Dairy-free Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm not sure if these peanut butter cookies are fit for adult consumption, but they might be ok as they're very sweet! There are many recipes for these 3 ingredients cookies, I followed the recipe on allrecipes.com. There are just 3 simple ingredients, peanut butter, sugar and an egg, so not only are they dairy-free but they're also gluten free. This was easy enough for me to do with my son! He helped mix the batter and roll out some cookies on the tray. This is a great activity to do with a young child! The cookies came out of the oven very soft and they had flattened out a bit, but they hardened when cool. I might do this activity with Thomas again when he feels like baking!

these peanut butter cookies were very easy to make

there are just 3 simple ingredients for these cookies, peanut butter, sugar and an egg

3 year old Thomas helped with the mixing

Thomas also helped roll out a few cookies, here they are before they went in the oven

here are the cookies straight out of the oven, they had flattened out a bit and were very soft but hardened when cool

Coloured Water Activity

I just wanted to share a quick activity I like to do with my son sometimes, when he wants to play outside. He loves to play with water, pouring it in and out of cups and these plastic jars I have for the purpose. 

set up of the colours in plastic jars

I set up some coloured water in the jars, using food dye, one blue, red, yellow, then mixing yellow and red to make orange, red and blue to make purple, and yellow and blue to make green. He likes to pour the different colours into a big glass, and it turns a dark brown colour, it looks like cola! He happily plays with this coloured water for about half an hour, after which time he has usually tipped the water out and if he wants me to, I get him some more water to play with. He loves it.

pouring the coloured water into a large jar



Three Easy Toddler Activities

Here are three more easy toddler activities that I've tried. They're good for fine motor development and don't make a lot of mess, which of course I love!

Sorting Breadclips

I've kept a small plastic recycled honey jar filled with recycled bread clips waiting for an opportunity to use them with Thomas. For some reason he really enjoyed playing with them, scooping them into my hands and spreading them across the lounge. We played sorting them into the small plastic coloured bowls we have, sorting them by colour at this stage seems to be appropriate. This is an easy little game to play with recycled materials. I wouldn't use this with a baby though, because I worry the small pieces could be a choking risk.

sorting recycled bread clips is an easy toddler activity

Mr Potato Head and Playdough

I saw this idea on Teaching 2 and 3 years old and thought right away we could give it a go. Its a great variation on playing with play-dough that's easy to throw together if you have the play-dough already made up. I like to use this recipe for making my own home made play dough.

play-dough with Mr Potato Head parts is easy if you already have the play-dough made up

Painting with Watercolour

I've been keeping these water colours aside for a long time, they came inside a transparent bag I bought before Thomas started day-care last year. I've found that painting with these water colours does not make as much mess as the other paint and is really easy to clean up. I whip this out when Thomas asks for painting and I'm just not feeling up to dealing with the mess!

painting with watercolours is not as messy as other paints

Straw Painting

I gave this straw painting a go, but it was quite messy I don't think I'll do it again for a while! Using an old medicine dropper, we dropped watered down paint onto paper then blew it with straws. Because I used the poster paint we did it out on the lawn to reduce the mess, rather than stain the conrete. The watered down paint made the paper all soggy, too. Thomas had fun though! He keeps asking for painting and gets quite excited!

blowing the watered down paint with a straw

dropping the watered down paint onto the paper with a medicine dropper

Playing with Pompoms

Surprisingly, Thomas really enjoyed playing with the pompoms, especially pushing little ones through holes in an old toothbrush holder. I thought this activity would be more suited to a younger child, but Thomas kept asking to do it again and again. I found this idea on Teaching 2 and 3 year olds. I only got around to buying a $2 packet of pompoms last weekend, I didn't buy them when he was younger because I was worried they might be a choking risk.

pushing pompoms through the holes in a toothbrush holder

He also enjoyed picking up pompoms with kitchen tongs, and sorting them into small plastic coloured bowls. We also revisited the sticky collage from last week, and he stuck pompoms onto the contact and then removed them.

sorting pompoms using kitchen tongs and small coloured bowls

Games with Straws

Last Tuesdays I bought a packet of 150 plain white straws from coles online. I researched activities I could do with Thomas using them, and here's what we did! Most of these ideas I found on pinterest, with a couple of our own thrown in! These activities made for a pleasant afternoon for my nearly 3 year old son and me.

Matching Straws and Lines

I found this idea on Teaching 2 and 3 year olds amongst a collection of tray activties. I carefully cut straws of different length and drew matching lines on a piece of paper. Thomas, who is nearly 3, could do this activity, it seemed to be just right for him.

matching straws to lines of different length

Blowing a Cotton Ball

I got this idea from a photo I saw on pinterest, its from the Eyes on the Source where there's a post on inside winter games. We didn't play races with it though, we just practised blowing the cotton ball with the straw. We did this for a few minutes, Thomas loved how the ball would move but he did get frustrated sometimes when he couldn't make the cotton ball move by himself. I just encouraged him to keep trying!

its fun to blow a cotton ball using a straw

Egg Carton, rings and straws game

This idea is from Mummy Musings and Mayhem, if you have straws its a cheap game to throw together with recycled materials. I poked holes into the recycled egg carton using a small pair of scissors. I started with the straws already in the holes, then when it came time for Thomas to play with it, I helped him remove the straws which he put back in. Then using the rings I made from cut up toilet rolls, he threaded them onto the straws. This game might be a little too easy for him, it only occupied him for a few minutes.

an easy game that doesn't cost much can be made from an egg carton, straws and empty toilet rolls

another shot of the egg carton, rings and straws game

Poking Straws

I got the idea for poking straws through the holes in a basket from a picture on pinterest which links to No one has more fun than the Adams. Thomas had some fun poking straws through the holes into the basket, sometimes poking through two straws at once. I also had an idea to poke the straws through holes in a kitchen utentsil which were just the right size.

you can poke straws through holes in a basket for a fine motor activity

you can also poke straws through other things like this kitchen utensil

Scooping Straws

Because I had the kitchen utensil out, Thomas then proceeded to try and scoop up straws with it saying 'I'm cooking!' I then cut some straws into smaller pieces and let him catch them as they popped! I put them into this recycled honey bucket and got a spoon that would fit better and he enjoyed playing pretend cooking with that. He scooped the straws out of the bucket, this is a great activity for his motor control.

pretend play with a spoon, recycled honey bucket and small pieces of straw

Threading Straws

We then ended the straw activity afternoon with some bracelet making by threading the small pieces of straw onto pipe cleaners. I got this idea from Toddler Boredome Busters. The pipe cleaners threaded easily through the straws, this is a great fine motor activity.

threading small pieces of straw onto pipe cleaners

Sticky Tissue Paper and Feathers Collage

This was a great activity for my 2 year old son which at first engaged him for 40 minutes straight. This is a fairly common idea you can find on the net, here is a blog that had this idea in a list of 70 fine motor activities for toddlers where the sticky collage idea is a fairly long way down the list. I prepared the small squares of recycled tissue paper the day before when Thomas was at day-care, I just used wrapping tissue paper I had saved from receiving gifts, I didn't buy the tissue paper. I ordered the contact from coles online and cut it into 3 pieces so we'll be able to repeat this activity on another day. I'll leave the contact up on the window for a few days I think so he can go back to it if he wishes.

sticking tissue paper squares onto contact

sticking a feather onto the collage

This was a very rich language activity for Thomas, by talking about the colours, and saying things like 'put it here' and 'its sticky! Thats funny!' while poking the contact with his finger and removing it quickly to make a popping sound. I kept the squares of tissue paper in a large plastic envelope and Thomas loved playing with that, digging into the pile of paper with his hands. "I think you like the sound" I said, then he quickly went back to the contact again and said "sticky sound".

'That's funny!' Thomas thought the popping sticky sound was hilarious

This was also a good fine motor activity as he was enjoying scrunching the paper between his fingers and sticking them onto the contact. He threw a pile of tissue paper onto the floor a couple of times, and when he picked up the tissue paper he scrunched up the pieces tightly in his hand.

Thomas loved playing with the tissue paper in the large plastic envelope

Thomas squealed with delight when I brought out the feathers in another big plastic envelop but they didn't make a nice crunchy sound like the tissue paper, I guess that's why he wanted to play with the tissue paper again pretty quickly. He stuck a couple of feather on, took them off, stuck them on again. Then he started ripping off the tissue paper delighting in the sound of the "rip!" Right now he is banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, a musician in the making!

Golf Ball Painting

We had a go at golf ball painting because my husband fished a bunch of balls out of his golf bag for us and it reminded us of this video on youtube we've seen many times. I just set it up like she did, with paint and spoons for each colour in seperate plastic jars. I only had yellow, white and black though as my paint was quite old and I had to throw the other colours out. I didn't make the home-made flour paint for this as I didn't think it would roll as well, its quite sticky and gooey.

Thomas couldn't wait to try the golf-ball painting

The non-toxic paint was easy enough to clean if I didn't let it dry, thankfully the activity was short lived so there wasn't much mess. We only did one golf- ball painting, then I let Thomas do some normal painting on paper with a paint brush using the left over yellow, white and black paint. I think I will need to buy some more non-toxic paint in brighter colours in the very near future! Thomas couldn't wait to try the golf-ball painting, knowing what to do as soon as I handed him the basket! Next time, I will have different colours with golf balls ready to go so it will be easier to do a 2nd golf-ball painting in the one session, I'm thinking 6 colours at least!

Pasta and a Box

I found this simple activity at One Perfect Day, it was something I could quickly whip up while we were waiting the last 10 minutes for daddy to come home from work. I just poked some holes with a pair of scissors into a biscuit box I found in my pantry, and used some macaroni pasta. Thomas enjoyed this activity, being occupied with it for 10 minutes and then going back to it again later to show daddy. Sometimes after he pushed some pasta through he then picked up the box and shook it to hear the sound of the macaroni rattling around inside. Pushing the macaroni pasta through the holes is an excellent fine motor activity for a 2 year old like my son.

pushing macaroni paste through holes poked into a biscuit box

this is an excellent fine motor activity that keeps a toddler busy for 10 minutes

Footprint Ghosts

I tried this craft activity last Tuesday based on a couple of activities on Toddler Approved. I started by tracing out 6 footprints which Thomas enjoyed saying it tickles! Then we talked about some emotions and I drew happy, sad and surprised onto the 3 pairs of footprint ghosts. We then played some matching games with the ghosties for a few minutes, Thomas was able to identify the emotions on the ghosts. We spent a little time ripping up white tissue paper and rolling some into balls, then we went outside to glue the paper onto the ghosts. We also glued on a little of the home-grown cotton, I just need some straws to turn these into puppets!

gluing tissue paper onto footprint ghosties

Colour Sorting Puzzle

This toddler activity is similar to some you can find on pinterest, this one turned out to be perfect for my son who is nearly 3 years old. I've been finding it very challenging to do most of the activities you can find on the net by the mommy bloggers, but this one wasn't too hard for me. I used an egg carton and found 12 differently coloured pieces of duplo from my son's lego box. They only just fit! Then I found matching coloured pencils from an old collection I've kept from years ago, and using the pencils coloured tiny pieces of white paper and stuck them into the egg carton with craft glue. When I showed the sorting game to my son he loved it, and wanted to do it twice over right away. I'll have to think of other sorting games I can do with him using this set up, its just right for him!

colour sorting game made from lego and an old egg carton

this puzzle was easy to make at home

Thomas playing with the sorting puzzle

this activity is perfect for a nearly 3 year old

he closed it and shook up the pieces to start again

Home-made Pizza

Thomas enjoys sitting on the stool at the kitchen bench watching his daddy cook, here he is watching him make home-made pizza! This is such an important activity for Thomas to be doing, soon he'll be able to help cook. David already gets him to help a little where he can, like patting the dough when it was getting kneaded or placing the pepperoni on the pizza. David used to make special pizza dough in the bread machine and it would take an hour just to rise, until he found this recipe which is quick because it doesn't use yeast, and doesn't use the machine. Its very yummy so we've decided to make pizza like this from now on. I also like to use free range salami, I'm so happy to have found that at Coles online, I try and get free range meat whenever I can, and always get free range eggs!

cooking at home is a very important toddler activity

Cheerios and Pipecleaners

This is just another easy activity which I've done with Thomas a few weeks ago, threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners. I had tried threading cheerios onto string with him to make necklaces, but that failed dismally! He was unable to hold the string while threading on a cheerio. That's why the pipe cleaners are easier, because he can thread it on he doesn't have to hold the pipe cleaner end. This is another idea I found on Pinterest, there are so many ideas on there to be found, but I prefer activities that are easy to throw together with what I already have here and are not too messy. This is a perfect little activity to fill a few spare minutes.

threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners is easier for a toddler than trying to thread it onto string

an easy no mess activity for a nearly 3 year old

Frozen Dinosaurs

Now the weather has warmed up, this activity has proven to be a popular one with Thomas who is nearly 3 years old. We've done this activity 3 times now, with different coloured water each time. Last time I just tipped the whole collection of dinosaurs into the water to freeze, instead of just the 4 I started with. I simply filled a 2 litre ice-cream container with water, some food colouring and the dinosaurs, leaving it in the freezer for at least a day to freeze. This is a very simple activity, Thomas choosing to just play with the ice or playing with other toys while it melts. But I want to document each special activity I do with him, so the days don't run into each other meaninglessly. I've been having trouble with depression lately, and blogging about the worthwhile activities I do with my son really helps. I found this idea on Pinterest where there are heaps of ideas to do with toddlers.

plastic toy dinosaurs frozen in 2 litres of coloured ice

Home-made Toddler Paint

I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been 'under the weather', but this painting activity with my 2 year old son is just what I needed to improve my mood! There's nothing quite like a mix of pretty colours and an excited toddler to lift the spirits. I found the recipe at Crunchy Farm Baby, its basically flour, water and food colouring. I've been researching activities to do with my son as I've decided that's the most worthwhile thing I could be doing with myself right now, but I've got to tell you its exhausting watching all the mummy bloggers out there post about all the wonderful things they do! It can feel quite daunting when I realise there's so much more I could be doing for my son. I tend to stay away from messy activities, but this one wasn't too difficult, its just food colouring so was easy to clean up.

Thomas started by trying out each colour right away

Thomas soon starting painting his hands to print onto the paper

I really like how the colours turned out, because its just flour, they had a nice pastel shade to them. I just made blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange and green. Thomas knows pink and purple, and can say 'geen' and 'boo', but still doesn't know orange and yellow. He loved painting, he soon starting painting his hands and printing them on the paper, then his feet and printing them too. He even started painting his tummy then abruptly lay down on  the paper face down to print his tummy! He proceeded to paint his legs and arms as well. He finished by scooping the goopy paint up in his hands and smearing it onto the paper. I'm assuming I can skip today's play-dough activity because this really turned into a sensory activity by the end. The texture of the goopy paint oozing through his fingers was very tactile and an excellent sensory activity.

printing hands, feet and tummy too!

a second piece of large butchers paper was needed

Luckily I had some water in the toddler pool still there from this morning's water activity, so I stripped him off and got him to wash it off in the pool. But because he had caked on so much flour paint onto his body it didn't all come off, and I had to give him a bath and scrub it off! After his bath, he ate some lunch and drank some milk and needed some convincing to have a nap because he wanted 'more painting!' He went to sleep easily when I promised he could do more painting after he had a little nap! So I should be doing this one again very soon ...

smearing the goopy paint turned this into a sensory activity

the painting turned into a sensory activity when he scooped up the goopy paint

Pipecleaners and a Strainer

Here's another no-mess toddler activity that doesn't cost much money. I spent just $2 on some pipe-cleaners from K-mart and used my large plastic strainer from the kitchen. Again, this is a great fine-motor activity for young children. I saw this idea on pinterest, and decided this would be safe for Thomas with supervision. On the packet, the pipe-cleaners say they are a choking hazard for under 3 year olds, but I couldn't see it! Maybe if he was chewing on a pipe-cleaner for a while, a small piece of metal might come loose, but he would have to be chewing on it for a while I think! But just to be sure, I sit with him during this activity.

poking pipecleaners through the holes in a strainer is great to help develop fine-motor coordination

Spaghetti and Cheerio's

Here is a low-mess and cheap activity that has quickly become a favourite for Thomas, an idea I got from pinterest. When he wants to play with the play-dough, I sometimes give him a few pieces of uncooked spaghetti and a small cup of cheerio's. I then encourage him to thread the cheerio's onto the spaghetti sticking up out of the play-dough. This is a great fine-motor activity, perfect for developing hand-eye coordination and finger control in preparedness for learning to write. Play-dough like this lasts well for a month in the fridge. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, the formally pink and blue play-dough is now a deep rich shade of purple!

spagetti and cheerios added to a play-dough session

Wiggly Worms and Pancakes with Play-dough

Last night David and I made some play-dough, seeing as we've decided to keep Thomas home from day-care for now at least, so we need to find more activities to do with him. And the playdough was a success, this morning Thomas has already played with it for two spurts of 15 minutes each, and I'll drag it out again later today.

Thomas squishing play-dough with his fingers

making wriggly worms with play-dough

He made "wiggly worms" and "pancakes", then a tower of worms and pancakes, then pancake worms. Often he would intently squish small pieces of play-dough between his fingers. This is a great activity to develop the muscles in his hands in preparation for fine motor skills like writing. We used a recipe at bestrecipes.com.au, it was easy enough for me to do so will have to make more again, possibly next week.

a tower of toddler made wriggly worms and pancakes