Welp, Miss G went back to school yesterday and we’re officially missing her already. {Not to mention the slow mornings, pajama days, and general lack of a schedule we had over the break.} I told myself that I’d sign Sam and I up for some fun things come January, but honestly, I just haven’t done it yet… Besides the fact that Vernon isn’t overflowing with options and our school drop-off / midday nap / school pick-up routine really only allows for a class or program between the hours of 9 and 11 am, I know that any play-based program with shared toys will most likely mean sickness after sickness for Sam because a) cold and flu season and b) preemie immune systems suck. And he’s still recovering from his post-Christmas sickness! So for now, we’re sticking with our snowy walks, coffee shop visits here and there, and a whole lot of play at home.
For today’s fun, I whipped up this little tinker play dough invitation and my oh my, was it ever a hit!
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I scavenged all of the little bits and bobs in the divided container from a drawer of extra parts down in the storage room and though I didn’t have to, I whipped up a fresh batch of our homemade no-cook play dough because it’s so easy and quick. I went for a black dough with loads of silver sparkle, but obviously you could use whichever colour your little heart desired. {Expert tip: for a true black play dough, the very best option in my opinion is a very generous glob of Wilton’s black gel colouring. The next best thing is Sax liquid watercolours – what I used here – but because you’ll need a fair amount, include the liquid watercolour in your boiling water measurement so the play dough isn’t sticky gloopy glop.}
Then I set everything out on one of our many play trays and left it for Sam to discover.
Sam LOVES any sort of tool and can often be found wandering the house or playground with an Allen key in his hand, so discovering a little kit full of random screws, nails, washers, and other similar things next to a big ball of fresh play dough was like a dream come true for him.
Now let it be said that I know this invitation to play might not be for everyone. I personally am a huge fan of little ones {safely} exploring real world objects and this is not the first time Sam’s handled screws, nails, and the like. I feel comfortable with it, but if you don’t {which is totally okay!} there are loads of alternatives you could use. Nuts and bolts with no pokey tips would be great and play tools and hardware from a kids’ set would be great, both while allowing the activity to be very similar. No matter what you use and as with all toddler activities, supervision is key of course.
He wasted no time jumping up into his seat and asking for help to clip his belt and push his chair in.
Then it was straight to work.
I didn’t give him any instructions or any sort of demonstration {there’s really no right way to play}… I just sat down and observed.
Now he’s played with play dough and loose parts a lot already so he knows how fun it is to squish things down into dough, so that’s exactly what he did.
He’d pick up a screw or nail or whatever, inspect it a little, and then very purposefully press it down into the dough.
My favourite was when he discovered he could use some of the tinker pieces together.
Just look at this concentration.
So much fun.
I’m pretty sure tinker play dough is going to be in very regular rotation in our house from now on.
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