Alicia from Ireland is fully qualified in childcare. She worked as a nanny for over 10 years, looking after children in their own homes and then in August 2017 all her dreams came true when she found out she was expecting her first baby! Having been used to spending all her days in a home setting looking after children she was more than happy to be a stay at home mummy! And we think you can see her years of experience in this fun activity that is messy, colourful and just great for a child’s development. Let’s see how it’s done…
What did you do?
This week I worked on some practical life skills with my 24-month-old toddler: Pouring.
It was so simple to set up, but it kept Little Miss T happy, engaged and entertained for a long time. It was a great opportunity to expand our vocabulary and learn about capacity and volume too!
To set it up I added a splash of milk to a jug of water so that when I added the food colouring it was opaque. She loved the fact that the water was pink!
I then added 3 cups along with the jugs into a large plastic tub to contain the spills and let her pour, pour and pour!
You might notice there are 2 glass items in the tub – this is because I’ve taught her to be gentle with glass objects from a young age and she knows if she isn’t they will break. If you introduce glass to your child, always keep a sharp eye to make sure no accidents happen as of course, that can be very dangerous.
Obviously some spills happened so I poured the water back into the jugs for her to start all over again. Next time I do this I will add a few small sponges for her to soak up the spillages herself and squeeze the liquid back into the jugs. Squeezing is a great exercise for toddlers to strengthen their hand and wrist muscles.
My daughter loves any activity that involves water! But this one was an even bigger hit because of the pink opaque coloured water. So, our next activity is going to be: Flower Fairy Potions! I will colour the water the same way, add some flowers, glitter and some of her magical unicorn and fairy figurines!
What’s your next project idea:
Over my years as a nanny I came up with lots of fun and exciting ways to keep children entertained! So, when we were thrown into this surreal situation that we’re in now, of being stuck at home practically 24/7, I was prepared with lots of activity ideas up my sleeve!
How are you finding being housebound with kids so far?
We live in a beautiful part of the West of Ireland and we loved to go out each day and spend hours exploring with our family. So, it’s a big change for my daughter that the only time we leave the house now is for our daily exercise! But I’ve tried my best to keep her happy and entertained and hopefully what she’ll remember from this time is lots of fun activities and snuggles.
Any tips to help people when they are housebound with kids?
I make weekly timetables over on Instagram for ages 6 months to 4 years and I also share all our activity ideas I’d love to have you as a follower 🙂
Has the HWK community helped you?
I love being part of the Housebound with Kids community. It reminds me that we are all in this together. I really enjoy seeing all the birthday greetings from all over the world. It’s a great place to ask advice and I like being able to share my own ideas with people too.
