And just like that, summer is almost over.
Back to school shopping has begun.
Teacher assignments and supply lists have hit our mailbox.
Open houses are scheduled.
The final countdown has begun.
Our big girl is headed to her last year before middle school and our middle one is kindergarten bound…this momma is an emotional wreck!
Over the course of the summer, L (and his sisters) have kept us on our toes with medical issues but luckily, everyone is fine! As we have come to terms with apparent heat/humidity issues with L, we have begun to experiment a bit and find out EXACTLY what triggers him.
It seems like direct sunlight and humidity automatically make things worse, but if we can stay relatively shaded in low humidity weather, he seems to be able to tolerate temperatures as high as 80 degrees.
Although this has given us more freedom, we are still pretty limited on hot summer days which gave us LOTS of time to experiment and find some new ideas for our second part of our allergy-friendly toddler activities series!
1) Feed the Monster!
This one was super fun for L and I think it will be pretty durable and versatile! I took a box we had lying around and covered it in colorful duct tape, drew eyes and cut a slit for the mouth. We had tons of infant face cloths that we never used so I stuffed them in and let L go to town pulling them out and stuffing them back in! Although he didn’t find it quite as appealing as a free for all with a box of tissues or package of baby wipes, it did entertain him for a bit and was a great fine motor activity! I’m sure we will use this with lots of other items as well!
2) Up-cycled Formula Cans!
If you are anything like us, you have tons of empty containers lying around! For us, this means L’s formula! If you don’t use formula try washing out a safe food container or even simple plastic containers from the dollar store if you are worried about cross contamination! I filled them with various items so they were different weight/made different sounds when shaken and then wrapped each can entirely in colored duct tape. Although I *DID* use food ingredients as some fillers, they are completely sealed inside with no way for him to access them and it’s totally optional to do it this way! We used plastic formula scoops, rice, lentils, pasta, legos, and plastic container lids. Take a look around your house and see what you can scrounge up! L has loved lining them up, flipping them to see the silver bottoms, stacking them like blocks, rolling them, banging them like drums, shaking them and we have even started using them to match/learn colors!
Endless possibilities!!
3) Open and Shut Sensory Board!
I hate all the plastic we go through so I think that was part of my inspiration for this series! I was super excited to come up with this one using wipe package tops, scraps of things from around the house, hot glue and a wooden tray we had leftover from a toy. Any piece of cardboard would work as a backing too! All I did was glue my tops to the backing and then hot glue small items inside. SUPER simple and this one was surprisingly L’s favorite!! Anything small that could fit inside and have the lids still close will work well. So many possibilities with this and it makes a great travel activity/busy board! You could tweak this activity to include pictures of family members, animals, numbers, letters, matching, colors, etc. I have a feeling this will be a go-to for lots of our learning activities around here!
I’m excited to see what we can come up with for the last few activities in the third part of our series so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it!
