Entertaining The Kids | There's Just One Mommy

Thankful for Great Ideas in the Blog World

Happy Thursday, everyone! Time to be thankful.

I am thankful for the many wonderful ideas, the crafts, recipes, and activities, that I’ve learned from other mommy bloggers.

For example, I never imagined how long these simple objects could entertain a child.

It was a crazy day, the kids kept getting into little tiffs. I was struggling to get dinner cooked when I remembered reading a post on Hands on as We Grow about letting kids thread pipe cleaners into the holes of a colander.

Wondering if it would actually work, I grabbed the colander from the cabinet, put it upside down on the floor, grabbed a handful of pipe cleaners and showed my almost 3-year-old little boy what to do.

He was hooked in an instant.

He let Mommy slide in the yellow pipe cleaner while he did the red. He carefully slid the fuzzy wire through the itty-bitty hole and was so proud when it disappeared.

He proceeded to do each and every pipe cleaner, while I put potatoes in the microwave, flipped the chicken over, and started getting veggies ready for dinner. 20 minutes went by and he was still entertained.

When big sister came out, he couldn’t wait to show her the new game. Previous squabbles from the day were forgotten as he handed her pipe cleaners to thread.

Pure magic.

They ate dinner and returned to playing with the pipe cleaners.

Peace and a chance to cook dinner without referring, what else could a Mommy ask for?

You’re turn! What ideas have you discovered through the world of blogging that you’re thankful for?

~OneMommy

Making a Felt Board

If you’re one of my regular readers, you might remember our downstairs cardboard play area… When it got remodeled I wound up taking down the wall with the makeshift felt board I had hot glued to it…

Since the kids really liked playing with the felt pieces I had made, and my daughter LOVES playing with the felt dolls that I made to entertain the kids while driving on vacation, I really wanted to make a new (and better) felt board.

I had a couple cheap picture frames in the mess under our basement stairs. I decided they would make wonderful felt boards!

I assembled the necessary materials: picture frames, large pieces of felt (my husband had some industrial grade felt in the garage I washed to use for this project – I love using what’s on hand!), scissors, and hot glue gun.I started by taking apart the old frame. This one had a plastic cover, but if it has a glass cover, be sure to take the necessary precautions to protect little one’s fingers!

I cut the piece of felt to be approximately 1 inch larger than the frame’s cardboard on all sides. Then I cut out square notches at the corners.After cutting the felt accordingly, I used the hot glue gun to fold and glue the felt to the cardboard piece. Once the glue was set, I put the cardboard back into the frame, using the frame’s clips to hold it in place.

Since I had 2 identical frames, I made a second board so each of my little ones has their own felt board. They love to retell fairy tales using the pieces we had from the old felt board. I also made a few cars and trucks for Monkey…and a table and other accessories for Peanut to set up “house” for the felt dolls.