DIY activity board for toddlers

I have seen so many great activity boards on Pinterest, especially latch boards. I understand the theory behind latch boards and see the great opportunity to work on fine motor skills. However, I'm not sure I want my toddler knowing how to open, unlock and unlatch the very things that keep him safe around our home. I came up with this alternative activity board instead.

I used a laminated shelf that I kept from a cupboard we recently threw out. This made it easy as I didn't have to do any drilling. I was able to screw everything in by hand. Little Bean is obsessed with light switches at the moment so it was a given that one of those be included. There are also hooks to  hang washers on, eye hooks to thread string through, a pocket for a postcard, a pouch for dolly pegs and two trolley wheels that spin and swivel.

What we're doing this week

This is what we did during our first week back in Australia for the Christmas - New Year holidays. Little Bean is loving it here. Our house in Vietnam is rather small and doesn't have a yard or garden to play in. We only have a tiny courtyard at the front where we park our motorbikes. Little Bean has played more outside in the past week than he has in the previous 3 months. It has made me long for an Aussie style house and garden. When we remodel our Vietnamese house next year, we'll be including a large rooftop entertainment area which will serve as a garden and play area for Little Bean. He really loves exploring my sister's garden and has quickly gone from walking to running since we've been here.

I unintentionally ended up with a bugs & insects theme to most of our activities this week. It just happened that LB found some bug books and discovered my nephew's bug specimen collection.

I bought Little Bean a play set because it included a little wagon, some sandpit toys and a watering can (which I have wanted to get LB for ages). It just happened to also include a "Creeper Keeper" bug viewing container. We haven't tried it out yet, but we'll go looking for some creepy crawlies to go in it this afternoon. I'm sure we can find some slater bugs or snails amongst the pot plants when we water them.

My sister found this awesome bug collection for my nephew at a garage sale. It was a lucky find as it was one of those sets where you had to buy a weekly magazine and bug specimen. These sets usually cost many hundreds of dollars by the time you purchase them all, and often take up to a year to collect. Little Bean is fascinated by them and is very good about only getting a couple out at a time, then returning them to the case before swapping them for more. He is grasping many concepts like this now and I am constantly amazed by how much he actually understands.

Little Bean got to play in a sandpit for the first time. I gave him a couple of spoons and a sand castle mould to play with. He happily scooped, poured and transferred sand for hours. We also used some damp sand to build small castles, which he gleefully smashed with little fists. Once I bought him a sandpit set, he had a shovel, rake, hoe, sieve, bucket and small moulds to play with too.

   Little Bean's cousin was watering pot plants and LB wanted to join in, so he was very happy to be given his own toddler-sized watering can. He quickly got the hang of it and likes to help water the plants every day. He is really enjoying being able to do lots of things that big kids and grown-ups do. Now that's he's undertaking so many new practical life and self care tasks, I'll be writing a post on practical life activities shortly.

The weather has been quite hot, so we've been playing with water a lot. I have been filling his little wagon with water and giving him different tools to play with each day. So far he played with his sandpit set, cups, bowls, slotted spoons for scooping and large serving spoons for transferring water. He also plays with all sorts of natural items he's collected himself such as leaves, rocks and honky nuts. The honky nuts and rocks seem to be firm favourites.

Little Bean has also been enjoying some quiet activities on his Montessori mat. He's been stacking plastic cup towers and knocking them down. He's also been nesting cups and bowls too. As a fine motor skills activity, he's been playing with an icy pole mould set. 

What we're doing this week

This week Little Bean got some Christmas presents early. I ordered them in Australia and didn't think they'd be delivered in time for Daddy to be able to bring them back to Vietnam. They arrived just in the nick of time and I couldn't wait for Christmas to check them out. I guess I'm going to have to do more shopping for something to put under the tree.

About a week ago, Little Bean started chewing on everything. It's actually worse now than when he was teething. I'm stumped as to a cause or a cure. Little Bean can only use anything made of cardboard or soft wood under strict adult supervision. So I can no longer leave his jigsaw puzzles or these new alphabet blocks on his Montessori shelf. I really, really hope he grows out of it soon.

I bought these Melissa & Doug alphabet blocks from the Parent Direct online store. They can be stacked or nested. I  only use every second block as it makes it easier for Little Bean to distinguish between the sizes.

This tent and tunnel combo was also bought from Parent Direct. Little Bean loves it. He actually started using this last week. I put his pretend bed in the tent and we had lots of snuggles in there. Unfortunately, he jumped on the tent and bent the plastic frame within the first few days. It's been packed away until Daddy has time to see if it can be repaired. He been using the tunnel flat-out. His room has a wooden floor, and from downstairs, it sounded like elephants stomping about when he was racing up and down the tunnel. I ended up buying some foam matting to go under it to help reduce the noise. I tied the tunnel down to the matting to stop it sliding around. I must admit that I've been having a ball racing alongside the tunnel while LB crawls through it. This racing game has given us the opportunity to practice the commands stop and go. Crawling through the tunnel myself is a bit of a tight squeeze but loads of fun that usually ends with us both laughing hysterically. We've also been rolling balls through the tunnel and playing peek-a-boo.

Another purchase from Parent Direct was this cute Melissa & Doug peek-a-boo barn. The doors make a cute clacking noise when opened and closed.

I made this chopstick threading activity. For instructions, go here.

We've kept the fine motor skills activities using the icy pole trays and ice cube trays from last week.

How to make a chopstick threading activity

I made this simple chopstick threading activity in a few minutes, but it's sure to keep Little Bean amused for much longer.

You will need:

A cylindrical container with a plastic lid, e.g. Pringles
5 chopsticks
A hole punch, craft knife or box cutter

Punch or cut holes in the plastic lid.
Fit lid to container.
Thread chopsticks through holes.

I originally planned to use plastic drinking straws for this. I ended up using chopsticks because LB is chewing on everything at the moment and I didn't think that straws would last very long.

I love this scrapbooking tool kit from Making Memories. It includes several hole punches and blades that are great for projects like this.

What we're doing this week

At the moment, I try to do at least an hour of structured activity time with Little Bean each day. Usually, we do more. Over the course of the day, we do several short sessions, and the length depends on his mood and interest level. Some days, 10 minutes is difficult and other days, an hour is easy. His structured activity time includes Montessori activities, reading books together, singing songs with actions and drawing. I also try to include him in daily practical life tasks such as passing me clothes pegs, sweeping the floor, wiping his table after eating and packing up after activities. More on that in a later blog.

This week, we have lots of new activities and toys. I am also introducing a more structured learning environment with activity baskets and a floor mat. I will encourage Little Bean to keep his Montessori activities confined to the floor mat and to pack them back into the basket and return them to his activity shelf when he's finished with them. I foresee that patience will be a virtue sorely needed while we adjust. Patience is not something that either of us has in abundance, so this will be a trial for us. I just need to remain consistent and we'll get through it. This floor mat has a non-slip rubber backing, which is perfect for his wooden floor. It's actually a thin cot mattress I bought from Con Cung baby store. Little Bean often likes to help himself to the activities and play independently, so for now, I will leave the mat out permanently so he can use it anytime. When he's older and is able to roll and unroll it himself, we'll put it away when we're not using it.

 Our sensory item this week is a cute floor mat. It's made of t-shirt fabric scraps. It is super soft and has an interesting texture. Little Bean was immediately a big fan. An awesome buy for a couple of dollars at the local markets.

 

This week we're revisiting jigsaw puzzles. When we tried previously, Little Bean was teething and just wanted to chew on the pieces. Hopefully we'll have better luck this time. We're using puzzles that have little pegs to hold on to. I didn't even manage to get them to his room or put them in baskets, before he woke up and decided he wanted to check out his new stuff immediately. He ended up sitting on my bedroom floor checking everything out.

 I have some soft drink bottle lids that Little Bean will place in the compartments of an ice cube tray. He quickly got the hang of this and repeated it several times before wandering off to check out the other new activities. Thanks to his "opening & closing" discovery basket, he can get the lid off and on the container easily.

Another fine motor skills activity this week involves an icy pole mould. Little Bean quickly learnt which way up to put the icy pole sticks in the holes, but is still working on getting the alignment right.

He decided that it might be fun to merge some activities and started putting bottle lids into the icy pole mould.

Little Bean is into pull-along toys at the moment. His crocodile pull-along toy doesn't get enough traction on his wooden floor, so I got him a pull-along train. It has three blocks that sit on the carriage. I think I might tie a longer string to it though so Little Bean can walk with it. The string it currently has is tiny and he can only pull it along if he crawls or scoots across the floor.

We are keeping his xylophone keyboard this week and adding some more musical instruments. His wooden xylophone is making a return and I added some metal cans and tins to use as drums.

What we're doing this week

Little Bean is still interested in our previous fine motor skill activities so we have been continuing those tasks. He's getting the hang of putting the lids on and off his milk cans and milk bottle. He hasn't had much progress with the snap on lids though. They're a tighter fit and may be too difficult for him at the moment. The zippers are a work in progress. He can move it a little way but not the whole length yet.

I have some flash cards on a ring that I use with my ESL (English as a Second Language) students. During a tutoring session last week, Little Bean decided that he liked them. He's been playing with them heaps this week, and occasionally chewing on them too. I really hope he stops chewing on everything soon.





At Little Bean's Gymboree class, they have a piano toy that he adores. He saw one in the baby shop last week and wouldn't leave without it. He can either play the keyboard or use the stick to strike the xylophone.

 We had some leftover foam alphabet mats from Little Bean's bed makeover that he has been playing with. He's good at pulling the letters out but getting them back is a bit harder. He can do the simpler letters like I and L, but needs help with ones that are trickier to line up.

 This beach ball was a free gift when we joined Gymboree. It's much lighter than his other balls so he can toss it quite far and high.

Little Bean loves playing with the clothes pegs when I hang out the washing. I peg some on to his t-shirt that he can pull off. I also peg some around the rim of the bowl. Sometimes we makes chains of them. But mostly, he loves just putting them in and out of the ball, especially this week.

This month, Little Bean has started to play make-believe. It's so cute. He'll climb into my bed, hug a pillow and pretend to sleep. Then he'll suddenly jump up, race to the next pillow and do it all again. In his room, he uses his old nappy change mat as a pretend bed. He has had this red pillow for ages but has never shown any interest in it until now. It's filled with tiny polystyrene beads and is super squishy and soft. He loves snuggling up with it when he pretends to sleep.

How to make your own sorting toys

These sorting toys are really quick and easy to make.

You'll need:
Baby milk cans with plastic resealable lids
Eucalyptus oil
Stanley trimmer (box cutter) or similar blade
Pencil or marker pen
Items for sorting (I used wooden blocks, plastic lids and plastic chew toys.)
Wrapping paper, adhesive contact or coloured packing tape (optional)

Make sure that your baby milk cans are the kind with no sharp edges. Clean any sticky label residue off with eucalyptus oil. Wash and dry the cans thoroughly.

Trace the shape of the toy on to the plastic can lid. Put the lid on the can and cut out the shape with your Stanley knife.

If you want your sorting cans to be more decorative, cover the outside with wrapping paper, adhesive contact or coloured packing tap.