Weekly Toddler Activities - Page 9

[hallesmom]

I just found this thread too! Awesome Ideas Mamas!

[crunchyconmomma]

posting to subscribe - don't know if there is a "real" way i'm s'posed to do this..........

[Megs Mom]

Originally Posted by crunchyconmomma

posting to subscribe - don't know if there is a "real" way i'm s'posed to do this..........

If you look up at the top right of the window with the messages, you'll see "Thread Tools". Click on that and then click on the third option that comes down.

[*Jessica*]

Craft and activity ideas

I don't know if this site has been posted or not.....way too many posts to check to find out! ......but it has some good craft ideas and themes. http://www.freekidcrafts.com/free_kid_craft_ideas.html

This page has some great suggestions for painting.
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/kid-painting-ideas.html

[mandalamama]

subscribing! also getting a LOT of ideas and saving them. my daughter is only 10.5 months old but i guess she's in the toddler phase already, she's standing and cruising but gets really frustrated with baby toys. she's happy with wooden puzzles, both chewing and solving

i've made Willow her own "baby book" by using heavy sheet protectors, colored paper, and saving all of the baby magazines that were sent to me during pregnancy. i cut out baby faces and babies, and use stickers and markers and glue to decorate each page. i have theme pages, like "smiling" or "bathtime" or "sleepy babies". i experimented with tape across the top to keep her from pulling out the pages, it didn't work well. so i run a line of stick glue across the top, once on each page and once between the pages, to seal the top shut well. i used 3 plastic link-a-doos through the holes to keep the book together. Willow LOVES her baby book!

[Aziah]

Whoever recommended the bucket of water with clothes pins in it was a GENIOUS! Who would have THOUGHT?!!! DD absolutley LOVED it!!! She is 1 and she actually played for 30 min on our deck with it (a record).

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I am now anxious to try some other things!

BTW - the colored ice cubes...cool for DD...but mommys fingers got stained

[Megs Mom]

Oh, my fingers are always stained with something. I didn't even think to warn you b/c I'm so used to it.

[happyfrog]

I'm posting on here so that it will send updates to my email.

Something I do with ds a lot (he's 18 months old now) - and have been doing since he was crawling good is to give him an old yogurt container (8 oz tupperware) with about an ounce of water in it and a pastry brush and let him do whatever he wants with it. He paints himself, the floor, the walls, the cats, and dumps the rest on the floor and stomps in. I get a good 45 minutes out of that. Then I mop. LOL I don't pay too much attention to the walls and stuff that he 'paints'. It dries and you can't tell, so I don't worry about it. Besides, he is 'cleaning' for me. *grin*

[greenT]

painting with water is a great idea. we went to a class
that had a chalkboard on the bottom 3 feet of the wall
and the kids painted that with water.

we do a lot of painting on used cereal boxes. i put
down a big tabalecloth on the kitchen floor and
put out paints in yogurt cups (i limit the color pallette
to how many yogurt containers are sitting in the recycle
bin).

i love so many of these craft ideas - especially since
the cold weather is around the corner...

[SillyMommy]

My son, 2.5, loves water play and I happened upon a great game the other day. I got breakfast cooked and the kitchen cleaned! I gave him a muffin pan and a cup of water and he sat there filling up every cup. Then I gave him some lids (from milk jugs, etc - we have them saved for other crafts) and he sat there putting a lid in each muffin section - then he added coins. Then he moved over to his stove to cook the muffins. Lots of water on the floor but the cleanup was super easy.

[jule924]

This is great!! I'm so doing some of these next week!! I love the water "painting" idea. The floor could use a mopping anyhow!!

[lerlerler]

you guys are great!

[art4babies]

I am really glad there is a thread like this. I want to join right away and will read more of the posts in the morning.

I have been looking for something like this....

[fremontmama]

this thread rocks! thanks sharing all your great ideas mamas!

[ajsgirl]

Adding an idea and subscribing...

my ds is big into dancing, so we take new songs and make up new dances for them... like the "washing the car" dance and the "stacking the shelves" dance...

we also make tents out of blankets and pillows and read stories in our "fort"

now we're working on writing letters of the alphabet!

[art4babies]

Ooooh. I haven't made a tent for a while. I think we will be bringin' the kitchen chairs into the living room tonight.

[Jay Jay]

Water Play

I'm so glad I noticed this thread! My son is nearly 2.5 and if he becomes remotely bored, he asks for TV. I'm ready to put them at the curb on garbage day!

One of the things that gets me through cooking dinner, or kitchen clean up is letting him get naked in his old baby tub. I fill it with warm water and bubbles and he gets some of his float planes and boats. I give him kitchen accessories that dont hold water (funnel, strainer) so that there isn't water everywhere, although it does leave a lot of water around. I put a couple of towels around the ground where the tub is and then when he's done getting water everywhere, the towels that dry it up leave a great clean spot! Its like half of my floor is clean and I didn't have to do much!

This idea has probably already been posted, or something similar, but it was fun sharing my little story anyway!

Jackie

[Euromom]

We did something fun today with our neighbor boys. We set up a puppet theater using a couple of kid-sized chairs and a table cloth and I recorded them. Later when their mom came to pick them up we all sat together on the couch and watched it on the big tv. Being recorded made them want to try really hard at the puppets. And they loved seeing themselves on tv and showing it to their mom. It was a blast! If you want to could extend the activity by first making the puppets yourselves and/or act out a fairytale.

[ambiguousinamber]

Yea!!!

This thread is a lifedaver!! I am SO TIRED of being asked again and again and again to watch a movie! And to come up with ideas while nursing a newborn every 2 hours or so is a bit exhausting! I do have some input of ideas that another mom gave me when I callled her in desperation one day. My older son was able to do this and then the younger son played. We made a masking tape race track all over the living room floor. Another idea that was great (and so easy) was a big box. I did nothing to it and it was a house, a turtle shell, a cave.... you name it and the boys imagined it. We also have some bean bags that were given to us (by above mom I had called) and they were fun to toss into the box. (And it's somtihing the little guy doesn't get in trouble for throwing in the house) THe only other thing my toddler found interesting was getting an old coffee can and putting a slit in the top and putting those styrofoam shapes into it one by one, this occupied him for about an hour and a half one day.

[chrfath]

This is a great thread. I have been feeling down about the boring activites for my DD. She has developmental delays so this is exactly what I was looking for. I will definatley read more later for some more ideas.

thanks everyone for sharing.