I’ve seen this idea on lots of blogs throughout my activity searching and finally decided I would make one too. You can use this link on Mama Jenn to see how it’s made. This is not only good shape practice, but it’s turning out to be good fine motor skill practice too. J does have a hard time stretching the rubber bands to far enough, when left on his own he basically lays them across two pegs. I have to encourage him to try and stretch them further.
This is definitely an activity that we do together. Even if he had the fine motor skills to do it on his own, I would still keep a close eye on him because the board is made with pushpins. So far there is no sign at all that they might come out, but I’m not confident enough to walk away from him with this toy yet. Also, removing the stretched rubber bands could potential shoot them across the room or into his leg which could hurt. He can’t remove them on his own yet either, so we haven’t actually had an injury or anything, just FYI.
Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers 
This looks great, I’d totally forgotten about Geoboards, my students always loved those too. You are so right about those rubber bands flinging across the room though, lol! Are those hair ties that you used? Do they work well or would you say actual rubber bands are easier?
Yeah they are hair ties. I got the thicker ones without any metal connector pieces thinking that could scrape his fingers. They do work fine, but the thinner ones probably would be easier for him to stretch (store didn’t have any w/o the metal connectors). I was concerned rubber bands would hurt worse if they flicked him or if he rubbed his fingers across them too much?? I could be totally wrong there.
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Geoboards are not available in our local stores, so thank you very much for sharing the idea on how to DIY. Here’s how we’ve done it, it was very simple, but the most important is that my girl loved it and often plays with it: http://stepfordska-supruga-en.blogspot.com/2012/11/geoboard-diy.html