Toddler Activities

[krissie328]

What do you do with your toddler? I'm wanting to reduce screen time and looking for ways dh and I can interact more with our 2.5 year old.

We read, play with cars/tractors, and go outside when the weather is nice. But I find myself quickly bored with the typical bang cars together routine ds likes. I've made a few sensory boxes that he sometimes likes, but he likes to make a mess more often than not. He also loves play doh so we do that a few times a week.

I'd love some more play ideas as well as educational.

 

[Teri7489]

Paint? We use the water paint so it's literally a paper towel to wipe down the table and a baby wipe to clean the kids down afterward. Or simple colouring books and pencils. Stickers too!

Sand/water table? Little bit more messy but heaps of fun that you can do too.

Make your own musical instruments? Cups withe coins in them, bottles with rice that sort of thing.

 

[krissie328]

Thanks Teri. Those are some great ideas. Ds loves to color. And I just remembered I bought some water based paint a few months ago. I'll have to drag them out.

He has a water and sand table outside that he loves. We'll eventually be unburried from all this snow!

I think he'd love to make and play with our own instruments. I'll definitely do that soon.

 

[Rainbow82]

Painting with objects? Use a peg to grip different things like leaves m, cotton wool etc and paint with it.
DS likes to get all his farm animals mucky in mud (chocolate whip pudding) and wash them. Also works with cars. We sometimes make a den to read in with a torch. DS spent half an hour yesterday while Beas cooking playing with a bag of Pom poms and an egg carton sorting them into colours and sizes and just sticking them together. Fuzzy felt pictures are fun. Dancing? Just stick on some YouTube videos for songs with actions lol. Baking? I was really surprised the other day with DS I measured everything out but he did all the stirring and cutting and rolling the biscuit dough. We have made magic potions this week for fun too, baking soda coloured chalk crushed up, glitter etc and DS pours in a bit of vinegar to get a colourful fizzing potion. Making shakers with rice etc in bottles to use as sound effects when reading his books ie when the snake comes along in the gruffalo DS will shake a sand shaker.
We seem to do a lot of things that can be made into a race at the moment like giving him a list of three or four things to find and put in a bucket to see if he can do it faster than us, it's improving his memory I think it at least his ability to follow instructions. We also make tracked for his cars either toot toot tracks or we draw some on lining paper.

 

[catty]

Kinnetic sand is brilliant, or the cheaper version from amazon. Like sand but much less mess!

I have bought a tray like this and we do so many different activities with it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...+play+tray&dpPl=1&dpID=510Vkw27BML&ref=plSrch
The clear up is also less as i tell them to keep the playdoh/sand etc in the tray.

Mostly we just go to the park, woodland walks collecting acorns, stones etc this can take a good chunk of the day up.
I find toddlers groups a great way to take up time!

 

[jessmke]

We do a lot of activities outside the home like play groups, swimming, lots of walks/hikes/skiing, sledding in the yard, playing at the park. We are in Canada so our winters are cold and snowy too but we always spend at least part of the day outside, my favourite saying is "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad choices of clothing". Sometimes it's too cold to be out for more than 10 minutes or so but we still go outside every day. I'm also not very good at the tedious little toddler games inside the house so I like to take her out to do outdoor activities instead. My OH has a lot more patience for playing indoors!

 

[krissie328]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I got some kinetic sand but ds just isn't ready. Maybe I'll try again soon and maybe a larger container to play with it.

Jesa- yes, we usually have very cold and longer winters too. Ds doesn't think there is ever a bad day to be outside either. He has a nice snow suit so we can make sure to go out tons.

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

Cooking is always a good time killer, we either bake, she loves doing the mixing and pouring and of course eating the batter, or we do pastry and she makes shapes then decorates.

Even making dinner,I'll set her up with mushrooms, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, cheese......... and one of her plastic knives and she chops it up.

If I'm being lazy then some digestive biscuits, tubes of store bought icing and sprinkles keeps her engaged for a while 😀

 

[Eleanor ace]

Some things mine have and still do enjoy:
* Baking.
* Cooking dinner (this takes forever with DD1 but she enjoys it and its good for when I need to clean the kitchen and do laundry, I can set her up chopping the veg and clean alongside her while we chat about the meal she's making).
* Role play. Shops/restaurant/schools/vets/hospitals/post office/dentist are some of DD1&DD2's favorites! I will set up a little role play are, for example if we're playing post office I'll put a table out pieces of paper for them to write on, envelopes, stickers to be the stamps, a cardboard box with a hole cut out to be the postbox, their play till and money. DD1 is learning letters at the moment so we will practice writing peoples names or the first letter of their name and then after a while she will collect the letters up and read the name son the envelope to decide who to post them to and then pretends to deliver them.
* Small world play. I set up a scene in our sand tray. For example a snowy scene with a blue sheet for water, cotton wool for snow, empty plastic containers for ice bergs and lots of snowy plastic animals. We'll make up snowy stories and that holds DD1's attention for ages
* Puzzles.
* Junk modeling using up some of the mountain of recycling we accumulate. We make rockets, cars, houses, castles etc.
* Sensory play. I fill a tub with anything really; jelly, colored water and plastic animals/vehicles, colored rice, cheap pasta and shiny gems. DS really enjoyed having a tub filled with rice or sand with little things hidden inside and having a spoon to dig them out.
* Building dens out of sheets and reading, coloring, making up stories etc in them.

 

[krissie328]

So many great ideas Eleanor!

I definitely think ds would love cooking. We made homemade clay ornaments for Christmas and he had a blast. He's always begging when I'm in the kitchen to get up and help. My fil is suppose to be bringing me a stool that would be safe for ds to use to help. But I bet he could be sat at the table with a task.

About those plastic knives. Do they have a blade at all or just sharp plastic?

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

So many great ideas Eleanor!

I definitely think ds would love cooking. We made homemade clay ornaments for Christmas and he had a blast. He's always begging when I'm in the kitchen to get up and help. My fil is suppose to be bringing me a stool that would be safe for ds to use to help. But I bet he could be sat at the table with a task.

About those plastic knives. Do they have a blade at all or just sharp plastic?

Just the kids knife and fork sets you get from the supermarket. They're not sharp enough to cut flesh but can get through soft veges or bread type foods.

 

[krissie328]

Thanks wannabe. That should work out nicely.

 

[Bevziibubble]

We like drawing, sticker books, painting, jigsaws, baking, lacing, snap, ball, walks, jumping in puddles and going to the park. Mine also had a phase of enjoying collecting things like snails from the garden and caring for them.

 

[kellyc1987]

Some really great ideas in this thread!! I feel the same that I don't really do enough activities, this thread has inspired me.

DS is 23 months and is really into 'helping' in the kitchen at the moment, we are going to make some cornflake cakes tomorrow morning

I've tried sensory play which he sort of enjoys but doesn't stay occupied with it for very long.

I love the idea of making cars/animals dirty with chocolate mousse and washing it off.. I've bought some for tomorrow to try

 

[krissie328]

Yes, I think ds would love the choclate play. He loves shaving cream in the bathtub and this would be edible!

 

[kellyc1987]

We made cornflake cakes this morning.

https://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww300/kelly1987/Mobile%20Uploads/20170225_085028_zpsaoxszzl0.jpg