Tag Archives: one year old activities

Goodnight Moon Storytelling Basket

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Today for Time to Read Tuesday, I put together a storytelling basket for the book Goodnight Moon. Buddy has done discovery baskets of different objects before and loved it, so I figured this would be an activity he would enjoy. The reading teacher in me loved figuring out a book related activity that would be appropriate for my one year old.

Goodnight basketThis 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.

Goodnight basket 2We 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.

Goodnight basket 3

After awhile, Buddy decided it would be more fun to dump everything out of the basket and put it back in again. I’m in favor of anything that encourages picking up messes, so I was happy to let him change the structure of the activity.

Goodnight basket 4

Overall, I’m really happy with this storytelling basket activity. I thought it was a great way to extend reading with a little one, and I think it helped build his vocabulary as well. I definitely plan to do more storytelling baskets in the future.

Fun with Homemade Playdough

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Today for Make it Monday, I made homemade playdough. I used this recipe from Living Well Mom, and it turned out really well. Even though we have store bought play dough at home, I wanted to do a homemade recipe because I figured Buddy would try to eat it. (I was right.) This recipe has a lot of salt, so it wouldn’t be great to actually eat.  However, I’d rather have Buddy play with this playdough because I know what is in it.

Homemade playdough

It took about 10 minutes to actually make the playdough, and even with cleanup, it only took about 20 minutes total. The last time I made playdough, I used a different recipe that was more edible, but I didn’t like the texture and it only lasted for a few days. This one felt a lot like playdough and it is supposed to last a long time.

Buddy was very unsure when I first gave him the playdough. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with it, but he was much happier when I stuck some cut straws into it.

Playdough 1

Why did you give me something that isn’t food? What do I do with this?

Buddy loved poking the straws in the playdough.

I pulled out some other playdough toys, but the only ones that interested Buddy were the straws. He didn’t want to actually touch the playdough until I made it into balls, and then he was willing to pick them up. It wasn’t a major success, but it did keep Buddy entertained for more than a half hour.

Playdough 3

Finally touching the playdough.

Yes - Buddy definitely wanted to taste the playdough.

Yes – Buddy definitely wanted to taste the playdough.

I’m going to wait a couple weeks and then pull the playdough out again. Hopefully this batch will still be soft, and Buddy won’t be quite so unsure about playdough. If you have any play ideas for young children and playdough, I’d love to hear them.

Edit 1/29/17 – This weekend the playdough finally dried up. So this batch lasted for more than 7 months! We still love this recipe, and I plan to make another batch again soon.

Summer Schedule

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This teacher mom is so excited that school is done and summer is here! But the idea of endless hours at home with Buddy is a little daunting. During the school year, I love planning fun and educational activities to do with my students. I want to be able to do the same thing this summer – plan fun and educational activities that I can do with my son.

After spending a lot of time on Pinterest looking for inspiration, I’ve come up with a themed day for each day of the week. Here are my days, as well as some of my ideas for activities to do each day.

Make it Monday: On Mondays we will make a craft or make something fun together. Some things I’d like to make this summer are: homemade play dough, painting using cars, painting with edible fingerprint, cloud dough, painting with yarn, painting in a ziplock, and making wind chimes.

Time to Read Tuesday: In the morning, we will go to the library and get books. Most Tuesdays at our library there is a baby reading group we will attend. In the afternoons, we will read a book and complete an activity related to the book.

Water Wednesday: On nice days, we will play with our water table or go to the pool. On other days, we will do some water play in the tub or with a sensory bin of water.

Try Something New Thursday: Thursdays will be our day for trying new things. Some days, it might be a new food. Other days, it might be a new activity. I haven’t tried doing sensory bins with Buddy yet, so I want to try some new ones on Thursdays. We will also try playing with materials we haven’t explored yet such as pom poms and tubs, pipe cleaners and colanders, or stacking marshmallows.

Field Trip Friday: We will go somewhere fun on Fridays. The park district sponsors children’s musicians who sometimes perform outside on Fridays at lunch time. We will try out all of the parks in our town this summer on Fridays. I also plan to go to the zoo, the farmer’s market, and a children’s museum this summer. On days where we don’t want to go far and the weather isn’t nice, we will go to the mall to play in the kids area and ride the carousel or the mall train.

Here is a free printable of my schedule. I plan to frame mine and use dry erase marker to write each week’s plans. If you have other fun ideas to do this summer, please share in the comments.

This Week’s Schedule PDF

This Week’s Schedule Word Doc

Road Trip Tips for Driving Alone with a One Year Old

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My husband and I love to travel, and since our families live far away, we travel with our one year old often. With two parents, our road trips are usually easy. Hubby does the driving and I can attend to Buddy when he needs a new toy or a paci. However for this trip, Hubby had to fly back to work early, leaving me alone to drive with Buddy for more than 7 hours. I was worried about how to manage Buddy while driving, but fortunately I came up with some ideas to help things go smoothly. I hope these tips help any other parents who find themselves in a similar situation.

Tip #1 – Accept that the trip will take longer with one parent compared to two and plan extra time. When we drove together to Cleveland, we only needed to stop once and it took us about 6 hours. I knew that I would have to stop more often to take care of Buddy since I wouldn’t be able to do it while driving. I also knew the stops would be longer. Usually Hubby gets food and gas while I feed and change the baby. But on my own, I wouldn’t be able to multitask. I knew the drive would be longer, and I made sure to allow plenty of time to make it home before dinner.

Tip #2 – Put gas in the car on the day before the trip. I wanted to make sure I could do anything I possibly could to make the trip shorter.

Tip #3 – Leave when the baby is full and tired. I planned to leave just before nap time, so that I knew I would have a long period of time with Buddy sleeping. I also made sure to feed him right before leaving so that I would only have to feed him once on the road.

Tip #4 – Bring snacks and drinks. Buddy’s nap went way past my lunchtime, but I had no intention of waking him up so I could eat. Fortunately, I had snacks and drinks to keep me full and happy  until Buddy was awake and ready to eat.

Tip #5 – Put the pacifier on a clip. I’m not sure why I’ve never done this on a road trip before. On the drive over, I had to hand back several pacifiers because the paci would fall out when Buddy slept, and often it fell out of his reach. We have pacifier clips that keep the paci within his reach, and it was easy for him to find and replace it. I will definitely make sure to do this on all future road trips, because Buddy was happy to be able to get his paci or spit it out whenever he Toys in car seatwanted.

Tip #6 – Put a variety of toys where your child can reach them. This was the part of the trip that most worried me. Buddy loves to play with toys and can get fussy if he’s stuck in the car for a long time without some entertainment. I had to get creative, but I was able to tie a shoebox onto the side of Buddy’s carseat with twine, and I provided additional support with the lid of the box. I also used our two toy tethers to ensure that at least a couple toys would remain within reach. Buddy loved being able to choose his own toys and not have to rely on me to figure out what he wanted.

Tip #7 – Bring a baby carrier or a stroller to help with stops. Our drive was mainly on a toll road, so we didn’t have drive-thru food as an option. I had planned to bring our Ergo to hold Buddy while I was in the bathroom and getting food, but I forgot it. However, the stroller worked perfectly. The handicapped bathroom had plenty of room for the stroller, and the stroller made a perfect highchair for Buddy to eat while I ate my food. It was much easier to carry my food and drink with Buddy in the stroller instead of squirming in my arms.

Tip #8 – Have a plan for melt downs. I knew at some point on the trip that Buddy would get fussy and would need some soothing. I made a playlist of his favorite songs and saved it for when he was upset. Sure enough, about 5 hours into our trip, Buddy dropped his favorite toy and was really upset. The songs helped calm him down for awhile, but then a poopy diaper put him over the edge. At that point, no amount of “Wheels on the Bus” was going to help, so I pulled over at the next stop. (Unfortunately we were on a toll road and it was another 20 minutes before I could stop.)  I had been waiting to get more gas until later in the trip, so I was able to soothe my little boy and get gas at the same time.

Our road trip was over 7 and a half hours, and with my planning, Buddy was happy, entertained, or asleep for more than 7 hours. I would consider that to be a success, and I plan to use these tips again on our next trip.

If you have any other road trip tips, please share in the comments. Buddy and I will be on the road again in a few weeks, and I’d love to have some new ideas for a smooth trip.