Plate Patterns - In Car Entertainment

How to make some in car entertainment for your baby.
Cost: cheap
Time: 30-45min
Difficulty: easy peesy
Unlike most babies my son does not fall asleep in the car unless he's absolutely exhausted so he needs entertaining when we take trips that are longer than the 5min drive to the local pick n pay. I have had a picture of a face up for him for ages but recently I figured it must be pretty boring looking at the same thing all the time. So I decided to adapt an idea I got from BabyGym to entertain him. Our baby car seat faces backwards so I used the backrest of the back seat but you could probably adapt this to work on the back of a front seat.
Materials
• paper plates
• black and red khoki pens
• velcro (you will only need the side with hooks)
• a gym towel (one of the ones with a zip pocket, for keeping valuables at the end)
• clear bostik glue or contact glue
• a few big safety pins
Step by Step
1. Draw a series of simple but interesting patterns in black and red on a number of different plates. Using the flat centre of the plate works best. The contrasting black, white and red are easiest for baby to see and pick out the different elements of the pattern. Try to incorporate different types of lines and shapes in your patterns. Don't make them too busy or intricate or they will be too difficult for baby to decipher and he will lose interest.
2. Cut 3cm pieces of the hook side of the velcro. Stick two pieces of velcro to the back of each plate with the contact glue.
3. Open the zip end of the gym towel and place the open end over the head rest of your back seat. With the towel hanging down the seat back in front of your baby's seat. Use the safety pins to make the towel tight around the head rest.

4. Now you can place one of the plates on the towel - the velcro will hold it in place - in your baby's eye line. Change the plate and pattern any time you feel your baby is board with the previous one. I keep a bunch of different plates in the pocket on the back of the front seat.