Ribbon and Pom Poms

No, not that kind.  I mean the kind you get from craft stores.

After the kids were ANGELS during our one hour wait at the doctor's office this morning, we decided to stop by Michael's in search of inexpensive fun.  We succeeded with a number of super cheap items I used to make a few toddler games.

Here were the supplies:

I used two empty snack containers (you'll need the kind with a thin plastic lid that I can be cut through with scissors), a package of poms poms ($2.49 at Michael's for 80), and two spools of ribbon from the $1 bin.

I cut the shorter, fatter container's plastic top into an X shape.  Then, I put about half the bag of pom poms inside.

I put a similar cut in the plastic top of the taller container and removed the plastic wrapping from the container (I couldn't do that with the other one.)  Initially I cut four shorter pieces of ribbon (12 inches or so) and placed them in the taller container. 

It quickly became clear that longer pieces would be more fun, so I recut another piece that was maybe three feet long.  That was more fun for the kids pull out of the container.

You wouldn't think that putting pom poms into a container would be fun, but both kids loved it.  It occupied Susannah a bit longer and after a few minutes Max started taking a few of the poms and dropping them on the floor.  He was having fun, so it was fine.  Just make sure you watch little ones, there were definitely a couple of attempts to put a pom in a mouth.

Max loved the ribbon pulling.  He did it maybe ten times in a row.  I tried to knot together the shorter pieces of ribbon, but the knots got stuck the corners of the top.  One long piece definately worked best.  I may cut an even longer one tomorrow with the remaining ribbon (there's a ton left). 

There were lots of other uses for this activity besides ribbon pulling.  This included ribbon tug of war.

After she grew bored of pulling out the ribbon, Susannah began working on placing the top on and off the container.  She also had to work on balancing the container while she did this.  She put her arm inside the container to pull out the ribbon.

These activities were cheap and easy to put together and were great for the kids' fine motor skills.  I'll be on the lookout for similar ideas.