After a few rainy days and strong winds, we were blessed with a beautiful warm and sunny weekend. Just our luck, I ended up with the flu and my son was feverish. This meant that once again, we were stuck indoors! An upset toddler and miserable mom does not make the best combination unfortunately, but with some innovative thinking and a box full of arts and crafts materials, we made the most of our predicament!

We had watched TV enough and it was time to do some constructive and stimulating activities, for both mom and kid! I had seen this idea before when browsing the internet and I was thrilled once I spotted the ice cream sticks in my craft box, even more so when I confirmed that I had the Velcro required too! As soon as I put down my tot for his afternoon nap, I sat down with a cup of tea and whipped out my glue gun.

Build, create, PLAY with ice-cream sticks!

 

Like most of the activities I share, this one is also extremely easy to set up (make) and VERY affordable! You can use recycled sticks and paint on the colour to make it even easier on the pocket, or you can just buy them pre-dyed, like I did. 

Here's what you will need:

• Colourful ice-cream/lolly sticks
• Velcro
• Hot glue gun

Instructions:

Heat up your glue gun and prep your materials by cutting both connecting Velcro pieces into small squares. Glue the different sides of the Velcro on to the ends of your sticks, so that the Velcro pieces stick to each other.  And...that's it!

Once you have prepped your "puzzle" sticks they are ready for play time! You can keep them in a storage container so that the can be used over and over again. This is perfect for your own kids or to be used in a nursery/play school. We had tons of fun building shapes, making a long snake and sorting colours.

Educational Benefits

 

This is a full STEM activity, meaning that it touches on the four elements of science, technology, engineering and maths.

• Science - what makes the Velcro stick?
• Technology - how do you connect the pieces?
• Engineering - using logic to construct shapes
• Mathematics - introduction to shapes and angels

Apart from the above, this activity has many other educational elements, especially for toddlers/preschoolers. They include:

• Development of fine motor skills
• Practicing coordination
• Colour awareness
• Sensory play (feeling the wooden sticks and Velcro pieces)
• Problem-solving (building objects)
• Logic
• Creativity

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So what do you think? Is this something you see yourself doing with your kiddies? It kept my son busy for a whole 10 minutes - amazing for a toddler to keep his attention focused on one thing for so long. It kept me somewhat insane too, I find I relax so much when I am making something. Keep a look out for my next post, we were busy this weekend!

Much love - @sweetpea

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