Ideas for keeping little ones busy?

[Satori]

TV, paint and crayons only go so far in entertaining little ones, any unusual ideas?

[OhMel]

My dd is a precocious 3.5 yr old and for the upcoming year I have the following things for her:

lentil activity kit
playdough
Kumon workbooks (cut & paste, stickers, etc.)
beeswax
lacing cards
bucket scale
puzzles

[mommariffic]

I only have one kid, but if I need her to keep busy for a bit I do this:

Take a baking pan, fill it with sand [dollar bin at the craft store] and throw some of her little animals in, and maybe a sifter or measuring cups. She can play with this for awhile [even if she has a big sandbox outside..] And even if it's messy we can sweep or dust bust it up and use it again!

Water in a pan works too, with soap to "clean" the animals

[elizawill]

my daughter is crazy over tea time lately. my mom bought her a china pot & matching cups and saucers. she has a bunch of flavored tea bags. all of her stuffed animals attend daily. it takes up a good hour of our afternoon every.single.day ...maybe satori would like something like that?

my kids also LOVE to write in shaving cream, create with air dry clay, make paper mache' bowls, and lastly they both enjoy concoctions with my spices (which i've had to put an end too lately...i have no spices left!!!).


oh! i just realized your name is the same as dotnetdiva's daughter & got your's and her username confused, lol. if your dd isn't named satori - i apologize!!!

[cera]

Hmm I'm always looking for new ideas but here are a few of mine

-dried oatmeal in a large roasting pan with spoons,bowls,cups etc (quite a mess but easily swept up and keeps the little busy for a while)
-I punched holes in foam shapes that we had for crafts and added some pipe cleaners and made a little kit to practice lacing the pipe cleaner through the holes in the shapes.
-found a large mailing tube we had first let them color on it and put stickers on it, when they get bored with that set it up on an angle from a table or couch and let them shoot balls or marbles down the tube
-window crayons
-spray bottle with vinegar and water w/cloth and let them clean the windows, heck let them clean the floors if they like, less work for you!
-fill the sink with soap and water and let them wash their own dishes,play dishes,toys etc
-get a large roll of paper and tape a large sheet to the table or wall and let them go crazy with crayons and stickers etc
-bathtub crayons in the tub, remember you don't just need a bath b/c your dirty! playtime is great too!
-painting,finger painting
-throw an assortment of arts and crafts on the table and see what they come up with on their own
-set up a cozy corner with pillow and blankets and some books
-turn your dining room table into a fort by throwing a sheet over it
-baking, cooking (you'd be surprised at how much some littles love this, we bake mini muffins and freeze them all the time and I try to include him in making supper etc)

that's all I can think of for now.

[FreeRangeMama]

When I am working with the older ones I have a stash for the youngers. Magnets are great. Magnet sets, magnets on a big cookie sheet, all different shapes, numbers, animals, etc. I only break out one kind at a time so they can constantly be rotated. Easy puzzles are good, lacing beads, tangrams, small chalk boards and chalk, dice, board game pieces (they find all sorts of strange things to do with these ). On particularly difficult games it can be quite a job to pick up after them, but sometimes the uninterrupted school time is worth it!

[meetoo]

I haven't actually started yet so take my advice with a grain of salt


We will be using FIAR so he (My almost 4 yr old) can just join in with that no problem.

For math and reading with my DD, I have a stash of toys in the basement I can take out for him. I also have made him up some simple lego kits (he loves legos) and some preschool bag activities, so between the kits and free lego play that should keep him busy. I will also save his computer time for school time, he enjoys star fall and the PBS games. He loves coloring in his super hero coloring books and cutting out the heros for puppets. He makes some elaborate scenes with them. I also plan on including him if he wants(he always wants to do what his big sis is doing and has no idea he is 2 yrs younger ). I bought him a hand writing book if he wants to try learning to write. For anything else we have lots of manipulative's . I plan on just letting him play with that stuff and following his lead. Now my 8 mth old ...........I'm just hoping for the best.

[MeadowSong_]

You would be surprised how much a 1-2 y/o can do if you try lol. Oliver will be 2 this September and he joined in in almost all our activites last year and did pretty good at it! If he wasn't interested what we were doing and was becoming a stinker, I drug out these loved items.

* A sensory bucket (rice, beans, lentils, pom poms, water, whatever)
* Play-doh
* Puzzles
* Dot Markers (huge hit here)
* Put small dots of glue on paper and have them place ripped up paper, pom poms or whatever on those dots.
* music
* Give them a damp rag and have them clean toys (my kids love this lol)
* Finger paints in a ziploc bag, put in different colors and have them mush it around

[pageta]

I've found that schooling in shorter bursts works well. I can get a lot done in 30 minute sessions here and there rather than trying to do three hours of focused work. My oldest was into stories and books from day one and would spend hours just looking at his books. My second is almost three and still can hardly sit still for a book. So the little one plays with his trucks while I read stories to the oldest. He plays nicely when his brother isn't here, so I know he is capable of playing alone. They're just so accustomed to playing together that doing homeschool with the oldest while the toddler is awake was a challenge. But as the little one gets used to doing his own thing in short blocks of time (even in the same room), I have been able to do more and more with the oldest while the younger one is awake. But breaking our school routine into smaller blocks has really helped.

[ikesmom]

This site is posted here a lot and keeps my youngest busy

http://monthome.com/pl.htm

[Brisen]

Am I the only one who wouldn't find a sand tray or a water tray or whatever an "easy cleanup?" Or am I just lazy? If we had a sand tray, in no time the littles would be throwing sand around, dumping it into kitchen drawers, pouring it in their clothes and hair and on the cat, getting milk and water and pouring that into the sand... I tried pasta and lentil trays with my oldest when he was younger, and I was finding macaroni and lentils all over the main floor for months. We set up a playpen to do that sort of thing in for a while, and that did help.

[moongazer]

I found a lot of the activities at this site useful:

www.childcareland.com

Look in the "Teaching Ideas" section. Most of the activities are simple, fun and educational.