Sunday 7 September 2014

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - A Week of Activities!

We've been busy!  it's been a fun and activity filled summer, here are some of the things we have been doing in a bumper week of fun toddler activities. 

I had been planning this activity for months, saw it on Pinterest and started browsing the internet for water tables. I thought it was probably the best idea ever and was going to be so much fun and so stimulating and Boris would probably play with it for hours!  Turns out (for me) this was THE most stressful (and expensive) activity I have EVER done with Boris, and that is saying something because I have done some pretty stressful activities with him.

I still think it is a great activity but I would warn you not to try it is you have a small baby who is on the move near by, he WILL want to eat the water beads no matter how much you try to distract him with tin foil!

So if you want to try this activity what you need is:

Water table (I bought this one, its expensive but a good size and has two separate sections so I think I will be versatile for future activities)
Blue water beads (I bought these)
Glass nuggets (these)
Tin foil,
Glitter (optional:

WARNING: This activity must be closely supervised, I know my toddler isn't going to put these in his mouth, but I don't know your toddler so to avoid any risks I wouldn't recommend it for children under 36 months.

I lined the water table with the tin foil which, under the water created a beautiful sparkly shiny effect. the I filled it with pre-soaked water beads and a pack of the glass nuggets.


Boris was intrigued by the water beads, he has played with them before so was quite excited about them.  


The contrast between the soft beads and the hard glass nuggets added another sensory element.


Boris kept dropping the beads and nuggets on the floor which of course Biscuit wanted to immediately eat!  So I tried to distract him with floating balls of tin foil!





I added blue glitter, but it looked a bit like bits of floating dirt, I think silver would have worked much better. 



It's a really beautiful activity and would definitely have been more enjoyable if it had just been me and Boris, but with Biscuit there is well it was a nightmare. I don't mean to sound negative but it really did get me in a sweat!  
What have you tried with water beads?  Please link below, link party fun!

5 comments:

  1. I can see you read The Imagination Tree. I used to get lots of ideas from there for my grandchildren when they were toddlers and would pass them on to my daughter who didn't get on the internet much at that time. Now they are 4 and 5 but with the new grandchild arriving soon I will have to refresh myself and see what is current these days with little ones. You have lots of great ideas on your blog, Helen.

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  2. I've done this activity a few times after you posted about it before. My boys love it - both the creation of the ice AND the playing with it after it has frozen. It's a great activity. Thank you for sharing it.

    A new favourite way to play it is to put one or two things each in an ice cube tray so they end up with 8 miniature versions. Useful as it doesn't need smashing. We joined one set together with string so when it came out we had a string of ice cubes! Fun.

    I'd like to get some ice cube shape trays next....

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    1. Oops - this is meant to be on the page about ice cubes! This activity looks less fun - both my boys still put everything in their mouths so I'll have to hold off for a while on the water beads! X

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    2. Oh I really like the idea of stringing them together. I used a bug silicone cake mould to make sum bug ice cubes last week. I will be posting about them soon, they worked really well.

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