Favorite things

We’ve been self isolating since March. I recently looked at my Target app and the last time I was in the store was March 13. (insert me wiping my tears here) Ok, kidding. Maybe. It’s so crazy to think that we have basically gone nowhere for the last three months. No school. No therapy. No friends. We’ve survived, and kept busy.

I put together a short list of our favorite things we’ve used for the boys these last few months. Items that we were so grateful to have, use, and not get bored of.

1. This Ikea kids table has kept everyone busy at one point or another! Once you take the panels off of the top there are open slots for side by side bins. We’ve had dry noodles, water beads, shaving cream, rice, beans, and kinetic sand in the bins at some point these last few months. The aftermath of a virtual appointment for Christopher while T had dry noodles wasn’t pretty, but it did keep him busy for the entire hour. Me too, cleaning it up! But know that the wood table base isn’t exactly waterproof, but for $49.99 I’m willing to take some chances with it.

2. We love these paint sticks and paper. The Ooly paint sticks glide on the paper so smoothly and they dry quickly. There were many days that I had the kraft paper taped with this colored masking tape to our dining room table so the creativity could go on for days and days! It was convenient to already have an “art space” prepared so I didn’t have to think about one more thing while trying to keep everyone alive and be everything to everyone in quarantine.

3. Christopher doesn’t usually enjoy playing games, but I think we’ve found a winner with Froggy Feeding Fun. We’ve had it for years, from way back when we tried and tried to get him to eat orally. Although that ship has sailed, this game definitely won’t be making it into a donation box anytime soon. We love that it’s a game where we can practice colors and work on number concepts. We usually just roll the colored dice to choose the color bug that the frog will eat when we’re playing with T and Christopher, but I think we’ll be stepping it up with Christopher and adding in the number dice.

4. We’ve been so happy with our light table from Lakeshore Learning. It’s definitely one of the most expensive “toys” we have for the boys, but all ages love it. Everyone, all of my boys, from age 10 to 2 can find something to do on this table to keep them busy. Our oldest uses the bright light to make his flip books and trace his drawings, and I’m even mesmerized by the gorgeous look of water beads when we pour them into the light table tray. We use quite a few sensory items in this tray, and they are even more engaging when you use the bright lights. The table also has color changing options, also perfect for dance parties.

5. Eric Carle is a huge favorite in this house. I think we have 4 or 5 copies of “rown Bear, Brown Bear. We love the simplicity of his books, and the way the photos stand out against the white background. These books have always been Christopher’s number one, so when we found these animal flash cards we knew we had to have them. These are actually the first items that opened our eyes to how much Christopher knew! We would hold up two choices and ask him to grab or touch the one we asked. I was shocked when he knew peacock, flamingo, and more! His love of books and being read to has definitely paid off. Now we are going to change up our questions and ask him things like “what animal swims? Or, what animal is big?”

6. Squigz. Just the name is fun, right? We have used these on the floor, the light table, sliding glass door, and the white board! All of my boys like these and love making the “pop!” sound they make when you pull them off of a surface. Christopher can’t quite get them off without help, but he enjoys when we pull them off together, of course, exaggerating the strength it takes to pull them. They have small Squigz too, but with Christopher’s motor skills we’ll be using the large ones for quite awhile.

7. We love magnets of any shape or color! Christopher enjoys taking them from my hand and placing them onto the white board. We usually like to make it a learning activity by asking him questions about the magnets. We have these Eric Carle magnets that we use to go along with the many books we have. We also love these sight word magnets. They’re large, sturdy, and easy for him to see the words. Christopher doesn’t always have a gentle hand and these have stood up to him.

8. You can never have too much paint, right? Having this liquid tempera set from Lakeshore Learning has been a lifesaver during this quarantine! We are not a huge fan of the rectangular container of watercolors, because no matter what, after one use all of the colors tend to be brown. I guess that’s what happens when the artist is a two year old. Plus, Christopher needs a much larger paintbrush than the ones that come in those sets. Just squeezing a small amount of this paint onto the paper helps with not wasting too much. We have squeezed these bottles over and over, and bonus, they’re washable.

9. These magnetic mix and match wild animals are always fun to play with. I’ll never forget using these at occupational therapy years ago! If Christopher responded to a toy, I would buy it. Not all of the toys over the years have lasted, but this one has. The boys love making silly combinations! The magnetic pull is also nice and strong so Christopher can help me get the pieces together. There is also a dinosaur set if your little person is into dinosaurs. Rawwwwr!

10. Lastly, believe me, I had a really hard time condensing this list to just 10! So, the last of our favorites is vague. BOOKS. There is no way we could have survived these last few months at home without books for all of the boys. Christopher still loves just about any board book you put in front of him. But a few of our favorites these days are the Poke A Dot books, Roger Priddy lift the flap books, and Hi Five Animals. And it goes without saying, that all Eric Carle books are the top faves too!

Maybe you’re like us and still in self isolation. Currently, we aren’t taking any unnecessary risks and trying to keep Christopher as healthy as possible. We are finally seeing grandparents though. Whahooooo! But thankfully, we have enough to keep us busy and engaged while at home. Hopefully you find something on this list that would be useful to your family during this crazy phase of life!

Next up will be a list of MY favorite things….I wonder how many items will have the word “coffee” in it?