Tag Archives: game

Racing Dinosaurs Math Game

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Buddy loves games, so I’m always looking for new ones to play. When I came across the idea for a magnatiles dice game on Happy Toddler Playtime’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it. Magnatiles are his favorite toy right now, so a game with magnatiles was just perfect!

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

To start, we each counted out 10 magnatiles, and we chose a dinosaur to race. We both rolled a die, and we counted out that number of magnatiles. (I bought my jumbo dice at the dollar store, but you can buy similar ones here.) Then our dinosaur raced out that amount of squares. The first dinosaur to get to square 10 wins the race.

Buddy and I decided before the game that we wanted to have to roll exactly 10 to win. However, you could also just have the first person who rolls more than 10 win.

After our first roll, Buddy and I talked about how many more we needed to get to 10. We also discussed how many more he had than I had. It was a fun way to work on subtraction and comparing numbers.

Buddy enjoyed the game, but he decided he wanted to use the tiles to build a home for the dinosaurs and the dice. If we play again, I would make the number of tiles in the race more than 10. It only took us three rolls to finish the game, which was a little too quick. It will be harder to do, “how many more until you win” with a number larger than 10, though.

Do you have any other ideas of things to do with magnatiles? If so, please share your ideas in the comments section.

Santa Hat Stacking Game

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Buddy loves to play games, so I decided to add “play a Christmas game” to our advent chain this week. (Read more about our activity advent chain here.) But I knew that I wanted an easy, low prep game, since the week before Christmas is always very busy. When I saw a Santa hat cup game on Lalymom’s blog, I knew it would be perfect.

This game is so easy and fun! I pulled out some miniture plastic cups that I bought awhile ago and some pom pom balls. Buddy loves playing with pom poms, so he was super excited to see them. The game is simple to play. You put a cup down and add a pom pom to the top to be the ball of the hat. Then the next person puts down his or her cup and pom. If your hat knocks down the tower, you lose. We have large tweezers in the bag with the poms, so we decided to use that to put the pom poms on the cups.

After we played our game, Buddy wanted to play with the cups and pom poms. He made “pies” by putting the poms in the cups. Then he had a lot of fun serving them.

This was a fun, seasonal game. We won’t play it year round, but I know we’ll try it again next December.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I hope you have a wonderful and restful holiday.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Counting Game

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This week was our first Time to Read Tuesday of the summer, and I have been waiting to do this activity for a long time. We read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which is a favorite of Buddy’s. I first saw the idea of doing a counting game with this book on Mommy Needs Cookies’s Blog. Since Buddy loves this book and he loves games, I knew this cookie game would be a great activity for him.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I started by cutting out a circle for each of us from paper. I also got a large handful of black beans and a die. After we read the book, Buddy and I counted out 20 beans for each of us. This was great practice for him, because he has trouble counting after 12. Then we took turns rolling the dice. We put that amount of beans on the cookie. Whoever finished getting all of the “chocolate chips” in the “cookie” first won. 

Buddy had a lot of fun with this activity. He enjoyed the counting and it was good practice looking at a die and determining numbers. In the original activity, she used a uno deck to practice reading the numbers. I can see that being a fun way to extend this game for Buddy when he is a little older. 

Buddy had so much fun that we ended up playing this game 3 times! It was a lot of fun for both of us. I’m sure we’ll play it again soon.

Snowball Toss Game

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Buddy loves games, so I wanted to find a new game to play as a family. When I came across a snowball toss game on Hands On As We Grow’s blog, I knew it would be perfect. I bought a set of indoor snowballs this winter, and I already had some plastic cups set aside for play use. (Read about our bowling game with these cups here.)

I set out six plastic cups in a triangle pattern. Then, I emptied our snowballs into a bucket for easy access. After that, we were ready to play! Since Buddy is pretty small, I didn’t set any guidelines for where he needed to be when throwing. We found that sitting was easier than standing. But we were a little frustrated because the cups tipped over a lot.

I fixed that problem by wrapping the outside of the triangle with blue painter’s tape. Then they were all together and no longer tipped over. Once that problem was solved, we had a ton of fun! With 10 snowballs to choose from and 6 cups to toss into, we could all go at the same time. Even Hubby wanted to play!

When the cups were taped together, there was an empty space in the middle. Whenever a snowball landed in there, we called out “Bonus!” We didn’t really keep score, so it didn’t matter. But Buddy thought it was so much fun whenever it happened.

This game was so fun and so easy! It was a lot of fun to play as a family, and I know we’ll play it again soon!

Laundry Basketball

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Happy New Year! My resolution for 2017 was to blog every Monday of the year, and I’m thrilled to say I was able to keep it! I hope to maintain that goal for 2018 as well. Thanks so much to everyone who has read this blog in 2017. Your comments and pins mean so much to me.

Buddy and I made up the game of laundry basketball a few weeks ago. It is so easy, and so much fun, that I had to share.

Usually, when I fold Buddy’s laundry, he’s always in my way. Sometimes he wants to help put away things like washcloths and small blankets. But often, he wants to either dump everything out of the basket or put a bunch of stuffed animals in it. (Read here about our laundry basket stuffed animal activity.) Both make it difficult for me to get the laundry folded and put away.

Buddy has a beach ball in his room, which we throw around a lot. On this day, Buddy decided to try to throw it in the laundry basket. This game was the perfect activity for the two of us while I folded laundry! Much of the time, he missed the basket, so nothing affected my folding. When he missed, he happily ran after the beach ball to try again. Sometimes, the ball came into the basket when I was pulling out clothes. When this happened, I batted the ball away, and he didn’t get a basket. Buddy thought this was hilarious! And sometimes, he was able to get a basket when my hands were busy folding or putting things away.

When I got around to taking pictures, my laundry basket was mostly empty. But when we started our game, it was completely full!

This game was the perfect activity for the two of us. Buddy got some practice with his gross motor skills, and he had a ton of fun.  I was able to fold laundry and have fun at the same time. Best of all, there was nothing to clean up when we were done. Laundry basketball will definitely be a regular game in our house for a long time.

Do you have any ideas for other easy games? Please share in the comment section!

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25 Fun and Free Printables for Toddlers

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I love when I find easy activities to print and use with Buddy. There are so many mom blogs with awesome activities ready to use! This week, I wanted to feature my favorite printables that I’ve tried with Buddy, as well as some that I’m looking forward to using. Almost all of the ones I’ve used have been laminated with my Scotch laminator, which I love! It makes it easy to save these activities to use again and again.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Matching Activities

Buddy loves matching activities! We tried this truck one from Royal Baloo’s blog, and Buddy loved it! There were a lot of cards and many similar ones (several different police cars, fire trucks, etc.), so the second time through I edited it down to one of each type of car. He’s so into cars right now, so this was perfect for him.

Other matching printables:

Scavenger Hunts

I blogged about our nature scavenger hunt earlier this summer (read about it here.) The printable we used was from Life With My Little’s blog. Her pictures made it really easy for Buddy to know exactly what we were looking for. And we both had so much fun finding the things on this list.

Other scavenger hunt printables:

Games

I loved this shape board game from Simple Fun for Kids’ blog. Buddy and I tried it out on one of our Time to Read Tuesdays after reading a shape book. We used shape buttons to be our markers. The shape die got a little crumpled, but the game was a lot of fun. This was Buddy’s first board game, and he really liked it.

Other toddler game printables:

Movement Activities

These construction movement cards are another amazing printable from Royal Baloo. Buddy had a lot of fun picking up one card at a time and moving like that construction vehicle. It was a great way for Buddy to work on his gross motor skills in a fun way.

Other movement printables:

Book Activities

Since I’m a teacher, I get really happy when I find great activities that go along with a book. It’s so important to read, and the activities make it extra fun. 1+1+1=1’s blog has so many great book related printables, including these ones that we used with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (affiliate link)

Other book printables:

Duplo Activities

Buddy loves Duplos, so I put together a Duplo Busy Bag for our summer plane trips. I took pictures of many different small Duplo scenes that could be made from the blocks in the bag. He really loved picking out a picture to make, and then putting it together himself.

Other Duplo activities:

After looking back through my Pinterest boards to find these printables, I’m reminded of a lot of new fun ideas to try with Buddy. Hopefully you found something that was helpful for you too! Please comment if you have any other great printable links for toddlers.

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Repurposed for Fun: Bowling with Cups

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Last week, I wanted to try a new game for Try Something New Thursday. I grabbed a stack of cups that were leftover from our last party and a medium sized ball. I made a pyramid with the cups, and we were ready to bowl. 

Buddy was excited as soon as he saw the bowling game. He initially tried to throw the ball at the cups. Then I showed him how to roll the ball. Buddy tried to roll it right next to the cups, but I told him you have to go far for bowling. He thought that was really funny, and he now says “go far!” all the time. It didn’t take long, though, for him to understand how to bowl.

Buddy and I took turns bowling. We didn’t keep score; we just tried to knock down as many cups as we could. It was a lot of fun showing him how to take turns to play a game. If we didn’t knock down all of the cups, Buddy kicked over the rest of them. That was a lot of fun too. 

We played for about 15 minutes, then Buddy took a break. He decided to put his trains in a cup and pour them into a box. (Buddy still loves pouring!) Once all the trains were in the box, we got back to bowling.

We both had a lot of fun! I’m happy to have an easy game we can play with a family, and I’m sure we will play it again soon.

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Move Like the Animals: A Gross Motor Skills Game

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Buddy was a very late walker, and he works with a physical therapist once a week. As a result, I’m always looking for fun ways to build his gross motor skills at home. Last week, Buddy’s physical therapist mentioned that they had been imitating different animals in their session. I thought that sounded like an idea that would be fun to do at home as well.

*Disclaimer- This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Buddy received a set of Fisher-Price Little People Zoo Animals for Easter. I thought they would be fun to incorporate into our animal movement game. To play the game, Buddy chose an animal from the tub. Then, we would try to move like that animal. Some of the animals were easier to think of movements for than others, but it was fun trying to make up movements for all of them.

When we first started, Buddy spent a lot of time looking through the animals and deciding which one to pick.

Once he picked an animal, we both got up and moved like it. For the zebra, we did high marching kicks. For the panda, we pretended to climb up bamboo. We swung around like a monkey, waddled like a penguin, hopped like a kangaroo, and snapped our arms like an alligator’s mouth. We crouched and crawled and roared for both the lion and the tiger. The seal was the weirdest one movement wise; we just waddled around and barked like a seal. Both of us had so much fun!

Marching like a zebra

Climbing bamboo like a panda

Moving like animals is so much fun!

After a little while, Buddy wanted to just play with the animals and the container, which was fine. He had a lot of fun just lining up all of the animals and then saying their names.

It was a really fun activity for both of us, and it was great for practicing some of his gross motor skills. We have played this game several times so far, and I’m sure we’ll play it again soon. If you have any other ideas for fun gross motor activities, please share in the comments.

Find That Shape: A Sidewalk Chalk Game

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I’m so excited that spring break is here! As the weather is getting warmer, Buddy is extra eager to go outside to play. A friend and colleague of mine told me about a shape sidewalk chalk game she plays with her granddaughter. She draws different colored shapes in chalk and tells her granddaughter to find different colors and shapes. Since Buddy is working on colors and shapes, I knew it’d be a perfect game for him.

To make this game easy for Buddy, I only did one of each shape and color. I also picked shapes and colors that Buddy knows. 

I told Buddy to find a specific color/shape combination and jump on the shape. He had a lot of fun finding each shape. Buddy can’t jump yet, but he enjoyed stomping on each shape as he found it.

Buddy took some breaks from the game to draw on our driveway with the chalk. We’ve never played with chalk before, so that was fun and exciting for Buddy. Then we’d go back to playing our game again.

We also played a variation where he told me which shape and color to jump on. Buddy thought that was lots of fun too.

Once Buddy becomes more confident with his colors and shapes, I will make this game more difficult by making shapes in more than one different color. So far, we’ve played it twice this week, and it’s quickly becoming one of Buddy’s favorite activities.

Buddy and I have some extra time together this week due to spring break, so I’m looking for more things to try with him. If you have any ideas, please share!

Pom Pom Transfer Activities and Toss Game

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Buddy loves playing with pom poms.  (You can read about some of our other pom pom activities here and here.)  However, I had to put them away for awhile because Buddy wanted to put them in his mouth. Last week, I saw some new pom poms ideas on Busy Toddler, and thought it might be time to pull them out again.

One of the ideas on Busy Toddler’s blog was to use a multi-sectioned container and kid tweezers with poms. I bought a pair of kid tweezers at the dollar store this summer, but Buddy hasn’t been able to use them yet. I set out a multi-sectioned container, a snack cup, tweezers, and the poms for Buddy to explore.

Buddy was so excited to see the poms! He immediately poured them from the cup into one of the sections. Then he started taking them and putting them into different sections.

I showed Buddy that he could use the tweezers to pick up and move the pom poms. Buddy was very curious about the tweezers after he saw me use them. He tried a couple of times, but he wasn’t able to make them work.

After we gave up on the tweezers, Buddy just poured the poms from the cup into different sections. He also picked up poms and put them into different sections. He really enjoyed transferring the poms from one section to another. From time to time, he’d dump the whole container over and start again.

Next, we used the different sections of the container to sort the poms by color. Buddy is 21 months now, and he’s just starting to understand the idea of a color sort. We pulled out a few different colors and put them into different sections.

Buddy wasn’t all that interested in sorting the pom poms. He decided it would be a lot more fun to throw them around the room. Since Buddy wanted to throw the poms, I quickly made up a toss game. I said that we get a point for getting a pom in the container and five points if the pom gets in the center section. Buddy loved this game!

When we got a couple in the center part, I made a big deal about getting five points. Buddy decided he wanted to win the game, and he came up with his own plan. He put all of the poms in the cup and poured them directly into the center part. He was so proud that he was able to get so many in there! (I guess I wasn’t clear enough about the throw them in to get the points part of the rules.)

Buddy had a great time playing with his pom poms. He was entertained for more than a half hour, which I would call a success. (Eventually he did want to try eating them, so we had to put them away. If you do pom poms with a toddler, please supervise carefully!)  I’m sure we’ll try our game and sort activities again when Buddy is a little older.

I’d love to hear if you have any ideas on playing with pom poms or other materials in a creative way. I’m always looking for new ideas for our next play time together.