Our Adventures with a Recycled Tuff Tray

I love this Tuff Tray. Like, properly love. It saved my poor, abused carpet from more spills. It kept my crazy toddler's mess contained. Plus, it's made out of recycled plastic. SWOON.

We used it near-enough constantly. Indy is getting to the fiercely independent stage of wanting to feed himself. With the tray, no problem! Any spills were easily wipe-uppable, and no damage to my carpet.

Finger painting had always terrified me. We attempted it a couple of times on our dining room table, but things invariably got covered in the thick, staining goop. I was more than happy to strip Indy off and let him prod and poke the paint to his hearts content. I was able to just peeeeel it off the tray when it was dry. Obviously, after this activity, Indy himself was covered. I contemplated trying to take him upstairs and to stand perfectly still in the bathroom while I ran a bath, but realised that was silly talk. Find me a toddler who can stand still while covered in muck. (tip, you can't.) A flannel just wouldn't cut it, a baby wipe wouldn't cut it, visions of looping the hose into the house did flash across my mind (albeit very briefly) and then I had a flash of genius. Our old washing up bowl! It would fit into the tray, it would get him clean, he could play with the water and it would be fine! So, voila. A mini bath/water play.

Butter. Wouldn't. Melt.

I looked around for more ideas on what I could do with this magical tray. Then my mind flashed back to the kinetic play sand I had picked up at the pound shop. Indy had the HappyLands zoo set, and I thought it would be a great activity, to have the animals trampling in sand, mark making. I set up the blue and the stone coloured sand, and let him have at it. No sand got smooshed into my carpet, and it was so easy to put it all away afterwards!

In short, I really really recommend getting a tray. We used it in the garden when the grass was damp, we used it in the kitchen, we used it everywhere. It's perfect for when little hands get the colouring bug but can't quite stay on the pages. It's ideal for Play Doh and other slightly mucky activities. And snack times are super easy when you've got a lipped container for your child. Ha! The tray can be found here. Go get one!

The week so far

This week has been a fairly quiet week in our household. Both of Indy's friends have been poorly, so we've had none of the usual playdates. Instead I've been inspired to try and find some fun new ways to engage with him at home, and to prevent the usual cabin fever!

I had a quick rummage in the cupboards, and found some lovely thick zip-lock bags we'd picked up at the farmers market. Inspired by other posts I've seen, I filled one bag with fingerpaint, and stuck it to our glass dining table with sellotape. Indy loved it, and it was nice and easy, mess-free fun (hurrah!).

He loved it so much, I wanted it to continue, so I found another zip-lock bag and filled it with glitter and water, and taped them to a tray so he could play with them in the living room. He was captivated! He loved squidging the two bags at the same time, feeling the contrast between them, and seeing the colours mix. This is a definite one to repeat, he loved it so much he tried biting them both several times (do they ever get over the 'putting everything in their mouth' stage?).

I wanted to keep up the DIY sensory play, so the next day we had some fun with posting pasta. As I previously mentioned, Indy still puts absolutely everything in his mouth, so pasta is the perfect play item. I had an old coffee tub (definitely not a caffeine addict...) and carefully cut holes in the lid. I snapped a handful of spaghetti in half, and demonstrated to Indy how they slotted into the holes.This activity is great for hand-eye coordination, and the spaghetti made a really satisfying noise when it was dropped in. Again, this activity kept Indy focused for so long I was amazed. I'd never seen something grasp his attention for quite so long. Please excuse my unhoovered carpet, Indy chases me when I hoover and attempts to sit on it, so it's a task I manage only a couple of times a week. Landlords really love putting beige carpets into houses, eh?