Learn with Play at Home: DIY Fine Motor Activity for Toddlers Plus New Toddler Snack Review and Giveaway

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.

Feeding toddlers can be challenging. Because of their smaller stomachs, they need to eat smaller meals more regularly and it's not uncommon for parents of toddlers to be heard complaining that their child is always hungry!
I found feeding toddlers to be the hardest stage, as depending on how many teeth they have, some foods can still pose a choking hazard, plus constantly coming up with new and interesting foods that they're willing to try and won't make a huge mess with, is definitely a challenge.
To help save myself time, I ended up making a Toddler Food Ideas List with a whole lot of suggestions of different foods that I could provide for my toddler. The idea of having this list on hand was so that I wasn't constantly reaching for convenience foods every time I was confronted with, "Eat! Eat!!" There are times though, when being able to quickly reach for something convenient and easy would be really handy, but previously, I've not been happy with the range of snack type foods available for kids, especially toddlers.

When I discovered that Mamee, (who I'd become familiar with as a teacher for making canteen friendly snacks for kids), were making a new toddler snack to be available in the baby aisle of Woolworths, I was delighted to give some a try. (So were the kids!).

The things that I really like about the new Mamee Little Monster Snacks:

No added MSG
No Artificial Flavours
No Artificial Colours
No preservatives
Gluten free
Low in saturated fat
Dissolvable so that kids with few teeth can eat them fine
Convenient treat
Resealable container!

In the past I've found that many convenience snacks I've bought are in packaging that can't be resealed. As I've often not needed to use the whole packet at one time, we've ended up with snacks going stale and being wasted. It might seem like a small thing but I love the canisters that the Mamee Little Monster Snacks come in. They have resealable lids to keep your snacks fresh AND are just perfect for little crafts.

Here is some fun we had with some of them once our snacks were gone.

DIY Toddler fine-motor Activity

Materials:

Empty Mamee Little Monster Snacks containers with lids
Paint (we used Micador Acrylics)
Brushes
Scissors

Take the lid off your containers and decorate the outside.

If you're after a more mess free decoration, try covering with coloured paper and glue or using stickers.

Not one to miss out on any of the fun, Big Sister had to paint one too.

While the paint is drying, cut some slits in the top of your plastic lids that are just big enough for your gathered materials. I cut ours to fit some of our favourite manipulatives, recycled plastic bottle tops and craft sticks.

When your DIY Toddler Fine Motor Activity Containers are ready, present them with some small materials for your child to play with and post into the containers.

Then it's time to play! Fabulous for practicing coordination, concentration and fine-motor skills.

When the containers were full they were fun for shaking and the lids were easy to remove to empty the contents and start again.

Challenge your toddler to find other items that could fit in the slots. Buttons, pompoms, matchsticks, etc.

To make Baby Shakers instead, fill the containers with different sounding materials and glue down the lids so that the contents can not come out.

For something completely different, the canisters are a great size for holding pens/pencils. Decorate as you'd like (try covering with wrapping paper or glue and glitter!) and then pop your stationary items inside for a colourful display.

Giveaway* this giveaway is now closed.

*For Australian Readers Only

Would you like to try some of the Mamee Little Monster Snacks for your little monster?

I have a large pack of the snacks, including 12 canisters in total (6 of each flavour) to give away to one of our Australian readers.

If you'd like to win, simply leave a comment on this post telling us your toddlers current favourite snack.
You need to leave an email address that you can be contacted on and live in Australia.

Please see the full terms and conditions before entering.

edit: this giveaway is now closed.

Free eBook

Also, Mamee have a great new interactive story out for ipad and iphone that you can download for free. A great way to spend some fun reading time together. Watch a demo of the book here or download it from the apple store here.

Happy playing,

Debs :)

{Disclosure: this is a paid post sponsored by Nuffnang. We received 4 containers of Mamee Little Monster Snacks to trial. Opinions expressed in this post, as always, are my own}

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