Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Monday made: Hanging out the laundry


Hello!  Recently I've been trying to plan more learning activities for the little boy since I think there's only that many times that he can play with lego, blocks and stacking rings.  One of the activities we've tried is pegging, where I tied a clothes line at one corner of the playpen and taught him how to hang his shirt on the line and clip it using pegs... while also reinforcing his learning about the colours of the pegs, since he's been particularly interested in identifying colours now.


However, the line stretches across his playpen around the height where his neck is, and the little boy keeps trying to walk through it and keeps getting it caught around his neck.  I've been worried that it'll hurt him one day, so I ended up making a mini-clothes line inspired by this version over at Childhood 101:


To make something similar, just take a shoebox and cut one side open (This allows you to leave the top of the box open for easier access to the line).  I took an art piece done by the little boy as the background (We'd coloured the sun and clouds using crayons, and the blue sky using paint), and added grass cut out of construction paper since his artwork didn't cover the bottom part.  Then just punch holes through the sides of the box and tie twine (you might want to reinforce the holes using either those reinforcement ring stickers... I used eyelets since I had a crop-a-dile), and you're good to go!


Other pointers that might be useful:
1. Try experimenting with different clothes pegs.  Junior J had difficulty handling those little wooden ones I had, so I used the larger plastic ones which are easier to grip for now.  The colourful plastic ones are also good for learning about colours.


2. I made "clothes" by cutting out shapes out of blue felt (since its his favourite colour), and will be adding more colours and clothing types in the future.  You can get inexpensive felt in rolls at Daiso. :)

3. If you use a box to make this activity, keep the lid.  Once you are done playing, you can just keep the pegs and clothes in the box, fold down the cut up section, put the lid back on, and you have everything nicely contained. :)

Happy pegging!

12 comments:

  1. Again...another really clever idea to keep little Jude entertained. Jus, u are really very gifted in recycling stuff to be made into useful things :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi,
    chanced upon your blog. i have a girl 27 months.. and i love what you do with your boy. you're a great hands on mummy

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi Joanne! hey, you are such a goooood Mummy.
    Thank you for dropping by my blog!
    hee....i don't really know which blog you 'blog' most.
    anyway, i think what you did here (the laundry project) is very inspiring indeed. just did a school project for my daughter too;)

    July

    ReplyDelete
  4. totally clever way of teaching your cute little fellow how to help! :)

    hugs,
    Viola

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Jus! thanks for your sweet comments on my blog. I get my ribbons from Chinatown :) some small stores there that have great deals! hope this helps!

    hugs,
    Viola

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great activity!
    I think you give your son a lot of stimulation and that´s very important.
    Take care and have a nice weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi! thank you for joining my blog! i did the same with yours as i really enjoy your creations.
    i love this acticity you did for your boy! is it Montessori teaching you are doing with him? i am very interesting in Montessori's teaching and i have applied many ideas with my daughter. have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh! So clever :D The Crop a dile tool came in handy too. See, I'm always looking for excuses to buy new 'toys'. heh heh...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Aww.. such a cute activity! I especially love the little pieces of clothing you have created for him.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fantastic activity to make everyday things so much fun for the kiddos! I really love your laundry shoebox - super creative!

    ReplyDelete
  11. very cute. I always found one of the best ways of teaching was demonstrating to my kids how I live and talking about why I make those choices. I dry all my clothes on a laundry drying rack so both of my kids helped hang clothes on it as soon as they were big enough.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry for the late replies everyone! Appreciate your popping by and all your sweet comments!

    Rachel: Thanks!

    My Princess Bernice: Hello, thanks for popping by! And thank you!

    July: Hey thanks! Loved the project you did with your little girl! The robot was absolutely cute!

    Viola: Oooh, another good reason to go Chinatown soon then! Thanks for sharing!

    Kira: You take care too! Hope you and little Lara are doing well!

    Sophie: Hello, thanks! Yes some of it is Montessori based. :) I more or less mix and match, but I find Montessori has a pretty good approach to early learning education!

    Midnightcrafts: Haha, yes, have to use the crop to justify why I bought it!

    Domestic goddess: Thanks! :)

    Beauties in our Lives: Hey thank you.. :) Love the activities you've been doing with your two girls too!

    Mary: You have a good point about demonstrating and explaining about choices, will bear that in mind when we carry out daily life activities next time.. thanks!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...