Click here to read Pipe Cleaner Fishing Game for Toddlers Activity Fun on Hands On As We Grow®
Try this super simple fishing game that is a quick prep fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers from Laura in her Member Spotlight below.
Activities Weren’t Even a Thought
Laura is a stay at home mom of two. She has both 3 and 1 year old girls.
Before The Activity Room®, Laura spent time playing and reading with her preschooler. It never even occurred to her that she could be doing so much more through activities at home.
“Before I joined The Activity Room, I didn’t really know what to do with my kids. I mostly just played with toys. And just occasionally would get out finger paints, not really knowing what to do. And you know those Pinterest fails? That would definitely happen a lot. I didn’t have a lot of ideas.”
Like with so many newer moms, Laura was winging it. Being engaged with her kids but completely unaware of the learning potential that comes through planned and intentional activities.
“Until she was two, I never even thought to do activities, or that I should be doing more. I just thought, you know, I’ll just play with the toys and I’ll read her some books, and we’ll build with some Lego® blocks. I didn’t know that you could do so much. And, I just thought, they’re young, they put everything in their mouth. And they’re not doing a whole lot of talking. So there’s not a lot you can really do with kids. And I was wrong. I just didn’t know.”
The Door to Activities was Opened
Laura was surfing Pinterest and many of the easy and simple activities were leading her back to the Hands on as We Grow blog. She then came across a FREE Challenge and she signed up right away.
During the challenge she realized how much fun these activities were. Then she started reading about The Activity Room membership. She knew before the challenge ended that she was going to join.
“I fell in love with coming up with activities for my three year old. She says often that she wants to do 10 in a day, which you know, is a lot. We do a couple in a day. But she loves them. She’s asking for them first thing in the morning. And she does really well. She concentrates and works hard on her activity.”
You can see how much her daughter loves doing activities and really focuses her attention in the toddlers fishing game Laura shares at the end of this post.
“I love that connection and bonding time with my kids. I love that they’re learning and I see progress.”
Letting Go of Perfection
Laura’s biggest struggle with activities was letting go of control and letting her daughter take the lead. She tells us that she has learned with Room that doing it “right” isn’t what makes it an activity win. It’s the fact that her daughter is learning.
“I have a hard time letting her do her thing. And thinking it should go a certain way. Then we both get frustrated because she didn’t want to do it the way it was ‘supposed’ to be done. I’m kind of a perfectionist. I’d want to fix it or tell her No, we’ve got to do it this way.”
“I’m learning to let go of that and just let her discover and do what she wants to do with the activity. If she wants to do it a different way. That’s fine. Because it doesn’t matter. She’s still learning and experiencing and exploring. And that’s the important part.”
Finding Activity Twists to Keep it Exciting
Laura tells us her favorite part about The Activity Room membership is all the activity twists she comes across in the members only Facebook group.
“My favorite part of The Activity Room is finding all these cool, different activities to try.”
Laura had actually gotten off social media a long time ago. But she joined Facebook again just to be in the members community!
“I joined Facebook just for The Activity Room members only group. And I love that this group is so supportive. It really encourages you to keep going and know that you’re doing good. Especially when the activity doesn’t go very well.”
“I didn’t join the Facebook group right away. I didn’t realize how much I was missing. When I jumped on, I was like, oh, people are doing all kinds of things. Not just the daily activities. So that was cool.”
Laura tells us how she wanted to try one of the Room activities: Baking soda and vinegar fizzy experiment.
She was just going to do the normal variation of simply pouring vinegar on baking soda like they had done before.
But then she went into the members only community and came across some super fun twists to try.
“I wanted to do the baking soda vinegar. And I was like, well, I guess we’ll just do baking soda vinegar. Then someone had done that, but with a Lego waterfall tower. And I was like, Oh, my God. I quickly went to get the Legos out. I looked at their pictures on how to do it. And I had it all set up. So when she woke up from her nap, we were ready to go with it. And she loved it. And it wasn’t just the regular way you do baking soda vinegar. Because I saw that post, I was able to change it up and make it more exciting and different than what we’ve done before.”
Laura loves her monthly calendar and the monthly member challenges. She tells us that this has opened her eyes to a whole new world for her kids.
“I would say now, as a mom, I am a lot more experienced. I am more fun. And I think I’m just happier. She’s happier and I’m happier.”
Make sure you take a moment to join in the fun with the fishing game for toddlers and preschoolers at the end of this post!
Let’s Meet Laura
How many kids do you have and how old are they?
2 girls: 3 years old and 1 year old.
Why do you love doing activities with your kids?
I love seeing how happy my kids are when they are doing activities. I feel a great bond with them.
How long have you been in The Activity Room?
Since October 2020.
What is your favorite activity you’ve done in The Activity Room?
Bubble Wrap Runway… both girls loved popping the bubble wrap! They crawled, walked, ran, and even drove their car over it.
What’s your favorite thing to do with your kids when you get a few moments?
Play a tickling game.
What’s your best tip for doing activities with your kids?
Letting go of the expectation that activities should go a certain way.
If you were to tell a friend about The Activity Room, what would you say to them?
The Activity Room provides a great community of people who are positive and supportive while at the same time providing really good activities that develop my kids and allow them to have fun. Before The Activity Room it was a lot harder to come up with ideas for activities. When I started researching I found the Hands on as We Grow 5 day challenge and loved that it provided me with activities and held me accountable. Now we both enjoy doing them everyday. I love that The Activity Room helps me connect and bond with my kids.
Pipe Cleaner Fishing Game for Toddlers
Here is a super simple and fun fine motor pipe cleaner fishing game for toddlers that Laura wants to share with all of you!
To Create Your Own Fishing Game for Toddlers, You’ll Need:
- pipe cleaners
- bin to fill with water
- scissors
- blue food coloring (optional)
- coffee stir stick, chopstick or popsicle stick
How to Prepare Your Toddlers Pipe Cleaner Fishing Game
First I cut many pipe cleaners in half and then twisted each piece to form a fish.
Next I filled a bin with water and added a few drops of blue food coloring to make fishing game a little extra fun for a toddlers imagination.
Then I put the fish in the water.
To make this harder you can cut the pipe cleaner into thirds to make smaller fish.
You can also make it a fishing game and see how many fish your toddlers can catch on the stick at one time.
Time to Get Your Toddlers Fishing with Your Game
Finally I gave Riley a coffee stirrer to catch the fish.
You could also use a chopstick, Popsicle stick, or stick from the yard.
She started focusing on one fish at a time but as she became proficient she challenged herself and started trying to catch multiple fish at a time.
We even tried to catch the same fish together.
This fishing activity for toddlers turned into a wonderful bonding experience.
I was not expecting her level of organization with this toddlers fishing game.
I assumed she would go after which ever fish was convenient or easy.
But she focused on a particular color and sought those out. After she caught all the fish of one color, she moved on to the next.
She was instantly drawn to this simple toddlers fishing game and our activity time with it lasted 45 minutes!
The excitement on her face when she caught a fish was the highlight for me!
She loves fish and we had fun playing this toddlers fishing activity together.
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