Toddler Table Activity

I've been looking for ways to keep my little one occupied and busy while I attend to a few tasks that a mom must do. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE playing with my little ones but there are times when a task needs to be done and it needs to be done with out the assistance of a one-year-old. For instance, loading the dishwasher full of dirty dishes. The little guy want to unload everything. Not only is this counter productive, it's also rather disgusting to have him touching all over the dirty dishes.

(In the picture above, he is helping me with the clean dishes. While my back was turned, he climbed right up. Once he was up there, I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures. My hubby about fainted when he saw the pictures!)

A while back, I found that pipe cleaners were a great activity to keep him busy. Since then, I've been on the lookout for other activities that he can do in his highchair for short periods of time with minimal supervision.

Look what I found. It's called a Crayo-Craze Crayon and it's made by Liquid Mark. I bought it a Walmart.

It has 6 crayon nubs around in a circle. There is no right side up so no matter how he holds it, he can color. We've been using it for about a month and he loves it. I bought it so that he could do "work" while his big sister and I are doing "school." Currently he eats regular crayons and this one makes it more difficult to do so. At first, he would still try to eat it but I was right there with him to redirect.

Today, his sister was using markers at the kitchen table. He wanted to get into those markers badly. So, I let him use his Crayo-Craze independently. I taped a large sheet of paper to the table and pulled up his booster seat. He sat right across the table from his big sister and scribbled away!

While the two of them were drawing at the kitchen table, I got the dishwasher emptied and reloaded, cleaned the stove top, and vacuumed under the table. Pretty impressive, eh?

I love this new gizmo. I wish that I would have had it when my daughter was younger. She would have loved it too.