Egg Carton

I had a follower request an egg carton activity a few weeks ago.  I had to wait until I finished off a carton of eggs, but I finally have an activity for you.  I have also pinned a bunch more, so you may get sick of hearing about egg carton activities before I'm done.

This activity is via This Pin

Materials:

1. Egg carton
2. Lysol wipes (to clean egg carton just in case there are any left over yuck germs)
3. 12 Easter eggs 
4. Small toys that fit inside eggs (once again we used our sorting bears)

I began by filling all the eggs with one bear and closing them up. I then placed one egg per slot in the egg carton.  Tink was all about opening the eggs, and dumping the bears.  She enjoyed dumping them in the egg carton, and filling an Easter egg with multiple bears.  

Caleb finally joined in the fun.  He personally loved cracking the eggs and then trying to close them back up. He told me he wanted to "play this all day".  Notice the concentration faces :). 

My kids loved this one 

Going Fishing

I am actually surprised that it has taken me this long to try this pin.  I am pretty sure that I saw it my very first week on Pinterest, and thought to myself...."Hey that is a great idea".  Well, I guess it was lost in my world of pins because I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday.

Little man loves to fish, so I thought this would be the perfect stuck inside the house activity.  Thankfully my mother in law had the items I needed laying around the house, because my improve materials were not working out.

Materials needed:

• paper clips
• yarn or string
• Magnet letters or any lightweight toys that are magnetic. 
• A large bowl

I placed all of our magnetic letters in a large bowl.  We used to have the entire alphabet, but over time we have lost most of them.  I made 4 "fishing poles" for the kids, sat down with them, and then demonstrated how to play.  Little man enjoyed fishing for letters and stating what letter he found.  Tink loved picking up the letter, placing it on the paper clip, and then slinging it across the room.  

Even though his face screams miserable he really did have a lot of fun.

He eventually started trying to fish for other objects.  His trains were a big hit, and to my surprise the paper clip could actually lift them.

This is an activity that does not make a huge mess, and can be left out for a while.  It is still out today, and my kids have ventured to play with it on and off. 

All in all I would say they loved it.  

Fine Motor Skills

Little Man is a boy who loves fine motor activities, and he has since he was tiny.  He was the baby that would sit for an hour by himself figuring out all the elements of a toy.  He has always loved detail, and figuring out how things work.  This has carried through into his love for puzzles, and other fine motor activities.

When I saw this activity on Pinterest I immediately thought it would be a hit with little man.  I knew it was too advanced for Tink, but I wanted to try it none the less.

The materials:

• kix cereal (I also put a few cheerios in because I knew they would be easier to pick up)
• tweezers
• 2 cups or bowls 

I filled one cup with the cereal mixture, told little man that I had an activity for him, and I showed him how to pinch the tweezers together.  This activity ended up being a little too advanced for his skills. He was able to pick up a few pieces of cereal with the tweezers correctly, but he mostly found other ways to pick the cereal up.

The two handed approach was a big hit. Hold the tweezers in right hand, pick up cereal with left hand, touch cereal to the tweezers, and then eat it. 

Stacking the cheerios on the tweezers was another big hit.  

All throughout this activity I was showing him how to pinch the tweezers, but every time he would get it he would revert back to his other methods.

Tink eventually ran over to see what we were doing, and the activity was turned into a dumping and pouring activity which eventually became snack time.  

I would say that in terms of fine motor skill improvement this activity was a flop for us. Little Man told me he did not like it and did not want to do it again ;). 

**Please ignore the fact that my children look as though they have not been bathed in a week, have snotty noses, and refuse to wear pants or matching clothes.  Also please excuse the poor quality of photos. I tried a new way to upload and it failed miserably.**

Toilet Paper Rolls

Sorry we have been MIA for the past week.  We have been moving so there has been very little Pin-tiviting. I thought I would stop by and share an activity we tried a few weeks ago.  I like to call this Toilet Paper Roll fun.....catchy right ;).  This activity always makes me think of this....

Before we moved the house was in shambles, and I was having to find creative ways to entertain the kids.  I came across this pin.

Since my husbands bathroom was filled with empty toilet paper rolls...because he never throws them away...I decided to give one of the activities from that pin a try.

Materials Needed:

1. Toilet Paper Rolls
2. Painters Tape
3.  An object that fits through the rolls.  I once again used our counting bears....told ya they get a lot of use.

I taped 5 or six rolls to the wall at various heights.  I then showed the kids how they could drop the bears through the rolls, and I also showed them how they could catch the bears in cups as they came out the bottom.  Instant entertainment!! Can you believe this entertained 3 kids 3 and under for over 30 minutes! Crazy.

So with that being said I would say it was a LOVE.

I guess I will have to stop nagging my husband about him not throwing away his toilet paper rolls.  Pinterest is bound to make me a hoarder......

Driving...Or Parking

So, when I saw this pin I thought that it looked like an amazing idea.  Fun for the kids, relaxation for the parent...Win Win right?

Here is what you need:
1. An old shirt
2. Sharpie Marker
3. Hot wheels
4. Participating toddler

My husbands birthday just passed so we decided to try this idea as a present for him.  I stink at drawing so my husband had to take the reigns on that one.  Little Man insisted that daddy draw parking spots so he did. My hubby put the shirt on, handed little man the car, and laid down for what he thought was going to be a relaxing car massage.....well, those parking spots Little Man requested....he actually wanted to park the cars in them.  So, he drove the cars for a minute, parked them and then walked away.  Hubby and I couldn't help but laugh.

So, with that being said, though the picture of the kids blissfully playing looks nice..it was a Flop in our house.

Fall Scavenger Hunt

Today it was beautiful outside, and little man was home from preschool so I decided to take the time to explore the fall surroundings.  Since Pinterest is full of outdoor fall activities, I figured I would find one to entertain us while we enjoyed the weather.  I remembered pinning fall scavenger hunts, and I thought this would be the perfect activity. I knew that it would be a little over Tink's head, but I figured little man would love it.

Here is the link.  I made sure to pick one that only had a few items to find since I am entertaining young toddlers.

I printed each child a sheet with the scavenger hunt pictures, and I also gave them a zip lock bag to collect their items.

We then started on our journey.  Tink of course wanted to ride in her bike stroller, and Little man wanted to ride his four wheeler, so we were off to a semi slow start, but we eventually made it to an old road in our neighborhood that is filled with trees. 

Little man was all about finding the yellow, and orange leaves.  He also was interested in finding a stick. 

Tink on the other hand just had fun sitting on the ground filling her bag with rocks :).  As I said before...I knew it would be over her sweet little 20 month old head. 

To my surprise we could not find a pine cone or an acorn.  This baffled me because I grew up in the mountains where these fall items were everywhere you stepped.  So...my children did not get to explore those fall items :(.  We also did not see a squirrel, but we saw lots of bugs and birds.

Once we arrived home the kids played outdoors a little more, and then we headed indoors for some craft time.  I was going to find a cool Pinterest art activity but I decided to go old school and let them just enjoy glue, and watercolors.  This was a hit with both. They enjoyed gluing the leaves to the paper, and Tink enjoyed painting the leafs with water.

All in all I would say that my kids Liked this activity.

It wasn't a love, and it wasn't a bust, but they were not overly excited.  This could have been due to their cranky moods all morning, or the fact that they were playing outside in their pajamas........(I promise when we go out in public they are dressed nice....most of the time....and that my daughter can usually see where she is going....and no she does not always wear her brothers hat....)

Sorting Bears

My little "tink" is completely and totally obsessed with sorting, so I knew when I came across this Pinterest activity that it would be a hit.  I of course modified the materials with things I already had laying around the house instead of buying new.  That is the point of Pinterest activities correct....FREE entertainment.

Here is the link to the original pin.  It is of course one of those links that lead to no where.....(but thank heavens the picture was self explanatory).

So the materials I used....

1. Counting bears and cups.  (I get a lot of use out of these tiny bears).  They can be purchased on Amazon here.

2. Cups from counting bears set and a random larger bowl.

3.  An IKEA spoon...that looks like...well..."a dong".....(I can't believe I let my children eat off of this) :).

I just poured all the bears in the big bowl, placed a spoon in it, and placed the other cups around the bowl. Tink then went to town.  She scooped, poured, tried to feed our dog Bella, and stayed entertained for about 15 minutes.  That is amazing with her.  She does not sit still.

 After her 15 minutes of fun she took the activity to a whole new level.....this is when the ikea "dong" shaped spoon became even more awkward.

So, all in all I would say that we Loved this activity.

It could be taken to a whole new level with my 3 year old in terms of learning, but its sole purpose today was to entertain my 20 month old, and that it did.