Fun things to do with 1- and 4-yo?

[flatstanley72]

I am looking for ideas for fun activities (mainly at home--we have plenty of places to go when we want to get out) that 4yo DD and 1yo DS can both do. Since DS became mobile, it has gotten really hard to keep them both occupied in the house. We often get out in the mornings, but afternoons are hard, especially now that it is so hot. When the weather is nice, we often spend a lot of the afternoon outdoors, but it's too hot now. I don't like to go out in the car too much in the afternoon because DD will often fall asleep and then will be up until midnight or later. When we're in the house, it always seems like DD wants me to do things with her, such as reading or art projects, that DS is too little for and he gets upset and wants attention if I try to do those things, but if I try to play with him, it's not engaging for DD. As much as I love DS, I really miss the time I used to get to spend doing projects and activities with DD before he was born. Now I feel like I'm constantly being pulled in different directions and can't do what either one of them wants. And neither of my kids, especially DD, play well independently. Mamas of 2 or more, how do you keep kids of different ages occupied?

[Nicole730]

Homemade play-doh - that way you can sculpt with the older one and if the little one eats some it's okay.

Make sugar cookies, again the little one can play with the dough while you decorate with the older one.

Put on a puppet show for the baby. Could you make the puppets during naptime. Lunch paperbags are easy to decorate puppets.

Bathtime for both of them? Get some of those crayons you can color on the walls with.

[starbuckmom]

I just made a batch of peanut butter playdough! I don't know if you are ok with your littlest and peanut butter but your oldest would have fun. Just google peanut butter playdough and you will come up with lots of recipes.

www.toddlertoddler.com is a great web site for neat ideas! There are activities for the younger toddler too.

I just got the book 365 Games Toddlers play. Its for ages 16mos to 4yrs but I am sure you could find some games for younger.

Something that I have been wanting to do is take kid paint brushes and bucket of water and "paint" stuff outside with the water! We have a wooden fence that I think my boys would love to paint water on and see the designs they can make.

Go bowling with a soft ball and styrofoam cups. You can lay out the cups in the regular pin formation or you can make a pyramid. If you use a soft ball and styrofoam cups, there shouldn't be much noise except laughter and giggling from your kids!!

What about trying to keep a balloon in the air? I know 1yr olds shouldn't have balloons b/c of a choking hazard but you would be right there. If your 1yr old can't bounce the balloon into the air, they will be kept in awe as the balloons your 4 yr old keeps hitting into the air will be entertaining!

[reezley]

My kids are 3 and 5 now, but I'm thinking back for you.... For a while when ds2 was 1 (or almost 1) we had ds1 and his big-kid activities within a play-yard area in the house (we had a Superyard gate in a corner of the room). The playdoh, crayons, etc. would be there. It worked for a while, then ds2 wised up and got a little older and clambered to get in there!

But mostly we ended up with toys and activities that were just safe for both. So - Magnatiles, Legos/Duplos (not the tiny legos, the medium-sized ones), Little People house/farm, etc., Magnadoodles, big Aquadoodle mat (toddler sucked on the water pen, but other than that, it was ok), peg board (with the big chunky pegs) Lots of new books from the library, board books if 1yo tears books. They loved looking at big flap books together (the big DK or Sesame Street ones, with ABCs, or word lists, etc.) And sometimes I would (and still do) get in the middle of the rug on all fours and be a "jungle gym" and older ds would climb over me, little toddler would crawl under. Another favorite of ours still is to put on kid music and give them shakers, and march and dance around!