Hotel Toiletry Bowling & Stacks

(Open Ended Play)

Some people dreaded to be in a hotel room with a toddler, we dont. There’s so much things that we find even a business hotel as a paradise for both parent and toddler. Here is one of our favorite activity.

Materials:

-hotel toiletry containers (shampoo, bath gel, body lotion, conditioner, etc.)

-a ball (or toilet paper will works too)

Instruction:

-line up the containers like bowling pins on the floor to set up your lane.

-throw or even kick the ball or toilet paper towards the pins

-let your toddler explore freely

Y is a 2 1/2 years old toddler at the moment. She is active, loves play both indoor and outdoor and pretty creative with her imagination. We have no screen time at home.

As a hotel does, it has TV, but most of the time we manage not to turn it on. She doesn’t even have interest with the screen because she was too busy with everything else.

As for this game, we don’t really make rule. We do set an example of what to do at first.

Gather up all the toiletry containers for the bathroom. We can always get a few extras from the room service. If you have a ball, that will do, but if not, grab a new roll of toilet paper.  For the best chance of a strike, the roll of toilet paper needs to stay wrapped, but if it doesn’t, well, that’s another way to entertain ourselves. 

Y needs help at first to line up then pins back up. After a while she line up her own way, sometimes closer together, most of the times in a different pattern of lined up, but she found a fun way no matter what to strike the pins. She would miss over and over if there’s only one or two left pins standing. When she’s frustrated enough she’d poke the last standing pin(s) with her hands, made a giggle and said “Oh no” with a cute laugh to follow.

As time goes by, she would play the containers as if it were wooden blocks: stacked them lined up to three in a two rows, made pyramids out of them, lined them side by side, all while chanting her mantra “one,” “two,” “three,” “four,” “five,” “six.” And then she strike them using the ball in her hand, no more throwing or kicking, one by one. Again, all was done while chanting its sequence number.

It really made our whole morning by our last day hotel staycation.

#hotel #toddler #play