Dinos, colors and a sponge

After the dinner is finished, I have to clean up, wash the dishes, keep Santino calm, also making sure that he doesn't destroy the house. Recently I started leaving him in his high chair, buckled up (yay! no running away) and provide him with entertainment. Not TV, rather something creative. TV after dinner is not good for his sleeping routine, so I used to provide him with markers, crayons and toys to color and play.

Coloring and drawing is not his strongest area at this time. Markers quickly end up on the floor, as well as crayons.

I started thinking of other creative ideas, after researching the internet and finding amazing blogs, written by moms and their children. Mothers come up with ideas, children enjoy them.


Today I gave Pipidinko a sponge and poured some water on the high chair tray. He played with it a little, but then got bored, as it was fun, but not that fun. So I added a few drops of food coloring. Oh, yeah! That's already something!

He discovered, that water makes funny shapes and figures, and started playing with it.

You can collect the water in the sponge, and squish it out. You can make splashes with your hands.

I added a few drops of another color. I also gave Pipidinko a q-tip, just for a different experience. I also let him hold the tooth pick, which I used to put the color drops.

He used it to make a boat. Looks freaky on this picture :)

Then he got bored with the sponge, and I gave him ice cubes. I also added food coloring there.

For a few minutes we enjoyed watching the swirls the water was making while melting. Then we got rid of the ice, and found new fun! The game is called "make a dino, or find a dino". Well, I just gave the name to it now, but you are welcome to use this name or the game any time. Replace "dino" with any animal or machine you wish. I just found that the dinos were the easiest.

I drew a dino for Santino, using colored water. Its very easy: a big body, a long neck on one side, a long tail on the other side, and legs... 2 legs or 4 legs, whatever you can make. That's it. He was mesmerized by the ability of this dino disappear and separate into little puddles, as the water didn't stay still, rather moved and collected itself into random shapes.

He kept asking "what happened?"

This really got his attention for a while. I moved the high chair next to the sink, and got back to my kitchen routine, and after the next dino disappeared, I would quickly make a new one, leaving Pipidinko playing with it. He was trying to make his own dinos, and was even finding unexpected dinos on the other side of the tray!

What a great source of inspiration, simple water and food coloring!