those with toddlers

polar0805

what are some activities that you do besides running errands, going to the park, classes, etc. ?what do you do at home? any structured activities?? ?Thanks!

marrymemylove

• ?play doh
• painting
• ball (he loves catching and kicking)
• watering the garden
• hide and seek (I have to secure all the dangerous places first!)
• crayons
• barn animals (he will make up stories and get me to construct fences for them)
• cars (the kind that you pull back and they motor along the carpet for a while) DS will do that back and forth with me for 30 mins or so
• craft - I keep old boxes/washed out yoghurt tubs, masking tape staples, glue, rounded scissors and glitter on hand in "the magic box". Every few days we sit down and make something.

marrymemylove

https://www.abc.net.au/children/play/ has some good activities and craft

on their website. IT is basically the only TV DS watches but it gives me a ton of ideas for play activities.

The thing about toddlers is they can DO stuff! It is so great to be able to do something other than rock them to sleep, feed,change, wave toys.?

brightning

I've bought a ton of "crafts with kids" books, but DD is 17 mos and still too young for most of them. But she likes to color (she likes coloring books better than plain paper, I've just discovered) and is learning to like Play-Doh. She didn't understand stickers and so far has not been impressed with finger paint. She really likes sidewalk chalk.

I try to give her one new "experience" every few days, so either a new craft-type thing or else do something she's never done before. I'm also having fun teaching her how to help me around the house. She loves throwing away trash, letting the dog out, etc.

Something I plan on trying with her this week is "painting" with crepe paper. You have to buy the cheap crepe paper that bleeds when wet. Then you roll it up in into a little brush and secure it with tape, give the kid the brush, a cup of water and a piece of white paper. The crepe paper will bleed on the paper, leaving a mark.

mandymack

Every child is different so, I am saying before hand, this is JUST about my Emily! 

Emily is 2 years old (plus 2 months) and is only just now actively listening to instruction and actually following it (i.e. hold my hand, sit down, stop!, come here and let's put on your shoes, etc.) so, I find that enrolling her in fun, active classes is what is working best right now.

We do Ruby's Tumbling (you can get a feel for what I am talking about by visiting her website: https://www.rubystumbling.com), Gymboree, Music Together (https://www.musictogether.com) and Toddler Time Story Time & Sing-a-Long at our local Library.  Each of those is one day a week, a different day each week.  On Friday's, I take her to the park or to the zoo, Habitot (www.habitot.org), Studio Grow (www.studiogrow.com) or some other play place so she can just explore and run free.  We of course run errands and play at home but I honestly don't do any arts/crafts projects here at home because, like I said, she isn't so great with the following of directions and I just can't handle the mess factor of a project gone wrong.