Ideas and activities?

stlmomma27

What do you do with LO all day if you stay at home with them?

I need some more ideas and new activities.

SJandVA

Our days are filled with carting DD1 back and forth to school, errands, nap, and eating. We do a lot of self play around here. I should probably be better about more activities. Here are some things the girls like to do: Bubbles, Water play,Taking couch cushions off and climbing them, Fort building. If you are really motivated you can pick a theme for a week and find different activities online that coordinate with the theme.

Megispreg

We go somewhere every day: Target, the park, the mall. We have memberships to the zoo and children's museum, so we usually go once a week. We sometimes meet friends for lunch or play dates.

At home, she plays with her toys. I read to her. We paint and color. Listen to music and play her little instruments. She "helps" me do chores. Go on walks.

zbeesma86

We have play dates, park dates, music class & story time. 

Park. Walks. Aquarium. Zoo. Library. Mall. 

Errands. She loves to 'help'

drunkindonuts

We have occasional play dates w my friends w kids.
It's been really cold lately, but when it's not cold we spend a lot of our time outside -- we walk in her sled, wagon, go for walks in the bog/boardwalk/hiking trails, the park when it's not winter.
We do a lot of playtime at home, plenty of reading, dancing.
We have a Y membership so we take her swimming there, and we start gymnastics next week!

SBmomma

Our city is FULL of parks. So we hit a different one everyday. We go to the zoo. We play with his toys when we are home. He "helps" me around the house with cleaning and what-not. We visit other stay at home moms. We take him to the YMCA for some swim time with daddy. We will have a beach day either by ourselves or with friends. We go to My Gym once a week. We recently blew up a baby pool in our family room and filled it with those colorful balls. He loves jumping in & seeing the balls go flying everywhere. We color the sidewalks with chalk. We read books. Since he is over going on long walks in the stroller I will just let him walk around the block with me, that way he can explore and go at his own pace. 

Toni79

Wow ladies!  I'm so jealious of you that get to stay home with your LOs!  Everything you describe sounds absolutely perfect!  I'm going to live vicariously through you!

We do swim lessoins at the YMCA on Saturday mornings.  Its only a 30 minute class, but between gettign ready, class, cleanning up after, etc, I takes up a big chunk of the morning!

I just signed DD up for a Kindermusic class during the week ... but her babysitter (my cousin) will be taking her to that.

There is also story time at the library ... the sitter was taking her to that in the fall, but it falls right at morning nap time, so it was kind of hit or miss if they would go.  I think once she drops her morning nap they might try again!

Megispreg

@Toni79 Staying at home is nice, but I wouldn't say it's perfect. You might feel differently if she asked how many hours a day do you spend listening to your child whine and throw tantrums.

Toni79

Megispreg said:

@Toni79 Staying at home is nice, but I wouldn't say it's perfect. You might feel differently if she asked how many hours a day do you spend listening to your child whine and throw tantrums.

Oh I'm sure!  I know the "grass is always greener"!  She pretty much pushes my buttons from the time I pick her up from DC to the time she goes to bed (~2.5 hours).  Yet she's a perfect "angle" at DC!

During the government shut down in October I was home for 3 weeks and I was running out of stuff to do with DD!  I was definatly difficult to not have a break!  I got absolutly NOTHING done around the house becasue I was just trying to spend every moment with DD.  Since I didn't know when the shutdown would end, I just wanted to enjoy that time with her!

jesslovesreg

I was also going to suggest going to the YMCA. The activities and play groups at ours start for 18 month olds and up. We've been going already and dd loooves it! I'm sure it's different everywhere but there's an activity every weekday here (open gymnastics or sports play and toddler swim every Friday) plus extra things like story and craft time. There's also lots for mommas to do and child care included if you're comfortable with that. Not bad for $50 a month.