Occupying 3 year olds during days and days of rain is a challenge to say the least. I admit that we are spoiled out here in SoCal and its really just a handful of days through the course of a year where going outside is not an option. Thank goodness the sun is out again, but seriously those days inside were TOUGH .WHAT CAN WE DO IN HERE ALL DAY?!
The truth is my daughter is not going to sit still for 15 minutes of a stationary activity, let alone a half hour. She’s a mover and a shaker and literally bounces off the furniture if not able to run free outside. I owe my rainy winter sanity to indoor playgrounds and my supermom sister for always giving me the best ideas ! Thanks to her I now know this easy idea to melt crayons in little heart molds for school Valentines! Thanks Babe! This actually kept Issy’s attention for….MINUTES! I gave my daughter the best job – peeling all the labels off of the crayons – something she does normally and with great pleasure! We went through all the broken crayons in her pencil case, peeled off the paper and broke the bigger ones into small pieces so they could fit in the molds.
By the time we had put the crayons in the molds about 15 minutes had passed. Sure it wasn’t an entire afternoon’s worth of activities where she was stimulated, with all of her synapses firing rapidly while using fine motor skills for hours on end- BUT it was enough for me to feel a little less guilty when I caved to the requests to watch Peppa Pig in the late afternoon!
This is how easy it is to make these little crayons:
Place the broken crayons in the mold on top of a cookie sheet and bake at 230 degrees for about 10-20 minutes depending on your oven , (I did mine in the toaster oven and it took 13 minutes.) Make sure you let them cool completely before you pop them out. Now hows that for a nut free, sugar free, allergy free, food free treat to bring into school!
Aren’t these so cute!
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