Texture Floor Squares

As my role in my children's life is evolving; going from full time working Mom to stay at home Mom and my children's lives are being reshaped; going from church preschool 3 days a week to stay at home kids, I have decided that I need the structure of having some kind of morning activity each weekday and my boys seem to like it as well. This is what our week looked like:

Monday-  (Memorial Day)- Walk and playground (with Papa!)

Tuesday- Bounce House play date at church (socializing, rules, physical activity)

Wednesday- Texture Floor Squares (3 year old; verbalizing experiences, 16 month old; experiencing new textures and sounds)

Thursday- Gallon Ziploc Bags with Ice Cubes (3 year old; counting, separating, making shapes, 16 month old; experiencing cold, noise, touch)

Friday- Colored Wash Cloths in a Stock Pot (3 year old; colors, counting, singing, 16 month old; put in/take out, stirring)

The highlight of this week was the Texture Floor Squares.

Supplies:

low cardboard box

square cloth (ours was a microfiber dish square)

square of bubble wrap

square of tin foil

square of crumpled brown package paper

gallon sized ziploc bag with a couple tablespoons of water (you might want to use a freezer bag so it is thicker, our bag was really thin and the boys put lots of little holes in it before all was said and done)

masking tape (we used the blue painters type)

optional: wooden spoons for each participant

I thought it would be a lot of fun to gather the supplies from around the house with my boys, so we started this morning activity with a scavenger hunt, I had a good idea of all the items I wanted to tape down, but I was interested in listening to their suggestions; I passed on tapping down noodles but added the box we found in the garage to our floor of exploration. I don't want to spend a bundle on our morning activities so I was pleased that this week everything we did was at no additional expense. The hardest part came next, tapping everything down. This was the hardest part for me because I had to fight my perfectionism (perfectly lined up and immaculately outlined squares that are all the same pretty size) while my children in their delight wanted to tape everything they saw, play with each square as I was attempting to attach it to the ground, and generally get in the way. Once I moved the boys to the edge of the kitchen with firm directions to wait until I was done (probably the hardest part of the morning for them), I quickly and fairly haphazardly taped the squares down. Then the party began! We touched everything with our fingers first, then our feet, then with wooden kitchen spoons, with lots of questions along the way.  After the formal rounds were made the boys went to whatever square they wanted. The water square was a favorite for little fingers, the bubble wrap was a blast to stomp on, the box was great to climb, jump from and bang with spoons. 

After a while it turned into follow the leader jumping (3 year old) and toddling (16 month old) from square to square. The kids were truly engaged in this activity for over an hour, both of them! They also had fun tearing it all up, pulling tape, tossing trash in the garbage can and helping...  you know, how wrapping paper and empty boxes are often more fun than the toy, that kind of thing.