Upcycled Activities with Things You Might Have a Surplus of This Season

As we continue to follow the news about #COVID19 especially in our state and I see social media posts from doctor and nurse friends, our prayers go out to those on the front lines, those who either are affected themselves or have relatives who are affected by the virus. And of course as a mama of a toddler, my heart goes out to all the moms out there as well!

If you're WFH these days and the rest of your family is at home, you may have begun to accumulate a surplus of certain cardboard products 😏 (ahem, TP rolls, paper towel rolls, boxes from things ordered online or through delivery). I love coming up with ideas of how to repurpose/upcycle/reuse/whatever you want to call it such things to make a fun DIY version of something I'd rather not spend money buying if I can make it myself. Here are some things we've done at home!

Silly Bean loves cars and building roads out of blocks, Magnatiles, random things in his room, and we had a LOT of rectangular cardboard lying around, so I taped some together and drew a road!

Silly Bean was ecstatic about it, and we had even more fun "decorating" it after his nap. He got to practice drawing houses and writing his name.

I've been saving paper towel and toilet paper rolls since Silly Bean was born (we only saved a boxful since my husband thought it was a little much) to prepare for lots of fun art projects once he became a toddler.  Here's one little game I made for Silly Bean this week with a few of them:

 

 

We still haven't been able to figure out whether Silly Bean is left or right handed, as he writes and draws/colors with both. I've also been trying to find some fun ideas for him to practice chopstick skills with these training chopsticks we got from HMart (yes, we bought both righty and lefty pairs because we're not sure which he prefers!). Picking up the pom poms has given him an opportunity to practice, and it's really helped!

I've also been saving the cardboard egg cartons for art projects. Every day Silly Bean has been asking, "Mama, is it spring today?" We've been enjoying taking walks and looking at buds, smelling and picking flowers, watching the birds eat birdseed on our deck, and looking at earthworms. And so I decided to make a little bug art project!

 

Silly Bean seems very proud of his creation, and has been showing it off on every video call with (our) friends.

That's all we had time for this week, but I'm hoping to make more cardboard activities/projects for next week!