I love any activity that gives the toddler twosome a chance to practice their fine motor skills while having fun and using our homemade sponge stampers is one of their favourite activities so i decided to pull them out again!
It is still very hot here at the moment so we picked a nice little shady spot, set up the Sponge Pads again and then I added a few DIY sponge tools.
We used some sponges wrapped in fruit netting which is not only a fantastic sensory experience for little fingers…it also makes a fun pattern on the paper.
I also added some little make up sponges (I got a bulk pack from the discount shop for $2!) and popped on a peg to the end to provide a little handle.
Then the girls began pressing into the stamping pads full of paint and off they went!
Such a great activity for working the hand muscles…lots of different ways to grip, textures to touch and stamping pressure to explore…..
By adding 2 different types of sponge tools it allowed the girls to experiment with their creativity and skills in different ways….they both also enjoyed taking the pegs off and trying to clip them back onto the sponges.
Ruby had a lot of fun seeing how many she could hold at once…she also liked the sensory experience of rubbing the netted sponge over her arms and hands.
Of course we had our handwashing bowl close by and this also turned into a wash basin for the sponges which extended the play into some water painting! They enjoyed squeezing the wet sponges between their fingers and swirling through the water.
We talked about how the sponges were soft and the pegs hard, named the colours we were painting with and marvelled at the patterns the netting made.
An easy activity that cost me next to nothing as I reused our Sponge Paint Pads , used old bath sponges, recycled some fruit bag netting and grabbed some pegs off the line!
I do love a fun yet frugal activity…don’t you?
That is so clever. I love it. I think we will have to try this!
Hope you have fun with it Jennifer…sponges are just wonderful tools!
Ooh, I love this idea! I just pinned it and will have to try this with my kids.
I love the idea of putting sponges in things. I can run with this…
Thanks so much for pinning Katie….i hope the kids have fun with it!
This is so clever & looks like so much fun! it’s amazing to see people having fun outside in the heat while we freeze here!! Thanks so much for adding this to the link up, Kierna
Thanks for the reminder of why I picked up those bulk sponges from the 2buck shop 🙂 I think we’ll plan this in this week. By the way, if it wasn’t for your previous post I would never have known the challenges you face with Ruby, running away from activities, needing you there, needing your reassurance…you make it look so easy Jode, so effortless, I was kinda jealous, ya know 😉 I have had these kind of challenges with Chook over the past year, but we have been getting better. Until today, where we had a major regression in behaviour. Too upset to write more, but I’m thinking of you xox
Such a fun and creative way to get your girls practicing their fine motor skills and then lots of fun with water, perfect weather for it at the moment. Wishing you a wonderful week Jode. xx
Paints and sponges are great fun and so much easier outdoors! Popping over from the Outdoor Play Party
You always have so many fabulous art and craft activity ideas!
Love this! Still in love with your sponge pads…will be onto this activity soon! Miss Daisy will love it!
What a fun way to play. And a lovely outside setup. Must get some more of those makeup sponges. Good idea 🙂
Love how you use pegs to keep their fingers, kind of clean. I so need paint shirts don’t I?!
Looks like lots of fun.
I love your sponge pads, I must give them a try!
This looks like a lot of fun! My kids would love this! Thanks for sharing. I featured this post on my blog for the weekly kid’s co-op. You can check it out here:
http://www.homelearningjourney.com/the-weekly-kids-co-op-124/
I’ve just picked up some cheap sponges to make some DIY stamp pads for our place. Can’t wait to try this!
This looks like great fun. I can’t believe we’ve never tried sponge painting. Thanks for the inspiration.
Love the addition of the pegs holding the sponges. You really do come up with some of the best frugal crafting ideas I’ve ever seen!
I really need to get my girls outside more to paint. Plus they would really enjoy the sponges especially the ones with the pegs. Elina loves pegs at the moment. I am now planning outside painting for Friday.
We love using sponges and bath scrubbies and all sorts of different “brushes” when we pait. Thanks for sharing this with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! I hope you join us today for the new link-up! hmmm… wrong link (playschool + blogging = craziness lol) http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-funky-junky-windchime-at-eco-kids.html
These work are really funny. My sister’s kid love them.
Thanks
This is so clever & looks like so much fun! it’s amazing to see people having fun outside in the heat while we freeze here!! Thanks so much for adding this to the link up,
It’s very creative idea. You are so dextrous to do that. It looks so cute. I’ll try to do it for my children. Thanks for your tips.
Great idea!!! I’ll try to do it for my children. Thank you for sharing.
That is so cool! I didn’t know it was so easy to make it yourself. It looks great too 🙂
Nice tips. I want to make something for my son but I have no idea. Now I guess I found it! Thanks.