Tuesday, July 12, 2011

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 14: Toddler Skee Ball

I grabbed my daily toddler activity from the internet today. It's toddler skee ball! I read about this idea yesterday, thought it sounded fun, and realized we had the perfect supplies. Oliver has recently started eating fruit cups packed in juice, so Andrew bought a bulk pack in a box. Once we had three empty fruit cups, I traced the edges of the empty containers on the box to prep three holes. I cut inside my lines so the cups wouldn't fall in. Then, I punched the cups in and leaned the box against the wall. Here's what it looked like:


Now, the idea is for a toddler to run up with a ball and put it in one of the cups, scoring a point. You can even label each cup with a number to help teach numbers. I showed Oliver how I put the ball in one of the cups. He looked really excited! He ran over! Then, he tore out the cups. I tried a few more times to show him the concept behind the game, but he was having none of it. I finally decided to let him have fun the way he wanted to.

Oliver enjoyed opening up the box and sticking his arms through the holes. He put the cups in and took them out again. Not once did he try to play with the ball. So much for toddler skee ball; this game was cups-in-a-box!

After a few minutes, he decided he was done with the game. He grabbed an empty fruit cup and took it to the kitchen. Deciding this meant he wanted some fruit, I opened up a new container for him. The game ended with Oliver eating a fruit cup.

If you're patient enough to wait until you have an empty box and plastic containers, then this game is free. It wasn't that difficult to make, but it obviously took time. Oliver enjoyed it, but I'm not sure his enjoyment of a box and cups was worth my effort to carefully trace and cut holes. I think this is a good idea for him in the future (maybe 2-4 more months). I'll keep it around for now as long as he has fun with it, though. I give it a B-.

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