You’ve just got to try this! It has got to be the simplest art and craft session ever:

1. Tape a piece of paper to your child’s Piggy Platter.
2. Place the Finger Paint a the top of the Platter. (The raised edge will help keep those slippery little paint buckets in place.)
3. Let your child have at it!
4. When they’re done, just pull up the piece of paper and post on the wall or fridge.
5. Take the Platter to the sink and rinse it clean.

How’s that for fast clean-up! (Well, not including your kiddo :o)

piggy platter

You know how Play-Doh leaves little balls of dried gunk everywhere? Well your child’s Piggy Platter placemat & craftmat is awesome for keeping the Play-Doh mess to a minimum!

The rubber gasket underneath not only helps keep the Platter in it’s place (unlike any other kid place mat or craft mat that goes sliding across the table unless you duct tape it down :o), but the gutter on the front and raised edge helps keep accessories and Doh from rolling off the table.

And clean-up? No problem. Just carry all those goobers right to the sink and rinse away! Simple, eh?

piggy platter
play-doh

The fun for kids using their Piggy Platter is that they can put whatever they want underneath. When Patagonia catalogs come in the mail with extreme skiers on them, we rip out the pages and place them underneath my sons’ Platter. When greeting cards or photos from their recent visit come in the mail from Grandpa we’ll put them underneath for the boys to fondly retell their adventures while eating at the table.

The sky’s the limit on what fun, exciting and educational material can go underneath the Piggy Platter!

toddler placemat

One of the challenges we all face with curious kiddos is keeping items in their place… the same is true for the Piggy Platter. While we made it with an anti-slip plastic gasket around the bottom of the rim so our kids couldn’t shove it across the table with food on it (like they did with the laminated placemats), we realize that strong little ones can move it around.

Hence! The Piggy Platter is not without a little child training. We actually produced it to be a training tool for the table: the large surface and rim give the kids their “make a mess here” boundary. We tell out kids that just like a plate full of food, we need to keep our placemats on the table until we take them to the sink for cleaning.

We did consider suction cups, but not for long! Any suction cup product we purchased didn’t work on our wood table, nor, on a different surface, beyond two uses after putting them in the dishwasher. We wanted to be sure and give parents the option of cleaning their Piggy Platter in the dishwasher!

We welcome additional discussion and tips on how you encourage your kids to keep the Piggy Platter on the table.

toddler placemat

The removable front gutter of the Piggy Platter works great when you want you want your child to have the extra coverage (think crumbly cupcakes or cornbread!), or when your kiddos need a place to hold their crayons. Here are some quick tips for a snug fit:

1. Turn the Platter upside down on your counter
2. Wet your thumb/fingers with water
3. Place one end of the gutter into its slot
4. Push and slide your into thumb/fingers across the gutter length-wise

When you turn it over and place the Piggy Platter back on the table for use, be sure the part of the gutter that fits into the clear platter is on the table, while the rest of the gutter rests off the table between it and your child.