One of my goals this year was to do a Pinterest project, specifically either to make something for the home, or to do one of the many projects with Drew that I had thought would be fun. With long summer days and heat that makes you want to hide in a walk-in freezer all day, I'm finding myself getting bored, bored, BORED of the repetitive things Drew and I do to entertain ourselves indoors, so I was happy to turn to Pinterest for some pinspiration.
I found this blog,
Play Creat Explore, with TONS of fun ideas if you don't mind getting a little messy. I stole/adapted the following activities from there...
Pretend cooking!
Egg noodle ribbons, popcorn kernels, macaroni noodles, white chocolate chips, and marshmallows- for a variety of textures, sizes, etc.
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| Balancing! |
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| This is easier... |
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| Good practice with utensils |
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| Looks like a yummy dinner! |
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| Pretending to take a bite |
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| Drew decided we need the "bwoom" |
Some funny/interesting things:
1. I decided to make this a "no no-no" activity, as in anything goes. Apparently that's kind of hard. When he started trying to flick things out of the way and they were flying beneath the fridge I couldn't help telling him to be more careful. Then he decided he needed to go into a cabinet that he's not allowed to go in, so of course I start to say "no!" then I hear him saying "bwoom"... he wanted the hand broom to sweep up some of the stuff. Cute!
2. I also tried to refrain from guidance, as in "why don't you use this to move those" or "wouldn't it be fun to separate the noodles in the ice cube tray!". That was also hard, but it was SO fun to let him guide the activity. He of course wanted me to play, so I just did whatever he told me to do. He handed me a spoon and said "hold it!" then moved my hand towards a bowl. I started to stir but he said "no! bounce!". He wanted me to bounce the spoon on top of the marshmallows.
3. It was actually quite a ways into the activity before Drew realized he was pretending to cook. He stated "cooking! Cooking dinner!" and got a big grin. Then he started making me "sample" his dishes. :)
4. This kept him occupied for more than an hour!!
Noodle artwork
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| First we played with our supplies |
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| Then we painted some glue on our paper |
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| Added some corn and noodles... |
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| Then we painted it |
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| The we painted ourselves, of course |
This again was more than an hour's worth of entertainment. A little more clean up, but worth it! I love to see him explore and create.
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| Finished product |
What fun activities to do indoors when it's so hot and sticky outside! It looks like he had quite a good time.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a "no no-no" activity, but I agree I'd have a hard time with it, too. Looks like lots of fun!
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't believe he didnt just gobble up thhe marshmallows!
ReplyDeleteHaha! That was my concern at first, but I don't know that he's ever had just plain marshmallows so I didn't know if he would even think to eat them. And he didn't seem too interested in eating them until we'd been playing for a while when he looked like he was going to take a bite and looked at me and I just scrunched up my nose and said they were dirty.
DeleteGreat activities! I LOVE following Grace around and seeing what her own little imagination comes up with for us to do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Grace's favorite "treat" is mini-marshmellows...but it's not my fault, I blame the grandparents for that one!
Marshall
Lol. I personally don't like marshmallows plain so I just don't think to give them to him! (I do, however, LOVE rice krispie treats and s'mores which is why we even have them). I always find it funny that we unintentionally train our children to like (and dislike) the same foods we do.
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