Toddler Mania

TERRIBLE TODDLER ON THE LOSE:

I think that we have been going through the terrible twos at our house. And if you don't believe me call Grandma Dyer and ask her what she heard on the other end of the telephone last time she called. (NON-STOP screaming from a little grandson named RIGDON!!!!!!!) Sorry Grandma Darlee.

I have been frantically looking for things to keep this bundle of joy occupied every minute of everyday to keep him out of trouble. I have found a ton of great ideas and things to do from many books at our local library. HOORAY FOR FREE BOOKS>>>> I also found a couple at some garage sales.

So, here is what we have been doing. . . (to help keep us all from going crazy)

1. Working on our motor skills

We cleaned off our counter and found some random stuff and put it in a large container.

Then Rigdon found these fun plastic tweezers. Next, Rigdon picked up all of the random items with only the tweezers, and put them in another bin.


He had a blast with this activity. He thought that he could be sneaky and sometimes use his hands, but I would catch him and he would giggle forever.

Little sis, trying to get into all of the action too. I cannot believe that she is pulling herself up to stuff by herself now.

Time that Rigdon was glued to this activity: 45 minutes!!!!

2. PLAY-dough with a MANLY twist

I am not sure if you can tell, but there are manly tools in that blue bin. All you need is a power saw, wrench, and some screwdrivers. And of course the pink play-dough makes it even manlier!!!

Total time, Rigdon was glued to this activity: 1 1/2 hours

3. BAND-AIDS GALORE!!!

So every child just loves band-aids, right. Well we did a little art activity with band-aids the other day. It was a ton of fun. We gathered up some random looking band-aids that I thought we might not use any time soon. Then I let Rigdon pick his favorite color of paper. We went outside on the porch because it was a nice sunny day, and Rigdon went to town opening up Band-aids. Here is the end result:

I was not really planning on focusing on the letter Bb. But Rigdon pointed out the letters on the package. So we talked about the letter B. He wanted to post it on the fridge, so what better thing to hang it with than our B magnets. I was so proud of him!!!

This was by far my favorite activity that we have done together. He ate it up!!!

Total Time Rigdon was Glued: 1 hour altogether

4. Making circle Crayons

I am sure that some of you have heard of this, but it was a lot of fun and Rigdon's attention span was great for this activity.

First: You take off the paper on those old crayons that you don't really like to use. Besides I am sure that you just bought new ones that were super cheap from all of those back to school sales. This took the most time, Rigdon was totally into this activity, even though he couldn't do it very well. It was me who took most of the paper off, but I was impressed that he stood there and watched while cheering for me!!!


Second: You let the toddler sort the crayons after the paper has been taken off. It was fun to watch Rigdon sort the crayons. He was so precise and would talk out his reasoning.



Third:Bake the crayons!!! Make sure that if you do this you spray the muffin tins with some sort of cooking spray. Otherwise you will have a mess. You bake them on 425 for about 5 or ten minutes. This is what they look like when you get them out of the oven. I don't really know how long it took to cool. We took them out and headed to the park. Then when we came back they were ready to take out and color with.


Fourth: Take them out of the pan and COLOR!!!! Just a tip: The ones with the most crayons turned out the best. The thin ones broke really easy.



Total Riggy Glued time: 3 hours
From start to park to finish
It was a little bit messy, but worth every bit of fun!!!


Well, there is what we have been doing for the past two weeks, plus a little bit more. Thanks for listening to a boring mother, who thought these ideas were fun and worth the time to see her 2 year old stinker, smile.