10 activities to do with toddlers and bubblewrap

When we last moved house, the price that we paid for removals included all packaging materials. Imagine my delight when we were presented with not one but two giant rolls of bubblewrap. Of course some of it was used to package our precious possesions, but we had a good amount left over. Not to mention the fact that along with jiffy bags and nice cardboard boxes it is something which I hoard anyway, so I always have a generous amount hanging around.

So I've put together ten crafts and activities for toddlers using bubblewrap.

• The most obvious thing to do - pop the bubbles. My toddler couldn't manage it with his fingers, but if you put it on the floor and jump on it you can make some satisfying pops! Or you could try hitting it with a toy hammer or pricking with a cocktail stick.

• Make an aquarium picture. Use the bubble side of bubblewrap to print with blue paint onto blue paper or card. For ours we glued on fish cut out from silver paper, and used shredded green paper for plants.

• Make a bubblewrap crocodile using a cardboard tube.

• Make a hanging jellyfish with bubblewrap tentacles. 

• Make a bubblewrap bubblewrap pillow and fill it with interesting things.

• Make printing blocks with shapes cut from thick cardboad and covered in bubblewrap. This is a great idea for themed wrapping paper. You can also take a cardboard tube (a thicker one is best, like from cling film or tin foil) or an old rolling pin and cover with bubblewrap, paint, and roll over the paper.

• Paint and collage onto it. If you press tissue paper over the painted bubblewrap, the coloured circles will show through and make a really colourful piece of art work.

• Make a popping game to teach numbers, letters, shapes...anything really! You just write onto or behind the bubbles and then get your toddler to pop them as you name them. This is a good activity for the bubblewrap that has larger bubbles.

• Cut the bubblewrap into strips and use it to decorate a carwash. You can go small, and make walls out of Duplo, or go large and use a big cardboard box. Just fasten long strips over one side so that they hang down for the cars/trains/people to go through. You can use bubblewrap on the floor of the carwash too to represent the bubbles.

• For an unusual edible craft - use bubblewrap to make toppers for fairy cakes. Such a simple idea, and they look so good!

Children should always be supervised when playing with bubblewrap.

10 car journey activities to do with your toddler

We have a long car journey coming up, and so I'm putting together a bag of activities to keep Harry busy. There isn't a lot of space between the car seats in the back, but most of these activities will require a certain level of intervention, either to keep him interested or to keep frustration to a minimum. I'm also trying to come up with activities to keep him amused by himself.

I'll be taking a small tray for some of the activities. And I'll be sure to report back on how well they worked! Here's what I've come up with! Most of these activities need a tray to keep everything together.

Laminated pictures - themed collections of images to look at together. I found these on various websites and have printed them out in colour so that we can go through and name the different objects.

Aquadoodle Mini Mats - we have a couple of sets of these. They are little blank mats that you scribble on with the special wet pen and the picture appears. When the water is dry you can reuse them. They are brilliant for keeping little ones busy and don't make any mess, you just need to make sure that you have water to refill the pens if they get really keen.

Playdoh -  I bought this little Play-Doh Mini Fun Factory which contains two small pots and a mini extruder, then added a couple of cutters and a lollipop stick. 

Small jigsaws - we had a few that were given out in restaurants etc., you need little jigsaws that have small pieces but not too many - something like these mini jungle jigsaws  

Collage bag - glue stick, collage materials, background papers. Can be supplemented on the journey with free catalogues or leaflets if required, maybe leaflets with pictures of the places that you have been visiting. 

Colouring - a small colouring book, pack of crayons and stickers. Crayons are best as they don't make much mess and don't need sharpening like pencils.

Matching activities - I print a grid of pictures or shapes and then cut out the corresponding shapes to be glued in place over the top. I also scanned in some foam stickers and am providing the matching stickers to be stuck over the top of the scanned images for some shape matching fun.

Magnet books - try to find one with magnets that are quite large so that they don't get lost. We had this Peppa Pig: Marvellous Magnet Book which was brilliant.

Car layout and car stickers - I drew this out myself, I hope he likes it! Just draw out a simple road way picture with a few shops and houses etc. and provide car stickers to decorate it with.

Small books - there are all sorts of little mini library book sets that you can buy - we had this lovely Axel Scheffler Pocket Library. Also children's magazines, especially those with games and stickers and a toy on the front.

I hope that these ideas were helpful!

Ginny at Small Things also has some brilliant suggestions in her blog post about travelling with young children.

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10 things to try with play dough

Today I'm sharing lots of activities that you can do with play dough and a toddler!

Make your own! There are recipes everywhere, but I've had a lot of success with this recipe for Four Minute Play Dough from The Imagination Tree. Elsewhere on the site there are also many more recipes for themed play dough in different colours, scents and so on, there are so many!

Collect a range of tools to use with your play dough to create different textures and patterns. They can be purpose made tools or else bits and pieces from around the house, for example a garlic press, plastic knife from the toy kitchen, little bowls and plates, plastic cookie cutters and so on.

Dried spaghetti can be used with play dough to add lots of interest. Use it to make a hedgehog, to make models and for fine motor activities such as threading Cheerios onto the spaghetti.

Add a generous handful of glitter to the play dough for some fun sparkles. Although obviously once a batch of play dough is glitterified there is no going back!

Make the dough into snakes and practice cutting with child safe scissors as a good first introduction to scissor skills.

Decorate your creations with small objects from around the home, for example dried beans, paperclips, dried pasta, buttons, curtain hooks, coins, keys, pieces of pipe cleaner. They are easily removed from the play dough when you come to put it away and can be stored separately in a small container.

Create templates on paper or card with the outlines of numbers and letters. Use play dough snakes to fill out the shapes. You could laminate these for repeated use. Older children can try without templates.

Sculpt amazing landscapes like these at Filth Wizardry - train set and dinosaur island. You can use play dough alongside many other toys, like Duplo, Playmobil, dolls, or toy cars and trains for example. You can also use it to make quick props for other imaginative play, for example we make a simple Button Moon and Mr Spoon's spaceship.

Collect leaves and other natural objects from the garden and press them into the play dough to create patterns.

Extruders are brilliant for playing with play dough. I can't think of any easy way to make them yourself but there are many different types available to purchase like this one - Play-Doh Fun Factory (affiliate link). You push the play dough into a hole and then press down on a handle to force the play dough out in different shapes. 

10 things to do with toddlers and garden canes

When we moved into our house we inherited loads of garden canes in the garage. We discovered lots of things that you can do with them, but do be careful with them and only use under supervision as they can be dangerous. Don't allow toddlers to wave them near others or run about with them. Here are some ideas:

• The classic - make a tent, either for your toddler or for their toys. Use elastic bands, string, clothes pegs and old sheets to secure, with stones around the bottom if you have any. Not for a windy day unless you are very solid in your construction!

• Stick some canes upright into the ground in a row and run in and out of them.

• Stick some canes into the ground closer together and use for weaving string or ribbon.

• Lay them out on the ground in a line or circle to make roads or train tracks, either for your toddler to run along himself or for cars or trains.

• Make a goalpost for football or for target practice with the ball.

• Make two parallel rows of sticks stuck into the ground, drape a cloth over the top and you have a tunnel to crawl through.

• Mark out a square on the ground and throw beanbags or small stones into it.

• Tie long ribbons or streamers to the end and run and dance about.

• Use a stick to push a light ball around a bit like a golf club (you can use some of the aforementioned structures as obstacles).

• Poke the canes into things, like holes in the wall or fence, make holes in the ground, dig in the flowerbeds and just generally wave them about.

Any more ideas? Add them into the comments!

10 things to do with a very young baby

In my experience, babies begin to go through a difficult stage when they are around 10-12 weeks old. They are starting to stay awake for longer and be more aware of what is around them, but are too young to be properly playing with toys, which means that they can get very frustrated. So here are some ideas for things to do with small babies that are not yet sitting up by themselves in the times between feeding and sleeping.

Reading - a baby is never too young to look at books, and if you have an older child this is an ideal way to entertain them both. Read picture books and talk about the pictures, point things out, try texture books like the "That's Not My..." series. Don't just stick to books aimed at babies, also read books aimed at older children such as "The Gruffalo" or other books by Julia Donaldson, particularly those with rhymes. You can also read poetry or song lyrics, or go through a magazine and look at the pictures. Look through photograph albums and point out family members. There are a range of books called Baby's Very First Book which we loved and I've written about some of them here - books for very young babies.

Singing - either traditional nursery rhymes or modern songs. Turn on some music and dance around the room with her, especially to songs with a strong beat which can often calm a grumpy baby. When singing nursery rhymes like Incy Wincy Spider or Hickory Dickory Dock involve the baby by walking fingers up and down her tummy.

Tummy time - this is very important to develop a baby's neck muscles when they are used to sleeping on their backs. Lie down with him and talk to him or place a mirror in front of him. At first they may only be happy for a minute or two, so stop as soon as baby complains.

Baby massage - this is a simple way to bond with your baby and all you need is some oil, for example olive or sunflower oil. It might help to have this demonstrated, so look out for classes running locally, for example at Children and Family Centres, or ask your Health Visitor. Otherwise there are many resources online, for example here at Babycentre. Don't do this just after feeding!

Different textures - touch her hands onto different surfaces - smooth, rough, soft, warm (not too warm!) and cool, wet and dry and talk about them. 

Walk around the house - talk about what you are looking at e.g. family photographs, mirrors, out of the window. Notice what he is most interested in so that you can return for another look. 

Give her a bath - blow some bubbles, do some gentle splashing. It is more comfortable if you have a baby bath seat or support so that you have both hands free, but of course remember never to leave her unattended.

Simple baby yoga - lie him on your lap or on the change mat and gently stretch out and cross over his arms and legs, perform a cycling motion with his legs to help digestion. When baby is a bit older this can be developed further, perhaps by looking for a class locally.

Nappy off time - after removing a dirty nappy let her kick on the change mat with no nappy for as long as she is happy. Great to get some fresh air down there, and also gives her the chance to kick her legs and get some exercise. I usually pop an old towel underneath the bottom just in case.

Go out for a walk - if he is grumpy, get out for a walk and some fresh air with the pram. If he is not asleep, talk enthusiastically about what you are seeing to keep him interested. "Look! A tree! Trees have leaves!"

I hope that this post gives you some ideas if you are struggling with a grumpy baby, I remember those times well and it can be very hard!

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10 things to do with toddlers and tin foil

Here are some ideas for ways to entertain your toddler using tin foil!

Rip it, tear it, scrunch it and create sculptures. Make cups and bowls for a tea party.

Drop it flat from high up and watch it float down, then crumple a piece and drop it and see the difference.

Wrap up and unwrap small toys.

Screw pieces up into small balls and post into a bottle or box.

Make a tin foil river in the garden - a really fun activity for a summer day!

Lay a piece over textured objects on a hard surface and rub over with fingers, for example coins, leaves, brick, sand, small beads, spaghetti.

Stick pieces onto paper and paint over them, or dip scrunched up pieces into the paint and use to stamp with.

Pour some olive oil onto a sheet and paint and swirl with fingers.

Lay a sheet out on a soft surface, poke holes with a cocktail stick and hold up to the light or a window to see the patterns.

Lay a piece out on a soft but firm surface such as carpet and stamp patterns with household objects, for example duplo pieces, bottle and jar lids. Run over it with toy cars or tractors to create roads and train tracks.