3 tablespoons salt (Coarse salt or rock salt would look better.)
About 2 drops of food coloring (Depending if you need to mix colors to obtain a particular color.)

Place the salt in a sandwich bag or sealable bag. Add the more than one food coloring to make various colors. Seal the bag. Move the salt around using your fingers. Keep the bag open. Let dry. (It usually takes a half a day or less.)

If using table salt, place in salt shakers by cutting a hole in the bottom side of a sealable bag. Place it in the salt shaker.

If you use coarse salt, have the child spoon it onto the glue or use his/her fingers.

Activities:
Place glue on paper, sand paper, etc. Sprinkle the salt onto the glue. Shake off the excess salt. Let dry.

Place pasta or rice into a plastic bag. Cover with rubbing alcohol. Add the color of food coloring(s) you would like. Shake until everything is covered, then let it dry on wax paper. Keep out of reach of children until dried & do not let them eat this at any time (don’t use this for very young children who put everything in their mouth still).

What fun - online paper snowflake making…. sure beats the mess and hassle of the real paper ones!

Nice, foamy white stuff that sticks to everything - there is nothing my little guy enjoys more than making a HUGE mess. However, this is an easy one to clean up and provides hours of entertainment. Pile up a huge pile of the foamy shaving cream (make sure that it does not contain menthol) on a hard, non-porous surface (go buy a big, cheap container of the generic brand stuff), then let them run Little People cars, animals and any other hard toys around, over and through it.

Just make sure it’s not the gel shaving cream, not mentholated and that you are right there making sure they aren’t eating it/putting it in their eyes/spreading it all over your house. You can even stick them in the empty bath tub to do this…. clean-up is quick and easy, with the lovely side benefit of cleaning the surface and toys!

The beloved ducky gets to dance around a lot with Lil’ Duck - here are 13 of their favorite songs for bouncing around:

1. “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” - Hampton the Hampster
2. “The HamsterDance Song” - also Hampton the Hampster
3. “Do You Love Me?” - Contours
4. “Sweet Home Chicago” - The Blues Brothers
5. “The Purple People Eater” - Sheb Wooley
6. “A Pirate Says Arrrrr” - The Backyardigans
7. “Beautiful Life” - Ace of Base
8. “It’s Five ‘o’ Clock Somewhere” - Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett
9. “Barbie Girl (Radio Cut” - Aqua (don’t tell Daddy!! ;))
10. “Popcorn” - Crazy Frog (he also likes most anything else by the frog!)
11. “Ma Ya Hi (Dragostea Din Tei) [Valentin Radio Edit]” - Dan Balan, Lucas Prata & O-Zone (ever seen the video?? ;))
12. “Nikkfurie de la Caution- The a la Menthe (Ocean’s 12 Laser dance song… Not on Soundtrack)”
13. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” - Ricky Martin (again, don’t tell Daddy ;))

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We are always looking for more ideas around here, as Lil’ Duck’s ideas of fun usually involve the destruction of my house! Here’s some more activity ideas from moms of toddlers:

1. Get a small bag of dried beans or rice and dump it into a large (plastic) mixing bowl. Give them a few other plastic cups, a mixing spoon, some paper towel rolls and put everything on the floor. They love to dump the beans from container to container and you can show them how to dump the beans down the tubes. Just keep those beans stored in a seperate container and don’t use them for anything else. Put everything on a bath towel or blanket and clean up is pretty easy because the beans don’t roll far on a towel. Of course, if your toddler likes to put things in their mouth, don’t try this one….. always supervise them regardless, of course.
2. Climbing in empty boxes and “hiding” in them. Use a refrigerator box to build a “house”, smaller ones for sitting in, and stack up the really small ones to make a tower.

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He’s such a playful little soul, and loves to play games, especially at 2am when the rest of us just want to sleep…. so here are thirteen of his favorite games!

1. His modified hide-and-seek game, where he seeks ;).
2. Peek-a-boo - a forever favorite, though it has now been expanded to covering the duck’s eyes and him covering our eyes.
3. The tickle monster - now with retaliation from the “button ‘ickle” master!
4. The clothes chase - any mention of clothes or diapers elicits a mad flight around the house, with him cackling all the while.
5. 1-2-3-jump!! Off of anything, especially the edge of the pool and the coffee table - jumping from the coffee table to the couch is a fun thing too, apparently.
6. Speaking of the couch, it’s time to play “toss all the pillows off the couch and cackle hysterically”!!
7. Hop, bounce, leap - the couch and the bed both make great bouncing places, tho the floor works as well.
8. Spin me around until I get super dizzy, then I’ll try to walk while laughing hysterically. Good for laughs all the way around!
9. The alphabet game - we have to point to each letter as it is sung by the alphabet toy, over and over and over. He’ll also single out one letter to repeat over and over again….
10. Lining random items up and counting them - then knocking them down and starting over!
11. The kiss psyche - making kissy faces and noises, running towards you, then at the last second running backwards, laughing with glee.
12. Turning the TV on and off and on and off and on……
13. “Talking” to the dog - barking, whining, feeding her imaginary tea, playing peek-a-boo, etc.

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Well, after mentioning this game in our sweetest comments list, I had some people ask how we modified this. We tried to play the regular way, with him in the corner counting (he insists on “unnnn, dooooo, ten, eidght, teeeennn”), then tried to get him to hide instead of Daddy. It turns out that he is incapable of realizing that he needs to hide and of being quiet. So…. we let Daddy hide. Lil’ Duck and I went into the ducky bathroom, turned on the light, faced the cabinets, then I counted slowly to ten with him chiming along. Then we did the normal “Ready or not, here we come to find you!”, shut off the light, and he took off running in search of Daddy. We’re talking a small condo and easy hiding spots, like under the mattress, under the ball pit, under the laundry, in the closet, etc.

He takes great delight in discovering Daddy in different places, and checking all the previous hiding spots (picture the little guy trying to lift up our heavy mattress, just priceless). I think he would have played this game all night if we had let him, there was a huge tantrum when we finally had to stop! Definitely worth a try with your little one!