Bubble Wrap Hopscotch

Cooper’s fun activity for today was Bubble Wrap Hopscotch! (If you want “instructions” on mailing, but want to skip the frilly stuff, scroll down until you see “MAILING INSTRUCTIONS”)

I try to be up front on my blog, so that us mommies recognize that our jobs are not all rainbows and unicorns (I’m not brutally honest, only with my friends…I don’t want to horrify you either, hehe). Cooper is now 2 1/2, and his age his showing. =) At first he said, “No, I don’t want to play.” Instead of being completely hurt that my efforts may have been in vain, I continued in our “project”, prepping a second set to mail to my brother and his wife (I figure my brother may actually enjoy this! Even if he does only pop all the bubbles). Cooper took an extra square of bubble wrap, and began interpreting the fun activity into his language… Oh my! Train track this…train track that! The obsession knows no bounds! Anyhow, we also discovered that one has to be taught how to pop the bubbles. Here’s his first attempt: I love the tongue…and the Cool Summer Days calendar in the background! =) He got a teensy bit frustrated that he couldn’t pop them, but as I continued to prep, I hear from the other room, “Mom, I got it!” He was soo proud. Within 20 minutes he came up and said, “Mom, let’s play. That would be fun!” Warm fuzzies. We set it up… Umm, maybe not with slippers, take #2: Even Allie was enjoying…look at her eyeing her big brother! Fun activity for the day? I say, yes!! Cooper had a blast (still is) and learned to pop the bubbles. Here he is enjoying his newfound talent!  Mailing Instructions

To create the hopscotch game…

1.  Cut 9 pieces of bubble wrap to 12” square

(I lucked out and found a roll on Amazon + free shipping that was perforated every 12”, and was 12” wide, score!) 

2.  Using a permanent marker on the flat side of the bubble wrap, write the numbers on the squares.

(I’ll confess my perfectionism and tell you that I printed out the numbers to trace. I’m not a fan of my handwriting. That’s why it looks so nice. It’s the font traveling typewriter if you’re curious)

3. Cut 2 pieces of cardboard 12” square. Affix the “rules” and your mailing address (cutesy it up if you’d like).  4. Put the stack of bubble wrap numbers between the two pieces of cardboard and tape around the edges using packing tape.It ends up looking like a bubble wrap sandwich. Mail to the recipient of your choice! I’ll let you know how the trip to the post office goes. We’re heading there after naptime.

And, as mentioned yesterday, here’s the link to our summer activity last year:

June 2, 2010