The Kleenex Box Game

Often the best activities are plain, simple, and quite honestly are often games using odds and ends laying around the house. 

The other day I walked in on my little hippo pulling every single Kleenex out of the box. Every single one. She loved it. It was simple. And in her mind; never ending. However, it may not be the best use of Kleenex. So I made her her own Kleenex box that she can pull "Kleenex" out of over and over. 

Materials; 

Scrap material 

Empty diaper wipe container

To assemble this activity I simply cut some scrap material into various rectangles and squares. I washed out the diaper wipe container and once it was dried, stuffed the multiple pieces of fabric in the container as though they were wipes/Kleenex! 

This was a fun game that allowed my hippo to pull the fabric out, then shove it right back in. Best part; not only was it a game that allowed her to pull the fabric out, but we also practiced our vocabulary by saying "pulllll" while she pulled out a piece of fabric, or "out!", and "uh-oh" throughout our game of empty the Kleenex box. 

When you're practicing vocabulary it's best to practice a word multiple times. Additionally when you're teaching a verb / action word (such as pull), it is best to teach the word while your little one is doing the action. This paired with repetition will have your little one learning new vocabulary in no time! 

Like this idea? Let me know how your little one liked the Kleenex box game! 

Screaming and Learning

My little hippo loves to scream and play around with her vocal range. And there are various times I engage in screaming with her to amuse her and make her giggle. But today our goal in screaming was to get little miss hippo to scream intentionally and to imitate me. By doing this I'm teaching her how to tell me it's my turn.

So set scene; little hippo and I are sitting facing each other on the floor and I'm holding a towel. 

Our game starts out by lil miss hippo screaming and me immitating her. As soon as she realizes I'm imitating her it becomes a game. You can observe her pausing and waiting for me to imitate her before screaming again. So I comply and imitate her; and somewhere in our match of screaming "Ahhhh" I take the lead and you can tell miss hippo is now imitating my scream. When I become the "lead screamer" I scream and immediately pull the towel up blocking my face and wait. I wait for her to imitate my scream; as soon as she does I drop the towel and scream back only to quickly pull the towel up again.  

By pulling the towel down when miss hippo screams I'm teaching her her vocalizations communicate to me that it's my turn in our game. Additionally when miss hippo begins to imitate me I switch up how I scream. For the first bit we screamed "Ahhhh", the next bit we screamed "dad dad dad" and other sounds!

So go ahead. Sit down on the floor with your babe and practice your vocal play. And see what sounds you can get your baby imitating. 

Goals;

1) Have your baby imitate your screaming or babble. Play around with different sounds and vowels. 

2) Hide behind something and wait for your baby to tell you it's time to come out. 

If your baby isn't telling you to come out right away, take a step back and focus on the imitation aspect only! 

Most importantly make it fun!