Welcome to this week's theme!
This Week's Theme is National Bubble Bath Day which falls on 8th January!
Welcome to this week's newsletter! If you're new here, I do a theme a week with related sensory play, arts and crafts and active play ideas, aimed at toddlers and pre-schoolers. Plus you get access to a free printable full of daily activities each month. Read on to find out more.
Sensory Play
Set up a bubble themed sensory bin! You've got 2 ways you can do this:
🫧 The simple way: get washing up liquid (dish soap) and put into a tub with water. Option to use an electric whisk to make more bubbles.
🫧 The more complicated way: use the liquid from a can of chickpeas (aquafaba). Add in half a teaspoon of cream of tartar and whisk it up to make a much thicker bubble experience. For this to work well you'd need to use at least 2 cans of chickpeas. Watch the how to video here.
Then leave out for your toddler or preschooler to explore with rubber ducks and nets, spoons or tongs. Basically anything you may have around your home.
Looking for other sensory play ideas related to the bubble bath theme? Check out this post on how to make mystery water.
Inside view: I realise I tend to use the same white bins in my set ups. I always think that I should show pictures of set ups in different bins, but these are the easiest option for me. They're the trofast boxes from IKEA and I use their flisat table for set ups. There's no pressure to buy the same ones I have, anything will do - washing up bowls, plastic storage boxes and tuff trays also work well!
Arts and Crafts
It's time for some bubble stamping!
All you will need is some bubble wrap - I saved some from a delivery and used washable paint to paint the bubble wrap and stamp it on paper.
If you're looking to get artistic, how about using bubbles to make 🌳 leaves on a tree, 🐝 hexagon shapes for a beehive, ☂️ rain or🌷 petals on a flower.
I decided to get through a few different designs with my toddler and pre-schooler then stuck them to coloured card to make thank you cards for gifts!
Top tip: this can be a messy activity especially if you have a toddler on the younger side. To limit mess put a paper roll on the table (I have this one), use washable paint and have baby wipes to hand!
Want another arts and crafts idea (loosely) related to the arts and crafts theme? How about doing some fizzy salt painting?
Active Play
Play bubble chase. Blow bubbles outside and have toddlers chase and pop them.
Book of the Week
The book of the week is Five Minutes' Peace by Jill Murphy .
This is the story of Mrs Large the elephant – who just needs five minutes of peace and quiet away from her boisterous children! So, taking refuge in the bathroom, she fills herself a hot, foamy bubble bath and takes in a tray of her favourite breakfast and the morning paper. But there’s never a dull moment with the Larges, and it soon becomes clear that mum's quiet time is to be very short-lived!
Related Excursion Idea
I debated including this section, as the whole point of Toddler Hacks is to keep things simple and use items from around the home. But if you're looking for ideas for how to extend the theme with a trip out, then this is the section for you!
- Aquarium or Water Park: explore an aquarium to see bubbles and underwater creatures or visit a splash pad or water park for water play fun.
Your Monthly Printable
If you haven't already, download your free monthly printable here . Containing an activity per day, for January there's a winter themed one for those in the northern hemisphere and a summer themed one for those enjoying warmer climates!
As a lot of effort has gone into designing it and I'm making this available for free for newsletter subscribers, I'd appreciate you not sharing the file and instead directing non-subscribers to sign up here to receive the printable or going to my Etsy shop to purchase it.
Next Week's Theme
Join me for National Hat Day on 15th January! Your ideas for play around the hat theme will be revealed next week. All you will need is some coloured card.