Transferring activities, I’ve mentioned before, have a lot of developmental value in them. They can be done in different forms depending on the level of difficulty our Munchkin is ready for.

In the past, we have done a Transferring activity, transferring balls from one ball to another with a strainer.

This time to up the difficulty and also to fulfill My Munchkin’s development need, I did this DIY of Transferring with Tongs.

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)Two small bowls preferably similar ones and of natural material (I used glass bowls);

2)Pom Pom balls of different colours

3)A pair of child size tongs

4)A tray

What do we do? Put the pom pom balls into one bowl and keep both bowls in the tray along with the tongs. This goes on to their work shelf. As always, a presentation of the activity must be given. Show your Munchkin how to use the tong to pick one pom pom ball from the bowl and transfer it into the other bowl. Repeat the same with a few more pom pom balls and then left your Munchkin take over the activity.

Simple and easy to make, isn’t it?

Age: 20-22 months (even earlier / later depending on your child’s motor skills)

Purpose: Helps develop hand eye coordination and pincer grip as well.

My Munchkin loves these simple activities, which are easy for me to make. They are great for her development as well.

Do you make similar DIYs for your Munchkin?

Colours are first introduced through verbal conversations, eg. Talking about a yellow ball or the green plant, and so on. We do not directly focus on the colour but just keep it as a part of our regular conversation with our Munchkins.

Once our Munchkin is able to match different things and understands how one things differs from the other and begins to show more interest in colours, you can introduce a simple activity such as this to him/her.

The focus of this activity is to just match and put the correct colour in it’s place. We are not trying to teach the names of the colour (it is still too early for that).

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)1 cardboard box cover;

2)Some extra cardboard strips for the partition;

3)Coloured paper for the base (I used the primary colours Red, Blue and Yellow);

4)Pom Pom big size balls or similar in the same colours (Red, Blue and Yellow);

5)A small box / container to keep all the pom pom balls in.

What do we do? We make three equal partitions in the cardboard box cover with the strips we have. Then paste the coloured paper in each section. The pom pom balls are to be kept in the container and both go on your activity shelf.

Present the activity to your Munchkin showing them how to take one ball at a time and match it to its respective colour. After they have a hang of it, leave them to do the activity by themselves.

Age: 21-22 months (or depending on the interest shown by your Munchkin)

Purpose: Visual discrimination and introduction to colours

More colours can be added later on or even done in a different way. As mentioned, the idea is not to teach names of colours, it is to just be able to match the right colours together.

Does your Munchkin already show interest in colours?

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is a lovely DIY and can be used as DIY gifts too this season.

I wanted to introduce My Munchkin to Play Dough for quite some time but I was sure that I would not use the commercial ones, as you know everything goes into their mouth.

So I researched on loads of different ways of making it and finally found one that worked well for me, and it is just SO SIMPLE to make at home.

What you would need is:

1)  1 Cup of All Purpose Flour (Maida)

2)  ¼ Cup of Salt

3)  ¾ Cup of Water

4)  3 Tablespoons of Lime Juice

5)  1 Tablespoon of Oil

6)  Food Colouring

7)  Food fragrance oil (optional)

What you need to do once you have your ingredients in place?

In a nonstick pan, mix water, oil, and lime juice and heat over medium flame. Add food colouring (whichever colour you choose to use) and food fragrance oil, if using (I did not use any) to the mixture.

Note: When you do not use the fragrance, there will be a little smell of the lime. My Munchkin and I am okay with it so I continue not using this ingredient.

In another bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Once the water mixture become hot (it should not boil), slowly add in the dry ingredients (flour and salt mixture) and keep stirring it in.

Continuously stir this mixture until all the ingredients combine. If you feel any part is sticky, flatten it with your spoon and flip it over and then mix again. It should start forming into a ball (make sure not to overcook it). 

Remove it from the heat and on to a plate and let it cool down a little bit. Next, start kneading the dough for two to three minutes.

The entire process probably takes 5 minutes.

Voila! Your Homemade Play Dough is ready to use.

While kneading you will feel how soft this is to use. One batch of these should make about 450-500 gms of Play Dough.

Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight box and it will stay for a minimum 3 months. So you can make 3-4 colours at a time and keep it.

Age: Whenever you feel your Munchkin is ready. You can start as early as 1 year old (I started at almost 20 months but also because I was looking for the perfect recipe). 

Purpose: Extremely good for gross motor development and also open ended play.

Tips: You often may have a problem that all the colours are mixed up or because they are not put back in the box they dry out. What I do is, I have small boxes (50 gms roughly) where I remove only a little dough at a time and give My Munchkin to play. This way it lasts for very long.

Also initially I would recommend to give only 1 colour at a time, so as to not overwhelm them, and then later increase to two colours and so on.

So hurry and start making your own Homemade Play Dough and share some pictures with us.

With this I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Did any of you try the DIY on Family Picture Cards? Well, this one is a similar concept and I made one for My Munchkin for Animals.

She is able to recognize most of the animals from the ones she has so thought this was the best time to introduce this activity to her. I made two different sets – one for farm animals and one for wild animals.

Process of this DIY is just like that of the Family Picture Cards only with an additional step.

Try to get animals that look similar to real ones rather than the animated animal figurines. Also having them in a fairly big size is a big plus. We have a small set (like you get in most stores) of most of the animals and I keep trying to look for big ones. Currently, we have the bigger sized ones in a few farm and wild animals (hoping to find more soon).  

To start this DIY, I took pictures of the animals she plays with. What you would need to do is, stick an A4 size white paper on the wall and on the table joined together like a ‘L’. I then kept each animal on this paper, made sure there was sufficient lighting and took pictures.  

Once done, I selected the best image of each animal from the ones taken and transferred it on the computer and cropped them to about 5x5 inches in size (except for the Giraffe which was longer).

Once the images were ready the process was the same like last time with two ways of making the activity:

                    1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

                2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality                     paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6               pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be                     available with your local stationery shop.

  You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

I had a basket ready and put in the wild animals along with the pictures and put them on My Munchkin’s work shelf. I presented the activity to her and she was off doing it herself. (If you feel your Munchkin is not ready or not interested in doing the activity you may remove it from the shelf and reintroduce it after a few days/weeks).

Age: The best time to introduce this is once they are able to recognize the animal figures and also images of animals in books.

As children grow, they are more interested in seeing people and animals; if given a book with realistic images they will enjoy looking at them. after a certain point they are able to distinguish between known faces they see on a daily basis and are able to recognize each of them.

I had once come across a nice DIY on familiar faces and I decided to try that out for My Munchkin based on the above two factors. So I did a DIY of our families’ pictures – My Munchkin, her father and mine. I kept it to just us so that I do not overwhelm her with too much at one time.

What do you need for this DIY? Pictures, that’s what you mainly need.

I suggest having the images of mid size, something like 5 x 5 inches so that your Munchkin is able to hold them easily and look at them.

There are two ways of making this activity:

1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6 pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be available with your local stationery shop.

You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

Once you have your pictures ready through either of the above methods, put them into a little basket / tray and give them to your Munchkin to explore.

Age: You can start as early as 5-6 months and they generally use this activity for a long time.

Purpose: Helps in recognition or familiar faces. Later this becomes a goo way to associate a picture to the actual person.

Do try this one out with your Munchkin and leave me some feedback on how they enjoyed it.

Transferring Activities are something we do in various ways and most of the time what keeps My Munchkin occupied while I am in the kitchen.

Some of the transferring kitchen activities she does are:

1)Transferring cut potato or vegetables into a bowl of water;

2)Transferring from bowl of water into a colander;

3)Picking up peels or remains of the vegetables that are being cleaned and putting them into a bowl which later we throw into the trash.

Based on her involvement in the above, I made her a transferring activity for her shelf. This one involved transferring balls from one bowl to another.

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)Two bowls preferably similar ones;

2)Small table tennis balls – I used a dozen;

3)A tea strainer – you can also use a big spoon

What do we do? Put all the balls into one bowl and the tea strainer or spoon into the other. This is kept together on the work shelf or play area. Show your Munchkin how to use the strainer or spoon to scoop a ball from the ball and drop it into the other bowl.

If your Munchkin is like mine, then be ready to find balls in different corners or the house and some just disappear as well.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months (or as needed)

Purpose: Helps develop hand eye coordination.

It is simple things we find and can make at home that actually help in our children’s development. Everyday activities are one of the best things to involve your child in.

Do you involve your Munchkin in your Kitchen activities?

So every time My Munchkin sees her wet wipes box, she opens it and starts pulling out the wipes one at a time. She does the same with the tissue box, climbs on to the dinning table and pulls out the tissues from the tissue box. Keeping in mind she enjoys pulling things out from a box, I made a DIY activity for her to do.

The supplies used:

1)An empty facial tissue box

2)Three scarves (not too big)

That’s all. Just these two things and her activity was ready.

I pushed the scarf into the box, towards the end, folded in the second scarf and pushed that in too and did the same with the third scarf. This went on to her shelf for her to use.

It was definitely something she enjoyed as she could pull out the scarves (and try to put it back in) as much as she wanted. This has also reduced her urge to pull out the wet wipes or tissue paper from their respective boxes to a great extent.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months (or as needed)

Purpose: Fulfilling an urge I noticed

We need to observe to see what our children are interested in doing and try to give them opportunities to fulfill these urges. I tried to do this for My Munchkin with this easy peasy DIY.

Have you made any DIYs for your Munchkin?

Like most of the DIYs I do for my Munchkin, this one is an easy one too, made with things easily available. Threading activities can be done in various forms and at different levels of development. You can try this DIY with your Munchkin once you feel they are ready for it. Even if you introduce it to them and think they are not interested in it or find it difficult, remove it from their shelves / play area and bring it back again at a later stage (this would apply to almost any activity that is done with your Munchkin).

For this Simple Threading Activity, you need:

1)An empty baby powder container;

2)Wooden skewer sticks;

3)A basket / tray

4)Something to make a hole (I used a screwdriver);

5)A pair of kitchen scissors;

6)Sandpaper

First, I cut off the pointed edges of the skewers and cut them into half. Next, I smoothened both ends using the Sandpaper.

Next step is to check that the skewers go in easily. I had to push them in the holes so I made the holes on the powder container bigger. For this, I heated the screwdriver slightly on the gas stove and pushed it into the existing holes on the container to make them bigger. Once done, I tested all the holes to make sure the skewers went in easily.

Once both of the above were ready, I assembled them into the basket/tray and presented the activity to my Munchkin. I simply sat down with her, picked up a skewer and put into one of the holes. I repeated this a few times, and she joined me in the activity. She initially found it a little complex but managed to do the activity after a couple of tries.

Variation: This same activity can be done with ice cream sticks. In this case, instead of holes, you need to make slits in the container for the sticks to go in easily.

Age: Around 16 to 18 months

Purpose: Refinement of hand-eye coordination and grasp.

An easy to make DIY that is very good for your Munchkin’s development. Do let me know if you try it.

Further to my post on Month 17, where I mentioned about exercising Maximum Effort, babies tend to have a big urge for this as new walkers. Trying most aspects of Maximum Effort helps them develop and perfect their motor skills. We saw in the previous post, one such way was to lift heavy object when walking. Another one is perfecting their walking skills and gross motor movements.

My Munchkin does not sit still for even 5 seconds (I am sure most of you know how this feels). She always wants to climb on things, walk, beginning to run and just be on the move all the time. This was the perfect time for the Balancing Beam to be done from my Montessori list of things to do. I looked up various designs and found it to be quite simple to get made.

Luckily I had spare wood at home from the making of our wardrobe. My husband organized for a carpenter to make the Balancing Beam for us. The length of this is 4 feet and on the base (to hold up the ground), we used three strips of 1 foot each. (You can probably do it without the center support but that would depend on how sturdy your wood is). Very simply cut the pieced and nailed them together (someone with the tools can make it themselves).

My Munchkin was thrilled to see something new for her to use. We of course have helped her walk on it initially and now she walks holding the wall or one of our hands. So initially they will hold on to something with both hands and slowly move to using one hand (holding the wall or your hand like my Munchkin). I am yet to see if she does it without holding on to anything.

In the beginning they may also walk with one foot on the beam and one on the ground. Its best to let them explore all the ways they find possible on their own.

Age: Around 14 to 16 months (once they are walking independently and steadily)

Purpose: Gross motor development and maximum effort.

I hope you are able to make this DIY for your Munchkin. Do let me know if they enjoy using it.

Tracking toys are great in providing children with the means to develop certain skills. These come in various forms like a ball tracker (most recommended), even a racing car tracker and a few more. They are priced high which is why I tried a DIY version of it.

For the DIY, I used 2 old plastic bottles, sandpaper, chart paper, cardboard and glue. I first cut our the base and lid of the bottle and then cut the bottle into half so I ended up with 4 halves in total. I cut the edges to round them up and then smoothened all the cut parts with the sandpaper to make sure they do not hurt My Munchkin.

Next I stuck the chart paper (I used yellow colour) on to the cardboard. This does not have to be very big, just enough to have the entire tracker fit into the frame. Once I had a study frame, I placed the bottle halves on the frame and temporarily stuck them with tape. I adjusted each one so that the ball would be able to roll from one to the next without falling out. Once I was sure of the placement, I glued them on with my glue gun.

I tested it a few times. The second and third row bottles were too broad at the end so the ball fell out at times. I put a rubber band around the base of these to solve this problem. Next I affixed this onto the door where I planned on putting it up. I also attached a plastic glass at the end so that the ball falls into it, instead of rolling all over the place.

Age: This can start as early as 10-12 months

Purpose: There are many things that the tracker helps develop.

-Develops visual tracking skills, which indirectly help them with reading later on.

-Auditory tracking from the sound of the ball falling.

-Builds concentration

-Develops hand-eye co-ordination.

It is quite a fun activity and very easy to make. Watch how it works below:

Do let me know how your Munchkin enjoys this DIY once you make it.