Toy Supplies

A one and a half year old is a bit tricky to entertain sometimes.  Sophie is not old enough to talk, yet wants to try.  She's doesn't quite know her colors, but likes colors anyway.  She doesn't have all the skills needed to work tongs or clothespins correctly, even though she likes to squeeze them and ends up getting her hands or fingers caught in them.  After looking at things online for busy bag ideas, I decided to try to put together some things for her.  We were going to be headed out on a trip that would take about 6 hours each way so I wanted her to have something new to do in the car to help her be entertained.  I also wanted the items to be able to be played with at home so I could have a moment without her 'help' if needed.  :)

I ventured out to our few local stores to see if I could find some things on my list.  I had a few ideas, but had to really see what I could get here since we have so few options of stores.  After 3 stores and about $30, here's what I came home with:

• Ice cube tray
• Clothespins
• Large manila paper
• Pinto beans
• Velcro pieces
• Magnetic dry erase board
• Pompoms of different sizes
• Rope
• 2 Coloring and Sticker packets
• Glow stick wand

I had different ideas for each thing, but you can imagine some of the stuff and their purposes as toys. Here's a couple of examples of what I put together:

Pompoms in the ice cube tray for her to sort and just put in and out of the compartments.

I cut up part of a pool noodle to use with a short piece of the rope.

These were stand alone toys: colors, stickers, and a coloring book packs and a glow stick wand in case we were driving at night. 

I have other activities I made with these I'll post in a different post.  As for these that I showed here, Sophie didn't seem too impressed after the first initial use.  For example, the ice cube tray with pompoms worked really well the first time she had it.  She was playing with it quietly for a good 15-20 minutes.  After that, she seemed to have no interest in it, even now and it's been 1.5 months since her first time playing with it.  The rope and pool noodle pieces she wasn't able to do alone.  She couldn't get the rope through the hole in the middle so she has to have someone hold the rope for her while she puts the piece on, thus making it not an 'alone play' toy.  The coloring packs she did like, though.  She loves carrying around the crayons and did color a little in the books.  The stickers she feels need to be put back onto the original page once she's taken them off, so she doesn't like for them to be taken off.  I'm not sure her reasoning for that as other stickers she has no problem with taking off and not returning.  The glow stick wand we didn't need and haven't used.  We returned from our trip at night, but it was a time of night that she should have been sleeping so I didn't want to give her something that would distract her from that.  I still have it in case I need it another time.  All in all, I think it was a $30 well spent, even if she didn't really 'get' all the toys and activities with them.