Look Mum! No hands!
Suddenly, TJ can sit up unsupported. This is the greatest step towards independence he’s ever taken.
Activity Wall: The biggest toy for the smallest yard
I had the idea of making an Activity Wall months ago after seeing a few seconds of something much simpler on TV. We already had ball pit balls, and the idea of a vertical plaything that could allow for a toddler “project” (such as sorting the balls’ colours by where they were placed on the wall) really appealed to me given the small size of our yard and the way certain toys (ones that take effort and allow decision-making) take up a lot of Miss Three’s time and others (like 90% of soft toys and button-pushing devices) don’t usually “do” much beyond the initial excitement.
Fundamentally, this is all about putting plastic balls in tubes and watching them fall down. Miss Three likes to either “race” the balls or catch them at the other end – which is much more randomised that you’d think, since even a slight breeze can change everything. Mr Six-Months loves to watch the balls fall, chew on them, or practice standing holding onto the lowest pipe. It’s a great party toy because no kid has seen it before, and five of them can race at the same time.
The first step is to have some kind of backing, since you’ll eventually want to drill through something in order to hold the pipes in place. We used a trellis drilled onto steel poles, which were then inserted into the upper and lower rims of the fence. A wooden fence will do fine if you use short screws or have very tolerant neighbours.
These PVC pipes are 90mL – much cheaper and easier to work with than 100mL (because 100mL is used for sewage, so it is a LOT thicker). The sections involving only half a pipe naturally contract, catching the regular-size balls. The small balls work much better, and will also fall through holes cut for them. Some sections have “doors” (short sections of PVC with a vertical cut so they can slide back and forth to block or release a hole), which works well and can be operated by a pre-schooler.
Cutting the lengths, drilling the holes, and filing the rough edges was a lot of work – at least twenty hours with good tools. We attached the pieces with string to test it out, and found that very slight angles worked much better that those pictured above.
We put up the trellis well in advance and covered it with a blanket, then hung up the pipes over a couple of nights, covering up the results and keeping the kids inside during the day. On Christmas Day, we had Miss Three follow a treasure map to find “a very big present”. Her initial reaction was confusion, because she had no idea what it was. She still prefers to play on it with someone rather than alone.
For safety reasons, the purple buckets (which also work as a step to reach the top) have holes drilled in the bottom to prevent possible drowning. The whole structure has been thoroughly sprayed with outside anti-spider spray. All the viewing holes become essential when kids inevitably experiment with putting other objects into the tubes.
Cost: Balls $20 for 100
Trellis: $80 (not including steel supports or screws)
PVC: $50
Buckets: $15 from a cheap shop (washing baskets would work too)
Christmas Day
Today was Christmas with Nana and Poppy. I was delighted by TJ’s reaction to the sprinkler play mat. It turns out there ARE a few things in life even more exciting than chewing on wrapping paper.
Activity Wall
Here it is (note the lack of cardboard pieces, and the elaborate string “treasure hunt” leading to it).
And then I sprayed the whole thing with bug surface spray until I nearly threw up. Because Australia.
One small step for mankind, one giant leap for TJ
For the first time, TJ is JUST strong enough to hold himself up on hands and knees. I’m so looking forward to him crawling, so he can find his own fun rather than requiring me to constantly fetch things as he uncontrollably throws favourite toys across the room (due to lack of control, not deliberate attempts to destroy my back). That and sitting up are really useful milestones!
Lazy Mum Day
Today I went, “Have I taken a photo today? Nope. Where’s the kid? Oh, there he is.”
And here you are.
And here are a couple of permutations of the kids’ Activity Wall (you load balls into it. They go down. Or possibly up, thanks to the lever on the left). Notice the fading light. (Now that it’s totally black outside, the Activity Wall is covered in blankets and towels. . . I’ll be doing my best to keep the kids inside with curtains drawn tomorrow!)
Had a great mum-to-mum moment with my mum-in-law today when I realised she had presents for my kids that she’d forgotten about (which I knew because she’d been saying how behind she was on Christmas shopping, and I’ll sold her four of our ridiculously large pile). I guarantee I’ll be personally surprised by the gifts TJ and Louisette get from me and their Dad over the next couple of days (not as surprised as Dad, who has ADD so badly I can discuss his own gifts with him and he won’t remember a thing). I’m DEFINITELY more excited than either of them.
I’ve set up an elaborate treasure hunt (with rhyming clues) for Louisette to wade through in order to eventually find the Activity Wall on Christmas Day. Given that it’s currently held together with string and sticky tape (we need a bit of experimentation and a whole lot of zip ties when we’re really sure about the placement of things) I plan to have terrible nightmares of our kids immediately pulling it to bits and giving each other concussion in the process. ‘Tis the season. . .
The joy of getting away with it (or WILL WE?)
Here is a trellis. We happily showed it to both kids, and they didn’t suspect a thing 🙂
It’s the backing for a giant Christmas present, and luckily even Louisette doesn’t have the maturity to wonder WHY mum and dad are building a super-strong trellis two days before Christmas. (TJ of course has the same reaction to almost everything, ie, “Ooh! Shiny!” so we’re not too concerned about him spilling the secret.)
This is actually yesterday’s picture (oops, I forgot to post it then). Today (during Louisette’s nap) we put together what’s effectively a functional rough draft. I might take a photo of it when Louisette goes to sleep tonight, and have a think about how to improve it before the big day.
Also, a photo of the kids and I at Dickson pool. I’m proud of this photo because I’m in my swimmers and I don’t care.
Felicity Banks 