Ice Cream Shop Pretend Play 🍦🍧🍨

I had set this up a few weeks ago, for the little guy. He loves playdough and also ice creams... Combine the two, and it was a hit! 😄 The setup might look like a lot, but it hardly took me a few minutes to put it all together. 

I already had some homemade playdough of different colours lying at home. I only made a fresh batch of playdough with a hint of vanilla essence to make the Vanilla 'Ice Cream'! :)

A little chalkboard name board for his store. 

Muffin tray to hold the various 'flavours'. 

An upcycled carboard box to hold the 'ice cream cones'.

Playdough Kits - Some More!

Fire Emergency Playdough Kit

Our love affair with Playdough Kits is going strong and with each kit, I am seeing a lot of learning through play happening.  If you have missed our first post on Playdough Kits, do hop over to my previous post on it and read up on them. We have the following kits on that post:

• Construction Site Playdough Kit
• Cupcake Playdough Kit
• City Playdough Kit
• Land and Sea Playdough Kit

Farm Playdough Kit

Also, if you are looking to make your own batch of playdough, here is how we make our Homemade Playdough. Its super simple and we really love the texture! The playdough that we use are all homemade

I consider a thoughtfully put together playdough kit as a little investment in time that I am making. I may take about 15-20 minutes to put together a kit and what results in hours of freeplay and endless creative learning for the Mini. It is worth every bit of my effort.

Bee and Garden Playdough Kit

The best part? I have spent absolutely nothing to make these kits, except of course the box itself, the rest of the little items are all parts of his existing toys, items lying around the house or craft supply. I love that I am able to re purpose items from his toys that are usually lesser played with. These kits give a whole new dimension to them and rekindles his interest, while in reality, there is no new items at all. Just presented in a different fun way!

Funny Faces Playdough Kit

Here are our kits from last few days... We totally absolutely LOVE them. I do hope you get some ideas and inspirations while here and get playdoughing with your little one! It is worth it all :)

Playdough Kits

Construction Site Playdough Kit

Recently I came across this interesting concept of Playdough Kits and we love them! It's basically putting together loose parts along with playdough based on different themes, as open ended play invitations. Playdough has always been loved by my boy, with these kits I am primarily trying to tingle his creativity and give new play dimensions to good old playdough!

Cupcake Playdough Kit

I am big on organizing and absolutely love a good storage solution! The box I use for my Playdough Kits is a dry fruits box I got on Amazon. The mat is a silicon baking mat from Ikea. It is perfect for playdough play, zero mess!

City Playdough Kit

I let these kits sit in his play shelf for a couple of days until the interest is alive. He pulls them out himself and sits to play. I have a box full of loose parts that I store away, and intent to use in these kits on rotation. After play, we ensure everything is back in its place until next play session. 

Land and Sea Playdough Kit

These have worked great for us, so sharing here for anyone else who may be interested! :)

Do check our newer post, "Playdough Kits - Some More" for a few more kits that we put together! :)

Playdough Imprints Match Puzzle

A few days ago, we tried a fun little game with playdough and a few small toys. This is almost a no prep activity as its just way too easy to put together. We always have a batch of homemade playdough lying around in the fridge. So that one evening, when we had nothing else planned, I just pulled them out and decided to set this game for the little guy.

If you haven't tried making your own batch of playdough yet, please please do give it a try! Here is how we make our Homemade Playdough.

Its absolutely simple, needs very basic ingredients, its taste safe, its super soft and lasts for months if stored well! Well, we love it and have never ever bought readymade playdough till date.

Playdough Car Maze

I always try to keep a stock of my homemade playdough in the fridge for quick play set up when I am too tired to set up anything else for my boy or when I have nothing else planned or when he generally just asks to play with playdough! 

Playdough makes for a great free-play item. I have setup our simple playdough boards several times for him and it has always been loved. 

This time around too, we took out our stash of playdough and began making random shapes and forms out of the different coloured balls. Finally, we made them into long cylinders and shaped them into little spirals like chaklis or murukus! What a fabulous exercise it served as for our wrists and hand muscles.   

The bigger ones were made by me while the littler ones were made by the Mini. Once these spirals were made, I was just about pack them off back into their storage box when an idea struck me! I rolled out each spiral and made them into long pipes. I grabbed our white board and started placing these pipes on the board forming tiny roads.... I made a tiny maze for the Mini's toy vehicles!

I had real fun planning this mini maze for him with little dead-ends, bends and tracks. The riot of colours on the white board was just pleasing to the eye.

Mini had a riot of a time tracing the maze with each of his vehicles, exploring the dead-ends and turns along the way :)

Sensory Play Setup and Ideas

After a couple of weeks of researching on sensory play and reading about its benefits and gathering some simple items from around the house, I have finally put together a dedicated sensory bin for the Mini. I have been weary of sensory bins as I was afraid of the mess! But then, after reading on how good it is for little ones and understanding how to teach them to contain the mess, I decided to give it a try. It's been a few weeks now and am so very glad I decided to go for it.

I am no expert in this, but after I put in so much effort into planning this, I really wanted to document some simple pointers that works well for us when we do sensory activities or play with our sensory bins. It's definitely worth the effort!

• Dedicated Storage: A big transparent shallow box is great for play and for storing all the little sensory play items. I store the different play items in individual ziploc bags. I store this box away, out of sight under the bed when not in play.
• Rice: I bought a few kilos of the least expensive rice I could find and have kept it only for sensory play. If stored well (in ziploc bag), I understand it can last for years!
• Play Setup: I always setup our sensory bins in our balcony, as there is a lot of open space. And I layout a plastic sheet below the bin to allow for easy cleanup and to allow him a boundary beyond which he shouldn't spill.
• Set Basic Ground Rules: Just before we begin play, I always remind him of few rules around sensory play. Like, to be careful and to not spill. To play only with the items I have set up and not include more toys in the bin. I play with him to demonstrate and repeat and remind him of the rules as we play.
• Limit Play Time: I set up the sensory bin/setup for him once in a few days and invite him to play for a limited time. 45-60 mins has been our time so far, after which I tell him it's time to put it away and bring to his notice another toy/activity that he's very fond of.
• Simple Variations: We try and do a variety of simple sensory play activities with slight variations. Initially I plan to set up the bins/activities for him in rotation and eventually, will let him choose what he wants to do.

It delights me to see him happily explore and play while also follow instructions. The textures, the movement, the feel of the various elements, he explores them all and enjoys the whole experience. It is a joy to watch his little self at play!

The more sensory play we do, he is learning to get more careful and conscious of not making a mess. He was with both bins for a good one hour after which I put them away. I can now leave him unattended for a few minutes while he's at play, and get some work done!

He looks forward to sensory play lately and its heartwarming to see him run towards our dining room window after he comes home from school, and peep into the balcony to see what 'sesory been' I have set up for him! The effort involved is worth it all.

Playdough Play Ideas to Develop Fine Motor Skills

Play-dough is a wonderful play option to provide to a child for open ended free play. The creativity that can come off such a play is endless and just the process of kneading and playing with the dough can be very therapeutic for little hands and minds. If you are yet to introduce it to your child, I would recommend you give homemade play-dough a try as the contents are completely non-toxic and baby safe. 

The first time I made play-dough at home, my little one was hardly 15 months old. He did not really take to it instantly. He was hesitant to touch it too much. I guess the feel of the play-dough was very new to him and he did not quite enjoy touching it or playing with it too much. I had given him the play dough along with a few cutters. I let him explore it his way and did not push him into it.

Since the play-dough stays good for about 6 months, if stored well, I gave it a break and reintroduced it after about 2-3 months. This time around, my little boy seemed to enjoy it better. I did away with the cutters and added a few more props to the play dough such as tiny little baskets for him to put them into, a little ladle to pretend play and bowl to mix it all up in. Since there was not much of touching the dough this time, I guess he enjoyed this play better than the earlier attempt. 

He just turned two a couple of months back and so I decided to make a fresh batch of play dough and see how he took to it this time. I planned a lot more activities around it and to my happiness he loved it. He shows a lot more concentration these days and loves quite time activities. In this post, I am listing down a few little props that pair well with play dough and also help in motor skills development.

DIY Playdough | Homemade Playdough

Growing up, playdough was one of my favourite play items. I have spent hours by myself, creating stuff with it. I loved the colours, texture and just the endless creative options playdough offered. 

I love such creative play for my little boy, hence wanted to introduce him to playdough early, though at 15 months, he is too little to play with it all by himself right now. It is more of an introduction to new textures and colours for him now. I hope to see him enjoy playing with playdough as much as his mommy did when she was little! :)

Since, he still mouths toys at times, I wanted to make a toddler safe playdough for him. This recipe is entirely made up of cooking ingredients and hence it not dangerous if a child decides to give it a taste! However, due to its high salt content, it isn't really edible for a child and hence, constant monitoring is required when young toddlers play with this homemade playdough.

Sharing a simple homemade playdough recipe that I tried and loved! The texture is absolutely smooth and stayed that way even after our play today. Made it while the mini napped and I had fun too playing with these before he woke up! :)