Simple Play: Pom Poms in a Jar

Dinner time around here hasn't gotten any better than the last time I talked about it.  It seems like there's a tipping point when things quickly go from serene and happy to absolutely disastrous.  If I wait too long to prepare a meal, I have both kids wrapped around my feet crying for attention while I'm trying to whip up a meal over the stove.  If I prepare dinner too early, my husband misses out on a family dinner.  I don't know what the answer is as I feel like having dinner as a family daily is very important.



Porter (16 mo.) is very happy here placing pom poms into a plastic jar while sitting in his booster seat.  It kept him busy for a good half hour.  I need to be better about reserving these activities for dinner time preparation.

How about you?  Do you love dinner time or dread it?

Simple Play: DIY Magnet Jar

We had a couple pipe cleaner scraps left over from our DIY snowflake activity so I decided to make a quick magnet jar.

SUPPLIES:

• Glass jar (this is a recycled Ragu jar)


• Strong magnet


• magnetic items (we used pipe cleaners)


• non-magnetic item (we used colored rice)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place everything in the jar except for the magnet.


2. Shake it up.


3. Slide the magnet on the outside of the jar to see if you can get anything to move.  If not, put the magnet inside the jar to see what you can fetch!

"Look, mom!  A spider!"

Caden loved this so much and it was so, so simple.  I love it when we can find fun and creative things to play with around the house.