Tuesday's Tot Trio #8

Looking for a couple of "to dos" to keep little hands busy during the school day? If you're household is anything like mine and you have a little one desperately wanting to join in the school-time fun, here are a few simple ideas to encourage both the cognitive and fine motor skills that a tot will need for a successful school start.

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Both Greased Lightning and Blonde Warrior enjoyed stringing cereal "loops" together to make an edible necklace. I secured two long strings of yarn to the table with tape, poured a bowl of cereal for each of them, and watched as they did the "one for me and one for the necklace" style stringing for about 30 minutes. It helped that they were both working on it at the same time. They were in a heated contest to see who could make the longest string.

Cotton balls and a "cloud" shape made for some afternoon fun. I dabbed glue around the cloud and set Greased Lightening free to "stick."

Not surprising, when he was done covering every dollop of glue, he took all the cotton balls off and wanted to start all over again. Which was just fine with me. I think he repeated this whole page 4 or 5 times until most of the cotton was in one big fluffy heap.

One of my best toy investments has been two complete sets of Bristle Blocks. We got ours from Target, but I have seen them at garage sales and discount shops. I think they are perfect "blocks" for little hands because like Duplos, they keep a masterpiece together. But, unlike Duplos, they are easy to take apart and they don't necessarily have to fit together in certain positions. They will cling to each other no matter where/how and attachment is made. Although we have a rather sizable collection of Bristle Blocks in order to accommodate all four of our kids, I usually only give Greased Lightening a small tub of them when he builds at the table. Otherwise, he gets too overstimulated and loses interest too quickly.
Needing more tot-friendly ideas? Be sure to check out last week's Tot Trio.