Jelly Jelly Jelly!

If you're anything like me, finding something to keep your baby stimulated can present quite a challenge. I get tired of offering toys to my Ava (8 months), and there are so many things her big sister Eden (3 years) gets to do because she's older, which Ava cannot (choking hazards, motor skills required which she has not yet developed, etc). This is especially true when your baby is in the I-think-I-will-put-everything-into-my-mouth phase, with sensory exploration becoming trickier still!
So, I'm always on the look out for new, safe sensory experiences for my baby girl, preferably ones she can enjoy in her highchair whilst I cook dinner! We've done water play and fingerpainting, so this time I took my cue from her passion for her finger foods and made a batch of jelly, with Eden's help of course.


To speed up the setting process, we poured our jelly mix into a shallow brownie pan which meant that our jelly set in less than two hours (ie, it set whilst Ava napped, woo hoo!). Once my littlest munchkin was in her highchair, I dolloped a few scoops in front of her and the fun began!

Concentration...

Exploration....it's squishy, Mum!

Assessing...

Considering...

....and licking! Who needs hands?

I also set out Eden's table in the kitchen, with a few pots, pans and oddments from my utensil drawers, and she pretended to do some cooking with the remaining jelly....

The clean up was considerable, but so was the fun! Who knew you could get such value out of a simple sachet of jelly? I'll be trying this again with a couple of different colours, so Eden can try her hand at colour mixing.
Just a small sidenote: protect clothing or pop your kids in some old gear, some jelly colours/mixes can stain.
Enjoy! Thanks for reading. ~L.


This post has been shared at the Play Academy over at Nurture Store; please feel free to drop in and check out some of the other ideas shared by the blogging community!