Kids can be pretty curious. And at some point or another most toddlers shove a chubby fistful of sand or dirt into their mouth. Because why not? Leaves, sticks, mud – a parent turns their head for one second and in it goes.
But a mom out of Illinois was one step ahead of her little one and this parenting hack has gone viral on TikTok. She goes by the TikTok handle @elleannachristine, and in a clip that’s spreading quickly, she’s sharing how blending up dried Cheerios can create a sand-like consistency that toddlers can use for sensory play. It’s the perfect solution if your kid is too young to understand that it’s not OK to eat sand
Once the Cheerios were ground up in her NutriBullet, the brilliant mom took a tray and placed the fake sand on it. She then grabbed some sand toys that belonged to her daughter and put those on the tray as well. And there you have it. A sandpit was created out of stale cereal for sensory play.
Commenters loved it:
“Yess!!” wrote one TikTok user. “So if she accidentally eats the sand it’s ok bc it’s freaking Cheerios.”
“Wait, what?” wrote one person. “Holy h-ll this is genius.”
“Ma’am I went from thinking you were about to snort some Cheerios to realizing you are on a whole other level of mom,” another person wrote.
“I did this with my little boy today after seeing this!!” another added. “Amazing mama hack.”
Just goes to show you that if you think outside of the cereal box, you can outsmart your toddler! Better add a family size box of Cheerios to your next shopping list.
