100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 90: Stacking Blocks

I get a few monthly updates in my inbox that tell me what stage my kids are in, what parenting difficulties I might face this month, and what activities might be good for their development. I'm actually not even sure how I got subscribed to these emails, and I don't always read them. I think I get one from Pampers and one from some sort of "baby center" or something. Well, anyway, I recently read that Joanna is at a good age to enjoy stacking blocks. She received some large, stacking/nesting blocks for Christmas. At the time, she wasn't very interested in them. At almost-16-months, she's supposed to be interested in them now (according to my email...). So, I decided to test it as a young toddler activity.

I demonstrated to Jo how the blocks stacked. She took to it immediately! Our blocks are various sizes, and she didn't grasp the concept that smaller blocks should be stacked on larger ones. That must be a later development stage. She was positively thrilled to stack them up however she could, only to knock them down immediately and squeal with glee!

Here are some photos of Joanna testing out our "Stacking Blocks" activity:

This activity wasn't just fun; it was a hit. We tested it out yesterday morning, and she keeps begging to play again and again. When she isn't stacking blocks, she can be found pointing to the computer, pleading with me to play the videos of her stacking her blocks.
                                                         

Pros: Simple, Educational (gets them thinking), Fun, No Mess
Cons: Blocks costs money

I couldn't find these exact blocks to link for you, but I did find some Melissa & Doug Nesting & Stacking Blocks that are very similar:
                                                                                                  

Because of the upfront cost involved (and, thus, planning), I give "Stacking Blocks" an A-.

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 63: Stacking Cheerios

I've really enjoyed flipping through all of the activity ideas on Toddler Boredom Busters. Oliver is younger than her kids, so not all of the activities are appropriate for him. I'll save the site to go back to throughout the next couple of years. Today's activity, Stacking Cheerios, came from that website, and Oliver had a good time with it.

The activity set up is easy, and, if your house is like mine, you already have all of the supplies on hand. I took a glob of Play-Doh and stuck some pasta on it. I had angel hair pasta, and it worked fine, but spaghetti probably would be stronger (some broke during the activity, but it wasn't an issue). Then, I sat Oliver down and asked him to thread Cheerios onto the pasta. He jumped right into it!

After two or three minutes, he "mastered" the threading and then moved on to removing the pasta noodles and replacing them. I realized that I probably just should have let him do the pasta part initially. Some pasta noodles broke, and Oliver learned you can't just fix them.

After he re-situated all of the noodles, Oliver threaded more Cheerios. Then, it occurred to him that Cheerios are also for eating. He stopped playing and chowed down!

"Stacking Cheerios" didn't keep him entertained for all that long (maybe 15 minutes), but it was so easy to set up and clean up, that it was worth those 15 minutes of fun. Plus, I'm likely to always have the supplies on hand, so it's an activity we can easily do when boredom strikes. The ease of the activity makes it a good one, so I give this an A-.