I have two words for you: independent play.
The holy grail of kids’ activities. It’s the thing that parents of toddlers everywhere long for.
You’re about to find out how much independent play can happen with a handful of pom poms and a whisk.
Exciting, isn’t it?
Most days the activities we do are super simple and take minutes to pull together. Activities like these are the bread and butter of my daily routine. They are perfect for independent play.
It’s the only way I get to enjoy a late morning cup of coffee or get stuff done around here.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
First, The Pom Pom Whisk Activity
When we first did this activity, my oldest (18 months or so at the time) really struggled and lost interest pretty quickly.
She resorted to the good ol’ standby: throw pom poms everywhere.
A year and a half later, we revisited this activity, and I was surprised at how much she’d changed. She was able to sit still and use the tweezers effectively.
Also, she was able to do all this by herself AND make up her own activity even after she had rescued all the pom poms from the whisk.
For this magical fine motor activity, all you need is a balloon whisk, pom poms, tweezers, and if you have a pot, then add that to the mix as well.
Step One
Fill the head of a balloon whisk with pom poms.
Step Two
Pull the pom poms out one by one using tweezers.
If your little one can’t quite get the hang of tweezers (or you just don’t have any!), use pincer grasp.
Now for the Pom pom Soup
We did this activity a week ago with brand new pom poms. As you can see, the set up is the same, except I added a little cooking pot and sensory tray full of pom poms.
Once the pom poms were rescued from the whisk, Elena decided to get creative and do a little dramatic play of her own.
She used the whisk to actually whisk pom poms together.
“Look, Mommy! It’s pom pom soup!”
It turns out, pom poms make great soup and a whisk is the perfect thing to stir them all together.
Whisking the pom poms gets them stuck back in the whisk.
Then the kids can rescue them all over again and you won’t even have to lift a finger, giving you even more time to relax or do stuff.
Whatever floats your boat. You do you.
And when you’re chilling on the couch while your kids play independently, just remember who helped you find all this extra time. 😇
Recommended Supplies for This Activity
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I don’t have too many opinions about whisks. I’m sure the one you already have is pretty great! However, the balloon whisk we have is this one.
But for pom poms, I prefer this brand, which you can see best in the last picture above. The colors are gorgeous and come in several different shades. They’re quality pom poms that don’t pull apart or shed as easily as some others.
The tweezers we used are from our IKEA play kitchen set. This set also includes a small stainless steel pot that’s very similar to the one shown above.
Your Turn for Pom Pom Whisk and Soup
This activity is great for independent play. You may have to give them a little nudge to get started, but I think most kids’ instincts will be to get the pom poms out of the whisk.
For your first time, I wouldn’t set out any extra pom poms so that there’s more incentive to get the pom poms out and play with them.
Hope your kids play all day with this activity! Let us know how it goes by tagging @entertainyourtoddler on IG or hitting us up on Facebook!
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!