5 ways to play with ice
/Hi! I'm Sarah from Spoon Fed Baby! I blog about homemade baby food, play time ideas, and surviving motherhood. I am thrilled to be guesting for Lydia as she welcomes her new sweet baby!
Heelllooooo summer!!!! I am over the top in love with summer (especially with a toddler in the house) because it means that we can get out of these four walls! Here in MI spring flirted with us for quite a while and it seemed to be taking forever to get here. So yeah, I'm ready for warm, sunny, summer-y days!
I have a almost 2 year old that is a bouncy, curious, giggly boy that we call P-buddy over at my blog. We have done the whole spectrum of inside winter activities from sink sensory bins too cool whip bath times, that it is finally time to take our play outside!! One thing that I am excited to bring into our play this summer is ice! It's the perfect sensory experience for little hands AND it's a great way to keep cool in the heat.
5 Ways to Play With Ice!
To make the perfect size ice cubes for little hands I have found that plastic baby food containers work wonderfully! They stack up nice and neat in the freezer and are bigger than a standard ice cube tray. I only needed 1 drop of color for each ice cube. If I added too many drops they all started looking black!
- Ice and water. So simple! Not too much explanation here obviously! A bin outside on the grass is a great way for toddlers (or infants!) to explore with the ice. Add some scoopers, bowls, and cups in and you are set to go!
- Salt and ice. Sprinkling some salt on top of the ice cubes creates a fun crackling sound that the kids will enjoy listening to and watching! A salt shaker at the Dollar store is perfect, or for something bigger you can try a Parmesan shaker.
- Theme ice bins. The Dollar Tree (I'm a bit obsessed - our bath toys come from there!!) always has cute seasonal ice cube trays that you can use to make a theme ice play bin. An example might be some frog ice cubes, green water (cold so the cubes don't melt as fast), craft foam lily pads, leaves, and rocks. You will have a perfect frog pond sensory experience! Great for learning new vocabulary also!
- Ice balloons. Take a balloon and fill it with colored water and freeze. Peel the balloon off and you have very cool looking ice balls! Throw them, hammer them, or drip warm water on them to melt them. Lots of possibilities!
- Ice treasures. In a bigger container put some trinkets or mini treasures with the water and freeze. After they are frozen give your child some tools to start digging away at the ice to get to the treasures!
Have fun outside this summer and keep cool!! Thanks for reading! You can find me here: Spoon Fed Baby, facebook, pinterest, google+
