Toddler Activites – Part 3

Time to cook dinner and the little toddler screams, yells and shows all kinds of tantrums that you feel he is more dramatic than any bollywood movie climax ever! You are not alone mommy. Do you want to know what is keeping my 22 months old toddler son slightly occupied for 10 to 15 minutes? Read on.

DIY Moon Sand

Mix Rice powder and Coconut oil together in a bowl to get damp beach sand in the comfort of your home.

Method: To 1 cup rice powder, I added ¼ cup coconut oil and whisked it together. You definitely will need at least 8 cups of this mixture to make a good quantity.

The resulting mixture should be kept aside for 15 minutes before beginning to play so that your little one’s castle can hold its shape better. My son was more keen to destroy the little castle structure I made than building one.

We also buried his little swan in the sand and he dug it out. It was all fun and laughter the first time around. The clean up was fairly easy as well.

So next evening, I put the moon sand in front of him and may I tell you that I cooked dinner in 20 minutes but , had to clean up moon sand from my kitchen for  more than 1 hour. He managed to dump it out of the container. I just don’t even want to recall my disappointment.

I do this activity twice a week and spread an old bed sheet on the floor and then place Shaurya and his sand there with little toys, cups etc.

I prefer to make moon sand out of rice powder and coconut oil as it is non toxic and edible (toddlers put everything except food in their mouth). I am not fond of my son eating all purpose flour with baby oil as many recipes call for.

Storage: Keep it in an airtight container and put in a cool place. Keeps fresh for 7 days.

Tip: You can add food color to make it more fun. I made a yellow variant by adding a little turmeric powder.

Magnetic Numbers (All kinds of colorful magnets)

I took out those magnetic numbers, letters and shapes and placed it on muffin tins, cookie sheets and other magnet friendly surfaces. It kept him occupied for a good 10 minutes and I enjoyed my Chai and Rusk 🙂

Then, he got angry at the magnets when it did not adhere to the walls. Bummer!

Now, he likes to go and check out magnet friendly surfaces and when he finds his magnet attracting to a surface he claps.

I do a happy dance when he approves an activity because you all know the struggle is real.

Tip: Buy inexpensive magnetic numbers, shapes, letters etc. from Dirham stores. If your little one has crossed the age of 2 then , you could use this activity as a number and letter recognizing session as well.

Toddler Busy Bag

Now, go completely creative on this one. Put all kid safe fun stuff that your little one likes in it. Shaurya is fond of my make up brushes, dish scrubs, legos etc. So we put all these stuffs in one big pouch. I take it out during those melt down moments (Dad going to the office without Shaurya),(Mom talking to grandparents on the phone), (limiting TV time). This toddler busy bag helps to refocus his attention.

I have a toddler busy bag in his diaper bag that has crayons, stickers, books etc. There is another toddler busy bag in the living room with dirham store products like steel spoons. measuring cups etc. There is also a  toddler busy bag that has a zip lock bag filled with cheap hair gel  for squishing around (for sensory play)  and  a little bottle with few coriander seeds (diy rattle).

The main thing to keep in mind is rotating the bags in such a way that your little one gets each bag only once a week. This keeps them intrigued for longer. And use it only when you have no time or energy to deal with their melt downs.

Tip: Keep updating your busy bags as per the changing interests of your little one. You can find pouches for as cheap as AED 2 in the Dirham stores.

Important : Always supervise your kids during these activities as toddlers are prone to all kinds of dangers in the world.

If you have not read the related toddler activities post you can read it here:

How I keep my toddler busy

How I keep my toddler busy Part 2

I hope you enjoyed this post and do drop me a comment or message if you found it helpful as that is all I really want to do as I always say , “I desire to inspire”.

Together we mommies can tackle Toddler hood 😀

See you soon with a  video!