When I think of my little one and paints, only one thing – an absolute horror show, around 50 scenarios of how things can go wrong comes to mind. But, every child loves to color and its not like you can keep them away from it forever. So I got to work and found out about this absolute wonder – Roll on paints.
Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find these where I live, hence I got to the next best thing – DIY. And I was fortunate enough to find that Pinterest had its own variations – DIY projects tackled and tested by other moms.
So what is it that we need, you ask? Deodorants! and I mean roll on ones. Not the spray kind. My husband recently went on a roll on spree therefore I had empty bottles lying around that needed to get tossed.
How to prep them?
The roll on deodorant
Popped the Roll head
Roll on filled with paint
Collect all your roll on deodorants. Peel the labels and screw open the caps. Pop the head of the deo with the help of a thin lever (knife, end of a spoon or a comb etc.). Wash the ball and the bottle nicely. Add a few drops of liquid paint and a bit of water. I used acrylic because that’s what I had. Water color is preferable. Mix the paint and water well using a brush. Pop the ball head on and roll away. Screw the cap back on and store away from children once done.
And there you have it! Easy and simple DIY Roll on paints.
When Taeen turned one, we were confused as to what to get for her first birthday. She was hardly interested in soft toys or blocks or any small toys for that matter. How do we keep toddlers of that age entertained?
The TENT HOUSE Tent house is every child’s favorite. They help little ones explore and play hide and seek as well as set boundaries. It establishes a space just for them to play or feel freely. (Ours is from Too Two toys.)
The BALL PIT Ball pits are hours of fun. It does create a mess but if you are willing to overlook that, babies are occupied for a quite a while with this. An added plus, the pit can be used without the balls to keep the baby in with other toys. It acts a like a baby gated area of sorts. (This is the one we have, from Hamleys. It was a gift and super easy to store away too.)
The MARBLE RUN Marble runs entertain babies, toddlers, adults and makes a great birthday gift. It keeps little ones busy, helping them focus and improve their motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination. (We have the Playmate baby spiral fun from Firstcry but unfortunately has been discontinued since. Found one here instead. Check out another here.)
The PUZZLE An easy to do basic puzzle does the trick here. Babies love putting things in and pulling them out, which can be easily done with puzzles that have tiny handles. In the long run, they do learn to solve the puzzle. (Taeen still loves playing with hers. Make sure you get the wooden ones rather than any flimsy kind. Babies tend to mouth them.)
The BOUNCE All that pent up energy can get exhausted with the bounce ball or animal. This is perfect for Covid times, when the little one is stuck inside and needs an outlet to release energy. (Ours is a bounce animal from Hamleys, which was a gift, but there are other options here and here. Adult supervision is a must.)
Travelling with a baby is daunting. In fact, very daunting. We have all gone through it – the poop explosions, unexpected travel sickness, the food or drink spills. We cannot control that, Obviously. It’s just not in our power at times. But what is in our power is to make our life easy. And we can make travelling with a baby very easy. You just need this one easy hack that we sometimes like to call ‘our getaway bag’ for the baby.
The contents of our bag.
Our well packed baby bag.
Our getaway bag for the baby is usually filled with :
Five Diapers.
Two change of clothes.
A toy.
Wet wipes.
A towel.
Two napkins.
A tiny kit consisting of nail clippers, bum rash cream, baby lotion and baby wash.
A swaddle.
A wet-dry mat.
All packed up in that cute little carry on bag ( we got ours from westside ) and thrown into the backseat of the car, we can’t count the number of times this hack has saved our asses – when we run out of diapers during a shopping spree, when we have had to stay overnight someplace unexpectedly, last minute travel plans, poop explosions in the car, travel sickness…endless.
Some of the things Taeen has used for her sensory play.
It will vastly amuse you to know that a large amount of the items used for the activity or sensory play box, that you see on Instagram and Pinterest , come from households. Just plain, old, normal things that you might even throw away. So we just need to follow the 3 same old rules in life – reuse, recycle, reduce. They were so many times that I wished somebody had made a post about this. I ended up throwing so many things away before realizing the practical use in toy life. I don’t want you to go through the same cycle of regret that I did. So let’s get down to it shall we?
Bottle caps : Bottle caps of different colors and different sizes for color sorting.
Cardboards : Recycle the cardboards from your delivery boxes for cardboard activities.
Wet wipes lids : Never knew this one until recently. The amount of uses this one has – family tree, recycle bin, windows, picture frames etc.
Buttons : All that extra buttons you get with your new clothes, save them. And if it’s been a while since you’ve needed them, use them for sensory play, abacus, bead maze roller coaster.
Broken necklaces : Store away those beads, gemstones and pendants from your snapped necklaces for sensory play uses and craft works with you little one.
Kinder joy toys : Half of the toys I use for Taeen’s sensory play is from Kinder joy. It works great there because of its miniature size. Almost all of them can used either as parts or as a whole for sensory play. Initially I had saved it up as treats for potty training ( a hack I learnt a while back but never used LOL ). Then I acquired a taste for the damn chocolate and now it’s a war between my child and I. We do a 50 – 50 split. She gets the toy and I get the chocolate. Muhaha. Win win.
Toilet paper tubes : From making castle towers to pom pom/ ball slides, this is one with multiple uses.
Yogurt pouch caps : Another surprising one. This is used as wheels for cardboard vehicles, for sensory play, color sorting etc.
Tissue Boxes : This might end up filling your house, but waste tissue boxes can be wrapped with a nice looking paper and used as building blocks. Cool if you think about it, don’t you think?
Formula milk / Infant food : So formula milks and infant foods more often than not come with measuring scoops of all sizes. And they are of the right size, just perfect, for your little one’s tiny hands to scoop and pour and play.
Medical droppers : When you are playing with children, you don’t want to use too much of anything and especially food color. Having a dropper, that is washed and stored from your child’s last medicine bottle, at the ready sure helps move things along.
Clothes pins / pegs : These act like pincers in a jiffy and adds extra resistance due to the spring. This will work on improving your child’s hand muscles.
I will keep updating this list as I grow and learn more about activities and sensory play. Till then, feel free to add in the items that you have found to have unexpected uses and stay tuned for more. You could also check out my guide to creating your own fun filled sensory box.
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