Sorting and Transferring

My little Miss E. is becoming very interested in money lately. I thought I had a few more years at least before she helped herself to my purse... Just kidding! She is fascinated in the different value of coins ("paper money is so boring, Mummy!") and the images on them, and she loves to count and stack any loose change she can get her hands on.

As it happens, we have a vase where we keep all our silver coins - 50 cents and under, for the non-Aussies, - so I hauled it out and gave Eden three containers for her to sort the different denominations into; one each for 5 cents, 10 cents and 20 cents. Eden felt that the dodecagon shape (12-sided) of the fifty cent piece made it special because it wasn't round like the other coins, so she put them in her music box. Ahem. Nice try, honey.

Foam Collage

Quite a while ago, I made these foam shapes for my kids and let them stick the shapes to the window with water. Big success! At the time, my youngest daughter Ava was only six months old, and therefore had no interest in participating. Since then, she has showed great interest in sucking the water out of the brushes but not so much in the foam shapes. So, I thought of another way of using the same shapes that might entice her into playing with them. Make collages!

Tonnes - sorry - TINS of Fun!

What to do to engage and stimulate your baby when you draw a mental blank? Raid your pantry! That's what I did anyway, and discovered that Ava (1) rather likes it when I do.

I lay out a stainless steel bread box, a small tub, some utensils, a handful of magnets and an armful of tinned food. Who knew that such ordinary items would be such irresistible playthings to my daughter? Ava dove in straight away, first exploring all the items...

Baby Play: Pouring Station

Coming up with creative play prompts for your baby or young toddler can be challenging at times. You have to be mindful of what they're likely to put in their mouths, make sure it is stimulating but not so challenging that they lose interest, and at that age they develop so fast that it can be tricky for play opportunities to keep pace.
With that in mind, I thought a sensory tub centred on pouring would be appropriate for my little Ava. She enjoys pouring and drizzling water when she is in the bath (that is, the water left in the tub that miraculously didn't end up on the blinds, the floor or me), and I thought this new interest may translate well into her playtime.
I was wrong; she had a better idea.
I had pulled out an underbed storage container, and supplied coloured rice (see here for the how-to), pearl barley and chickpeas to pour, and play teapots and cups, eggcups, a plastic jug, a sieve, a play saucepan, a coffee pot and funnels to pour with.

Baby Play: Cotton Wool Balls

Ava (my one year old) is so much fun to watch when she plays. She's such a little explorer! Everything is new and exciting to her and she has no preconceived ideas about how to play. A simple stimulus - such as cotton wool balls and some supplies from around the house - and she's all set.

When I set out a few bowls, a mini sieve, a spoon and cotton wool balls for her, she got so excited! Her little face lit up, and I swear it was as if she was thinking "I know what to do here!"

Open Ended Baby Basket

Many of the posts here at HLM are directed at toddlers from about 2 years old and up. It's not that I lack for ideas for my littlest Munchkin Ava (just turned ONE!), it's just that she is far too busy exploring her world without my help (but with plenty of supervision) to give Mummy's ideas the time of day. You know what? That's fine by me! Actually, I'm usually jazzed that she gets into everything and mouths everything: she's my whirlwind bub or as hubby calls her, our little 2-stroke girl (motorbike joke) - plenty of energy, goes fast and makes lots of noise! On those rare occassions when she seems to want something different, I actually get to dip into my reservoir of baby play ideas and give it a go.
In theory.
In practice, she often 'wants something different' when her sister is having a meltdown (and yes, we have those at our house too!), when I'm trying to cook dinner and get on top of the cleaning (hahaha, like that's ever actually going to happen!), the phone's ringing, the bath's running, and Loki is trying to take over the Earth!!! Ok, not that last one. I saw the movie 'The Avengers' the other day. Ahem.
So what can we do to offer our tots some stimulation when our attention is elsewhere and we cannot sit and give them the time that we'd like to?

Sorting - Baby Style

I stumbled across this idea a while ago on The Imagination Tree, and thought I'd give it a go now that little Miss Ava is 9 months old, in the hope that she would not just put everything straight into her mouth.
The activity is to cut up a cardboard cylinder into chunky pieces, lay out a muffin tray, and let your littlie go to town filling and emptying the tray with the cylinders.

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.