The Activity Box.

Friday, December 09, 2011

I try to come up with new activities for the kids to play and learn with, and sometimes, just to keep them occupied for a time. There are definitely moments in my day where having a little distraction helps a LOT (while making dinner is a big one...)!

Max and I are not very big TV people, so we don't let the kids watch much either, and that can mean coming up with out-of-the-box (or in the box, I suppose!) and age-appropriate entertainment for the kids to play with, somewhat on their own.

I saw the idea for an activity box at Click. Pray. Love (she has other great toddler activity ideas too!) and thought it was awesome! What a simple way to provide some play-learning time, that is also free and easy to put together! I have given the kids household items (wooden spoons, measuring cups, mixing bowls, etc) before, but the idea to put a bunch of stuff into a box and let them go to town, was not something I had done!

So, I grabbed a box (one we've played with before...there is a big "door" cut into the side!) and threw some stuff inside - strainer, plastic containers with lids, cups, an apron, foam packing peanuts, magnetic letters, cookie cutters, utensils, a bucket, a rolling pin, a plastic fire hat, a cutting board - and told L she had something special to do. You should have seen her eyes light up! And she peaked into that box and had a blast! She was busy for 45 minutes (that is a long time in the life of a toddler, let me tell you!), pulling everything out, "making" something out of the foam packing peanuts, dumping stuff from one bucket to the next. At one point, she even ran into the kitchen, pulled out a small frying pan and ran back to the activity box - I guess she was "making" food and needed to cook something up?! It was too cute!

This was so easy to do - just get creative and find items you have around the house (just think about age appropriate-ness...I wouldn't give the packing peanuts to Z to play with...they would have all ended up in his mouth!) and throw them in a box or bag!