This past weekend, we had lots and lots of cold, stormy, rainy weather. A pure delight for us Arizonans. If only there was no school and other obligations to attend to, so that we could have indulged in a lazy day with pj's, hot cocoa, movies and blankets. I was loving the rain, but my littles were sorely disappointed that play day at the park, or even in the yard, was cancelled. What to do with two house-bound kiddos?
I had a bit of cooking to do during the day, and I tried to enlist their help. They typically love helping to measure and dump things into the mixer. This time, they lost interest quickly. Mr. Three went and found some cars and motorcycles to run along the walls and floor while Mr. Four managed to pull out a opened container of oats to keep himself entertained. Luckily, it was only about 1/4 full, so it didn't bother me too much when it quickly ended up spilled onto the kitchen floor. Mr. Three was all too willing to help clean up (and by clean up I mean mostly spread around) the mess. It was actually a nice activity to keep them busy while I finished up my dinner preparations.
After cleaning up the kitchen mess, I had a light bulb moment. The oatmeal container would make a great toy. Mr. Three and Mr. Four are really interested in sorting and pouring all sorts of items. Good thing I have been saving(hoarding) the lids off of the squeeze baby food pouches for some time. All I did was cut a rectangle in the oatmeal container lid just big enough to push a squeeze pouch lid through, popped the lid on, gave the boys the container of squeeze pouch lids and let them play. Best rainy-day-free toy ever!
Besides filling the oatmeal canister with lids, they also poured the lids back and forth between the containers. I had Mr. Three tell me the color names as he pushed each lid through the hole. We counted lids and then discovered that they are stackable and make great towers to knock down (Mr. Four loved the destruction aspect.).
Earlier in the week, with the cub scouts, we had taken the lids and tried to flick them off the side of our hands into a box, as a simple gathering activity. The scouts and my little boys loved this game. Here's a video, if you want a (not so great) demonstration, with a little motorcycle action thrown in for interest.
I have also pinned some other great uses for these squeeze pouch lids that we may have to try soon. So, if you have been saving (hoarding) these lids like me, here are several good reasons to keep them in your stash of useful stuff. You're welcome!
It would be fun to make bugs on a sticky table.
I found these rolling truck and car toys. This could be a fun cub scout activity as well as something for the preschool set.
This build a bug busy bag is on my to do list for the spring.
I love this color wheel matching game, and you could easily use the squeeze pouch lids in place of the wooden wheels.
In case that's not enough, a few more ideas:
use them to make patterns
count the lids
stack and compare towers
graph with them
make a batch of playdough and use the lids as stamps, monster eyes, wheels, etc.
Loads of rainy day (or any day) fun!
If you're still reading, here's the boys playing with their toy, adding their own great sound effects. Anyone with little boys knows that sound effects are mandatory for pretty much any activity. Enjoy!
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