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. 

There is nothing like a walk in the woods, there is so much to look at smell and touch.  We often walk in woods but on this occasion I was more purposeful with out intention.  We would collect some woodland stuff and make it into a woodland/nature art piece. 

Boris got very excited about picking up different sticks and pine cones and putting them in the bag.

He looked more carefully at things and showed me things more than he normally would because he knew he would be keeping it for something special later.

We explored the beautiful light that seems to always be present in the woods and talked about how tall the trees were.  We noticed the way the texture of the ground changed and we off the beaten path to explore under, in and around the trees and bushes. 

When we got home I did have a go at encouraging Boris at join me in making some sort of hanging art piece but he wasn't interested so I just laid out the pieces we had collected, for him to explore. 

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 did this same activity with Boris when he was about the same age as Biscuit so I was keen to do it again with them both to compare how Biscuit would react and how Boris would react a year on.

Playing with spaghetti is such a simple but fun sensory play experience, it is cheap and cheerful and fun to look at.

I coloured the spaghetti with food colouring after it was cooked.

It was a great activity, Biscuit essentially just sat and ate it, but I was ok with that, it was great to provide an activity which they could both take part it. 

Boris enjoyed picking up the spaghetti and throwing it around.  He broke it into pieces and mixed all the colours up. 

The activity was useful for improving fine motor skills, particularly the pincer movement for Biscuit, and was great for exploring texture, Boris also used his imaginative powers by pretending the spaghetti was worms! (By the way, the colour on the spaghetti does make a bit of a mess, be sure to use suitable protective equipment bot on the floor and your toddler!)
This is a really easy activity, doesn't take long to set up and is cheap.  Have you used spaghetti in any other ways as a sensory play tool?
Feel free to link your fun toddler activities in the comments below.

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!