Pretend Cooking: 100 Days of Play Challenge!

If you are reading this blog, it’s most likely because you already know how crucial play is to your child’s development and how important it is to make time to connect with your child through play. However, as a busy mom of toddler twins, I know how hard it can be some days to fit play into the equation. Who am I kidding…some days I can hardly even find time to take a shower!

If you can relate to my predicament (and if you can’t, please tell me your secret) you are in luck, because Rachel at Sun Scholars and Maggy at Life at the Zoo have set up an amazing Blog Hop challenging you (and me) to commit to 100 days of playing with your child. Each day for 100 days, a new blog will share a fun and easy play activity to inspire you to set aside the housework for a few minutes, get down on the floor, and PLAY! Take the challenge and follow along- you’ll get some great ideas for simple play activities that you can do with your child TODAY, and you’re guaranteed to find a few new favorite kid blogs in the process.

And speaking of favorite blogs (wink wink), it’s my turn to share a simple play idea…”cooking” with playdough!

This is an activity that I literally threw together in five minutes during the twins’ nap time a few weeks ago. Both little ones (and Mommy) were mega-cranky due to a yucky cold, so elaborate play activities were out. Instead, I gathered up a set of vintage kitchen utensils that I got at an antique store for a few dollars (you can grab some from your own kitchen or your child’s toys), a mound of play dough, a handful of spiral pasta from the pantry and a few acorns and “sticky balls” from our sweet gum tree. I arranged the entire collection in half of a giant box that I had saved for just such an activity…the twins think climbing in the box to play is super fun, and it does a great job of containing the mess.

Once the twins got up from their nap, they wasted no time diving into the materials and “cooking” up some dinner! I sat down and played right along with them…”sampling” their gourmet masterpieces, creating cool imprints in the play dough with the various kitchen tools, and making sculptures with the pasta and natural items. Although our activity didn’t take away the sniffles, it did replace the whining with lots of giggles, so it was a winner in my book!

Don’t wait another second…accept the challenge and join me in 100 days of playing with my kids!

100 Days of Play Blog Hop
Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!
New ideas shared each day from 4/1 - 7/16.