Author Archives: Janelle Durham

Unknown's avatar

About Janelle Durham

I am a parent educator and social worker, and teach music and science to children age 1 - 8.

Cheap Dates for Toddlers – Christmas “shows”

Leave a reply

December is filled with free entertainment opportunities for toddlers. Lots of shopping centers do shows to pull people in, hoping that you’ll spend money once you get there, but you don’t need to!

We live a block from Bellevue Square, so we’ll start with the show that I hear every night through my windows: Snowflake Lane at the Bellevue Collection happens at 7 pm every night till December 31 (yes, our toddler is memorizing all the songs already). If you arrive around 6:40, there will be music playing, and costumed performers wandering around greeting and interacting with the crowd. From 7 – 7:25 or so, there’s a big show: parade, drummers, lights, stilt walkers, dancers, and snow! (bubbles that look like snow). It’s a lot like a show at Disneyland in terms of the energy and how much is happening. So, if you like that vibe, you’ll like this show. The crowds aren’t bad at all* (they were on the first night, when the parade happened and all the viewers were crammed on the sidewalk… but every other night it’s been fine. This year they are closing Bellevue Way for the show, so the audience is out on the road with plenty of room to move around.) It’s outdoors, so be sure to bundle up!  [FYI: if you want the “snow” experience indoors, Pacific Place in Seattle has a snowfall every night at 6 pm]

At Redmond Town Center, there’s a carousel and a “train ride” and an “ice rink” that each have a small cost. Last year when Ben was 2, he was madly in love with trains, and was thrilled by the train ride through the parking lots there. http://redmondtowncenter.com/custom/winterwonderland.php

Look here for more ideas for Christmas activities on a budget: http://www.parentmap.com/article/holiday-magic-on-a-budget

Fun and Learning with Pipe Cleaners

4 Replies

For under $1, you can buy 25 pipe cleaners, which offer lots of opportunities for fun and learning. All these activities build fine motor skills (learn why that’s important.) Some also have additional cognitive benefits.

The activity ideas at the top of the list are where to start with a younger toddler. As they master those skills, you can move on to the more complex tasks near the end of the list. (Please click on the links below for LOTS more ideas for great activities to do with toddlers and preschoolers!)

Find a block of Styrofoam, or floral foam (the soft green foam in floral arrangements) or play-dough. Show your child how to stick pipe cleaners into it. They will soon learn that it works better when they hold the pipe cleaner near the end. This will help them later learn that they have better control over a pencil when they hold it closer to the tip. (you can also add straws, as shown in this “first sculpture” from http://craftulate.com/2013/03/first-sculpture/)

sculpture

Take out the colander: show your child how to thread a pipe cleaner through the holes. (http://teachingmama.org/20-ways-to-keep-toddlers-busy/) You could also use an empty spice jar if the shaker lid has big enough holes. (http://ayearwithmomanddad.com/2012/04/tot-explorations-easy-motor-skill-activity/) This takes concentration and builds hand-eye coordination.

colander  spice jar

Buy plastic beads (or use cheerios, penne pasta, or cut-up straws). Show your child how to thread them onto pipe cleaners. This is MUCH easier than stringing beads onto a floppy cord. Here’s three stages you can try: first, cut pipe cleaners into shorter pieces and plant one end into some play-dough or foam so your child only has to hold the bead. http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/09/i-can-week-in-preschool-fine-motor.html  Once they’ve mastered that, show them how to hold the short pipe cleaner and thread beads on. http://theimaginationtree.com/2013/03/threading-with-pipe-cleaners-and-beads.html Once they’ve got that, give them a full length pipe cleaner. They’ll have to figure out how to work with it when it bends.

stringbase  string

Cut pipe cleaners into small pieces, and put them in a plastic bottle. Show your child how to use a magnet to pull the pieces around the container – good for teaching the basics of magnets.
http://pre-schoolplay.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/discovery-bottles.html

magnet

Bend pipe cleaners into letters, numbers, and shapes. Seeing and playing with physical representations of these academic concepts helps reinforce children’s learning.  http://www.makeandtakes.com/learning-letters-with-pipe-cleaners

letters

Make wiggly “worms” with the pipe cleaners, and have your child “catch” them with a clothespin. Great for fine motor control. You can also add in imagination skills by talking about the clothes pin as a bird catching the worm.  http://seevanessacraft.com/2012/12/30-busy-bag-swap-ideas-part-1/

worms

Put out three colors of pipe cleaners and three colors of beads. Encourage your child to string the beads on the matching pipe cleaner. This teaches colors and sorting skills, which are vital to lots of academic learning. Once they can do three colors, move to four, then five. http://skellyskindergarten.blogspot.com/2011/08/back-to-school-my-pinterest-inspiration.html

You can also teach patterns with beads and pipe cleaners. http://mattbgomez.com/patterns-with-perler-beads-and-pipe-cleaners/ Start with simple patterns – blue, yellow, blue, yellow. Then get more complex: blue blue yellow, or blue yellow white… Pattern recognition is an essential skill that allows us to recognize and solve problems of all sorts much more quickly.

Get the Styrofoam back out and try building bead mazes.www.teachpreschool.org/2012/04/colorful-pipe-cleaner-bead-mazes/

beadmaze

Have your child shape the pipe cleaners into letters and numbers themselves. They learn more by doing than by watching. You can start by writing the letters on paper and having them “trace” it with a pipe cleaner (http://seevanessacraft.com/2012/12/30-busy-bag-swap-ideas-part-1/), then build up to them creating the letter from memory.

trace

Get alphabet beads, and build words on the pipe cleaners! Stringing them together helps reinforce the order of the letters.

Safety note: Pipe cleaners are wires, and the tips can poke. If you’re worried about this, some people recommend folding over the end (If you happen to own needle-nosed pliers, you can make a nice tight loop. Or you can just use your fingers and fold over a little more.) Some people tape the ends. I personally don’t worry about it… kids can get a small poke with a pipe cleaner, but it’s unlikely to injure… I have found that after my kids poke themselves a few things, they learn a good lesson about handling things carefully.

Safety Note #2: When using beads, or other small materials, do supervise your child closely so they don’t swallow beads, or put them in their noses, or in their ears. If they swallow a plastic bead, it’s likely to pass through in a few days. If they put a bead in their ear, that can be there a very long time without anyone noticing. (Please don’t check my family’s medical records to see why I know that. 🙂 )

Here’s lots more ideas for older kids: http://spoonful.com/crafts/25-easy-diy-pipe-cleaner-activities-kids#carousel-id=photo-carousel&carousel-item=16

Cheap Dates for Toddlers: Sushi-go-round

3 Replies

sushi

[This series features “toddler date” ideas for something fun and simple to do with your young child. The big picture ideas apply to any locale. Specific examples are on the Eastside of Seattle.]

If you have a baby or young toddler who is not-yet-very-mobile, and you’d like to have a meal out with your partner or a friend, try having lunch or dinner at a sushi bar with a conveyor belt that goes round and round. This ever-changing view can be a great mesmerizing distraction for your child.

Another advantage is that the food comes immediately, so you can eat quickly. If your child melts down pretty early in the evening, you can make a fairly quick escape. But it’s also self-paced, so if you’re lucky and your child stays happy, you can slow down and relax and wait for that éclair to come around a couple more times before you decide to take it.

Note, once your child can stand and move, sushi places are NOT much fun. You may find yourself frantically trying to prevent your child from grabbing all the plates of food as they go by! Wait to go again till they’re old enough to know that’s not OK.

The best place to take kids for sushi? Kura Sushi in Bellevue. They have robots that bring your drinks, and a system where every time you turn in five plates it shows a video, and when you reach 15 plates you get a prize. There is often a long wait, so go at off times like a Tuesday afternoon.

[Photo credit: from yelp review of Sushi Maru in Bellevue, WA)

Cheap Dates for Toddlers: Indoor Playgrounds

3 Replies

wp_001088

[This series features “toddler date” ideas for something fun and simple to do with your toddler. My general rules are: The big picture ideas apply to any locale, but the specific examples will be for the Eastside of Seattle. Hopefully these programs exist in  your area!]

Indoor playgrounds (also called Open Gym, or Toddler Play Time, or… ) are held at almost all community centers, from September through May. They are open play sessions, where you can drop in anytime during the session, and you can leave whenever your child is tired. They’re a great opportunity for rambunctious, loud, energy-burning large-motor play on cold, wet days.

The community center staff sets out: balls, hula hoops, toy cars and other ride-upons, slides, and more big motor play options in the gym. The equipment ranges a little from site to site, as does the typical number of attendees, and the typical noise level. Our favorite site is Issaquah Community Center because they’re open Wednesdays and Fridays 7 – 11:30 am and I like having somewhere to go early in the day. But, on Jazzercise days, it gets really loud, as the Jazzercise class happens in another part of the gym right next to indoor play.

Attendance varies by site, but also varies a lot day by day, since these are all drop-in groups. I would say typical attendance on the Eastside is 5 – 10 families. Some weeks you’ll find yourself at a very busy playtime with 15 to twenty families running around, I’ve been to one that had only one other family, and one where my son and I were the only ones in attendance, but we had a fabulous time with the basketball, and he ran off lots of energy before we headed off to library story time.

Indoor playgrounds typically cost $2 – 4. If you’re there at the end of the session, the staff generally asks parents to help with clean up.(And sometimes the staff hasn’t set up at the beginning, and they just encourage you to pull out any toys your child wants to play with.)

For more info: