Fun little toys

I buy 2 and send one to Chase, but you can find these on Amazon.  Look for the Dragon Squeeze-n-Pop by Toysmith and a Whoppee Cushion.

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Ducks

 

Five little ducks that I once knew

Fat ones, skinny ones, tall ones, too.

But the one little duck with the feather on his back,

He ruled the others with a quack, quack, quack!

Quack, quack, quack! quack, quack, quack!

He ruled the others with a quack, quack, quack!

Down to the river they would go,

wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, all in a row.

But the one little duck with the feather on his back,

He ruled the others with a quack, quack, quack!

Quack, quack, quack! quack, quack, quack!

He ruled the others with a quack, quack, quack!

 

You might need a parent to do this too the first few times to help their toddler with the motions.  Kids will love the quacking motion.

 

 

Up and Down

Up and Down

Up! Tall! and High! (but not necessarily in that order.) by Ethan Long

I liked this book because of the flaps and each page only has a few words.  Action and fast-moving are the keys to reading on Facetime/Skype.

 

I've experimented with reading books but struggle with the shot.  I don't know whether to have the video on just the book or to include me in the shot.  I always want my grandson to associate me with the playtime, but it's hard to turn pages that way.  What do you think?  Has anyone had better luck reading on the video call?

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

My sister, Tammy, helped me with this one.  She sings this to her grandkids a lot and has the kids pick the animal for each verse.  It's a great way to keep the kids involved in the song, even if they don't know the words yet.

Old MacDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

And on that farm he had a cow

E-I-E-I-O

With a moo-moo here

and a moo-moo there

Here a moo

There a moo

Everywhere a moo-moo

Old MacDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

Animals to use in the verses:

horses - neigh

cat - meow

dog - bow wow

pig - oink

duck - quack

rooster - cock-a-doodle

lamb - baa

chicken - cluck

Dissolving capsules

Tonight Chase and I played with the dissolving capsules.  Here is what we did:

I sent 6 capsules to him ahead of time.  I told my daughter to put his capsules on his bed.  When we were ready to start, I told Chase to go look on his bed to see what Gabin left him this time.  He doesn’t know what they do yet, but he is excited.  Lindsay got a bowl of water, as hot as she was comfortable with him stirring.  We both dropped 2 capsules in the water and stirred.  It is really important at this point to have the parent stay close to make sure nothing goes in the mouth.  As the sponge fish start to form, we try to guess what it is: whale, stingray, seahorse, crab and so on.  Once all the fish were formed, we played together.  We both had the red fish hop.  The blue fish could fly!  The yellow one walked on the table toward the camera to make it look REALLY big. I think he had fun and I loved the interaction.  He is starting to pick up on the “go to your bed and see what Gabin sent you” routine.  I’m looking for ways to be consistent in our calls and this one is really catching on with him.

 

You can buy these at the dollar stores and Toys R Us.