Things to do with toddlers

MrsZiz

I posted this on my FB page today and got some suggestions. We've done two activities so far and I'll be reviewing them both later today so other mama's can see them. I'll also have a list in there of other suggested activities. Some of them will just be in the Milwaukee area but I've found that I'm at a loss for things to do and Bella gets stir crazy in the house... so I'm hoping my post will help someone else too! So anyhow, if your interested, check later... also if you have any suggestions for activities OUTSIDE of the house, let me know here! 

KShiz

Already replied on your FB, but i'll list here too:

Petsmart or Petco: it's like an aquarium for free

Library: 1. Our has a free "book babies" thing, like a story time, kinda hokey, but it's free and E gets to be around other kids. 2. Another library close by has a kids area w/ a fish tank and puppets.

We have a place called Monkey Bizness, it's an indoor play place for $5

Gymboree: stupid expensive, BUT you can get a punch card, of course they only tell you this when you go to cancel your membership

The mall has a free indoor play place too, but it's one of those "use at your own risk" type places.  The big kids are running around and knocking over the little ones. One trick I did learn, if you go in the morning, the bigger kids are usually at school, so you tend to be surrounded by moms of similar aged kids

There's always the more expensive places like the children museum, the zoo, and actual aquarium etc.

It'll be fun to heard everyone's ideas

 

**edit**I've also taken her to daycare at the gym, I think it's fun for her to get to play w/ other kids in a different environment w/o me there all the time. Added bonus' is that it's only $2 an hour and obviously, it's nice to get a workout in too

MrsZiz

KShiz:

Already replied on your FB, but i'll list here too:

Petsmart or Petco: it's like an aquarium for free

Library: 1. Our has a free "book babies" thing, like a story time, kinda hokey, but it's free and E gets to be around other kids. 2. Another library close by has a kids area w/ a fish tank and puppets.

We have a place called Monkey Bizness, it's an indoor play place for $5

Gymboree: stupid expensive, BUT you can get a punch card, of course they only tell you this when you go to cancel your membership

The mall has a free indoor play place too, but it's one of those "use at your own risk" type places.  The big kids are running around and knocking over the little ones. One trick I did learn, if you go in the morning, the bigger kids are usually at school, so you tend to be surrounded by moms of similar aged kids

There's always the more expensive places like the children museum, the zoo, and actual aquarium etc.

It'll be fun to heard everyone's ideas

 

**edit**I've also taken her to daycare at the gym, I think it's fun for her to get to play w/ other kids in a different environment w/o me there all the time. Added bonus' is that it's only $2 an hour and obviously, it's nice to get a workout in too

 I posted a blog on the two things we've done so far.

We do go to the library sometimes but I always feel bad because she gets so excited and makes loud noises!  We haven't been in awhile though, I'll have to see if they have a "tot time" at ours. 

We have several indoor play areas and one I think she would like. The one that would be good costs $5 per person, so it would be $15 for us all to go. The other is a bounce house type of thing and she's still not walking yet and they don't allow adults to go in with the kids, so that's out until she's at least 2.  

Our mall doesn't have a play area, there are 2 malls within 15 mins and neither do, total bummer! There is one mall that's about 30 mins away and we thought about taking her there just to check it out... hey then I can shop too

We also thought about checking out McD's... we don't eat the food but we could buy some apple slices and then she could play... we're going to see if any of the ones close to have have their play place INSIDE...

We did the Children's Museum and had a great time (it's free because of where I work). We thought about the aquarium but at $15 per adult, that's kind of out of our budget... I'm going to check into family passes for the year, my friend said it's $40 which if so, would pay for itself in 2 visits.  

As for the gym, that's a great deal! We dropped our membership and have a "home set up" kind of thing but yeah... about that... haven't really "worked out" in ages! I do yoga but there's no daycare area there so I haven't even been able to go to that when DH is working... Needless to say, I'm pregnant and out of shape... such is life!

Thanks for all of the ideas, I'm keeping a list so I can have ideas for when she's totally going stir crazy! I think we're going to do one activity a week on my days off so we can try new stuff. The last two weeks we've done one each week and she's enjoyed both of them... I'll keep blogging about it if anyone's interested  

KShiz

It get's pretty pricey pretty quickly.

One idea my neighbor does is that every year she gets a family membership to a different place, one year might be the childrens museum, the next the aquarium, etc. Of course, it only makes sence moneywise if you actually use it.

Luckily groupon just had a 1/2 price family membership to the botanic gardens, they have an indoor tropical conservatory and was a great WARM place for E to run around

mrspresley

KShiz:

Gymboree: stupid expensive, BUT you can get a punch card, of course they only tell you this when you go to cancel your membership

how does this work? come 10 times get 1 free or something?

 

sarah i'm not quite at the same stage as you are yet so i don't have a lot of ideas...but what about doing arts & crafts outside? it may be getting too cold for that now but that's one idea i had.  you might also want to find a local preschool and talk to the teachers there for some ideas i bet they know of some good local gems!