Buddy loves playing with new things, so I am constantly looking for new ways to play with things around our house. The longer I can keep Buddy entertained, the less time I have to spend chasing him around trying to keep him out of trouble. (Right now he really wants to go down the stairs, and he makes a beeline for the stairs whenever he is bored.)
Recently, I used up a couple rolls of wrapping paper. I noticed that one roll wasn’t a firm tube, but instead was a rolled piece of firm brown paper. Balls are one of Buddy’s favorite toys, and I realized that the leftover wrapping paper tube would work well as a ramp for the balls. The only thing I needed to do to get the tube ready for play was use masking tape to hold the tube at the right size for the balls.
Buddy really had to concentrate at first to get the ball into the tube while holding it.
The first time we did this activity, Buddy wasn’t sure what to think. He mostly watched me roll the balls down the tube and chased them around the room. Today was different. After I sent the first couple balls down the tube, Buddy wanted to control both the ball and the tube himself. We used the Bright Start balls for this activity, and they were perfect! (Affiliate link) He had a lot of fun putting balls into the tube and watching them roll around the room. The only problem was the tube was easily crushed when Buddy crawled over it. However, I was able to fix it quickly whenever that happened.
Buddy chasing after the balls.
Whoa! Look at the ball roll!
This was a great way to play with the balls in a different way. Buddy had a lot of fun, and I’m sure we’ll do it again soon. In the meantime, I’ll continue to look for ways to play with other things around our house.
This picture shows everything I put into the basket. All of these were items that were already in our house. I had to go digging in our ornaments for the “toy house”, and I cut out the moon out of a cereal box and covered it in foil. For the line “Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere,” I put some star beads in a water bottle. (The bottle has stars and air, and when it’s shaken, it makes noise.) The flashlight is supposed to be the light from the room, Mickey is supposed to be the “young mouse”, and the watch is for the clocks in the room.
We started by reading the book together. Then I took Buddy over to the basket of goodies. For each item he pulled out, I said “Goodnight_______” and we found the picture in the book. The bottle of stars was his favorite by far because it made a great noise when shaken. The balloon and toy phone were also favorites.
