Stay tuned...

This will one day be a play kitchen!

(I hope)

Montessori red rods (ish)

Ellie is 15 months old

I had seen Montessori red rods on some blogs. I thought they would be a good activity for Ellie soon, as she's started getting into sorting and stacking. But when I went to look to buy a set, they were $40. Other places were upwards of $50. This seemed silly for a home (not a classroom) and for what essentially amounted to painted dowel rods.

So I made my own. From dowel rods.

Total cost: $2. I bought two 3/8" dowel rods and cut them into segments of 2", 3", 4", etc., up to 11" (10 rods total). Then I cut a 12" piece of scrap wood (actually, it's oak from a project I did in 5th grade that was in my mom's garage). I used my grandpa's drill press (on the one year anniversary of his death, which was somehow beautiful and appropriate) to drill 10 holes.

Ellie liked it immediately and was really diligent on trying to get the dowel rods in the holes. We're obviously not working on the size sequencing yet.

"Hey look, I got one!"

Then she discovered that banging on the metal bowl was WAY more fun for now! Hooray for creative play!

Fastener practice toy

Ellie is 14 months old

Here is what I will say about this. It is done.

Please do not look too closely. There are lots of boo-boos.

This thing was ridiculous. I was (and kinda still am) super proud of the idea, because it was before I had heard about or seen quiet books, or those little dolls that you get dressed. I came up with it all on my own.

The problem with this is that I had NO guidance. I first envisioned it as a cube, then a book, then I finally gave up and just sewed these squares together. And I hadn't sewn anything except Ellie's birthday banner in about, oh, 14 years. NOT a good first project.

My thread broke too many times to count. My sewing machine broke once. My spirit broke a few times, too.

But it's done. And Ellie mostly likes it (probably because it has pups on it. This kid is obsessed. She went running down an aisle at Walgreens yelling "bup! bup!" because the Cottenelle toilet paper package had a dog on it). She especially likes trying to do the parachute clip, which is dumb on my part, because if she learns it, she can undo her carseat.

But it's done.

Parmesan cheese container fine motor activity

Ellie is 14 months old

This is one of my favorite ideas from Parents as Teachers so far, because it's so versatile and simple.

You know those grated Parmesan cheese containers? The kind of cheese that is not at all fresh or natural, but oh-so-delicious. Yeah, that kind. Well, it becomes a great fine motor activity.

Your kiddo can use straws or pipe cleaners and try to get them into the container. What's great is that there are three built-in "levels." With the lid totally off, it's a nice big opening. The semi-circle opening adds a bit more of a challenge, and the three-hole side of the lid is the hardest.

Ellie is fascinated with this activity. We did a similar one with a big Folgers container and frozen orange juice lids (that don't have sharp edges), with a thin slit cut in it. She likes the sound that one makes, and likes being able to see the straws go in the container on this one.

Practicing lining up the straws

Hold the container nice and steady...

We tried clothespins through the larger opening as well. She liked the straws much better.

Blocks!

Ellie is 13 months old

Confession: sometimes, I get bored with Ellie's toys. I love that she's entertained by endlessly rolling balls down a slide or singing Old McDonald with her farm (and I am incredibly grateful for these toys precisely BECAUSE she loves playing with them over and over). But momma gets a little sick of watching the panda flip up over and over.

But blocks? I could play with blocks all day. All. Day.

We have four awesome sets of blocks.

• Green Toys: these are great first blocks and stack really easily, but are harder to incorporate into other structures
• Alphabet blocks: love the bold pattern on these, and they're a great size for little hands to hold and stack
• Haba fantasy land blocks: beautiful blocks that add a lot of creativity to building, plus have some really interesting shapes
• Melissa and Doug's 60-piece set: the workhorse set, with a ton of different sizes and shapes, all very nicely cut and sanded from nice heavy wood

We also have some blocks that came with her toddle truck (which we all LOVE, by the way). 

Today, we got them all out and started building.

Digging through her box of blocks

Mommy's beautiful city of block towers

(almost) total annihilation!

Ryan wasn't feeling well and was lying on the couch. For 15 minutes, Ellie carried one block at a time from me to Ryan and waited for him to add it to his pile...then toddled back for more. It was incredibly adorable :-)

P.S. I am not nearly famous enough to review products, so these were all purchased by us or as gifts for Ellie.

Hide and seek box

Easiest. Activity. Ever.

Step 1. Order something big from Amazon.
Step 2. Cut a few holes of different sizes and shapes (make sure heads can't get caught!).
Step 3. Sit back and watch your baby have the time of her life.

Raisin container roller

This was another idea from our Parents as Teachers educator. I cut out a bunch of photos of babies and kids from magazines and taped them to an empty raisin container (the big round ones). Then I ran a sheet of contact paper around it to secure the whole thing. This was a great entertainment for tummy time, something to chase when she was starting to crawl, and now works well for talking about emotions and facial features.

I found it surprising how difficult it was to find kids who weren't white with blond or brown hair. I found one redhead, a couple Asian kids, one or two African-American children, and one baby with Down Syndrome. I couldn't find any with braces, glasses, wheelchairs, etc.! But at least it's a start! I also worked to find kids with obvious facial emotions -- scared, crying, happy, sleeping, etc.

Medicine bottle shakers

Ellie is OBSESSED with medicine bottles full of pills. For obvious reasons, we don't let her play with them. But to give her something similar, I took empty bottles and filled them with beans and Cheerios. Now she can play with the medicine bottles, practice shaking and making noise, and feel like a big girl with Mommy's migraine medicine :-)

Shaker bottle

This was an idea I got from our Parents as Teachers educator and modified to use what we had around the house.

I took a Gatorade bottle (we down this stuff at our house) and removed the label, then thoroughly cleaned it inside and outside. I filled it with some colorful pompoms, a couple strings of beads and a bag of metallic confetti. I picked these things because they were a) colorful, b) would make noise (the beads), c) had a variety of sizes, and d) were on sale at Hobby Lobby! Anything bright, colorful and interesting to look at would work.

I ran a line of hot glue around the top and screwed the cap on, then used an incredible amount of electric tape (because it's what I had around) to secure it and cover the lid.

When Ellie was a newborn, I'd hold this above her head during diaper changes and put it on the floor to encourage tummy time. When she started sitting on her own, she loved holding this, examining it and shaking it. It was also useful as a roller toy to encourage her to crawl. She finally started to get bored with it around 10 months, so I'm going to make her another one filled with rice and small objects to play I Spy.

Ribbon ring

I noticed Ellie was really interested (as most babies seem to be) in playing with little bits of ribbon, string, tags, etc. I decided to create a little toy for her to explore different textures and colors.

I went to Joann's and picked out a foot of ribbon in each different color. I tried to find as many textures, widths and patterns as I could. I didn't really feel like trying to sew, so I looked for something that would safely secure the ribbon. I found these D-rings in the aisle with things to make customized purses.

When I got home, I tied each ribbon in a quadruple knot around the D-ring.

Ellie LOVES this little thing. She grabs the different pieces, rubs them, chews on them. She also loves being tickled with it. We also talk about the colors and textures. Of course, be careful with this and supervise it, because it can be a choking hazard.