Activity Sticks with Tales of the Scotts

Today, I'm excited to have Eva from Tales of the Scotts with us to share a tutorial for your older little ones! It can be hard on the older ones when a new baby comes home (I'll find out soon enough!), and this is a great way to help entertain them during those weeks of baby-centered time.

 

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Hi everyone!  I'm Eva and I blog over at Tales of the Scotts.  I'm a stay-at-home momma to two little people that keep me on my toes.  Much to my patient husband's chagrin, my dining room table is always full of  little "projects" I have going on. 

Today I'm sharing with you my Naptime Activity Sticks that I used with my son when my daughter was born.  It was quite the battle keeping my rambunctious 2 1/2 year old quiet while my newborn napped.  Without fail, I'd put her down for a nap and he'd pull out his drumsticks and drums or he'd grab his monster trucks to play in the hallway.  Little stinker!

Around the time, I read a post from How to Nest for Less about activity sticks she made for her children to keep them having fun during the cold winter days.  I immediately thought, Yes!  This is a fun way to keep Hosea playing quietly.

Here's what you need to make your own.  An empty and cleaned out soup can, scrapbook paper, spray adhesive, an X-Acto knife and large craft sticks.

First lay out the scrapbook paper you want to use for your craft sticks.  Spray it with adhesive and then lay down the sticks onto the paper.  I used about 20 craft sticks.

While I was waiting on those to dry, I measured my corresponding paper to make sure it would fit around the soup can.  I sprayed it with adhesive and carefully rolled my soup can onto the paper.   Once the craft sticks were dry, I used an exacto knife and cut around each of them.  I sanded them slightly around the edges to give them a finished look.

Lastly, I embellished the can with some baker's twine and added a little tag that reads, "Naptime Fun!"

I hand wrote all the activities on the back of the craft sticks.  Here's a list of what I chose for our quiet activities!

Angry Birds Game

Play with Car Mat

Play with Cars

Trains

Playdough

Paint

Build a Fort

Balloon Paddle Ball

Potato Heads

Read Books

Play with Kitchen

Do a Craft

Puzzles

Play with color-changing cars

Toy Story memory game

Candy Land

Play with stickers

Think of some things your son or daughter really enjoys and add those to your jar of naptime fun!

My son is independent so he loved getting to pick something out himself instead of me always saying, "No, we can't play that.  Sarah is sleeping."  Now he has a list of things he CAN play!  LOVE IT!

Thank you for having me Jenilyn!

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Thanks so much for sharing Eva! These are great!
Stay tuned for even more fun and tutorials during
*Becoming Mommy*