Tot Trays 4, 5, &6

Tot trays have become a regular activity around here. I love the one-on-one time, the tv-free fun, and fine motor practice. There's no real rules, just exploring the things we have around the house (look at that it's free) in new ways (woo-who! brain stimulation!).

Tot Tray 4-

Sort colored pasta into recycled yogurt cups. We'll need to try this again in a bit. Fisher enjoyed pouring the pasta in and out of the cups and naming the colors, but not so much about the sorting. Laughing at mommy sorting the pasta was pretty exciting.

Tot Tray 5-

Set out strips of colored paper for your tot to shred into confetti. We used purple, green, and yellow to celebrate Mardi Gras. Fisher's love for all things inedible does not end with paper! When we had exhausted the joy out of tearing paper, we threw the confetti up in the air and shouted "hooray!" Made my day to hear such exuberant "hoo-way!"s coming from my little boy.

Tot Tray 6-

Pinch a cotton ball with a clothes pin and use it as a paint brush. We used scented paint that we found on clearance at Target. This provided added sensory fun. Fisher's need to make a great mess meant that we moved our painting fun to the bathtub. Just strip 'em down, let him go to town with the paint, and hose him down when you're done. Our paint said washable, but I had to scrub the walls a bit to get the staining off.

Adventures in Tot Trays

I'm finding myself with less and less time for photo editing, computer time, and blogging. It's time to switch gears. If any things going to get posted, it'll have to come directly off the phone :)

Lately we've been having fun learning time with Tot Trays. They are Montessori inspired activities concentrating on self-led exploration and building fine motor skills. Here are a few of our recent adventures in Tot Trays.

Tot Tray 1-

Squeeze a medicine dropper full of vinegar onto a tray of baking soda. We used food coloring to dye our vinegar pink for color practice. This provided about a half hours worth of bubbly fun and fine motor practice. Once all of the baking soda/ vinegar reaction happened, I gave Fisher a toothpick to stir with. He played for an additional 15min breaking up the clumps. Truth be told, he shoved as many clumps as he could into his mouth everytime I looked away. Mac n cheese... Too mild for this culinary adventurer. Vinegar soaked baking soda... Delish! 

Tot Tray 2-

Use an ice cream scoop to place large pom-poms into an egg carton. After about 10 min, Fisher became obsessed with trying to hold more than one pom-pom at a time in the scoop. There were tears.

Tot Tray 3- 

Tea bag painting! Tape white cardstock to tray to keep it from sliding around. Place tea bags onto paper. Use a medicine dropper full of water to soak the tea bags and get the "paint" flowing. Use a paint brush to move your paint around. We used different fruit flavors of tea which provided a variety of colors and smells. This activity became more about smell and taste for Fisher than anything else. He enjoyed tasting the tea bags while we talked about the flavors and pointed them out on the tea box.