Cotton Bud Play

In our continued search for HG friendly play activities we turned to the bathroom for inspiration. Our HG activities must not involve food or odours, must not require any preparation and are designed to promote independent play. After the success of playing with straws and Pipe Cleaner Posting I decided to experiment with playing with cotton buds (affiliate link).

Obviously your child will need to be supervised throughout this activity, especially if they have seen an adult use a cotton bud in their ears before. Adam was too distracted by the concept of pushing cotton buds through anything to realise what they were.

I gave Adam two containers of cotton buds and a metal colander. He soon discovered that the cotton buds would not push through the holes at the top but they fitted at the side. Adam had to take it one step further. He tried to push two cotton buds through two different holes whilst holding them in the same hand. He managed to do this a few times.

Adam disappeared into the kitchen and came back with our cheese grater. I don’t know if he had remembered posting straws through it some time ago or whether he realised it also had holes in like the colander. He spent ages putting a cotton bud into each hole until it was filled. e had just as much fun taking each cotton bud out again too!

Adam went into the kitchen once more and came back with our plastic colander. He posted several through the holes in the side and declared it was “a spaceship”.

This time the cotton buds did fit through the holes at the top, although they would only go all the way through with a push. It required extra fine motor skills in order to remove the cotton buds and obviously Adam wanted to do this with both hands at the same time.

Equipment needed:

* Cotton Buds

* Any kitchen resources with holes in. We used a metal and plastic colander and a cheese grater.

Take a look at our other HG friendly play activities – ways to entertain toddlers if you are ill: