Little Big

Isobel’s most fondest wish in life (aside from turning into Kiki or a unicorn (or some kind of freakish Kiki-unicorn-Care-Bear-hybrid) is to be able to do whatever it is we do. She’d be most happy if we let her have the run of the house: turning the oven, starting the laundry, or driving to the store whenever she felt like it. Of course she’s going to have to settle for just being able to wash the dishes, a skill I hope to teach her is both rewarding and exciting. I loathe washing dishes by hand so I view this game as a form of investment in my future.

Isobel has actually been playing a variant of this game for a year, and originally she called it “washing the pachas“, a Spanish term for bottle. She witnessed Anthony and I washing her own bottles on a daily basis and begin asking for a ladder so that she could wash them herself. Eventually I found these rainbow-hued cups at the dollar store and since then she’s been washing them several times a week. After she’s sure they are sufficiently clean she likes to fill them part way with water and call out, “KITTIES! DINNER! DINNER TIME! COME AND GET IT!” and I’ve caught her coercing Poppy to drink from them on more than one occasion.

This is one of my favorite games for her, too, because I can get thirty minutes to an hour and a half of uninterrupted time in which to send a few emails or get caught up on the housework. More importantly, though, this is an activity in which she’s busy, content, and creating her own imaginary play fun, which is the best kind of fun there is.

Preparing for this game involves clearing the counter of anything I don’t want soaked with water, spreading rags on the floor to catch the excess (and there will be excesses of excess) water, gathering her rainbow cups and setting up the step stool. I’ll turn the water on just the merest dribble and let her play in that until it’s filled up the plastic storage bin I use to hold the cups. After that’s full I turn the water off and let her splash and play, and when she’s all done I take it outside and water my patio plants.

In addition to the little cups she always asks for a couple of pachas, her plastic tea set, a sponge or a rag (for “cleaning”), a little funnel and bottle brushes. If this particular setup wouldn’t work for your house you could always let your child play over the tub (during bath time or not), in a bathroom sink, or even outside as a thrifty DIY water table.

FURTHER READING:

• Home Movie: Washing the Pachas
• 50 Thrifty Fun Things To Do
• Thrifted Kitchen Toys

As a child I had a set of Holly Hobby sewing cards that I loved and used till the yarn frayed terribly and the holes gave out. Now that Isobel’s older and has leveled up her dexterity I thought it was high time that she have her own. Trouble is, I haven’t found any in stores (not that I’ve been looking that hard, admittedly) so I decided to make some. I’ve been doing more simple sewing around her so I’ve been wanting to give her a preschool-appropriate version so she can practice her sewing right along with Mama. The sooner I can teach this kid a useful skill (other than helping me feed the cats and card counting) the better off she’ll be during the apocalypse. I hope her zombie overlords need lots of string threaded through cardboard.

There are two ways to make these sewing cards: the easy way and the slightly more labor intensive way. I made the latter first and it took about twenty minutes.

The Slightly More Complicated Version

1. My kid is Care Bear crazy, so  I took a coloring book we had lying around and scanned an unused page.

2. I used Photoshop to add color and then I printed it out.

3. Then I took a pair of sharp scissors and cut just the bear out.

4. Then I made the base: I reused a plain old USPS envelope for the cardboard and then glued purple construction paper on top of that. I’m sure you could buy poster board at a crafts store but there are so many bits of it lying around, from packaging to shoe boxes, to old folders and envelopes, that you really don’t need to.

5.  I used rubber cement to adhere the bear to the backing and a hole punch to make the holes and there you have it–a cheap, fun form of amusement for a preschooler.

The Really Simple Version

It was the next day that I realized there was an even simpler way to make these. In the second photo you can see that Isobel was absolutely enthralled by the Hello Kitty valentines I bought for a a few bucks at the grocery store. While she was playing with them I noticed that not only is the cardboard box they came in the perfect weight for sewing cards, it is also adorable. So I took my scissors…

Cut out the kitty shape…

Punched a few holes…

And ta-da! A simple sewing card made out of something that was otherwise considered garbage! I raided my stash for pink yarn and added a wide piece of tape at the end for the “needle.”

I tied it to one end and showed Isobel how to “sew”.

She was a natural! She only once sewed it to the chair she was sitting on.

I keep this in my purse if we go anywhere that I suspect might have a bit of a wait. Long car rides, doctor’s offices, that sort of thing. Now that I’ve made a couple I keep seeing things that could turn into sewing cards wherever I go. This is great for kids who need to practice their dexterity or hand-eye coordination, and really great for kids who enjoy repetitive, absorbing tasks.

Playdough is one of those classic toys that I remember as a kid. When friends of ours gave Isobel a set for her birthday I was taken back to my preschool Sunday school classroom the moment I removed the lid. That salty smell is the same as I remembered it almost thirty years later. I think what makes play dough a thrifty toy, besides the fact that you can make it yourself for pennies, is that you can stretch the possibilities of play with just a little imagination.

For Christmas my über-talented aunt filled Isobel’s stocking with tubs of homemade play dough. The perfect gift! I’ll have to remember that for next year. She loved it and played with it until one day I discovered mold in the tubs. Homemade play dough doesn’t last forever but you can make up batches cheaply and quickly. I babysat all though elementary, middle, and high school, and one of my favorite things to do with my kids was to whip up a batch of play dough and let them go to town.

The recipe is very simple, and although there are doubtless many ways to make homemade play dough (I’ve seen some recipes that involve cooking it), this an easy method I learned back in my professional babysitting days.

Ingredients:

• half cup salt
• half cup water
• 1 cup flour
• a few drops of food coloring (optional)

Method:

We have a giant oilcloth sheet that I lay down before making this if we’re using the food coloring, but sometimes I just mix it up in the sink. I never added the food coloring when babysitting because I didn’t want to make a potentially staining mess in somebody else’s house. Bear in mind, the play dough in the photos on this post came from the commercial set the Walton’s gave Isobel for Christmas, not the homemade kind, so your finish product won’t look the same. This play dough is edible, but tastes disgusting and eating should be discouraged because its salt content is way too high to be healthy.

1. Mix dry ingredients

2. Add water

3. Add food coloring

4. Mix together and knead into dough

At this age Isobel isn’t interested in making things beyond snakes or balls as much as she is with just squishing it, molding it, and playing with the textures and shapes. The set she received for her birthday included some toys that she quickly became bored with or were too complicated for her to use at this age. This is where I started pulling items from all over the house for her to play with. Cookie cutters and this textured rolling pin were obvious, but less obvious things were the metal mushroom that made a funky-looking imprint, her tiny muffin tray, wherein she likes to made molded “moon cakes”, a dough cutter for easy and safe slicing. I grabbed plates and spoons from her tea set that made flower, heart and butterfly imprints, my flowered bento carrot-cutter, and the melon-baller.

Look around your kitchen and home for things that would provide texture, or a fun safe way to shape or mold the dough. Look for things while thrifting that you might want to add to your play dough tool set, too.

It will look so fun you might want to get in on the action, too.

Last summer Isobel went through this phase where she absolutely hated the bath. It took us all by surprise because even as a newborn she always loved bathing and playing with water. For awhile there the only time we could get her willingly both in the tub and sitting down is if we let her bathe with Kingston. Parenting is the sort of skill that you must constantly hone on the whetstone of change and adaptation, so we came up with a few games and activities to entice Isobel into the tub without wailing like I’m about to waterboard her. Her favorite game, by far, was Tub Bubbles.

Tub Bubbles

 Tub Bubbles was a game we made up after a particularly messy afternoon of playing outside in the dirt. On our way inside I grabbed a bubble dish and a few wands and headed for the tub. I left the bubble solution itself outside, though, because it’s too harsh for the bath. I made my own bath-safe bubble solution by mixing water with a small amount of baby shampoo. It took some trial and error to reach the right consistency but once I hit on the sweet spot (about three parts water to one part shampoo) it worked like a charm and Isobel and I blew bubbles all over the bathroom. A bonus feature of tub bubbles is that they stick to anything wet, so we made games of covering her hand or arm or even belly in bubbles, which she then savored popping one by one. We also had a lot of fun making them stick to wet toys, the side of the tub, the curtain, or even the surface of the water itself.

Other Fun Activities

If you child runs out of fun with tub bubbles, you can keep them entertained a bit longer with these ideas.

• Unused, colorful sponges were a big hit with Isobel. She loved to pretend to “clean” the tub, her toys, and even herself. Their texture is just fun for kids in general and she got a kick out of filling them up and squeezing them out. I cut a few into simple shapes and we stuck them to the sides of the tub wall.
• If you have a funnel in your kitchen that you don’t mind putting in the bath that can be fun to have on hand, too. Add some cups and your kid can mess around with that for awhile.
• Unused toothbrushes are also a tub favorite, for cleaning the tub, practicing brushing skills, or, as Isobel likes to do, cleaning her toys’ teeth.
• My mom made a habit of bringing a soft nail brush into the tub with her when she would bathe Isobel. She liked to use that time to clean her own nails, and so naturally it’s Isobel’s now and she can clean her own nails with it and will eagerly clean yours, too.

• We discipline our cats with spray bottles filled with plain water, and those are fun to bring in the tub occasionally, too. Isobel isn’t allowed to squirt them anywhere but the tub so it gives her that thrill of playing with forbidden fruit.
• One time Isobel asked to bring her pretend make up brush (a real one that I bought for her at the dollar store) into the tub and although it is ruined for make up play it is still a well-treasured bath toy. She treats it like a long-handled scrub brush and will wash her entire body with it–even her back! Best dollar investment ever.
• Isobel likes to use paint brushes in the tub, too, for making water and soap masterpieces.

Nothing compares to the fun of bathing with a friend, of course, but these tub activities have made her a fan of bath time once again.

It sounds like a strange thing to say, but one of the best compliments I’ve ever received was from Anthony and it was about the thrifty and creative ways I’ve found to cheaply entertain Isobel. And it’s true: I pride myself on my ability to entertain her for minutes on end (precious, precious minutes!!–that sometimes add up to hours!) so I can do the dishes, drink a cup of coffee, or take a blissful dump in peace.

Many of you reading at home are parents, or perhaps spend some portion of your time with a young child. I’m willing to bet that readers here probably don’t have endless supplies of cash to spend entertaining your little ones, so this year I’m going to share at least 50 simple, accessible, and–most importantly–cheap ways to entertain your kids. Some of these ideas might give you a few blessed hours to yourself, and some of these activities you can revisit over and over again. If you’d like to share your best ideas for thriftily entertaining kids, I’d love to hear them.

50 thrifty idea, number one: cover your table with butcher paper, hand your kid a bucket of crayons and maybe some stickers and let them have at it.

The paper we used is actually packing material that came inside a package my mother ordered at Christmastime. She knows I collect paper like this to use for shipping items from my Etsy shop. That’s why it’s so crinkled. This time I spread  it on the table for Isobel to use instead of adding it to my shipping cupboard. It might end up there eventually, though.

The paper itself is like a very thin paper lunch sack. I like the way crayon and stickers look against the tan brown color. They really pop. I like it better than white paper, but it’d do just as good a job.

This activity bought me an hour. It probably would have given me longer but we had errands to run so I had to stop her.

When it was time to clean up I just rolled the paper up. It still has plenty of life left in it. I can rotate the side if she wants a clean slate to color on, or I can make it new buy letting her put stickers or water colors over the used areas. I just introduced her to the magic of stamps, so I’m sure this will be covered in ink pad markings and fingerprints before too long.

This is also great to save and pull out when she gets into Epic Coloring Mode. She can get so enthusiastic about coloring that she ends up going off the paper with her artistic zeal and then I have to scrub crayon off the table for the fifteenth billion time. She can color on top of this paper and I don’t have to tell her to slow her coloring roll.

Since the paper was repurposed and we already owned the crayons, this activity was free.

My sanity and a happy toddler? Priceless.