older kids, you know what they can do, but here are some ideas for young children.

• Wash doorknobs and baseboards with baby wipes.
• Sweep with a small broom
• Dust with a feather duster or a dry washcloth
• Wipe down bathroom counters with a baby wipe
• Put toys on shelves
• Fold washcloths and match socks
• Set the table with help
• Wipe the table before or after a meal
• Put bib/pj's/clothes in hamper

I hope this gives you some ideas to get you started!  Please don't see this is as a list to work through from beginning to end.  I am just throwing out a whole bunch of ideas so that hopefully a few of them click with someone.

Next post, I will describe my themes for our "Spring Break Quarantine Camp."

Things that are Awesome: Young Toddler Edition

(This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.)

We are definitely in the "young toddler" phase right now.  Everything has to be done "Self!" but she is very clingy and wants me to watch her do everything and pick her up pretty frequently.  She is fascinated by lights and music and textures, but her attention span is still pretty short unless I'm right there with her to keep her engaged.  She asks for something and then immediately bursts into tears when I hand it to her.

It's crazy times.

Here are some products that are on the awesome list right now at my house.  They keep her attention, they encourage learning, or she just loves them.  I included affiliate links, but I am not otherwise compensated for these recommendations.  These are just things that I use and love.

Butterflies Dolls

Cricket's Grandma introduced me to these dolls, and they are awesome.  They are made in the spirit of an old timey rag doll, so they are soft.  No plastic faces to bang your kids in the head.  They have soft yarn hair and sweet clothes that you can take off (but they don't come off easily, so you don't have a mysteriously naked doll lying around.)

I love these dolls.  They are everything a doll should be, and nothing it shouldn't.  They don't talk, laugh, poop, walk, feed themselves, or do calculus.  They don't have an online "avatar" you can use play games with.  They aren't a hundred bucks a piece, like some other dolls.  They're not overly sexualized and they don't have unrealistic body types.  They are just a sweet, soft, cuddly doll.

Cricket loves them, too.  We have two of them, and she absolutely has to take one with her wherever we go.

The downside is, the only place you can buy these is at Cracker Barrel, so I don't have a link to give you, other that that press release.  Still, it's totally worth a drive to your local Cracker Barrel to pick one up.  Shoot, get two!  At $20 a piece, they're a steal!

Poke a Dot Book

This is such a cool book!  It's a big board book, and it has these plastic bubbles in the pages, and when you poke them, the turn inside out and make a "pop" sound!  Then you turn the page and poke it again to make it pop back! Basically, it's like a book that contains reusable bubble wrap.

Yeah.  Mind blowing.

Cricket things this is the most fun thing since they invented the swing.  Best of all, it's a counting book, using the song about the monkeys jumping on the bed, so we pop the buttons and practice our counting at the same time!

There are apparently a couple of other books in this series, so I'm putting those on the wishlist for sure.

Plan Toys

    

Cricket's Aunt Mallary got her these two, and I don't know who loves them more, me or her.  First of all, they are the most well-made toys ever.  They are made with no chemicals, and they use organic wood, soy-based inks, non-toxic glues, and a whole bunch of other awesome kid-friendly stuff.  The company uses sustainable manufacturing practices, which makes moms happy, too.

But the best part is the toys themselves.  They are fun and open-ended, and they are so dang cute, you'll want to play with them, too!  The flower toy has a little seed you plant in the pot, and little tiny garden sheers!  The veggies have Velcro to hold the two sides together so you can "cut" them with the little wooden knife!  Precious!

These are toys that grow with kids, and as an educator, I see lots of potential in them for learning as she gets older.

Melissa and Doug Puzzles

These might be the most-used items in Cricket's room, especially the alphabet puzzle.  They are bright colors, and the pieces have pegs, so they are easy for tiny hands to hold onto.  They have pictures underneath the pieces, too, for bonus teaching and fun!  I get so excited watching Cricket do these puzzles, knowing she is learning vocabulary, beginning literacy awareness, and practicing spacial skills all at the same time!  And she just thinks she is having a blast!

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Tea Set

Cricket's Gigi got this for her recently, and she just ADORES it.  I don't usually go in for super girly, overly pink things, so I wouldn't necessarily have picked it out for her, but it's great.  It has three settings, one of which helps teach kids to say please and thank you, which is a kind of unique thing for a toy.  I mean, lots of toys teach ABC's or like, colors, but manners?  That's cool.  Another setting plays music, but Cricket's favorite setting is the one that just makes the sounds of pouring water when she tips it over.  It's cute.

The set also comes with a plate and some little cookies that teach shape recognition and sorting, as an added bonus.

Fisher Price Nativity

You guys, I have been waiting and waiting to get this!  I saw it last Christmas but decided to hold off on it until Cricket was a little older, but now I got it!  It's just awesome.  It's a ton of figures, and they really thought of all the details.  And the star lights up and plays, "Away in a Manger."

I will say though, the link above doesn't have the full set.  As far as I know, you can only get the full set, with the shepherds and everything, at Walmart.  Last year they were in the stores, but this year I had to order mine online.  Otherwise, you have to order the basic set and then order the shepherds separately, which is crazy expensive.  Why would they not just put that all together?

But still, it's awesome.  My sister and I played with our (porcelain) nativity set every year when we were kids, and if we'd had one that was specifically built for us, it would have been our favorite toy.

Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head

Cricket's Aunt and Uncle introduced her to this classic when we were in Portland.  She studied it carefully and figured out how to put the pieces in the holes on her own, which she was very proud of.  She loves putting the pieces in and out of the little trap door, too.  There are tons of sets, in basically any theme you can imagine, so you are sure to find something that will make you smile as well.  (Darth Tater, anyone?)

So those are the most popular toys in our world right now.  If you have a toddler, or friends or family with a toddler, any of these would make great Christmas gifts!  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some playing to do...

For more awesome gift ideas for young children, check out these other posts:

Awesome Music for Babies and Toddlers

Awesome Books for Babies and Toddlers

Things that are Awesome:  Summer Baby Edition

How to Be Awesome at Sensory Play: Fall Sensory Box

This sensory box kind of happened in stages.  First, I did a box just filled with popcorn kernels.  I put some measuring cups, bowls, scoops, and whatever else is in her "kitchen basket" to play with, and she absolutely loved it!  She loved the texture of the popcorn, and the way it poured.  

I like that it's a little bigger than rice, so it doesn't bounce around all over the place quite as much!

She loved pouring it, scooping it, stirring it, and just putting her hands in it!

This by itself was a big hit and kept her occupied for a long time.

Then, a few days ago, I got the idea to go gather a bunch of acorns from our huge white oak tree in our backyard and use them for a sensory box.  Gathering the acorns was a sensory activity in and of itself, and Cricket loved hunting for them, finding their "hats," and putting them in the bag.

She lost interest before we had enough to fill the whole box, though, so I decided to just add them to the popcorn and make it a "fall sensory box."  I also put in some Indian corn I had gotten for her to play with, and we gathered a few leaves from the backyard as well.

She loved it!  She played with it for a long time.  She loved playing with the popcorn again, but she also loved the different texture of the acorns, and she really liked the Indian corn.

At first, I didn't really include any cups or scoops, but she quickly decided she needed some.  She would say, "another cup" and get up and get one from her kitchen basket. 

By the time she was finished, she had pretty much all her tools out.  I loved that she laid out her measuring spoons and placed a few corn kernels in each spoon!

I used this time as a chance to teach her the concept of "big and little."  The acorns were big and the corn kernels were little.  There were big and little leaves, too.  By the end of our play time, she had it down!

Even after she was finished with the box, she kept the leaves and played with them some more.  She liked throwing them in the air and watching how they fell.

This was a great sensory activity for fall.  I know she will be excited to play with it again and again!

How to Be Awesome at Sensory Play: Flower Bin

After my hospital stay, a sweet friend brought me a bouquet of cut flowers.  They were so pretty, and they lasted for over two weeks, which I thought was pretty impressive!  I noticed they were starting to droop the other day, so I thought that before I threw them away, I would give Cricket a chance to enjoy them.

I cut them off right below the flower so the stems were just an inch or two long, and I pulled the petals off a few of them.  I put them in the little plastic box I keep for sensory boxes and waited for Cricket to explore!

She had so much fun!  She had never really gotten to play with flowers hands-on before.  Usually I'm telling her to be gentle and just smell it, so it was great to let her explore them.  She played with it for about thirty minutes.  We talked about parts of the flower and the colors she saw.

She loved to smell the flowers over and over.

She would take them in and out of the box.

She liked dropping the petals from her fingers.

Her favorite part was pulling the carnation petals out and sticking her fingers in the empty pods.

Eventually, she started throwing it all like confetti.

It was the loveliest and sweetest smelling mess I've ever had to clean up in my kitchen.

Now you try it! 

More Awesome Sensory Play

Here is a roundup of a bunch of little sensory activities we've done lately.

Gardening

Our library had an activity early in the summer where the kids could come help plant the flower bed around the building.  It was really cute.  They just had tons of flowers, plants, and shovels and the kids could plant them anywhere in the beds they wanted.

This was our first really hot summer outing, and Cricket was not all that happy about it.  She did enjoy playing with the shovel and the tag on the flower, and she pulled one of the flowers out of the ground three times before I finally moved her!

This was also the day I realized I needed to get some cheap shoes that I didn't mind her getting muddy.  Thank goodness for consignment sales!

Water Box

Before we got a pool or a water table, I filled a big Tupperware box with water for her to play in.  I put in a few bath toys and gave her the little watering can I'd gotten for her when we started our garden.

She had a great time.  She loves playing with water in any form.

Of course, eventually it all got poured out.  Just prepare yourself that this is going to happen.

Red Sensory Bin

Our latest sensory bin is focused on the color red.  I picked red because it is the first color in the spectrum and I am type-A.  Also, it was the only color she had said up to that point.

I basically just went through her room and got everything red I could find.

I even had a red basket from the Dollar Tree!  The little strawberry amigurumi from her Grandma was extra cute, too.  I also put in some linking rings, blocks, a bowl, a ball, a sweater, a paint chip card, and some miscellaneous pieces from different toys.

Honestly, at 15 months, Cricket was not really very into this one.  She explored it a little bit, but she lost interest quickly.  Still, it's something to remember and revisit when she's learning her colors later on.

Food Products

It's become a running joke with us now that I just give Cricket trash to play with.  Honestly, though, natural food makes great sensory material!  Corn husks and corn silk were fascinating to her.

One afternoon, I was chopping green peppers on the porch while she played and she asked to see some.  I gave her to tops that I had cut out and she played with them for a long time!  She loved the way the seeds fell off.  I didn't get any pictures of her playing with them, but I did get pictures of the aftermath on my porch!  The birds had a great time with all those seeds!

She loves it when I snap beans or shell peas.  She likes to put the ends of the beans in and out of the bowl.

Even the tops of celery stalks are endlessly entertaining for a toddler!

Paper Textures

I gathered as many different kinds of paper and sheets of material as I could find.  I used construction paper, printer paper, wax paper, tin foil, saran wrap, cardboard, card stock, and parchment paper.  (Of course, supervise at all times, as these are not all child-safe.)

She explored them and crumpled some of them up when I showed her how.

She definitely had some materials that she preferred and some she barely touched.  We talked about words to describe the different feelings and sounds they made.  I will probably do this one again because I feel like she would enjoy this activity more in a few months, too.

Contact Paper Window

This was a big hit.  We went for a walk in the back yard and gathered some natural objects that we could use.  I tried to focus on small, light things like grass, leaves, and flowers.  Then we came inside and I used masking tape to cover one section of our door with contact paper, sticky side out.

I showed her how to put the objects onto the window, and she was fascinated.  She liked taking them off and then giving them to me to put on again.  This would be a great one to do again in the fall when the leaves turn!

I hope this gives you some new ideas to try with your little one.  I'm sure I'll have more soon!