Ok, I don't know if anyone else has this problem. My 3 year old gets bored. EVERY day. During Chase's nap time I try to clean and prepare dinner or do special projects. I want three year old to entertain himself. Most of the time it is TV time. But I am trying to get away from that. I'm not doing a great job. But once in a while I think of something that works.
I saw this in a Family Fun magazine and put it away in my brain for future use. I got it out of my brain yesterday. You pour a bunch of salt in a cookie sheet and spread it out kind of shaking the tray to even it out. Then you show your three year old how you can draw in it and the shake the tray (sideways, not up and down) to "erase" it. It is like an etch-a-scetch only you don't have to turn any knobs.
After a while I got out cookie cutters so he could make shapes and that was fun too. But I didn't get any pictures of Alex because when I thought about it he was done and he did NOT want to do it again to get a picture taken. Alex had fun for about 20 minutes or so. That is pretty good.
Then the older boys got home from school. They were intrigued. The family fun idea was actually about doing spelling words in the salt. So I told the boys they could do their spelling words in the salt.
I saw this in a Family Fun magazine and put it away in my brain for future use. I got it out of my brain yesterday. You pour a bunch of salt in a cookie sheet and spread it out kind of shaking the tray to even it out. Then you show your three year old how you can draw in it and the shake the tray (sideways, not up and down) to "erase" it. It is like an etch-a-scetch only you don't have to turn any knobs.
After a while I got out cookie cutters so he could make shapes and that was fun too. But I didn't get any pictures of Alex because when I thought about it he was done and he did NOT want to do it again to get a picture taken. Alex had fun for about 20 minutes or so. That is pretty good.
Then the older boys got home from school. They were intrigued. The family fun idea was actually about doing spelling words in the salt. So I told the boys they could do their spelling words in the salt.
It was a hit! They were not even done with their snack before their spelling was done.
There wasn't even any complaining about homework! Can we do math homework in salt?
Then it was play time. Jaxon made a big hill of salt and was seeing what wind does to salt. This brought up the topic of erosion. (Which he has been learning at school.)
Tanner had fun making patterns and drawing pictures then later made it into a big pile and then shook the tray to see what happened.
Then Chase got involved. I was worried.
Very worried.
Chase has a tendency to throw things. We had been pretty good so far. Not too much salt out of the tray. But what would a 2 year old do with it?
He made pictures, used cookie cutters and tasted it. That was about it. There was a little bit of salt on his pants but that is pretty good.
This is a picture that Tanner made and he wanted me to put it on the blog. He calls it "waterfall".
6 comments:
That is the cutest idea! Can you imagine how many more kids would want to do their homework if it was so hands-on? Way to go!
I love that idea! I might have to steal it from you... on mop the floor day of course. lol
I didn't comment on this & thought I did. Clever, clever idea.
I think this is a rad idea-- a good friend of mine did this just the other day, too!
I love this! Thanks
Janelle,
I love that and I will have to use it with Paislee, thanks for the creative idea.
Amanda
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