I think we can safely say that this activity was a play fail. It didn’t work on many levels but several lessons were learnt. The idea was to have a big dome of jelly (like in the cartoons) which Adam would try to dig cars out of it with a spoon. The reality proved to be very different.
Getting something to sink in jelly is very difficult! I made up two sachets of jelly (leftovers from the cupboard) in a very large mixing bowl. The cars just floated to the top. So I placed a saucepan lid to sink the objects with the idea of taking out the lid before going to bed. Needless to say I forgot so we ended up with a half sunken saucepan lid in the jelly. The jelly also didn’t set as much as I had expected despite leaving it for over 18 hours so I realised a jelly dome would be out of the question.
I placed the jelly bowl on the Tuff Spot Tray (affiliate link) in the kitchen and let Adam and my niece loose on it. Adam definitely does not like messy activities. Even getting him close to the bowl was a struggle. My niece on the other hand loved it! To her it was a huge bowl of jelly to eat.
I also discovered my Mum hates messy activities too when I tipped the bowl of jelly into the Tuff Spot.
Beth didn’t mind covering herself in jelly whilst trying to get the cars whereas Adam just ran away and watched from a distance.
Later in the afternoon I tried Adam again and the closest I got to him acknowledging the activity was to throw objects into the jelly.
Inspired by Dirt and Boogers.
Equipment:
* Jelly and water
* Bowl
* Cars
* Tuff Spot Tray (affiliate link)
Adam was 18 months old.
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I am very jealous of your Tuff Spot …! 😉
I have yet to try jelly play with my daughter and you’ve inspired me. She can be a bit iffy about messy play too sometimes, we’ll have to see what happens! x