Toddler Activity: Magnetic Ornament fun

I came across this pin on Pinterest for gluing magnets to ornaments to decorate your fridge. It dawned on me that it would be fun to use magnets on ornaments to play with on our magnetic board. I had come across ideas for hanging a felt tree on the wall for young kids to decorate and redecorate over and over again. I thought for my son sticking and pulling off magnets would be more fun. I could also have ornaments that had different textures to make it more sensory interesting for him.

Michael's again came to my rescue. They had small ball ornaments as well as sticky backed 3/4-inch magnets. They also had really small metallic bows as well as some Santa/presents/candy canes that I thought would be fun. THEN, while I was at Target, I came across sets of 8 mini ornaments that were both Mickey Mouse and Toy Story themed. PERFECT! His favorite characters! I attached magnets to everything.

The only down-side is that the sticky magnets didn't want to stick to the small christmas ball ornaments very well. I tried hot gluing them on, but that didn't work great either. Thankfully, they seemed to stick to everything else. (I feel like I need to add the disclaimer: Of course, children need to be supervised around magnets. Just for the naysayers who may come across this post.) ;-)

I drew a Christmas tree shape on the magnetic board and showed my son how to decorate the tree. He enjoyed this activity a bit. But he didn't stick with it for long. I think he'll like it a bit more next holiday season. I saved the little magnets and I'll bring them out again. He will be more into sorting and counting next year and I think we'll be able to make more use of them. You could do all kinds of things. Math based activities, patterning. The ideas are endless!

 

I think he'll like it a bit more next holiday season. I saved the little magnets and I'll bring them out again. He will be more into sorting and counting next year and I think we'll be able to make more use of them. You could do all kinds of things. Math based activities, patterning. The ideas are endless! 

And just because it is super cute. I had to throw in these last two photos:

Do you see what my son did before he fell asleep for his nap? He lined up all his Christmas Little People on the bar of his bed! I just about cracked up when I noticed that! So of course, I had to take a photo. ;-)