Pom Pom Fun for Older Babies

Little Brother has definitely entered a phase where he needs some more purposeful play, otherwise I find myself trailing around behind a little cyclone of curious chaos.

A few weeks ago on a whim I pulled out a bunch of larger pom poms and created a pom pom can drop for him. This has lead to creating some other invitations to play with pom poms in all sorts of different ways. 

Safety Note: please note, pom poms could pose a choking hazard for babies, thus I would strongly recommend close adult supervision when babies are doing this type of play.

Pom Pom Can Drop

This was our original play activity. I used a clean can with a resealable lid and no sharp edges. (A yogurt or oatmeal container could also work well.) In the plastic lid I cut a small hole, large enough to fit a pom pom through. I put a collection of pom poms into a small basket. I primarily used the larger pom poms, about the size of a golf ball, for all our play. 

After showing Little Brother how to do it a few times, he quickly got the idea and became very focused on the work of putting the pom poms into the can. 

He worked on emptying the basket into the can and repeated the activity several times. (I took them out and added them to the basket each time he finished.) 

A few days later we added in some straws to the mix as well.

Other Pom Pom Activity Extensions

Muffin Tin Sort

Using a mini-muffin tin and a bowl of pom poms I set up another invitation. He worked on putting a pom pom into each muffin cup. 

Plastic Eggs & Pom Pom Carton

Another extension meant filling plastic eggs with pom poms and placing them inside an egg carton for Little Brother to explore and discover. 

At first he just explored the eggs and carton, but then he loved finding the pom poms inside the egg. He practiced opening them and closing them, sometimes taking out the pom pom sometimes leaving them inside. 

He liked the carton project enough he came back to it again a little later in the evening. 

We're going to keep looking for ways to engage our little tornado with baby friendly projects, and we'll keep sharing them here! Do you have a great baby play idea for us to try out? 

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