I keep seeing these list floating around and although a lot of them have been really helpful, some aren't really relevant to Gemma and me. So I thought I would make my own! And if I can give some at-her-wits-end-stay-at-home-mom some ideas, then I will have accomplished my goal.
Most of these activities are geared towards children around 2, but there is definitely some activities to do with younger and older children as well!
2. Construction paper and stickers. Ask what shape they want, cut it out for them, and let them go at it! I use the tiny round stickers, or cheap star stickers from Walmart.
3. Perler Beads. See my post on them here.
4. Watch videos of trains on youtube. Sounds silly, but my god do toddlers love trains.
5. Trains again. Draw a track using a bunch of white printer paper taped together. Cut box cars out of construction paper or old drawings. You can even talk about what kind of freight each car is carrying. Fasten them together with tape or hole punch and use string, pipe cleaners, or ribbon. Don't forget the caboose!
6. Flash cards. I know people think these are boring, but Gemma loves her animal flashcards! She likes to flip them around for me and put them back in order too.7. Make a hat out of paper. You can cut out a crown if your little one is feeling particularly royal, let them decorate it and then tape it together at the back. Or you can let them decorate the paper and make a cone hat.
8. Cut out cookies. Gemma loves to help me put the flour down and then use the cookie cutters all by herself. If you don't want baked goods sitting around (like me) give them away, or give them to dad to take to work!
8 1/2. Decorate said cookies.
9. Make a book. I know that some toddlers aren't quite there yet, but it can be very basic. Help them draw the pictures and form the sentences. Put all of the pages together and I bet you anything they will be amazed at what they have accomplished. Especially if you have a little book worm like we do!
10. Blocks. Not only are blocks for building, they can be for counting and color sorting as well. If you don't have some blocks, get some.
11. Make a fort. One of my favorite past times as a kid and some of my earliest memories. Pull up some dining room chairs near the couch and drape a sheet over them. Ta daaaaaa.
12. Call Dad, Grandma, Pop-pop or whoever is available and tell them all about your toddler's latest accomplishment, making sure they are on speaker phone and your toddler is listening. I know this isn't really an "activity" but your toddler will light up. It's a great way to enforce good behavior, and also a great way to break a whining streak!
13. Go outside with the purpose of listening. You will be amazed at the everyday sounds you tune out. We have a rooster in our neighborhood, lots of airplanes flying by, a neighbor who works on cars. All of these things I would have overlooked, but Gemma is fascinated.
14. Go outside with a magnifying glass. What can you find?
15. Pipecleaners. $1 for a pack of 25 at Joann. Make bracelets, necklaces, chains, caterpillars. You name it.
16. Make personal pizzas. You can do this for Friday night pizza, or much easier, use tortillas and tomato paste. Sprinkle the cheese and decorate with whatever you've got. Make shapes, or faces!
17. Put O's on a string. A beautiful necklace perhaps?
18. Play I Spy while folding laundry. "I spy a blue shirt with a flower, " and she hands it to me to fold.
19. Wheels on the Bus, Skinnamarinky (whoa spelling) Dinky Dink, Baby Bumble Bee, Itsy Bitsy Spider. Songs with motions.
20. Make a faux stew. When my cousins and I were little bitty, we used to take a bucket or one of my grandma's giant stock pots and fill it with water (usually outside using the hose) and then we would gather anything we could find in the yard and those were our ingredients. This probably wouldn't be great for younger toddlers, they may just be confused as to why you're not supposed to eat it, but older toddlers, and even kids up to about 5 will love it. Once they grasp the concept of "pretend" this is a great activity.
22. Library. Another duh, I know. But seriously. Get yourself out of the house to a place where you don't have to spend money and your child won't know the difference. They also have story times and other scheduled activities so check out your local library's online calendar. Also check
out some books for yourself because you always say
you don't have time to read, but really, you do.
Try the 100 Book Challenge!
23. Hide toy food. It's like Easter without the candy and God knows you have enough small plastic toys in your house.
24. Cars in the hallway. Place an object (stuffed animal, ball, whatever) at the end of the hallway and see if they can get their hot wheels or trucks to zoom all the way down to that object. This is a surprisingly difficult task! (For me.)
25. Read the funnies. See if your kid can come up with a storyline for the (appropriate) pictures. A lot of tiny short stories should hold their attention span for awhile.
26. vyzAtz55tz5t51q55. Open up Textedit or Word and let them type. Otherwise they will try to take over your blog as seen here.
27. Make a zoo. Something inspired by my little sister. Use their stuffed animals and plastic animals to help them make a zoo. Make fences with gates and use bowls of water for ponds (for plastic animals obviously.)
28. Mr. Potato Head. If you can afford it, this is a great toy that will be hours of fun. I got Gemma a giant one at Costco that had 4 potatoes and lots of accessories inside. Her toddler friends love it too!
29. Draw. Be an active participant. Draw objects and then ask what they think it is. Draw a shape and ask them to copy it. Make outlines of their hands.29. Go to the pet store or local city animal shelter. This is on a lot of lists, and it truly is the next best thing to the zoo, especially because it's free! Consider even getting a goldfish and let your toddler help you feed it everyday :)
30. Make edible shapes. You can melt chocolate, baking chips, or even use yogurt and help your toddler make shapes and letters with a pastry bag on some wax paper. This may be too advanced for the little ones, but Gemma loves it. Even if I'm actually the one making most of the shapes, she still feels like she's helping. Put them in the fridge for a few hours and peel them off. Pure magic I tell you.
31. Jello. Make jello and put it in a small square pan (a thinner layer) and let them play with it! They can use cookie cutters in it, or just squish it in their hands like Gemma does. It's a nice little (time consuming) treat.
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| Homemade peanut butter play dough. |
33. Look at the stars and moon. This is a nightly ritual at our house. I think it helps Gemma not to be so scared of the dark.
34. Parachute. If you have a parachute, great. If not, use a sheet. Same effect. Let them sit on top while you spin them around, go underneath, or toss a ball on top to watch it bounce as you move the parachute around.
35. Turn your laundry basket into a car. Use some round pieces of cardboard to make tires and a steering wheel. Some paper headlights..have fun decorating it and then push them all around the house in it practicing your car sounds.
36. When it's raining, go outside. In California, it's always warm enough to do this. I understand that in some places, it might just seem unbearable. But OMG it is so fun to get soaking wet from standing in the rain. Then run inside and hop into a hot shower.
37. Plant something together. My husband always enlists Gemma's help with the yard work. Kid loves being outside with her daddy. She has helped him plant many plants and not only does she get to play with dirt, she gets to be helpful!
39. Paint your fingers and toes. Again, doesn't have to be a girl thing. I have super fast drying polish that I use on Gemma. They have easily washable kid polishes as well. Let them do your toes! Almost as good as a pedicure...
40. Be a marching band. Everyone gets their own instrument and you march around the house. :)
41. "Spray Paint" Fill some old (very cleaned out) spray bottles with watered down paint. (Their may be some formula I don't know about for this..this is just how I do it.) Set up some paper on an easel outside, or even tape it to a tree and let them go to town making spray art.
42. Chalk! Who doesn't love chalk? If you have a big driveway like us..perfect!
43. Potato Stamps. Cut a potato in half. Carve out designs in the raw end of the halves (adults do this part please.) Let them dip the shapes in tempera or poster paint and then stamp, stamp, stamp away!
44. Make nature prints. Along similar lines to the potato stamping. Go outside and collect cool leaves, sticks, and rocks, and use them to make prints with paint. Let them paint a leaf with all different colors, and then help them press it onto paper. I did this with a dead fish once when I was a kid. It was disgusting and I wouldn't suggest it...but it was really cool.45. Make puppets. Remember those paper bag puppets you made from brown lunch bags as a kid? Yes! Do it! Let your toddler make their very own monster with whatever you've got on hand. If you don't have small bags, just cut characters out of paper and put them on Popsicle sticks. Put on a show!
46. Bubbles. Need I say more?
47. Do an exercise video. You don't necessarily have to wake up at the crack of dawn to exercise, or wait until your kid is napping. Do it together! You might be surprised at how hard they try to imitate you. Also, Pbskids.org has a whole section of mini workouts for kids. They can follow along with their favorite characters. We like George.
48. Dance party. Requested by my husband. Kind of an obvious one, but fun nonetheless!
49. Silly dress up. You could do costumes, but we like to do pants on our heads, socks on our hands, shirts on our legs. You get the idea.
50. Lastly, READ.
Luv it!! the pages look very professional...but there is nothing about ur dear,loving sister!!!
ReplyDeleteNext time I see you, we'll do something cool and I'll post about it! I would love to make some more of those monsters you made! Love you xoxo
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