For Mom's of Tot's: Cheap Kicks 1.0

For the past week or so, I've been gathering and testing ideas for toddler activities.

I find that on the days we spend all day at home, my two year old daughter reaches the end of her rope at about 3pm, which means I reach the end of mine at about 3:10. The morning is spent in chores (for me) and playing (for her), and then lunch and nap time and her daily show. But that last 2 or 3 hours before Daddy gets home are pretty hard on us both. I could easily fill that time with all kinds of work, but she needs interaction and entertainment.

I've been inspired by a blog I follow, called 'Sew Liberated'. She has been posting pictures of her afternoon adventures with her two sons. They are really into learning through play and have invested a lot of thought and money into the activities they put together.

I already do 'school' most days with Aria (which consists of drawing, remembering our letters and making crafts) but I really liked the ideas on Sew Liberated - they were fresh and creative. Scouring the sights she recommended for inspiration, I compiled a list of things that I thought we could try at home and then shopped for the supplies we didn't already have.

The first Activity we tried was a bean bin, which was a SHOW STOPPING SUCCESS. And I didn't have to purchase a single thing to put it together. She played for two solid hours with those beans.

After that, we tried window markers (which cost anywhere from $3 - $12) which was successful as far as entertainment goes, but only holds her attention span for about 15 minutes.

Today, we made our own flubber. This was a good thing. A very good thing. I had everything I needed but the glue, so it only cost me $2. After her show was done, we put on our aprons and mixed it up together and then we played together for a while. I was pretty much done after about 20 minutes, so I left  her to it and I would say that, including the making it, that activity was good for about an hour and a half.

Should you so desire to try this out, I found the original recipe here. I halved the batch and it's more than big enough, so here's the half recipe:



Mix 3/4 cup warm water, 1 cup Elmers School Glue and food coloring in one bowl.


In a SEPARATE bowl, mix 1 1/2 tsp borax with 1/2 cup warm water.


Pour bowl one into bowl two and watch it turn into flubber. You don't need to mix it but you can if you want. Once it globs, work it for a few minutes and it will turn into flubber (for a while there I was worried, but it really works).