Now that most of Baby G's friends have taken off for Kindergarten, leaving her behind, I've been desperate to find activities to fill her day. Non-SpongeBob activities. I had picked up a couple of playing card tins from my friend Darlene (thanks Darlene!) at a recent crop and I finally had a use for them!
I took about 50 pictures of random things around our house. I limited it to the stuff on one floor (so I can keep an eye on her when she plays the game, without having to traipse up & down the stairs) -- a cordless phone, chapstick, a spoon, refrigerator magnets, her favorite toys, etc.
I then printed the photos (wallet size) and trimmed them down to 2" x 2.5". I then mounted the photos on cardstock cut to playing card size (2.5" x 3.5"). I rounded the corners on the "playing cards" using my Zutter Round-It-All.
With this one little tin, we've been able to come up with hours & hours of entertainment. I can deal out 10 cards at a time & hand them to Baby G. and have uninterrupted (read: UNINTERRUPTED!) time to do dishes, fold laundry, etc. while she scours the house for her treasures. We've changed the game up a bit on occassion, with parent/child races to see who can find all of the items in their stack of cards first. This week I started having her tell me what letter the item starts with as she brings me the treasure.
I can always refresh the game by taking new pictures and adding new cards. It takes virtually no time. I've discovered that adding pictures of different refrigerator magnets (particularly the different letters of the alphabet) really beefs up the game. Also, I took pics of her TinkerToys in various assemblages, and she has to make the same shape on the card before she brings it to me. That really slows her down!! :) She loves the game because it is her stuff.
I'm back to working on my 25 Days of December book. I kinda think I need to get it done before another December rolls around... Hopefully I'll have pics for you this week!
