Mouse's DIY Dinnertime Tantrum Tamer

Last night Mouse invented a brilliant dinnertime game to amuse herself during the interminable wait until the noodles finished boiling. Since I can't take credit, I'll describe the activity set-up from her POV.

Wait until Mom has her hands full. Then seek out a convenient basket or bin (Mom wouldn't have left it there if she didn't want me to play with it!). Then pull the contents of the basket out one item at a time, proclaiming the item's name and description loudly so Mom can fully appreciate my brilliance. Repeat until the basket is empty. Then shove everything back in the basket and start over again.

You can tell by my cheekiness that I was initially not enthused by this activity (yet another mess to clean!). Then I realized:

1. No damage was being done and she was completely safe (within sight and, while making a mess, not playing with anything harmful).
2. The basket she'd chosen was filled with new (i.e. impossible to open) Play-Doh cans, which she was stacking as she unloaded them (motor skill development!).
3. In an effort to get my attention, she was calling out the color of the lids (color recognition!).
4. She wasn't underfoot in the main kitchen area (like her brother always was at this age).

So I embraced her game, which kept her playing it until dinner was ready, and kept me from losing my sanity.  

Have your kid(s) ever invented a "game" that turned out to be a diamond in the rough?

Tot School: Z is for Zipper (and Zebra)

~ Moose is currently 26 months old ~

Letter of the Week: Zz

Object/Theme: Zipper/Clothing

Color: Black

Shape: Square

Moose's daycare is keeping me on my toes hopping around the alphabet!  We went from Ii last week to Zz this week, and I didn't feel like I was able to maximize our theme, since I only found out on Monday.  I need to go ahead and plan some activities (and do all the printing/laminating) for all 26 letters so I can be better prepared in the future!

I was able to pull together the Tot School printables for the letter Zz, and Moose actually spent some time with them this week.

He even tried the line drawing (although the really accurate line you see is mine, not his).

We also used the Winter Clothing coloring sheets from 2 Teaching Mommies.  When our coloring is a color identification activity (as opposed to just free coloring) I try to encourage him to pick the "right" color by starting him off - it is still too soon to tell if he just doesn't want to be told what color to use, or if he can't tell the difference.

For the most part, the Moose was not particularly interested in the items I featured on his shelves.

He did play with the car lacing beads a little (I put it out figuring that lacing was a skill related to clothing), but ignored the sock coin purse.  He also mostly ignored the Melissa and Doug dressing board I put out for him, even though he played A LOT with the buckles on his kitchen booster seat (and insisted on helping with the buckles on his car seat).

Moose has been expressing a desire for independence in dressing himself for quite awhile, so getting him to participate in selecting his clothes and getting dressed was not at all difficult (although I have no photos to show for it).  The harder part was managing the frustration that went with it! He is so persistent in his efforts, even when he's reached a point of diminishing returns!

The only dressing-related book I had on hand was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?.  So, since his daycare class used Zz for zebra, I also pulled out some zoo-themed books to supplement: 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo and One Night in the Zoo .

As with last week, the biggest success was our Montessori tray.  I picked up a little cream pitcher at TJ Maxx for $3.99 and set up the tray with a small amount of water in the pitcher, and a drinking cup.  Moose did remarkably well pouring from the pitcher to the cup.

He did less well pouring back to the pitcher to do it all over again.  We're planning to head out to Ikea this afternoon, and, among other things, I'll be on the lookout for two pitchers to go back and forth.  I may also take a step back and try letting him pour with beans (provided that we can find a pitcher with a slightly wider spout to accommodate the beans).

Wishing all my Tot School friends (visit Carisa at 1+1+1=1 to join in) a wonderful and inspired week!

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Tot Tin

Ta da! This is the tot tin (at least that's what I've decided to call it) that I finished this morning just in time to ship to my college roommate's two-year-old son.  Her son, like the Moose, just turned two.

It all began a few weeks ago when I discovered the Tot School blog and Totally Tots (and others linked up).  I loved the idea of dot pages and realized that if I laminated them, the boys could play with puff ball magnets with them and color with them.  While pondering a cute way to present all the pieces, it dawned on me that if I put everything together in a tin, it would also provide a built-in surface for play and make it a grab-and-go learning toy!

I started with these alphabet dot pages from Homeschool Creations and laminated at Lakeshore Learning:

I scored the puff balls at the dollar store and the magnets at Michaels.  I used good ole' Elmer's Glue, although it appears that most moms use a glue gun.  I decided to work on a cookie sheet to keep the magnets from sliding around when I was pressing on them to stick the puff ball; I lined my cookie sheet with parchment paper to catch any splatter.

I made 11 of each color and they barely fit in this little round tin I found at Jo-Ann:

Thanks to a crafty friend, I decided to Mod Podge for the first time ever to personalize the the lid of the tin with some scrapbooking stickers without running the risk of toddler fingers peeling the stickers up (rectangular tin also from Jo-Ann):

After all the pieces were dry this morning, I wanted to give them a test run on the inside of the lid.  The Moose helped (which is why the green puff balls are piled up in this picture):

(Mommy Moose straightened them out for a more picture-perfect finish):

I'm making one for the Moose, too.  I plan to restock the tin weekly with the letter of the week, and other items for the theme/color/shape of the week as appropriate.  Stay tuned!