Day 2 of our school holidays and my three-year-old has already played with or demolished every toy he owns - everything is now "boring", apparently. So, with some innovative thinking and a box full of arts and crafts materials, we made the most of our predicament and came up with a game that my little guy approved of (phew)!

We did this activity a year ago and it was a hit, luckily I had a few of the ice cream sticks left over in my craft box, as well as a strip of velcro! Last time I made the sticks on my own, but my toddler is a little older this time, so I allowed him to stick the velcro onto the blobs of glue I added to the sticks.

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.

This is an educational activity because:

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

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. 

Much love - @sweetpea

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