Fun activities for toddlers/preschoolers?

[bethanyjoy]

Wondering if anybody wanted to brainstorm some fun activities? Share recipes for playdough or whatever?


We did these yesterday:
Squishy Bags

3 cups water
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Food colouring
Ziploc bags
Duct tape (optional)

Bring water to a boil. In a separate bowl or cup combine cornstarch with a small amount of cold water to make a paste. Stir paste into boiling water. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until nice and thick. Remove from heat, let cool, add food colouring. When completely cool, pour into ziploc bags, remove most of the excess air, seal and re-enforce seal with duct tape. (You can skip this if you have a death wish for your carpet. )

My boys were absolutely FASCINATED with these...played with them all afternoon. If you want to increase the sensory experience, make up some other bags with dry rice, one with cotton balls, etc.

Other variations: make ice cubes and add a couple drops of food colouring to each. Put one or more in a ziploc bag, seal as above...it's fun to watch the colours melt and mix. Or, for short-lived squishy bags, use toothpaste, shaving cream, hair gel, etc...no cooking required.

[keegans_mommy]

Sounds like fun! I would love to make one of those clear tubes where there are colored beads/rice or something tiny like that and you put small toys and such in there and make a list of things to find in there. Kind of a "where's waldo" type of thing. KWIM?

My kids LOVE to bake in the kitchen, everybody down to Nate, our 2 year old. Cookies are excellent and a wonderful learning experience! And the best part is they can eat their creations!

Another thing my kids LOVE is using plain chalk and they rub a piece of chalk on the sidewalk down into a fine powder and add a bit of water then they step in it or put their hands in it and walk around or hand prints and it dries so quickly but it dries into fun prints all over the place! Best part is, it rinses right off

Also, if you we are talking toddlers, let them do finger paints with pudding

[Shannon]

Outside, clothes off...finger paints and paintbrushes...let them paint their own bodies. Aspen loves to do this.

[kayleesmom]

where do u find the finger paints

[sunshynemama]

Some favorites-
I have a long flat rubbermaid shoe storage thing that fits under the bed... it's filled with cornmeal. Really easy to vacuum up, and great for sensory experience. The boys love to make tracks through it with their cars, and my 4 year old can pull it out and put it away whenever he wants.

Any crafts involving glue for the 4 year old.

We also make our own playdough, and color it w/ koolaid so it smells fun and looks cool.

Outdoors, it sounds silly, but I give them a paintbrush and a bucket of water. They love to "paint" the house, the concrete, their toys, our chairs, etc.

Also, flat tubs of water (we got ours from Ikea), with a couple cups, sifter toys, whatever is around. They both played for almost 2 hours last week .

[idlewildponies]

How about bubbles? I love them and DD (14 mos) loves to watch them. I've found "recipes" online so you don't have to buy the solution. And you can even use pipe cleaners or cut yogurt lids for the blowers. If you're brave you can use them indoors, but outdoors it better. I blow them while DD is in her swing. Especially fun if there's a little breeze.

Sarah

[twinsmomkatie]

Originally Posted by sunshynemama Outdoors, it sounds silly, but I give them a paintbrush and a bucket of water. They love to "paint" the house, the concrete, their toys, our chairs, etc.

We paint with water, too!

[FunnyMonkey]

We have a rice table, similar to the cornmeal idea above, everyone loves it, age 1 year to old as dirt. I have a great time playing with it too, so soothing! A little messy, but vacuums up in no time.

Love the other ideas!

[geckoed]

here's our "rainy day list"

lunch sack city
draw buildings on lunch sacks... with the opening on the bottom as for a hand puppet. Open another bag and stuff with wadded newspaper. Slip the building bag over the top of the stuffed bag "base" add some toy cars and little people.

Snowballs inside
when the new phone book comes, (and you can get a new free in about 2 days time by calling and asking- so go ahead and use your "good" one newspaper works too) rip out pages and wad into snowballs and have an indoor snowball fight. Or make bowls or baskets or other "targets" or "goals"

Making words
cut a piece of paper into squares. Write letters on the squares (we put the capital on one side and lower case on the other side) give out the letters for a word (we used PIRATE yesterday) don't tell them what the big word is, let them make new words out of the letters (Connor made 25 words!! but had some help from Chris, Connor had "pare" and Chris showed him "pair" and "pear" for example)

Pick a theme
have a pirate day, a castle day, a princess day, a teddy bear day, Christmas in July, animal day, green day, etc

Make a fort (call it a pirate ship, a castle, a tent, a cave, a treehouse, a workshop, a cage, etc)

Have a party, make it the goldfishs birthday and bake cupcakes, draw birthday cards, hang leftover streamers etc

Make a marble game. Take a shoebox lid and poke some holes with a pen. Draw shapes around the holes (a face with holes for eyes, a flower, etc) put marbles in the lid and try to land the marbles in the holes

Treasure bottles
take a clear bottle and add some small things.. tiny toys, a shiny screw, a coin, a feather, etc. Fill 2/3 with dry rice. Glue the top on. Now the kids can roll it around to find whats hidden inside.

sidewalk chalk in the livingroom
spread a sheet and draw on it with sidewalk chalk, it washes right out

Shower painting. Tape paper to the shower walls and let them paint (or fingerpaint) in there for easy cleanup

Shavingcream fun
put shavingcream in a pan to be played with. Or spread it on the shower walls for "finger painting" in

Beach day
turn up the heat, dress in shorts, "swim" in the tub in bathing suits Eat popsicles, wear sunglasses, pretend to build sand castles, pretend to go fishing (or use a fishing game for this), sunbathe on towels in the livingroom, color "summer" pictures, put on sunscreen

Obstacle course
set up an obstacle course, all kids love this! Sometimes we just scatter pillows and hop from one to the next.

Zoo
have kid(s) set up "habitats" for their animal toys, have them "make a zoo" and a "ticket booth" and draw some money and tickets and a zoo map. This will keep them busy for SO long Then you have to "buy a ticket" and a "map" and go to the "zoo" (I like to gather some dolls and be on a "field trip" because then I get the "guided tour" which is often hilarious )

Scavenger hunt
in about 15 seconds you can write down several things that are somewhere in your house and send the kids to collect them. For younger kids draw pictures. For the youngest kids find one of each thing and put it in a bg or envelope and they can find the match.

[jls~Kain~Drake]

I have some recipes for edible finger paint & *i think* edible playdough? I'd have to look but would post them if anyone was interested