What does this look like to you?
If you said “egg cartons”, you are thinking like a mom, but if you said “T-rex teeth”, you are thinking like a toddler. Next quiz, what does this look like to you?
Today the family and I are talking about oral hygiene. I think that it is hard for the kids to understand the somewhat intangible concept of cleaning every tooth sufficiently, so for the past couple of weeks I’ve had in the back of my mind to keep an eye out for teeth cleaning things for the kids. Ironically…yeah probably in an Alanis Morrisette kind-of way…I was saving some egg cartons for a different craft and I opened the drawer where I was keeping them to put a Bounty paper roll in the drawer and Briana saw me and said “Roooooaaaarr! Dinosaur teeth in there.” The idea for today’s activity popped immediately into my head.
So, as always, first we had to talk. “Do you know why we brush our teeth?” I asked the kids. “To get them clean.” responded Briana. “Toot-paste. Toot-paste. Toot-paaaaste. Brush a teeth.” responded Abby. Well, yes, we use toothpaste to clean our teeth.
Do you guys remember when we talked about the good viruses (Vanquishing Viruses Blog)? Yep. Well, when you eat your food, a good bacteria in your mouth tries to eat up all the sugar on your teeth because they like sugar. What happens is that they break the sugar into something called an acid that eats little holes into your teeth. Those holes are called cavities. If you brush all of your teeth really well then you get all of the sugar off so it can’t be broken down into that acid. If you don’t brush your teeth then you get cavities. “And all of your teeth fall out, right Mommy?” Some tv show we were watching simplified tooth brushing into preventing teeth from falling out – a little extreme to me, but hey, if it gets the kids to brush more, then ok I guess. I try to correct it a little…no fear mongering here…by responding, “No, then you get a cavity and that’s bad for teeth and you have to go to the dentist to fix it. If the cavity is so bad that the dentist can’t fix it, then you might lose your tooth.”
I deliberately skip other teeth and gum related malfunctions like plaque and gingivitis because I don’t want us to get sidetracked. Briana has entered a phase in life where the question “Why?” can side track a whole day. I really thought tv shows were exaggerating when some child actor asks “why?” to everything all day long. Nope. I’m here to attest that it truly can go on for a long time. Especially since I hate to tell my kids “just because” or something like that to end the conversation when there is a real answer to why something happens. But now I’m sidetracked…
Today we’re going to do an activity to show you how hard it can be to clean all of your teeth, and why you need to brush for a long time. I get out the egg crate/dirty dinosaur teeth and slice the top half (without the bumps) off. Of course first I decide to establish that they are our dinosaur teeth by making chomping sounds and snapping the cartons together. Little Abby’s whole head could fit in the dinosaur’s mouth. Luckily Abby is fearless and she thought it was hilarious to be eaten by the dinosaur.
Then I tell the kids that we are going to use the paints as toothbrushes. “With the toothpaste inside it already?” Bree adds. Yep, the paint inside is the toothpaste. We’re going to clean every one of the dinosaur’s teeth for him. Bree has to name her dinosaur Annie, for Annie Tyrannosaurus on Dinosaur Train. Abby’s is named Buddy. Poor Buddy. He loses a tooth right away to Abby’s fierce teeth. Bree then calls Abby a dentist. Abby responds “Yucky.” I would bet so.
I had planned to leave the mouths folded over, but that proved too difficult so each kid was just given a half of a dinosaur’s mouth to brush clean. It actually took quite some time to clean the teeth. So much so that Briana said “Mommy I need some help to clean all of these T-Rex teeth. It’s hard to get all of the teeth, Mommy.” Perfect. “Mommy will help,” I said, secretly happy to play in the paint too, “That’s what happens when we brush your teeth too, you know. Mommy helps you because it’s hard to get all of the teeth clean.” “Yeah Mommy it is.” She agrees. Abby has no such epiphany and screams every time you try to help her with her teeth. “I do it! I do it!” Ah, I remember this phase with Bree , though she always said “Do it self!” Terrible twos, I can’t wait until you get here in full swing. As long as I kept my hands off of her work, Abby was a happy camper though and got her teeth all clean.
Bree decides to inspect the final mouth for cleanliness and discovers that between the teeth didn’t get very clean. I grabbed a rubber band, put some paint on it, and let her try to floss the dinosaur. “It’s hard to floss.”
Then I get a picture that I printed out from Google Imaging “tooth brush coloring page”. I show the kids everything you need to clean your teeth between dentist visits- Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Floss, and Teeth. We color and of course glitter glue, which is a coloring must at our house right now.
Hopefully this interest in getting all of the teeth clean will continue and will ameliorate our nightly ritual tooth brushing throwdown.
Here’s a website with a lot of tooth activities on it. Had I not thought up the egg carton brushing idea, I was going to use one of these. They have lots of cute crafts for older kids, pertaining to the tooth fairy too. I particularly liked the toothbrush bracelets.
Stay clean!
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
Comments
Post a Comment