I’ve always been really worried about exposing Miss NHM to technology stuff that isn’t age appropriate.
I mentioned this to a fabulous friend of mine recently and she sent me the link to this FANTASTIC website.
If you are looking for suggestions of age appropriate Apps to download or which films are suitable, etc. I recommend checking this website out.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
Thanks very much fab friend :-D.
This post is for Jo who thought I said “Goop” and then thought I was best friends with Gwyenth Paltrow because she has a blog called “Goop” :-D.
I’ve been wanting to do this for ages with Miss NHM, since before she was born! I can’t even remember where I first found out about Gloop, but it’s such a simple idea and a very cheap activity.
1 cup cold water
2 cups corn flour
Random buttons
Slowly add one cup of water to two cups corn flour in a bowl.
Stir until the water is absorbed by the corn flour.
Add buttons. Fishing buttons out of the gloop is great for your little one’s fine motor skills.
Miss NHM played with the Gloop for about an hour. We had a brilliant time playing with it and fishing the buttons out added another dimension to her interest.
Go to the toilet before you start. I didn’t do this and spent most of the time playing, wishing I had gone beforehand! The thought of leaving Miss NHM on her own or trying to get her to stop playing just wasn’t an option!
Don’t use fabric buttons like I accidentally did. Duh.
Do this somewhere that you don’t mind getting dirty. We found the kitchen was the best place. I probably wouldn’t do this in a carpeted room.
You can also step it up a level by adding either food colouring or food essence. We might try this next time.
Also, if the weather is nice next time we try this, I will try this outside.
I’ve been meaning to do this activity for ages and we finally got around to it this morning. It was BRILLIANT! I really didn’t think we would have so much fun. I made blue spaghetti first, to try it out, and gave that to my little one with some plastic plates, cups and a spoon. She spent about 20 mins playing with it, whilst I pottered around the kitchen. I then did some red and green spaghetti and we both played with it together for about another hour!! I really didn’t expect to have so much fun with it:
It’s easy peasy. I first saw the idea HERE and have had it on my “list of things” to do since my little one was born. All you need is some spaghetti and food colouring. I picked up the spaghetti we used from the Sainsburys value range, about 40p, but you can get it cheaper in Tesco’s. We used about a quarter of it, so we can do this at least 3 more times. I cooked my spaghetti up with the food colouring directly and am pleased to report that it didn’t stain my saucepans. I got a bit covered in food colouring, but that was half the fun and I’m not great with those food colouring bottles! lol. My little one had so much fun moving the spaghetti from bowl, to plate, to cup and learnt that she could bite the spaghetti in half to make smaller pieces. We came up with some very multicoloured patterns as you can see:
It was a great opportunity for my little one’s motor skills and for us to practice colours. I totally recommend this activity with your toddler, especially for a rainy day. If you do try it out, let me know how it goes!