What do your kids do all day?

[sozobe]

Dh was asking me today how much I think other parents read to their kids. We tend to read to dd for between an hour and 4 hours a day. (She badgers us for even more.) We also color, go for walks, watch TV, play with playdough, play with her farm, play with puzzles... you get the picture. There ain't a lot of down time, except for naps.

Really curious about what other people do with kids of a similar age/ what your day looks like.

[Baudelaire]

So glad you started this thread

...because I've been curious about the same thing. Here's what we did on Saturday, for instance.

1. DD woke up around 7:30-8:00 and we read for about an hour -- "Horton Hatches the Egg" (twice), "Toes Are to Tickle" (twice), and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (once).

2. We got dressed and went to see the Steve Wynn collection of paintings on the Strip (we live in Vegas). DD overall didn't like it a heck of a lot but did like the Van Gogh painting of a woman in a peasant hat.

3. We then drove to New York-New York to see the Statue of Liberty as per her request a few days ago when we were passing by it. We walked around the statue, looked at the memorial to the firefighters, and then headed to the Bellagio to look at the fountains. By that time, she was fast asleep in my sling, so she didn't see them. She woke up around the time we got back to the parking garage.

4. We came home and had lunch and messed around, reading some more ("How the Grinch..." came out for Round #2) and playing with puzzles and looking at the Lucy Mickelthwaite books on art for kids (does that count as "reading"?).

5. We went out shopping for Christmas, which took a while. At home, we read some more books, played around with the preschool workbook (we're working on "which one doesn't belong?") and had dinner (leftover turkey).

That's a bit of a digest, but I'd say it's somewhat representative. We spend at least an hour reading every day, maybe more, and I try to get out of the house at least once and go somewhere.

Hope that helps!

[AutumnWind]

My ds is 17.5 months.

Structured Events: Mon mornings we have toddler storytime at the library & then stay & play with the other children. Tuesday mornings we go to a toddler skating event where you bring a ride-on toy & toddle around the rink & play with other children & dance & do the Hokey Pokey, Limbo, Chicken dance....... Wed mornings we have a toddler storytime at B&N, and stay & play with other kids after. Thursday & Friday are more open to visiting family, outings, that sort of thing. I'm planning to start going to our community parent resource centers, where you play with other toddlers & go to family events. We also are members at a children's museum, which we do once in awhile.

At home: we tend to watch some TV , and movies, play with blocks, look at books, play with toys. I just bought 2 books on making play dough and other activities for my ds's age group, so we'll be doing more tactile & artistic stuff now. And we nurse A LOT at home.

I don't feel that I do enough with him at home. That's why I try to get out into the community more. This summer it was easier cause we went out in the yard and swam in the baby pool, played in the sandbox, walked to the park..........but now the weather's crappy and we do watch a LOT more TV & movies. I feel GUILTY about that.

[AutumnWind]

JUst remembered - we visited our area museum recently, which had a display of many Christmas trees each decorated to represent a different country. And another Christmas tree display, each done by different artist in our community. They also had a "toyland" display, which was a huge room & was beautiful landscape of an arctic land, and a large train, and interactive toys. And other hands-on stuff.

On another outing we did Chuck E. Cheese, which was actually fun, and McD's play place with my sister & her toddler.