- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Toddlers: 24 Months+
Activities for 25 month old
The weather sucks where I live and my oldest son is bored to tears (and acting up because of it). He is bored with the usual coloring, finger painting, flashcards, etc.
Anyone have any ideas for age-appropriate activities to keep him entertained? I'm at a loss.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Activities for 25 month old
DD loves doing things with me. Even if it's just cooking and cleaning. She looooves to help and be in close contact with her mom. She also loves to play play play. Doesn't even matter what, as long as I'm with her. (or DH of course.) I just give her my undivided attention. Get on the floor with her and follow her lead. We have a blast. Outside is ALWAYS good, too. Just dress up appropriately and the options are endless. Even a walk around the neighbourhood is magical for little ones. (As long as we do it slowly and let them pick up all the stones and sticks they want!) We sometimes bring DD's shopping cart so she can collect various bits of nature lying around.
So really it's not what we do, it's just that we do it together. And she's got a happy, goofy, attentive parent to do it all with. (or teacher. She adores her school!)
Otherwise....
Brightning has the best craft ideas in the entire universe. Hopefully she'll open this post!
morocco - thanks so much for the ideas.
DD is only 22 months, but I can't say enough how much she LOVES puzzles right now. We have around 10 in our playroom and another 10 in our basement, and she's been playing with them every day for about a month. She has two alphabet ones that are helping her learn her letters, too. The best part is that she can play with them by herself for long periods, but she also likes when I help her.
She also loves taking walks, or playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, but those don't really help when the weather's bad.
We're planning on buying her a kitchen for her birthday. My mom has a kitchen and a shopping cart at her house, and DD loves taking her purse and going grocery shopping like Mommy. She also loves tearing all the food out and making a big mess. lol.
We do tons of crafts - just gluing things on paper or foam, sticking things on clear Contact paper, etc. We make lots of toys - mailbox, magic wand w/bells, fish from paper plates, fake camera from an old Bandaid box. When she destroys them, we throw them away and make more.
I always have a few Montessori-type activities out on trays- transferring items w/tongs or small spoons, putting toothpicks in holes of a spice shaker, etc. Lots of puzzles and beading activities, too.
Today DD seemed kind of restless so I got out a suitcase and she has played with it all morning long (she plays "nap" in it, put a bunch of animals in it to make a zoo, etc.)
Freeze some small toys in ice and give him warm water to pour over and "rescue" the toys. (You could do this in a bathtub.) Homemade bath paints. A big pile of shaving cream is fun and easy to clean up (we do it outside, but a high chair works too). DD likes to hide toys in it over and over.
I like to make some of DD's toys seem new again. She has a play cell phone, and we recently taped a picture of a friend in the screen part of the phone, so she's been playing with it constantly now. Sometimes I put a toy she hasn't played with much out on display in the morning and that tends to renew her interest.
And finally, sometimes just mixing things up a bit helps. We're eating breakfast outside now that it's cooling down, and it makes for such a peaceful morning and DD really seems to like it. She plays outside for quite a long time, too, which is nice for me!
GL, hopefully this wasn't too long!
Bookmarking for the great ideas so far! And adding some of my own.
Dance Party: He turns the music on and off while I dance then freeze when the music is off, then it is his turn. Good cardio with this one too!
Sports: hockey (hockey stick and tennis ball), football (nerf football) golf (yup, golf club and golf ball), dumb it down so one skill is what you work on: making contact with the ball, running around; he absolutely loves it and it burns energy like crazy (use nerf-type balls if you need to stay inside)
Help: he lately really likes to 'help' with chores. I let him pull laundry out of the drier or put spoons in the dishwasher and close it, sweeping is fun, he really wants to help with anything right now
Water Play: any sink with water and toys will do. He loves 'washing his hands' and will hang out at the sink for quite a while
Forts: made out of cushions, chairs and blankets - hiding inside the fort is fun esp. when I go looking for him "is R in the closet? Is R under the couch?"
We do as much horsing around as possible when the weather is crappy and I keep the tv off as much as possible as well. Hope there are lots of reponses to this post
At that age, my DS really enjoyed scooping dry beans. I would give him a big bowl of dried beans or lentils (any kind works) and some spoons and another bowl to scoop the beans into. He LOVED this, its great for their fine motor skills and it kept his interest for a good amount of time.
He also liked for me to draw a big block letter onto white paper, he'd decorate it with crayons, markers, stickers etc and then I would cut it out and let him glue it on his choice of colored construction paper. He loved the process and began learning his letters this way. Now that I think about it, stickers kept him enteretained for ahwile at that age too and also excellent fine motor practice when you let them take them off the sheet themselves.
Play doh is always a hit here too.
One more thing: no matter how crappy the weather is here, we endeavour to go outside every day. It truly has to be thunder and lightening or -25 or colder for us to not go. A little rain doesn't hurt! There is almost always at least 1/2 hour of decent weather to get outside in.