Easy Holiday Fun for Preschoolers

We're coming down to the wire -- have you finished all of your holiday prep yet?

Here's an idea that will keep the kids out of your hair for hours and costs next to nothing!

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Gv came up with this activity last year.

I thought it was just some brief stage she was in, but it's continued to last the past twelve months and she's gone completely nuts with it leading up to Christmas.

What is it that has kept her so busy these past few weeks?

Playing "presents."

Old Tracks, New Tricks by Jessica Petersen

Just about every child I know has had a set of wooden train tracks at some time or another.

These can be loads of fun to play with initially, but as you'll see in this new book, the play possibilities can be endless for years to come!

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I received a free copy of this product from Innovation Press in exchange for writing a review.  All opinions are my own.

We don't have a set of wooden train tracks at our house, but Gv's friends do and she loves playing with them every week when we visit.

So when this colorful book showed up for review, we knew we'd have to share the fun with her buddies (as well as have the opportunity to explore the book's ideas with their tracks!)

Old Tracks, New Tricks

31 Games - Candyland

Is your 3-year-old the youngest of the family, or are all the kids your child plays with close to that same age?  If so, then you know how difficult it can be to find ways for them to all be involved in the fun and games - so many choices are just too advanced for this age.

But now, you'll have a list of 31 unique games that even a 3-year-old can join in with.  A few of these ideas will be best for the preschool set, but most will work for a wide range of ages!

Click on over here to see the full list, but read on for this great game idea!

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Was this your first board game?  I'm pretty sure it was mine and it was Gv's, as well - we gave it to her for Christmas last year!

Super-simple to play, if your child can count to two and can tell blue from yellow, then he or she can do this game.

It's the perfect introduction for skills like moving around a board, taking turns, and drawing & replacing cards from a pile - plus, the board is covered with colorful candy!

What could be more fun that candy, right?

I will point out, however, that the current, updated version of the board is not as easy to navigate as the original.  I'd read about this when ordering Gv's game last year, but at the time, could only find people selling their originals on eBay for close to a bazillion dollars and that just wasn't going to fly for us.

However, I have just noticed that Amazon is selling a 65th anniversary edition for only a couple of dollars more than the updated one, and I totally suggest paying a bit more for this one!

Besides having a cleaner, less chaotic background, this special edition has the original color squares, which are much more obvious to travel around than the more modern game.

Whichever version you choose, this game will be sure to delight your budding board-gamers!

Candyland

Candyland

Players:  2-4

Ages:  3 +

Place:  somewhere you can set the game board up easily

Equipment:  this board game (or this one)

How to play:  Since this is a board game, the directions are included on the box, but it's a basic race-to-the-finish game where each player is trying to get his or her gingerbread man to the castle first.

When it's your turn, you draw a card displaying either one or two squares of a particular color and then you move your piece "that many" color squares.

There are a couple of surprises along the way (special cards taking you to specific spots on the board or shortcuts), but overall, it's a fairly quick and easy game to play.




Have you introduced your child to this classic yet?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Looking for other fun ideas of things to do with your little one?  Check out my Latticed Learning page here!

This post is part of the write31days challenge!

Thrifty Toys That Just Keep Going

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After writing my 24 Thrifty Toys for a 2‐Year‐Old post the other day, I figured it was worth checking in with some of the previous thrifty toy post selections to see which ones were still huge hits and going strong, even though Gv is older now.

She's moved on from some of the items featured earlier, but I was surprised at how many are still holding her interest, even up to a year later!

 From the 10 Month thrifty toys post:

1. Old magazines (which are really just free grocery magazines that come in the mail)
2. Cheese container (except I replaced the blocks with a set of large dice, since she's been into building things with the blocks lately)
3. Tissue box stuffed with scarves (although now I've relocated the scarves into an old wipes container, to make it more challenging for her)

From the 13 Month thrifty toys post:

1. Sticks & rocks
2. Towels & washcloths
   
3. Greens container
4. Zippered pencil case & change purse (Whoops, I'd forgotten I'd already shared these when I wrote the 24 Toys post.  Oh well, they're that good and deserve to be shared twice!)
5.  Headlamp (although now she'll turn it on the red setting, hold it up to a dresser drawer or wall, and say, "Whooo!  Owl!" for excitement)

And everything from the 20 Month thrifty toys post:

Have you been surprised at some of the toys that have had real staying power around your house?  I'd love to hear - leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered right to your inbox.



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24 Thrifty Toys for a 2‐Year‐Old

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Disclaimer:  We do not let Gv play with these toys unattended and I am not making any claims about the safety of these ideas.  Use your best judgement when searching your own house for cheap baby playthings. 

When I wrote the last thrifty toys post only a few months ago, I had more than 20 ideas to choose from.  That meant I already had a head start on my next installment and boy, was I glad, because gee whiz, Gv just keeps getting older and that means coming up with even more ideas than the previous time!  

Although many of the 13‐month and 10‐month toys are still going strong, Gv's interests continue to expand, which means I'm forever exploring the house in search of new discoveries for her to tinker with.

Threading Noodler

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I am always on the lookout for things I can repurpose and use to create new thrifty toys for Gv (see posts here, here, and here for more ideas), but usually I find my supplies from stuff already lying around the house.  But last fall I came across an idea that used pool noodles to practice patterning and fine motor skills and the idea stuck.

I couldn't remember where I'd seen it or the details behind making it, but I knew it wasn't a complicated idea and I'd be able to figure it all out when the dollar store started stocking pool noodles again in the spring.

To start with, I bought 3 different‐colored pool noodles and a 10‐pack of Wiffle golf balls from the dollar store.  I used a shoelace that I'd already had around the house, although it had originally come in an 8‐pack from the dollar store.

I knew I wanted to go ahead and make a few extras of this toy to have on hand for birthday gifts (like these and these), and I was able to make 4 sets total from that one collection of supplies.

For each set, I cut 4 rings out of each color of pool noodle in both 1" and 2" widths.  I used a plain old bread knife to cut them, which worked great.  Next, I threaded a Wiffle ball with a shoelace and tied a knot (really several knots, one on top of the other) on either side.  I tucked the stub of the shoelace on the knot end back through its hole, just to keep it from flopping around and being all pokey: 

That was the hard part (and it wasn't hard, at all!) because all that was left was to thread the noodle pieces onto the shoelace.  I went with an ABC pattern, alternating the wide and narrow pieces:

I'd cut both wide and narrow pieces to create two "levels" of this toy.  Gv's little fingers can easily thread the narrow pieces right now, but the wide pieces present her with a bit of a challenge ‐ which is a good thing in terms of helping to develop her fine motor skills.

At the moment, Gv just threads the noodle pieces on willy‐nilly, but as time goes on, she'll be able to work on all sorts of other patterns (you'll have tons of possibilities for different patterns if you keep all the noodle pieces for yourself.)

Store everything in a small bucket, basket, or box (which you can also get from the dollar store, if you don't have something on hand already).  As a bonus, your child can dump everything out and even stack the pieces like blocks, when not lacing them onto the shoelace.

You can't beat this for a great thrifty toy idea ‐ you'll wind up with several sets that cost less than a dollar a piece.  Do you prefer homemade toys, or store‐bought?  I'd love to hear - leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Toddler‐Made St. Patrick's Day Decorations & Activities

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St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  It's around the same time as my birthday, my favorite color is green, and as I've said before, I absolutely love rainbows.

20 Thrifty Toys for a 20-Month-Old

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Disclaimer:  We do not let Gv play with these toys unattended and I am not making any claims about the safety of these ideas.  Use your best judgement when searching your own house for cheap baby playthings. 

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time ‐ we're constantly re‐purposing things around the house to use as toys and it's been seven months since I last shared these types of thrifty ideas.  I actually have more than 20 toy ideas at the moment, but I'm saving the extras for the next thrifty toy installment ‐ because gosh, each month Gv keeps getting older and that means coming up with even more toy ideas than the previous time!  

And I can't believe she's twice as old as when I wrote the first thrifty toys post!

There is also at least one object that has been reincarnated since that first post ‐ can you figure out which one it is?

So, here are twenty of Gv's current favorite time‐occupiers, most of which were completely FREE:

Popsicle Sticks

I have a slew of these left over from my classroom (woo‐hoo ‐ free!) and I continue to come up with new ideas for ways to use them all the time.  I'm sure I'll eventually create an entire post of ideas focusing on these indispensable wooden sticks, but until then, here are three:

The perfect rhyme for this activity?  "1, 2, Buckle My Shoe," of course!

Grab a container, hand your child some Popsicle sticks, and then sit back and watch.  Seriously, you wouldn't think they would be that exciting, but Gv manages to come up with new things to do with them just about every day.  (Her latest game?  Placing a stick along the top of each book in the bookshelf next to the box)  

Two other ideas, that are geared a bit more towards the pre‐school crowd, are:

Alphabet Sticks
and
Puzzle Sticks

Paper Clips 

I posted this photo on Facebook one day and poor Grammy got all concerned (bless her heart), but Gv was not at all interested in anything dangerous (like putting them in her mouth) and I was right there actively watching her the entire time (she's literally sitting right in front of me, on my desk).  

Obviously if your toddler wants to gnaw on them ‐ or you're thinking of handing over a box of clips while you work on dinner, then this would not be an appropriate activity for your child to engage in at the moment...

In and out, in and out of the container!

Poker Chips 

This gal's already a whiz with the poker chips, and doesn't shuffle her cards, or pull her hair, or flick her teeth, either.  (Can you guess the movie reference?  It's a fun one.)

To be honest, I will probably come up with a whole post about these little plastic discs someday, but at the moment, this is Gv's favorite way to play with them.  Their ridged edges are so interesting for little fingers to explore, and the colorful circles make the most wonderful sound when rubbed together...

These chips are loads of fun all by themselves, but if you grab an old wipes container, they become even more exciting ‐ they make such a satisfying plinking sound when dropped through the hole!

Popcorn Box 

This was a fun find at the local dollar store and even though it made a great Halloween costume, it made an even better toy afterwards:

$1 for a Halloween costume and hours of fun crawling through it afterwards?  Yes, please!

Large Straw/Exercise Ball Tube

Grammy always travels with water in plastic cups that have these great giant straws in them.  Did you know that giant straws make an awesome musical instrument?  

Did you also know that those big exercise balls sometimes come with even longer and larger straws to inflate them with?

Oh, the symphonies she can create with this thing...and just look at those cheeks all puffed out, doing all that work!

Cubes 

Now, I know these math manipulative cubes are not exactly something everyone has just laying around the house, but we've got a box full of them over here.  Someday we'll use them for their intended purpose, but at the moment they are great fun to pop and un‐pop over and over and over...

My prediction is that Gv will next discover how to build all sorts of things out of these cubes, since that's all my former students ever wanted to do with them when they were supposed to be working on their math...

Colander & Pipe Cleaners 

I'd seen this idea somewhere before (Pinterest, I'm sure), but I didn't like how long the pipe cleaners usually were and also wanted Gv to work on more precise fine motor skills when she used them.  So, I took one pipe cleaner of each color (rainbow colors, of course) and cut them into fourths.  We had this extra colander in the kitchen, but you can also find them at the dollar store.  

There are holes of different sizes around the edges and Gv always likes choosing how to arrange the colorful fuzzy sticks when she plays with this toy each day.  Sometimes she'll group them all together, sometimes she'll scatter them all around, and sometimes she's just not interested in poking them into the holes at all, but will flip the colander over and fill the bowl of it with the pipe cleaners, instead.

Whenever she puts them back even slightly out of "order," I have to go back and re
‐create the rainbow.  I know, I have issues...

Swiffer

G and I both had Swiffers when we got married, but we didn't ever use either one of them since we had my favorite cleaning tool ever.  

Why didn't we get rid of the silly things, then?  Who knows, but all you have to do is take out one or two of the handle sections and it makes a fabulous toy.  You don't have to cover the bottom with a fancy Swiffer cloth, either.  A paper towel or even a washcloth works just as well.

An extra bonus with this toy is that your child will be cleaning your floors for you and be none the wiser!

Distracted during her Swiffer session...

Broom From the $ Store

Gv had so much fun with the Swiffer, we decided to be all Montessori and get her a little broom, too.

But why pay some ridiculous amount of money for a kid‐size broom, when you can just grab one at the dollar store, saw off its end, and replace the plastic tip to create a smaller version yourself?

She's still totally distracted by something.  I blame G.  Those puzzle pieces and cards aren't going to sweep up themselves, Missy!

Dice in Cheese Shaker 

I had these large dice in my boxes of classroom stuff and thought they might be fun for Gv to play with.  I stuck them in this big cheese shaker and Gv spends a ton of time both shaking it for the noise and also shaking out the dice from the pour spout, only to plunk them back in again.

I don't know that I'd trust regular dice yet at this age, but they could certainly be used if you weren't worried about your child choking on them.

Whistle 

This toy came about on our summer camping trip. You should always carry a whistle for safety when you go out hiking and Gv discovered it was great fun to blow on one back at camp while we were preparing dinner (which I'm sure our campground neighbors really appreciated...)

Her cousins (who also camped in those same mountains, just a week after we returned) took a fun duck‐boat tour at Stone Mountain on their way back home.  Each family member received a duck whistle to take home and so of course they shared one with Gv.

This is the duck whistle, not the regular whistle.  I was too lazy to go out to the garage to retrieve the regular whistle from the camping supplies box.  Plus, I'm pretty sure you know what a regular whistle looks like, anyway!

  Whistles are fun to blow and also provide great speaking skills practice for a toddler learning to blow into one.

Toot!  Toot!

Scarf 

Try to gather scarves made out of different materials.  Sheer scarves are fun to look through, while thicker, knit scarves make for lots of dress‐up fun.

Gv can have a good old time just wrapping a scarf around her neck
‐ working on creating a more trendy style, I guess.

Sheer scarves are especially fun to play with
‐ we have three in the primary colors, which means we'll be able to use them for color wheel discussions in the future.

And please, be smart with the whole scarf thing.  Don't let your child play with one if you're not pretty much staring at him or her the entire time!

Underwear/Clothes 

Speaking of dressing up, Gv loves to open up her drawers and work on putting on her shirts, shoes, socks, pants and shorts all by herself.  This really develops her fine motor skills and gives her lots of practice getting dressed independently.

She also loves to open up my drawers and pull out my ‐ ahem ‐ drawers.  She can busy herself for the longest time, trying to see how many pairs of my underwear she can slip over her neck.

You might not be up for this exploration if you have fancy underthings, but that's definitely not the case around here, so she can just play away!

This shot's a bit blurry because there's this whole dance that goes along with the process...it's really quite entertaining.

Old Cell Phone  

Gv has had this toy for the longest time ‐ way before that first toy post I wrote ‐ but I just kept forgetting to share it.  Despite the fact that we only use our phones on speaker (no radiation near our brains!), she will talk for the longest time with the phone plastered to her ear.  

She mainly calls Daddy and it's so fun to listen to her "conversations" as she tells him all about her day...

This girl has so much to say!  Oh, and we took the battery out of the phone, too.  No need to have her carrying that hazardous product around!

Regular Corded Phone 

Along that same train of thought, a regular old corded phone is pretty darn fun, too.  The buttons are more exciting to push and it's easier to hold the phone on your ear with your shoulder and then of course there's all that cord‐twirling you can do...

She's got more to share with Daddy about what's happening around here today!

Bucket 

A bucket is like a cardboard box.  There's no limit to the number of activities your child will come up with using it for.  Hand your toddler a bucket and something ‐ anything ‐ to put in it and the minutes will fly by as the container is filled up and emptied.  

Fill it up and empty it.  Fill it up and empty it. Fill it up.  And empty it. 

Plus, it makes a pretty cool hat, too:

Greens Box for Card Monster 

We have about fifty bajillion of these plastic boxes (that our organic greens come in) around the house (I should write a post on all the ways we use them), so I was excited to come up with a new way to put them into action. 

Back when G taught Theory of Knowledge for an IB program, he'd use this "Card Monster" game to expand the critical thinking skills of his students.

I totally stole the idea and used it with my gifted second graders, and will definitely play the same game with Gv when she gets a bit older.  Until then, we're coming up with a new version of Card Monster and just "feeding" the box with cards.

This is another one of those toys that will take up a ton of time ‐ Gv will usually fill the whole box up (One. Card. At. A. Time.), then crack open the lid, dump out the innards, and repeat the whole process once or twice.

To make this, I just stabbed a pair of scissors through the box label on top, then cut out a narrow slot to feed the cards through.  I peeled off the label to get a white writing surface, then drew on the monster eyes and mouth with marker.  Mmmmm...a ten of clubs!  Nom nom nom nom

A Deck of Cards

You'll want some of these for the above mentioned Card Monster game, but you'll also find that a deck of cards can be loads of fun all by itself.  Gv and I will pass the cards back and forth using our mouths (which develops those facial muscles for better speech skills) and she also loves to just rifle through the stack or even to just put them in a pile, one at a time.

I used to use regular old decks of cards for math centers in my classroom
‐ which is what we use for the Card Monster box, but I also have these cute writing prompt picture cards that we'll play with, just by themselves.

Gloves  

Gloves are probably not an exciting toy for kids living in any other state besides ours, but for a girl living in Florida, they can be quite exotic.

Luckily, I have approximately 6,436 pairs of magical stretchy gloves from coaching ice skating, so that means I can easily spare one or two for Gv to play with.

These little buggers can be quite challenging to put on, so this becomes another great time‐filling activity that's really quiet for your little one to work on.

Unless your child happens to grunt loudly in frustration when two fingers go into the same hole...

Success!  Now to run around the backyard wildly flapping her purple jazz hands everywhere...

Felt Lacer

I'll be honest.  This toy probably gets played with the least out off all 20 that I've mentioned in this post.  

While not difficult to make, this toy also took the most time to create.  Occasionally Gv will pull it out and mess with it for a while, but I think she'd just rather practice lacing or buttoning on real clothes.  Or maybe she just needs to grow into this one...

I just took an old shoelace, knotted one end, then cut slits through random scraps of felt and showed Gv how to feed the lace through them.

So there you have it, 20 new thrifty toys for your toddler.  We'll see how long it takes before I get the next post up for another round of up‐cycled treasures.

Did you figure out which item went through a makeover to become  a new 2.0 version?  Which idea is your favorite?  I'd love to hear!  Leave a comment here, or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com. 

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