Toddler Activity Bags

After reading Megret's post about Preschool Activity Bags, I started thinking about making toddler activity bags. Since we are going to the Bahamas on Friday in a small, 6 person plane I decided that I better go ahead and make a few bags to take with us. I got a little carried away! Once I started thinking of ideas, I just couldn't stop :) Here are the ones I've made so far:

Photo magnets
finger puppets
Sorting wacky macaroni

Putting miniature babies or smooth stones into individual boxes. This activity teaches 1-to-1 correspondence, and I think O will LOVE it since she loves babies and all things "niney."
Collage bag- glue stick, foam paper, note cards, stickers, paper punches, strips of construction paper
Stringing noodles to make a necklace. I added a pipe cleaner "needle" to the end of the shoe string to make it easier for O to use.
Mini containers of playdoh and a few playdoh tools
Miniature Mrs. Potato Head. O is going to be so excited to see a "niney" Potato Head!

Mini, reversible felt board
The other side of the felt board
Color sorting with bears
Open and close activity bag.
Puzzle activity bag. These puzzles came from a cutting book for children. I laminated the pictures then cut them out to make puzzles.
The last bag is not pictured. It contains a box of washable crayons (I don't want her coloring the plane walls!), notecards, and sticky notes.

Here's the hard part...which ones do I take with us on our trip? Clearly, 13 is too many. The flight lasts anywhere from 3 hours to 4 and a half hours depending on who I ask, and O will probably sleep at least an hour or two. I'm also taking books to read and snacks to eat. 5 or 6 activity bags shoud be more than enough. I just can't decide which ones. What do you think? Which bags do you think your child would enjoy?

Releasing Ladybugs

We released about 400 ladybugs onto our tomato plants tonight in the hopes that they will eat all of the aphids. We are crossing our fingers that this works because our tomato plants look great, but they are COVERED in aphids. I've sprayed them with soap and water, but it doesn't really seem to help. Thanks, Guh-guh, for sharing your ladybugs!

O's Dollhouse

O is finally showing an interest in this dollhouse! I bought the dollhouse, lots of furniture, the dollhouse family, and a wooden doll car all for 30 dollars from a 2nd hand store before Christmas. I was super excited and decided to give it to O and her cousin to share at G & G's house. Marg has loved it for a while, but O is just starting to show an interest in playing with it. She was excited that Niney fit in the bunk bed!

Yay!

O's No Sew Tutu is featured on the Crafty Crow! The Crafty Crow is one of my favorite blogs that I try to check everyday, so I was surprised and excited to see my O on there today! Check it out if you get a chance. The Crafty Crow is a must read for anyone with children!

Animal Flip Book

I downloaded this animal flip book from this site, and it was very easy to make and it turned out great! I printed the pictures onto photo paper, cut them out, punched the holes with a hole puncher, laminated the pages, cut them out again, punched the holes again (its surprisingly difficult to punch holes through laminating paper, so I'm glad that I'd already punch the holes through the pages!), and used book rings to bind it together. I think O is going to love matching the animals in this book on our plane ride this weekend :)

Playing the Keyboard

Guh-guh and Grandpa bought O and her cousin this keyboard for Christmas for them to play at G & G's house. O LOVES to play the keyboard, but her favorite thing to do is to set it to play music while she dances around the den. Guh-guh loves to teach O new dance moves, and they have lots of fun!

Muffin Tin Monday (a little late)

When I saw the idea for Muffin Tin Mondays on this blog, I thought it was a GREAT idea, so I decided we'd join in. Today O had cucumbers, grape tomatoes, squash, cheese, avocado, and blue cheese dip-dip for lunch. Surprisingly, she didn't eat everything (normally she would eat everything shown here and ask for more). We'll be out of town next Monday, but we hope to join in on Muffin Tin Mondays again after we return home.

Transferring Rice with a Small Spoon

My mom cleaned out her china cabinet and buffet this afternoon, and I hit the jackpot! The tray for this work is the bottom of an old butter dish, and the 2 small glass bowls are old ash trays. The tiny spoon is from the ice cream shop that we went to after our professional photo shoot. (I thought of this work when I saw the spoon, so I asked for few more samples so that I could have a few extra spoons!)

I was not sure that O would be successful, but I was sure that she would LOVE this work since she loves all things "niney" (tiny). She did MUCH better than I expected, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She was very excited that Guh-guh found an "ug" for her to work on. When she was finished working, she rolled the rug up by herself and took it to Guh-guh. I was so surprised and proud because it was the 1st time that she's rolled the rug completely independently. She LOVES working on a rug aka "ug."

Matching Magnetic Fruits and Vegetables

I found these vegetable and fruit magnets at the dollar store this afternoon. I bought 3 packs so O could sort & match them, and she seemed to enjoy this work. She was easily distracted, and I think I put out too many items at one time. I put one of each item on the cookie sheet, and I put the matching pairs in the basket. She was supposed to pick up one item at a time and match it to its pair on the cookie sheet. We'll try this again tomorrow with fewer items :)

Playing with Playdoh

O loves to play with playdoh at G & G's house, and today it occured to me that I should put the playdoh and tools on a cookie sheet to help her keep everything together. I can't believe it took me so long to think of that! She really enjoyed herself :)

Color Sorting

My sister found these martini glass things at the dollar section of Target yesterday. I was very proud of her when she immediately saw the potential for a color sorting activity. Yay, Melanie! O really enjoyed sorting the small animals by color. When she's a little older, I think she'll like sorting them by the animal type.

Transferring Water with a Dropper

I introduced this work to O today. I set out 2 small glasses with the glass on the left filled halfway with water. I showed her how to fill the dropper with water and then release the water into the 2nd glass. She was interested, but she didn't stick with the task for very long. She kept forgetting to let go of the bulb once she squeezed it, so she was not getting much water in the dropper. I hope she'll enjoy this work more when we try it tomorrow.

Cheerios and a Free Book!

I was very excited when I saw that the Whole Grain Cheerios at the Dollar General came with paperback books! I'm sure the other customers thought I was a little strange when I pulled out EVERY box to see which book came with it. I bought 2 boxes because I thought the books pictured above looked interesting, and we can never have too many boxes of Cheerios! I'm excited that Little Quack's Bedtime is also in Spanish since I try to read at least one Spanish book to O each day. Other books that were packaged with the Cheerios included Olivia and the Missing Toy and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Picking Peaches

O was so excited that she got to help G & G pick their peaches today. We had to pick LOTS of them because the birds are starting to eat them. They aren't ripe yet, but we can't wait to eat yummy organic homegrown peaches!

Balancing on Bricks

O had fun balancing on G & G's brick border this afternoon. She calls it a "balance beam." I'm planning on setting up a balancing board in our front yard when we get home (we'll be at G & G's until Wednesday. Then we're heading to the Bahamas on Friday.) O is also a trend setter with her crocs aka "docs." Her 4 year old cousin likes to wear 2 different colored crocs now, too. My sister is not thrilled about it, but I think they look cute!