Pom poms are one of the cheapest, most useful things you can keep in a tub for play. They are soft, bright, and endlessly sortable, and paired with an empty chocolate-box tray or an egg box they make a simple posting and sorting game that is brilliant for little fingers. Ages 1.5 to 3.
What you need
- A bag of pom poms in a few colors and sizes.
- An empty tray with sections. The plastic insert from a box of chocolates is perfect, or an egg box, an ice-cube tray, or a muffin tin.
- A pot or tin to tip them all into.
How it plays
Pressing a soft pom pom down into each little cup of the tray is the heart of it. Picking up a single pom pom and placing it just so takes a careful pinch, which is exactly the grip a child is building toward holding a pencil, and the soft, springy feel makes it satisfying to do again and again. Filling every section, then tipping them all out and starting over, is the kind of repetitive job toddlers happily lose themselves in.
Because the pom poms come in colors, there is sorting here too. A child can put all the red ones in one section and the blue in another, group them by size, or count them into the cups one at a time. None of it needs to be suggested, but it is there when they are ready for it, which is what makes the same little set keep working as a child grows.
For an extra challenge later on, swap fingers for a pair of child-safe tongs or a clothespin to pick the pom poms up, which steps the fine motor work up a level. Kept in a bag with its tray, it is a tidy, grab-anytime activity that travels well too.
For more color sorting, our broad bean color sorting uses dyed beans and matching pots, and our free coloring pages for girls are a lovely quiet follow-on once the pom poms are packed away.