Play on a Budget

Over the next two weeks, I'll be writing a few posts about playing on a budget.  By now, I'm sure most of you have seen our Playroom, so you've probably deduced that we are currently very lucky - my husband has a great job.  

Growing up, however, my family was on a tight budget.  I even put myself through college working 2-3 jobs and often working 60 hour weeks.  Having lived most of my life on a budget, I do have some tips and tricks I'd like to share in case they are useful.  So that's what I'm going to do with this post.  

Other posts in the series include:

Our Favorite Free Sensory Materials

A Sensory Starter Kit for under $20 from Target

A Sensory Starter Kit for under $20 from The Dollar Tree

If there are any other posts in this theme you'd like to see, please let me know in the comments here or on our Facebook page!

One Set of Miniatures

(photo from Our Favorite Toys post)

We LOVE miniatures.  We are firmly pro miniatures for small world play.  Do not feel like you need to have all the sets for each small world.  If you have one set - your kids will seriously not mind.  I honestly doubt they will even notice (S puts dinosaurs in EVERYTHING once I'm done with photos, hahaha).  You can still set up different themed worlds, but the dinosaurs (for instance) can visit the farm, or a pond, or have an ocean adventure.  We use separate sets because (well, because I am a little addicted to them) it looks nicer for the blog posts.  But please don't feel like you can't do an ocean world until you have an ocean set!  Our Dollar Store usually has a set of 10 creatures (dinosaurs or insects) that would work fabulously.  I've found tons of our miniatures at consignments store and garage sales.  And if you really love those Safari TOOBs we play with and live near a Michaels, just wait for a 50% off coupon and then a whole TOOB of 14 animals is only $3.99!  If you have a smartphone, you can either get an app for the coupons, or you can go to the Michaels website and there's a button for "Coupons" under "Local Ad".  This is actually how we get a lot of our supplies!

Used Books

(photo from Our Reading Room post)

While I love using the library, it's also nice to have some of our own books.  I have had some luck with garage sales and Goodwill, but by far the best place I've found for great book is a library book sale.  Our local library only does them twice a year, but there are TONS of books at each sale and all are very inexpensive.  I like to look for familiar titles, but also for books printed by Scholastic and Candlewick Press as they are usually high quality.

Go Smaller

(playing with our Hidden Fizzing Ocean World)

Because of the blog, I show my kids playing in a GIANT underbed storage container.  And it is expensive to fill that beast!  A smaller container will be just as fun for your kids.  Anything goes - a bowl, a baking dish, or you could even buy one of our favorites - the "disposable" aluminum baking pans with plastic lids (you can see ours in this post).  They are only $2 at the grocery store and we've had ours for over a year.  

Color Isn't Necessary

(Playing with Cornstarch and Water - no color needed!)

We add color to lots of our activities, but honestly, kids are easy.  S would be just as happy playing in a pile of plain shaving cream as she would in a pile of colored shaving cream - and liquid watercolors and food coloring are costly.

Hopefully there was at least one helpful tip in there for those of you on a budget.  Play doesn't have to be expensive to be fun - I want everyone to feel like they can follow along with most of our activities, regardless of their budget!  If you have any other great tips - please share them here in the comments or on our Facebook page - I'd love to hear them!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Scented Homemade Edible Fingerpaint

Now that X is a bit older (he just turned a year old!), he's getting much better about not tasting paint.  I still don't trust him with "real" paint, but I am worried less about using artificial dyes.  If your little one is small enough that they're likely to be eating a bit of whatever paint you're using, I'd still recommend our Homemade Edible Paint made with Natural Dyes.

While natural dyes are pretty in their own right, I do enjoy the vibrancy of artificial coloring in paints.

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I'd had the idea to have X play in yogurt since it's so silky smooth - but then thought, hey, why not make it into paint?  I know a lot of bloggers use Kool Aidand for so long I'd resisted because I somehow thought it had sugar already in it?  I hate that sticky sugar feeling.  But I was totally wrong - Kool Aidpowder has no added sugar!  And the smells - ohhhhh yum!!!

Because I did want to discourage X from tasting, and as I mentioned, I really dislike sticky sugar residue, I bought plain yogurt.  Most brands of plain yogurt are unsweetened altogether, and are quite tart.  Though edible, it was a great teaching paint since the flavor really was not one you'd like to taste more than once!  I used small cups to measure out about two big spoonfuls of yogurt and I added 1/2 to a whole packet of Kool Aid,depending on the color (I needed very little red and orange, for instance).  

For whatever reason our local Safeway didn't have any green Kool Aid, so I mixed half a packet of the yellow Lemonade and the blue Blue Raspberry and made my own green!

The paints were so pretty!  The colors were nice and vibrant and the yogurt was so smooth and glossy. X was SUPER excited to dive right in!

I love this photo because it catches his "ooh!" face.  Whenever he finds something new and exciting, he makes this face while exclaiming "ooh!  ooh!" - it always makes me and S laugh!

Here he is feeling the texture of the paint between his fingers.  Unfortunately, I'd made the mistake of using yogurt straight from the refrigerator, so it was quite cold!  X was a little hesitant to really get in there because of the temperature.  It wasn't the warmest day either.  Whoops!  Unless it's already summer-y where you are, I'd recommend letting the yogurt get a bit closer to room temperature before using it (you don't want to leave it out SO long that it spoils, but 10-15 minutes would have made it a bit less chilly for poor baby X!)

He really loved watching the paint drip off of his fingers on to the paper.

Since X loves to try to eat regular paper, when I paint with him I use poster board and tape the edges down.  This helps him focus on painting instead of being distracted by the paper.

He also loved making finger tracks through the paints.  This was definitely the most "painting" he's done yet!  I can't wait until he's a bit older and it really clicks for him.  :)

More finger dragging.  It was really cool how the yogurt paint made tracks - and I loved watching the colors swirl as he mixed them with his hand.

One happy, messy little painter!  As you might have guessed if you read my post on Managing Messy Play, there's a hidden splat mat under that sheet.  :)

What a beautiful baby masterpiece!

After I finished taking pictures, I showed him how to use his feet to swirl and smear the paint further.  We also painted his feet and legs a bit more and he experimented with his whole hand and made a handprint.  

All in all, we were big fans of the scented yogurt paint!  S happened to be at Take Your Child to Work Day with her Dada, but I can't wait for her to try these!  The smells were such a fun addition to the vibrant colors and smooth texture of the paint - she'll be sure to enjoy them.

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Managing Messy Play

I'll be the first to admit that I am not a neat freak.  However, the idea of messy play still made me feel super uncomfortable.  Why make a mess on purpose?  And it seemed like it would be so hard to clean up...    

But as time has gone on, I feel like I've gotten a system down - and now I am able to enjoy messy play without worry!  So today I'd like to share my tips for managing messy play in the hopes that they help others get more comfortable with what I think is the MOST fun way for kids to play.  :)

1.  Control the amount.

(Playing with Wet Cotton Balls)

Left to their own devices, I feel like kids naturally explore with their whole bodies.  Not to mention - they are often exploring new skills like dumping and pouring!  I have yet to meet a toddler that didn't enjoy dumping things everywhere (or was horribly inaccurate with pouring)!  So when S was younger, I wouldn't give her a huge container of rice or water like I do now.  I would give her a much smaller amount.  That way when it did get everywhere, I had an easier time cleaning it up.  With water, I quickly learned that I didn't need to give her a full container of water for it to be fun.  I could give her just enough that a towel/clothing would soak it all up!  She would still have fun, and then when it inevitably spilled, we wouldn't be left with a soaking carpet.

2.  Cover your floor according to your material.

(Playing with Cornstarch and Water)

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If we are playing with dry sensory materials, I generally just use a splat mat.  A splat mat can be anything that's waterproof.  Initially we used a waterproof disposable tablecloth I found at Target for $2.  It did work for quite awhile, but eventually wore through.  Now we use 2 yards of oilcloth fabricand I think it's ideal.  Oilcloth is very thick and sturdy - if you can afford it, I'd definitely recommend buying the oilcloth to use as your splat mat.  There are also commercially produced splat mats - they will cost a bit more, but they have finished edges and designs, so you could also buy a premade one if that's your preference.  Once we're done playing, I just fold up the splat mat and pour the excess back into our storage container.  

If we are playing with wet sensory materials, I will either lay out a towel on top of the splat mat (this is my usual method for dealing with water) or I will lay out a sheet on top of the splat mat (for something like cornstarch and water or gelatin).  I might still need to wipe down the splat mat after we're done playing, but this makes it much easier.  I just toss the towel or sheet directly into the wash with any dirty clothes and that's it!

3.  Plan ahead.  

(Unstructured Toddler Painting)

Particularly with extra messy things like cornstarch and water or paint, I talk with S about how we're going to do things (I also talk it through with X, but he's a bit too little still to follow all of it, I think!).  I remind her of the rules (staying on the mat until we're done playing) and state if we're going to go straight to a bath, etc.  If it is something they'll need to have washed off in the bath - I make sure I set out soap, towels, etc ahead of time - as these things are much harder to grab while carrying a paint covered child, hahaha.  Often the mess is not bad enough to warrant a whole bath, so I just rinse arms and legs in the sink - in which case I make sure to have a towel waiting next to the sink.

4.  Decide the venue.

(Playing with Gelatin)

Messy play is for sure easiest outside.  But sometimes the weather isn't great (particularly when you live  in Seattle!).  As far as indoor play, there's the bathtub, or there's the floor.  While the bathtub does contain the mess really well (and they're already there for clean-up!), I do appreciate that the floor is less  slippery and affords more space for play.  Over time, I feel like I've gotten to the point where the floor is just as easy.  

Though messy play can be hard on us adults (hahaha), I feel like kids really blossom with it.  I hope that those of you who have never tried it will give it a shot.  The Super Easy Sensory Plays are a great place to start.  If you're new to messy play, I'd really recommend starting with something "easy" like water play or rice play and then gradually moving up to something more messy like painting or cornstarch and water.  

Be messy; have fun!  :)

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Encouraging Little Scientists

This is running as a guest post over at The Imagination Tree!  Please click here to read it.  Thank you!

Simple Small Worlds: Farm World

You can read about our other Simple Small Worlds here:

Fizzing Hidden Ocean World

Froggy World

Insect World

Dinosaurs and Sticky Mud

Dragon World

Butterfly World

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S has a lot of miniature farm animals (some from miscellaneous Playmobil sets;some from a partial Safari Ltd Farm TOOBI found at a garage sale), so making a farm small world seemed only natural!

First I set to work making stalls for the animals.  These was quickly accomplished with my best friend, hot glue gun, and some popsicle sticks.

Next I needed fill materials.  I try to keep the materials in my small worlds as simple as possible, so I went with some blue cardstock paper for the pond, some gravel for the edge of the pond, some millet puff cereal we had for the horses' stall, dried coffee grounds for the pig stall, cut up dried grass from our front yard, and cut up fresh grass from our backyard.

S really enjoyed the smell of the cut grass, and as this was several weeks ago when it was still winter, it really helped our house smell a bit like summer (fresh cut grass always reminds me of summer!).

S decided to play with tiny pony first.  He took a drink from the pond first.

Then went to visit the pigs.

Finally he came back to his stall and ate some apples with the rest of his horse family.

Then S decided that everyone was tired and needed her to create beds for them throughout the world.

The beds were each individually made by S.  They consisted of a little bit of everything...

Now little pig is asleep and she's off making another bed.

She really wanted to feel the "dirt" with her foot.  :)

After each bed was carefully made, S took all the fencing and the pond, requested a piece of plastic wrap, and made this.  It's a big house with a "clear window" for Mama Pig.  S then proceeded to tell several stories about Mama Pig and how she got to her home.  Small worlds are a fabulous venue for encouraging story telling.  This bin stayed around for several days, and my husband and I enjoyed several versions of Mama Pig stories while X really enjoyed playing with the dried grass.  :)

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Life-Sized Magnetic Robot

Meet Bot.

S and I enjoy our mini Recycled Robots so much, I was inspired to make a bigger version.  I love life-sized things (like our Felt Board), but I also thought I could use his body as a magnet board.  It works brilliantly!  So for any of you who want a magnet board, but don't have wall space - this works a dream!!!

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For materials we used some cardboard boxes, white duct tape,six tall aluminum cans (our beans come in these tall cans - we use them to make chili!), three regular sized aluminum cans, HVAC venting, a thick mailing tube, aluminum foil, a box cutter, and a hot glue gun.

Since making Bot is at least a little involved, we decided to make a family project out of it this past weekend.  S was in charge of making Bot's fingers.  She decided he should have ten fingers, and based off the size finger she wanted, I pre-cut ten pieces of aluminum foil for her and she went to work shaping fingers.

My husband had a vision for Bot's feet (they need to be nice and big to prevent the robot from tipping), so he was in charge of that.

X...well, X was in charge of looking cute.  And exploring boxes.

Here's a back view of Bot so I can talk more about how he's constructed.  I took the three "head" cans and laid a piece of duct tape along the back of them to hold them together (loosely, granted).  I then used the measurements of the cans (height and width) to cut four pieces of cardboard to make a rectangle around them.  I used the white duct tape along all the edges of everything, as well as to hold cardboard pieces together.  Once I had the cans "boxed" in, I used a glue gun on the back of Bot's head along the edges of the cans and between them to lock them in place.  I repeated this same procedure to make Bot's body.

I cut the HVAC venting roughly in half, and then squeezed the far opening in half to close it.  Along that seam, I used the hot glue gun again to attach each of Bot's foil fingers.  I used hot glue along the circumference of the HVAC venting to attach Bot's finished arms.

I used hot glue again to attach Bot's ear pieces and his legs.  My husband used a box cutter to cut out an opening for the cardboard mailing tube to sit inside Bot's box feet.  We used hot glue at the base to make Bot's tube legs more stable.

S decorated Bot's face completely by herself (it's SO CUTE!) and then set to work decorating his body.  We used several of the magnets we created for our Recycled Robots (you can read more about how we made them in that post if you're curious) plus some of our beloved Tegu blocksand some of our geometric Melissa and Doug magnets.

It really is a good amount of magnetic space (and you could, of course, build an even bigger robot) for those of you looking for an alternate to a wall mounted magnet board.

We took Bot outside for a photo shoot because it was too dark inside with our gloomy weather.  I just adore how S made his tiny hat and cute little cheeks with the Tegu blocks.

Best friends!

And then today we took a few more photos indoors.

I love that he's almost as tall as S!

We love our Bot and hope we've inspired you to create your own.  If you do, we'd love to see a picture on our Facebook or Google+ wall!!!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.