DIY Fuel Pump | Play Fuel Pump

I love a good cardboard box DIY! It makes me so happy to convert an unused, old cardboard box that is just lying around, into something fun and pretty! This is one of my favourite cardboard box DIYs, if I am to choose one from the ones I have made so far.

The little fellow has a big collection of toy vehicles of all sizes - tiny, medium and big! He loves each one and engages in a lot of self play with these vehicles, at least for a few minutes every day. 

He have different props and accessories to pair up with the different sets of vehicles. The tiniest set of vehicles are best played in our sensory rice bin. The medium sized ones are used to play along with play dough. I try to encourage him to keep them separate as much as possible, to avoid messing them up too much and also to up the fun factor! A sticky wheel after a play dough play session is not going to be fun in a rice bin!

So, for the big vehicles, he didn't have any particular prop to pair up as such. He would just run them over cushions pretending it to be speed breakers. Since I had two boxed that seemed just perfect to make a big enough fuel pump to suit the big vehicles, I decided to make it as a play prop for them.

Honestly I am not sure who had more fun - me making the cute little pump or he playing with it! It was just super fun to put this together. I had planned on using the cap of his spray bottle for this DIY, but when I found a store that sells only the spray bottle cap, I was super delighted! The pump turned out way better than I had expected and it is still as good as new, after a month of play.

Clips (Paper and Clothes Clips) Activity Ideas

Last couple of days we have been doing a few simple fun activities using chart paper, paper clips and clothes clip. Primarily for improving fine motor skills while also reinforcing numbers and letters recognition and colours matching. These tiny little clips or pegs as they are also called, are great for developing a good pincer grip in little fingers.

When I first introduced the wooden clips to my little boy, a few months ago, it was for a name recognition activity. He found it really hard to work them. He was unable to open the clips. His tiny fingers were not ready for them and so I kept them aside for a few months and we used plastic clips for the activity instead. 

More recently. we again tried our hands at the wooden clips and this time he was able to work them perfectly! This time around, I first let him work on an activity that used plastic clips, then paper clips and finally we moved on to wooden clips. The difficulty level increased step by step and I am guessing that helped him get the hang of it.

Sharing here, the simple games we played and enjoyed using paper clips and clothes clips. 

Papa Bear - Father's Day Card | Toddler Craft

With Father's Day approaching, I though this is the right time to share what we did for last year's Father's Day. Mini and I made this cute little Papa Bear card for Mini's dad. I found this adorable card idea from Pinterest and was so happy with how easy it was to make something so cute!

He was only 2.4 years old and so this was mostly done by me under his close supervision! Oh well, he did help stick the little eyes and pompoms! :)

This is a fun little project to do with older toddlers who have just about gotten control of their scissor skills. Maybe this year again I will try making the same with him, only this time I will draw a circle and let him cut it out by himself!