we play :: keeping the toddler happy

Little Shrek (I really need to think about giving him a better name - he's out grown this one,) really wants to be "one of the gang". He wants to play, explore, learn like his older siblings.

He can't always manage the things that they are doing. This leads to tears and frustration on his part, and no one getting much of any thing done - just look at his face in the heat experiment post. That was because he wanted to suck the ice cubes in the dishes.

I think it's time to take Shrek up a gear and give him some challenges. So we started with glitter glue. If he can prove he can use it without eating it, I tell him, he can go wild. Likewise with the beans and pulses. These are not for eating. OK, so sometimes you eat them cooked, but not like this, not in their dried state Shrek. It would be a bad thing to do.


He shines.

He is absorbed.


The end product is more sparse than I expected. He chose those beans with care; this is all about the process*.

*If I'm honest, it's also about giving me twenty precious minutes to talk through something with Od about music scales.

For more inspired play ideas, visit childhood 101.