Simple activities to replace screen time

(Goblin is nearly 4)

If you have read some of my earlier posts you will know that we are trying to cut back on screen time and reconnect with Goblin through play in an attempt to rid our lives of tantrums. There are periods in the day where we'd normally fall back on TV, and these are the times that for both him and me it helps to have something planned, an idea for an activity to replace TV. Because these are normally the times when Goblin is most tired the activities need to be simple. Here are a few of our more successful ones. 

Sensory play

This little invitation combined shells from our recent beach holiday with dried seed heads from the garden: poppies; honest; something that looks like cornflowers when its in flower. I also put out some military vehicles because for Goblin no play is complete without them. And finally I made some nice smelly playdough: orange (because I didn't have lemon scent to match the yellow) and rosemary. I used the ever reliable Nurturestore recipe. 

Goblin had great fun emptying the poppy seeds into the playdough and mashing it all up so the yellow dough became poppy seed dough. Its not what I had intended from my set up, but its one of the things I love about leaving something for your child to explore. They will take their own direction and sometimes it will surprise you. 

And talking of surprises I didn't expect Goblin to play with the coffee grounds the way he did. I'd taken the idea from TheBoyandMe's blog.  I loved the way her son had put the coffee grounds on the mirror and made patterns with them using a Q-tip. But my little Goblin had other ideas and he got all his construction and farm vehicles and played at moving "mud". He meticulously filled his truck using a tiny digger. I loved how much fine motor practice he was getting unintentionally.

And when he'd done with playing in the baking tray he asked to empty it into the mat and added some cloud dough. Then he called it snow and asked me to help him make a snow plough. Somewhere behind the cardboard is a miniature A-team van covered in tape.

I got this play dough idea from a lovely blog called Play Trains. I couldn't resist the idea of it smelling so great with the cinnamon stick logs and the clove ties in the chocolate playdough. So I invested in 4 jars of cinnamon sticks - Not the cheapest activity ever. I also made a bit of a mistake using drinking chocolate rather than cocoa in the playdough. The sugar made the dough quite sticky. In addition I tried to replace some of the flour with the drinking chocolate - let me tell you now, this doesn't work. However, when my playdough disaster had been averted this was a seriously popular activity with Goblin. He played with it on and off for two days. He even got all the component parts out on his own during some independent play time.

Art 

 We collected some lovely big stones from the beach on our holiday, and one of our activities was simply painting them.

I painted half a picture, an autumn tree. I invited Goblin to paint the other half. He did a great job painting what he called "the wind". But I think I made it too complicated and he got nervous about trying to replicate the rest of the tree. Next time I will make a simpler picture.

 This was a fun activity. I left out some solar system stickers. Goblin started by sticking them on the black paper I'd provided, but Hublet was a much more attractive canvas.

Numeracy and Literacy

I've been trying to provide Goblin with some simple number recognition games. This one was initiated by him playing "shop" with Hublet, using his toy till. I simply added some prices to the items on sale and showed Goblin how to use the calculator - not so much to add up, but more to match the numbers to the numbers on the key pad. We aren't at addition yet.

This was a letter matching game that I laid out with his afternoon snack. He named the objects and then decided if they were T or D words. He was surprisingly good at it. I've done a few other number and letter activities that I will share in later posts.

I'm sharing this at

5 Best Christmas presents for toddlers

(Goblin is 25 months old)

I recently read an excellent post on GeekDad (Found at Wired Magazine). It was entitled "The 5 best toys of all time". Very appropriate in the run up to Christmas. And what were they? 

1. A Stick

2. A Box

3. String

4. A Cardboard tube

5. Dirt

This is so true. While most of us probably enjoy shopping for exciting, interesting and possibly educational toys for our kids its good to remember that children's imagination can be encouraged and developed very effectively with really simple objects. I often find if I fall into the trap of buying an expensive toy for Goblin he will bring me back to reality by having more fun running around the garden with a stick. 

GeekDad points out that string is probably not a great idea for really tiny kids. I have to agree. While I am happy to leave Goblin alone with small objects that will fit in his mouth - he tends to put them in his mouth but not to swallow them - I wouldn't leave him alone with enough string to wrap round his neck - I think he'd do this way to quickly and effectively. I guess we all know our own kids abilities and gauge what risks we are willing to take with them. So for me, I would replace number 3 in the list with Water. Water from the tap or better still naturally formed puddles. 

This one is quite hard to fit in a stocking, but the others could definitely be wrapped up for Christmas. Now I'm off to find a good stick.

Outings - the beach

(Goblin is 24 months)

The beach is a great place to take kids come rain or shine (or snow for that matter). We are currently on holiday in the Gower next to a beach that is 3 miles long. The sea stays shallow for a long while so Goblin can wade in and not get out of his depth - which gives us a chance to catch up as he normally heads to the sea at speed. When we first visited this beach Goblin was 10 months. He crawled as fast as he could (which was fast) to the sea and spent the next hour playing in the surf. This year we visited at Easter and again in the Summer and Goblin hurled himself into the sea with zeal. 

So I am not entirely sure why we thought the cold weather and rain would stop him trying to hurl himself in this time. 

 His wellies were pretty good at keeping out the tide, until he waded in too deep and the water went over the top. This didn't seem to bother Goblin though. He would have waded in deeper if Hublet hadn't gone in and dragged him back to the shallows. 

 We finally enticed him out of the sea with a promise of cake. Unfortunately the beach cafe is quite far from the sea edge when the tide is out and Goblin spent the long walk back up the beach flitting between wails of "caaaake!" and getting distracted by shells and wet sand and pools formed by dips in the sand. It was quite comedic. 

 We were half way up the beach when it started to rain. And all of a sudden there was the most amazing double rainbow stretching across the sky. You could see both ends of the bottom rainbow. And guess what, this was the first rainbow Goblin has ever seen. He's going to think they are all like this now!

I'm linking this to the Magic Onions' Friday's Nature Table link up. If you get a chance go have a look at what others are up to. 

   

Rainy Day Activities - Part 4: Bake a cake

(Goblin is 24 months)

Rainy weather always makes me want cake and other yummy food. Unfortunately we don't have any in the house because Hublet and I are on a diet. 
But we did have all the ingredients for a cake and because we are on holiday we decided diet be hanged we'd make cake. Hublet is the domestic god of the kitchen, and that includes baking. So it was down to him and Goblin to get their bake on. Goblin watched while Hublet set up the scales. We explained to him what they were, he thought the dial was a clock. 

 This was a great opportunity for Goblin to practice his pouring skills. First with the flour; 

 Then with the sugar. Then Hublet added the eggs and butter. Goblin stirred the mixture with us regularly reminding him to keep the spoon in the bowl. 

 And once the cake was baked Goblin was really keen to help with the icing. In the picture below he's trying to climb the cooker to help! 

 He was pretty good at helping to eat it though. 

MMM! Cake. What a great activity, we should do that again tomorrow. 

Rainy Day Activities - Part 3: Go for a walk anyway

(Goblin is 24 months)

We are in Wales on holiday so despite the horrible weather I was determined to go for a walk on the beach by the house. I thought it would be good to get Goblin out of the house. I am a firm believer that toddlers are a bit like dogs in their need for at least one walk a day. 

 But the weather was against us and we had to wrap up warm. Suitable attire for a day at the beach!

 We had to cover Goblin's buggy in plastic because he was getting blasted from the sand being swept at gale force speed into his face. He was a lot happier once covered over. 

But once we got over the dunes we released him. At first he said he was cold and insisted on putting on his mittens and hat - this was in addition to a vest, long sleeved t-shirt, jeans, all in one rain suit with hood up, snow boots, and anorak also with hood up! I'm amazed he could move.  

Once he did start running around he quickly shed the mittens, hat and two hoods. I was pleased to see he started playing with the sand - that is what you are supposed to do on a beach after all. 

 Hublet got out our little one string kite. Even in the valley of the dunes the wind was really too strong and we couldn't let Goblin fly it. (I have a 3m long 4 string kite too, but we didn't even consider bringing that down). 

 I found some amazing moss in the dunes, Look at the little stars in the foliage. Goblin liked this and the empty snail shell he found next to it. 

 By the time we headed back over the dunes to the beach the rain had subsided and the wind wasn't quite so fierce. We were able to brave a walk along the sea front without risk of serration from sand blasting.

 All the same Goblin wasn't too upset at being able to hop back in the buggy for the steep one mile climb back up the hill to the house. 

Rainy Day Activities - Part 1: Hide and Seek

(Goblin is 24 months)

We are in Wales this week for a holiday, but unfortunately both Hublet and I have horrendous colds and Goblin is just recovering from his. He is still a bit forlorn and is tending to have an out of character melt down at the slightest thing, so not sure how relaxing this holiday will be. Add to this the fact the weather over night has changed from this:

To this:

And you can see why today was challenging to say the least. 

However, against the odds we managed to find an activity that entertained us all. Hide and seek kept Goblin happy for a good 45 minutes. And Hublet and I were entertained by how incredibly bad he is at it! Its weird because he is so observant usually. He'll be the one to spot the tractor on the shelf behind the TV presenter. He'll be sitting there shouting "tractor" at the TV and I will be saying "there isn't a tractor", and of course there is. Incidentally I don't do that any more, if he says there is a tractor, fire engine, motor bike or plane you can pretty much guarantee there will be one somewhere. It may just be a badge on someone's bag or a tiny oil painting in the far corner of a room but he'll spot it. So I was somewhat bemused at how completely useless he was at finding me and Hublet when we hid in quite obvious places. 

This was Hublet's first attempt at hiding (we soon realised that this is not hiding in plain sight). Despite the huge bulge in the curtain and the very obvious feet Goblin came out of the door, did not see the curtain bulge, looked through the conservatory doors that the curtains edge, and only spotted the feet when I pointed them out to him. (Now I don't usually like over punctuation but I think a '!!!!' would not be out of place here). 

So I tried to hide in a more obvious place. Look at Goblin's confused face. There is an identical chair next to the table he is standing on that does not have a cushion 'floating' two feet off the chair base. 

So Hublet went for the really really obvious and thankfully Goblin did spot him straight away, although working out how to get to him took a bit longer. 

Then Goblin hid. I helped him because he wouldn't stay in his hiding place while Hublet counted to ten. What was really funny is that he didn't really get the concept of hiding. He wanted to watch Hublet search, so Hublet had to pretend he couldn't see him while he searched the rest of the room. But Goblin thought Hublet was struggling so he climbed over the back of the chair and shouted "we're here, we're hiding".  

Goblin was then quite confused because Mummy and Daddy were doubled up laughing for quite a while. 

What I did discover was Goblin enjoyed the counting to ten, and as he did it every time either with me or with Hublet he got quite good at telling us what number came next (up to five at least).