Dinner prep: entertaining your toddler when preparing meals

Margaux  is at the age she wants to imitate everything I do. Very cute, but sometimes I need her to be entertained while I prepare her meal. In this case, she becomes a mini cook!

Tools:

• Egg container
• Toddler cooking utensils
• Coffee straws
• Silicone muffin pans

How To:

• Let your mini chef play with silicone muffin pans which are soft enough to use
• Give him/her coffee straws to put in a colander
• Using an egg container, break the egg shapes to make cardboard eggs
• If your toddler is used to seeing you cook, he/she will imitate you with toddler utensils: store them at your child's level for easy access. Quickly he/she will gather them instinctively while you cook

Ice cube painting

What to do when you have a toddler who is obsessed with going outside and it is currently raining? Let her/his inner artist shine!

Tools:

• Ice cube tray
• Food coloring
• Craft sticks
• Craft paper

How To:

• Pour one drop of food coloring in the cubes of an ice cube tray. I used only 4 squares of the tray, one for each color I used. Add water and place in your freezer for about 45 mins
• Cut craft sticks in half
• Check your ice cube tray. It should be half frozen. Insert the craft sticks in the center
• Put it back in the freezer until solid frozen
• Loosen the ice cubes and show your toddler how to paint