Activities for 2 1/2 year olds are freaking nuts. Why? Because I read so many mommy blogs with activities for 2 year olds and over half of them MY two year can't do. Seriously - she can't cut out pumpkin faces or shapes, she can barely squeeze glue onto paper, she most definitely isn't interested in dumping fuzzy balls down paper tubes taped to the wall, she can't count (she's memorized 3....2....1.... UNDERDOG!!! and that's about it for counting), her flashcards are of no interest to her unless it involves throwing them into the furnace vents. Gah, I just need something that will entertain her so I can make dinner, do a load of laundry, or take the trash out to the bin.
So I signed up for a Toddler Approved October craft event thingy.
Mostly The Monkey has improvised on all the activities and that's just fine with me since I refuse to spend 45 minutes on prepping an activity that will just last 5 minutes. Waste of time if you ask me.
I don't cut pumpkin shapes or faces. I may next year if she asks me too, but for now, she has NO CLUE that I can use scissors on paper to cut shapes and I'm planning on keeping it that way for as long as possible.
I bought foam pumpkins at Target - $5 for 30 pumpkins, foam stickers are from Amazon, they were ridiculously cheap and have lasted since March. I then showed her pictures of jack-o-lanterns from the Halloween books that we already own and asked her to make her own pumpkin faces.
We ended up with 15 random pumpkin face foam thingys. This afternoon I'm going to have her make more and then I'm going to tape the foam pumpkins up around our doorway from the living room into the dining room. Free home decor. Sort of.
We also made "pumpkin pets" or "pumpkin people" or whatever you want to call them.
Unfortunately The Monkey thought they needed a wet sponge bath and the glue unstuck the ears on the larger pumpkin. I need to do a small surgical repair to it.
The stickers took up way more time than I thought - the entertainment value was super high, I think she spent close to 25 minutes "stickering" away at the foam pumpkins.
The pumpkin people took way less time, but I'm sure if I had more than 2 pumpkins to decorate it would have taken more - maybe 10 minutes tops.
Also, The Monkey doesn't quite understand the concept of glue yet, so we had a few handwashings during the pumpkin pets activity - she kept trying to move the puffy balls all around and stick them to other things. This activity will need a "closer eye" to watch if glue isn't a normally used craft item.
Happy Friday!!
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