Things you do with LO each day (from June 2011)

mom6311

Hi Ladies,

I'm coming over from June 2011...hope you don't mind. Okay, okay...I know this comes up a lot, but I'm needing some ideas of things I can do daily with DD. I know there are some great ideas out there, but I'm talking daily things you do. I love to paint with her and go to the Zoo, etc., but I can't do that every day. What things do you do with LO in your normal, daily life? I'm hoping something sparks an idea I can. I feel so bad when I feel like we do the same things every day (reading (which I will never complain about), playing with her water table and slide, "grocery" cart, sorting blocks, puzzles, drawing). Thank you!!!

SallyAnneS

We try to get out of the house for a bit everyday.  Sometimes it's to go to the zoo, other times to Walmart to do some shopping, or sometimes to the splash pad.

Everyday after breakfast we unload the dishwasher together. We play or read in his playroom or in the living room. In the afternoon we fold and put away laundry. Hmmm... Daily stuff is pretty boring around here!  Oh and we usually play in the backyard before dinner to wear him out before bed.

Interested to see what others are doing.

 

alli2672

One thing that helped me when my little one was your LO's age was to make a list every week of about 20 things that we could do together at the house.  I used a couple of websites to help (productive parenting, notimeforflashcards) if I got stuck.  I also came up with 1-2 crafts a week, and something to do outside of the house every day (grocery shopping, zoo, playground, storytime, playgroup, visiting relatives, pool, splash park). 

It took me about 15-20 minutes on Sunday evenings.  I didn't force myself and my kids to do everything, but it gave me some ideas if we started to get bored. 

I will post a couple of my lists if you want me to, but I am sort of embarrassed.  They aren't exactly the most educational or respectable things for a grown woman to be doing (i.e. dressing up like a ghost and chasing my kids around, pushing stuffed animals down a slide, performing "surgery" on other stuffed animals, riding mattresses down the stairs...I have boys).  

 

 

sarahbear

- Chore time - dusting is easy for kids to do while you pick up the rest of the house

- help preparing meals - I let my sons scoop and pour ingredients or mix things by hand

 - since it's summer we have the kid pool set up for afternoon play time

- picking (and eating) goodies from the garden is fun for snack time (we currently have cherry tomatoes and grapes)

- playdough time

- library story time (available several times a week here)

- we have passes to a local botanical garden that has a special children's playground and activities several days a week

- grocery store or other errands

- local pet store - we go and look at the fish, rabits, birds, etc. (it's next to the grocery store so this is combined with that errand)

- walks around the neighborhood (bring a basket and let child collect treasures, then use them in an art project)

- local playgrounds

- coloring, drawing, painting, art activities

- playgroups with friends

mom6311

These are awesome so far!  Thank you, thank you! I can't wait to see what others have.  alli 2672, I would love to see your list, and I would NEVER judge!   Thanks again, ladies!!!

jnjmommy0609

Being that you LO is one sometimes what you can do is limited. You can do the normal blah things and make them more fun. Example..painting. Instead of just regular old painting you can take it outside and turn it into messy painting. Or I saw this one very cute idea recently. You take watercolor paint and mix it into the water. Then take the colored water and pour it into ice trays and have it freeze overnight. Then take her outside and have her "paint" with the icecube. It comes out pretty cool. Also if you need more inspiration there are tons and tons of kid activity blogs and a lot of them will have things for the younger ones.

jnjmommy0609

do it!! I want to see too. Plus I think it's great when parents do things like this. Today my kids and I played follow the leader and tag. It was fun. 

jnjmommy0609

alli2672:

One thing that helped me when my little one was your LO's age was to make a list every week of about 20 things that we could do together at the house.  I used a couple of websites to help (productive parenting, notimeforflashcards) if I got stuck.  I also came up with 1-2 crafts a week, and something to do outside of the house every day (grocery shopping, zoo, playground, storytime, playgroup, visiting relatives, pool, splash park). 

It took me about 15-20 minutes on Sunday evenings.  I didn't force myself and my kids to do everything, but it gave me some ideas if we started to get bored. 

I will post a couple of my lists if you want me to, but I am sort of embarrassed.  They aren't exactly the most educational or respectable things for a grown woman to be doing (i.e. dressing up like a ghost and chasing my kids around, pushing stuffed animals down a slide, performing "surgery" on other stuffed animals, riding mattresses down the stairs...I have boys).  

 

 

 

 do it!! I want to see too. Plus I think it's great when parents do things like this. Today my kids and I played follow the leader and tag. It was fun. 

Que*Syrah

These are some activities I've done with DS that were big hits:

Spy bottle: https://easypreschoolcraft.blogspot.com/2012/01/winter-i-spy-bottle-craft.html

Sensory bin: https://pinterest.com/ibeejc/sensory-bins/

Cloud dough: https://happyhooligans.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/cloud-dough/

He also liked putting different types of dry pasta (rotelle, macaroni, etc.) into a large water bottle. Good for motor skills.  Also at Hobby Lobby or Michaels you can get inexpensive wooden things (frame, birdhouse, jewelry box) that LO can paint.

married2m

DS is 19 months, here are s ome of our activities:

Pool

Outside play in backyard

Going to the Park, Playground

Childrens Museum (we have a membership)

Mommy/DS date lunch 

YMCA babysitting while mommy works out - its awesome for the kids at our Y

 

Other activities we don't do often:

Indoor playground

Storytime at library or B&N

Zoo 

 

Indoor Activities : long bath time play, puzzles, playing with pots&pans, independent play from toybox, occassional tv, blowing bubbles, reading books, coloring, rolling on pillows, hide and seek

jw87

alli2672:

I will post a couple of my lists if you want me to, but I am sort of embarrassed.  They aren't exactly the most educational or respectable things for a grown woman to be doing (i.e. dressing up like a ghost and chasing my kids around, pushing stuffed animals down a slide, performing "surgery" on other stuffed animals, riding mattresses down the stairs...I have boys).  

 

 

You are the coolest Mom ever, lol. 

mandymack

We don't mind AT ALL, welcome to our board, post away!!

I'm also a June11 mom, Nolan is almost 14months old now and we don't do much at all right now, to be honest. His favorite thing is just running free in our playroom and being chased by his big sister. Occasionally, we walk to Emily's school to play on the playground, we walk him around the block a few times in his Step2 buggy, he swings & slides in our backyard, and of course we run errands a time or two during the week. He's still napping twice a day and I'm finding there isn't much time in between with meals and nursing, maybe 45min to 1hr to play.

Once Emily starts school and it's just he and I from 8am-3pm, I plan to enroll us in a tumbling class, swim, and a music class (all are 1x per week) as it will be harder to entertain him at home, alone, all day. Oh! And of course we'll have "play dates" with the other mom-friends I have from school who have kids Nolan's age. Once he's consolidated his naps to only one nap a day, it will be much easier to do things like the zoo and children's museums and indoor play places, like I did with Emily when she was this age.

And don't feel bad complaining, monotony can be tiring for us all!