Quiet Time Boxes

We have started to slowly get into our daily and weekly routine for this year. There have been lots of things that have interfered with our schedule the past few weeks but I think we are finally getting into a rhythm. Our daily routine includes is quiet time, nap time is for babies so we call it quiet time :) If you ask Little Bit she will say she does not nap, but there are days when she is so tired that she gives up and sleeps. For all the other days she plays quietly on the rug in her room or in her bed.

I have seen quiet boxes online for sometime now and love the idea of a box that provides Little Bit with new fresh toys to play with. After looking around on Pinterest I found a few blog post that helped get me started. This is a list of blogs help me.

• Tons of Fun - Quiet Boxes
• Watch Us Grow - Quiet Time Boxes
• Fantastic Fun & Learning - Workboxes

I decided to use 6 boxes instead of 5 like most of the blogs that I read. With 6 boxes I can just rotate through all of them so that she gets something different every Monday. It will also give me more time before you is ready for items in the box to be switched out. I decided to add 4-5 activities in each box. Every book has a writing/coloring and or letter activity and two books from a set of Little Miss Spider books I had. Finding the toys for the boxes motivated me and I ended up organizing all of Little Bit's toys in her room. As I went through all her toys I looked for activities that are 1. quiet, 2. small, 3. not usually played with because they were buried under bigger, louder toys. It was actually easier than I thought and I think the boxes are a good mix of activities.


Box #1 - 2 Little Miss Spider books
             - 3 My Little Ponies, comb, hairdrier and mirror
             - Princess coloring pages with markers
             - Letter/Number Blocks, my mom made the letter blocks for Little Bit last Christmas. 
               They are great for counting, practicing the alphabet or just building. 

Box #2 - 2 Little Miss Spider books
             - Winnie the Pooh picture matching cards
             - Cars puzzle
             - Lace'n'Trace animals
             - Dora activity pages and crayons

Box #3 - 2 Little Miss Spider books
             - Mrs. Potato Head and Baby Potato Head (plus accessories)
             - 3 notepads, pen, stickers
             - mini flashlight (not pictured)

Box #4 - 2 Little Miss Spider books
            - Leapfrog letter trace pad
            - Minnie Mouse puzzle
            - Bendy, twisty rabbit (Little Bit loves the rabbits from our Easter bin)
            - Finger puppets

Box #5 - 2 Little Miss Spider books
            - Alphabet beads with string
            - Dora puzzle
            - Coloring book from our cruise ship and crayons

Box #6 - 2 Little Miss Spider books 
            - Magna Doodle 
            - Kaleidoscope
            - Things That Go Together puzzle  

Overtime I am sure I will switch things up in the boxes. Maybe add more seasonal items for fall, Christmas, winter, etc. What do you do with your little one during quiet/nap time? Have you used quiet boxes before? If so, what worked well for you? I would love to hear your thoughts. 

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Sensory Balloons

I made sensory balloons for my daughter that I found on Tot Treasures. They were easy to make and Little Bit loves them. As I was making them she would say 'More balloons mommy.' Each balloon has one of the items listed below inside and feels very different from the others.
We talked about bumpy and smooth and she would ask what was inside.

 Inside the balloons are: 
- rice
- large uncooked beans
- corn kernels
- flour
- small pom-poms
- coffee
- sand

Easy project and she has played for hours with the balloons. So far, they have not busted open. 

15 Bean Soup

I found a bag of 15 bean soup in the pantry that I had not used and thought "there are lots of ways we can play with this!" The beans went into a pan and I pulled out paper bowls. Little Bit at first was not sure what to do but after a minute or so she had her hands in the beans finding different size and color beans. 

We sorted the beans by large (Little Bits favorite), medium and small beans. This was a great opportunity to teach her about medium. When she picked up a bean she would hold it next to the large and small bean bowl to see if it matched.

After sorting for a while Little Bit used a spoon for scoping beans and adding them to different bowls. We worked on not spilling and picking up just one bean at a time. Who knew that 15 bean soup could be so much fun!