Shoving Station

Creating a simple shoving station can save your day.

If my day was a Lifetime Movie, this activity would really be called “Shoving Station: The Story of How One Mom Made Dinner”.

Sometimes the best activities are the most spur of the moment and that is exactly how Shoving Station came to be. I needed to finish up dinner, my toddler needed to be occupied and apparently his massive amount of toys were just not going to do the job. Toddler life is rough sometimes.

I really love sharing activities like Shoving Station because they are exactly what I’m going for here: an activity that you probably have all the supplies for, can be set up in seconds, and will hold a toddler’s attention.

Materials:
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• Three jars
• Three bowls of materials (I picked pom poms, marshmallows, and crayons)
• Tongs

I chose those three items because it felt right. Ok, actually there was a lot more thinking involved. Each item fits well into the jars and Sam can successfully grab them with his tongs.

Anything you have that can fit in the jar and can be maneuvered with tongs will work just fine. Again, this is what I had lying around. Whatever you have that will fit and can be grasped is perfect.

Sam loved this activity. He had a ball shoving the materials into their respective jars. I did ask him to keep the items separate, and at 28 months old, that wasn’t a problem for him. Just a few months ago and he would have shoved them all together – but that wouldn’t have been the end of the world.

[of course I let him have a marshmallow for a job well done – what kind of mom do you think I am!] What I loved about this activity is how great it was for Sam’s dexterity and fine motor skills. It was awesome to watch him working with the tongs and pushing his materials into the jars. We give Shoving Station two very big thumbs up.

Shoving station is a great “while I’m making dinner” type activity.