What kinds of things are you doing with your young toddlers? With the fall/winter sickie season upon us here in Chicagoland I am looking for any ideas for little ones. (There is a cold/cough virus going around here that knocks kids out for 3 weeks! We have it.) I think a big part of our problem with naughty behavior (mostly wild and attention seeking) are because all of my kids are bored. I have tried crayons in high chairs but they still eat them. We are getting lots of climbing active toys for Christmas, but that's still a few months off. We were going to some library classes, but now I'm getting scared to take them, for fear of more illness. We also take a lot of baths these days. Any other ideas for little ones?

Tiffany
DS 12/20/04
GBG 2/22/07
34 weeks

We are looking for ideas too. But I will list some of the things we do, and maybe there are one or two ideas for you.

Go on stroller ride...outside, the park, places like Menards (very few kids and most people don't go to home improvement places when they are sick)
Go outside in fenced yard...we have some outdoor balls from wal-mart they love to kick around
Pile of blankets - grab as many blankets and cushions as you can an put them on a pile and watch them squirm through them
Magna doodle
Paint with water (nice days outside) We use cheap Menards paint brushes
Signing time DVD's and old Sesame street Tapes
Bubbles - they are crazy for bubble blowing...I need one that is automated!
Pick up....and dump out. Pick up all the toys/clean up with their help...and then they dump them all out again
Blanket ride...Pull a heavy blanket around on the floor with them sitting in it.

I am sure there are more...but that is all I have for now. We are working on a play room downstairs and are going to have some climbers and cars and big toys down there. We have them already (multiples sale) but upstairs is too small for us to get enough of them up there for them not to fight each other over them.

Susan

Parent to GGG born 31 weeks 4 days 4/26/07




http://www.thedivinemercy.org/message

  

The bubbles work for at least 30 min of fun...

We build with the mega blocks..

I cut up craft paper & kid friendly pictures from magazines, now there are a ton coming in from stores. And allow them to use a brush with glue and have them paste the pieces down.. ALL done in the highchair I cant even imagine lets them move around with the gluebrush Or I cut out tan colored circle to make pizza..then some smaller red paper for pepperoni, green stipes of bell peppers, brwon small shapers for mushrooms, black of olives..etc..they love doing this one.

Watch some TV like brainy babies ABC's or 123's..

We turn on the music and dance for a bit. this is good for just about 5 minutes but its fun to watch them. And once they are musical, I start singing nursery songs and they follow my hand gestrues like the itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle. They seem to love songs that have hand,arm movement involved.

We do our puzzles, read books, and play brush mommy;s hair... THEY LOVE THIS! Kinda painful (for me) but they love it so much I just let them go for it.

Hope that helps
Kristine

GBB 01/13/07

My memory is terrible, but I think at that age we had an Aqua Doodle. That way if the kids sucked on the "markers" it was only water.

Also, the girls got scooters at their 1st birthday. They played on them CONSTANTLY.

If you have the patience for it, our girls loved finger painting, too. HTH!

Loren
GGG Jan.2005 @ 28wks

Sweetened Taters - http://sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com

Check out The Toddler Busy Book...Love it! It's got 365 activities!

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

I got a lot of good ideas from the responses already, but thought I'd add a few ideas.

In my foyer closet I keep some "occasional" toys that I pull out when I need a distraction. Right now I have a laundry basket with those cardboard building blocks in it. They have fun stacking and knocking down. I have a bag of beginner puzzles (the ones wooden ones with pegs) that they love to play with.

I'm realizing I need to start more structured play now that they are 18 months. I'm going to get an aquadoodle, toddler crayons, and a big roll of paper for Christmas and start working on those types of things.

Mommy to Eli, Cara, and Brady 4/24/07 born at 34 weeks and Allison Elizabeth (surprise!) born 11/6/08

Read about my son's battle with Neuroblastoma at stepsforbrady.blogspot.com

Thanks for all the ideas! I tried putting them all in a blanket and running around the house and they loved it. A little hard on the back, but worth it for the giggles. We also had our first successful try at drawing with crayons. I'm going to try all the pillows on the floor tomorrow. For some reason they can't get enough rough and tumble play these days.

Some of the things my kiddos really like are:
using an old sheet like a parachute and running under it
chasing each other all over the house
popcorn popper races (fisher price toy with handle)
books, books, books, books, fighting over books
crawling through tunnels

Tiffany
DS 12/20/04
GBG 2/22/07
34 weeks

If you don't have a ballpit, this is a great time to get one. You can probably find a blow up kiddie pool on clearance this time of year. The balls are not expensive at all. My kids had a lot of fun last winter in their ball pit. It was a good way to burn off some energy while stuck in the house.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/