By the Seashore for Toddlers - Part 2

By the Seashore has been a tremendous success with "baby" Zahavah. She goes in short spurts though and is VERY picky when it comes to choosing an activity. Some don't get her attention as much and that's ok. She may be almost 2 but I'm still getting to know her likings! :) We usually do only 3-4 different "school activities" each day and leave the rest to self-interest play and outdoor fun.

Stacking sand "biscuits"

Mmm. While I loved this idea, she didn't so much. :( She did stack the sand dollars though.

Fishing magnetic fish...or taking a break from it

This little fishing game took a while to make and I thought it would be a big hit but it wasn't so much. I showed her how to use it and she was actually pretty good at it but didn't really like the activity overall. Oh well!  Maybe another day it will be the favorite! :) In the meantime, if you wish to make your own felt fishes, here is what I used: brightly colored felt, sequins for the scales, thread, goggly eyes, a metal washer and polyester stuffing. To complete the game, use a magnetic wand from a magnetic puzzle if you have one. I cannot remember where I found the pattern but drawing a fish is pretty basic anyway. The idea for the game came from Counting Coconuts by the way.

Caught a fish!

It's biting!

Sifting sea glass from sand

Zahavah loves playing the sand so it was no surprise to see her enjoying this activity, done at home in our small sandbox. I must admit the sea glass pieces we have are so small that they took a while to find (even in this small box) but Z's face when she'd find a "gem" was of such pride that  it was still worth hunting them down (although I did give up on finding the last piece for now...). ;)

Collecting seashells "on the beach"

Until we head to the beach for real, the gigantic sandbox located in our local playground served as a pretend one. I scattered 10 big seashells on the surface, gave baby a pail and let her do the picking. We repeated over and over again. Her big brother even joined in.

Sorting seashell pasta by color

Another " bah" activity. She sorted all three colors into the little ramekins but didn't seem to particularly enjoy it. It gave her fingers a good fine motor workout though; not just her math skills were involved.

Sand Combs

An artistic take on playground time. I made these four differently "Teethed" cardboard combs and showed her how they made different "tracks" in the sand. After that, she just had to try it by herself. I stumbled upon this idea on storiesandchildren. Hers were made of plastic lids though but as I did not have any of these lids, I went with box cardboard. It just made the teeth a bit more flimsy at the end (the sand was slightly wet) but once dried, they were as good as new.

Coloring a Crab

As silly as it may be, it was Zahavah's first time coloring with crayons. I always used an aqua doodle before so I wasn't sure how it would go. She did great and loved it. I bought the Crayola Triangular Crayons which are supposed to her develop the right grip (although it never helped Adrian, one can always hope for this little one). I taped the sheet to the floor to avoid frustrating paper movements and tears as well. You can print your own Kawaii crab at HelloKids. 

Last but not pictured was a fun game of beach ball. We threw the ball, practiced catching the ball, kicked it and even rolled on it. It was a blast.

By the Seashore for Toddlers

I am most certain that I was meant to live by the sea. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to make that happen yet and haven't even gotten to a beach in years. As such, I brought the "sea and beach" to us with a unit named "By the Seashore" for little Zahavah. 

Learning Ressources' Jumbo Ocean Animals

No fish here sadly (and strangely if you ask me) but still a nice variety. Whale, dolphin, octopus, seal, tiger shark and turtle though. By day 2, Z already could show me which was was which so she learned these quickly. (On the first day, she already knew "turtle" and learned "octopus" right after.) To reinforce the name after presentation, I scattered 3 animals and asked Z, "Where's octopus?"She quickly mastered the three animals and the rest were reinforced the same way the day after. She also quite enjoyed watching 30sec. videos of each animal on YouTube (the seal playing ball and dolphin playing with bubble rings were the biggest hit). She is now getting to pronouncing the name of each creature.

Melissa & Doug's Ocean Life Jumbo Knobs Puzzle

Melissa & Doug's puzzles are all awesome to me. For toddlers, I especially like the jumbo knobbed ones like the one pictured above. It's only three pieces and they are quite big ones at that but it can still require a lot of patience and coordination for a toddler.

Scooping starfish with a net

A favorite. Most toddlers love to play in the water and mine is no exception. I had intended on presenting this tub outside in the yard but due to sudden weather changes, I had to revise my plans and            present it inside on the tiled kitchen floor. If you are hesitant towards water play, don't be. Yes, it's messy but it's just water and any spills can be wiped down with a towel. Toddlers can even be dressed down to their diapers to avoid wet clothes. In this water activity, Zahavah had to scoop up the little starfish with her net. It was quite easy for her and after fishing out the little ocean life twice, she simply went in with her hands to play in the water, grab the starfish and put them back. After 10 minutes, I took away the tub (A Sterilite Storage container) but she could have kept going.

Sand molding with sea creatures

Kids love playing in the sand and I got these Melissa & Doug sand molds a while ago with our Huggies Rewards Points (yeah! Finally a prize for years of diaper changing!) knowing we'd use them soon. It so happens that our local playground has a HUGE sandbox so we used those there. Zahavah loved filling each mold with her hands and shovels but I had to of course turn the mold and show her the results of her hard work.

Finger painting blue waves

Another mildly messy activity that took place this week is finger-painting. To avoid most of the mess though, I contained the finger painting sheet into a finger painting tray (found at Michael's) and taped the sheet to the bottom of it. Then I squeezed a small blob of Crayola washable finger paint on the sheet and let little Z make "waves". As painting with fingers can be a death sentence for clothing and carpets, I dressed down baby Z to her diaper and made sure the tray would be above wood floors! :) As you see, it's a good thing she was shirtless! :)