Fun with Toddlers!

Ohh what an awesome thread, i often use the TV while i'm cooking to keep DD1 occupied but DD2 is a very clingy baby and i have found she MIGHT sit still for wiggels :redface: so have used that a bit lately while moving and unpacking.

DD1 loves - pretend play with her dolls, tea set, draws on her chalk board, paper etc, reads books to herself or with me.
This morning we hung out the washing together (she picked daisy's while i did all the work :rofl: ), she played outside with DD2 in the play centre thing, she chased the dogs with her pram :rofl:, we went for a quick ride on the quad bike.
she has 'helped' clean up the bathroom and unpack some boxes.

She LOVES getting an old box and using it as a cubby house or we get 2 big washing baskets and put blankets from the couch over them and make an inside cubby.

I've been having an experiment, i think maybe for the last year.

Going FROM a position of using the TV alot as a babysitter, as sanity for me (hearing adult voices) to now, rarely having the tv on at all in the day.

bilby's behaviour has actually improved
i have stopped yelling at her like i had been

i never thought i could deal with her, WITHOUT tv, but i can.

i assumed she would be bored out of her brain, and would bug me, cling to me, beg to be played with etc

i think i underestimated her

when i took the plunge (and pressed OFF on the remote), she finds lots to do, and invents songs, builds things with her imagination,

of course, when it's coming up to dinner, i still get the "mum, i'm hungry" whine, but nothing like the crying, carrying on, naughtiness, that used to happen.

she's calmer (happy playing)
i'm calmer (no stressful News program taking centre stage in our open kitchen/living area)

and i'm actually feeling calm enough to get dinner happening. tonight i even made cinnamon scrolls with her, rolling them out on the dinner table, as dinner cooked. This is HUGE for me.

i never thought we could stop or reduce our tv usage, thought "good on you" about other people i heard that were doing it, but never thought I could do it. Never realised i could, or that it would have such positive outcomes for us as a family.

i have no idea how long it will continue, but for now, it's working, so i'm going to keep going with it.

The tv sometimes goes on, when bilby is well in the bath/story/bed routine (her daddy bonding time), other times, not till later, all depends on how i'm feeling.

I did a course last year called The Incredible Years, a major point of the course is basically "when your child asks to play with you, or is acting out, get down with them and play for ten minutes". 10 mins sounds like not much, but it really has made a difference with us. And made me realise how scared i had been, of not knowing HOW to play, worried i would not do it right. So i've been facing that fear, and slowly getting over it. Learning how much i control the play (as an adult) and how to let go of that control, and hand it over to my child (hard to do for me).

We've been having a big declutter of the toys and the toy area (which is basically the size of the rug that is our "living room" part of the open kitchen/living area space - so it's tiny and is also the adult tv area, only sitting area of our tiny unit.

we have ditched franchised stuff, plastic stuff, battery operated toys, moved books to another room.
Now there is a cube type bookcase, with one basket per cube. Each basket has the same sort of stuff in it. Playcloths in one box, musical instruments in one box, pretend playfood and teaset in one box, animals in one box, box of paper and crayons, box of building blocks , box of shoelaces and macrame beads to thread, etc. Dollhouse on the floor, with less furniture in it.
So less stuff, and what is there, is easy for her to get at and make a choice, what she wants to play with - instead of the mass confusion there was before.

If only i could declutter everything else, the way i have decluttered the toy area! finally feel like i'm getting somewhere.

so in our tiny unit, we now have more space than we had before, to dance around, build a cubbyhouse that takes up the entire rug space, make rivers and fields out of the playcloths, have animals in the fields, put seashells in the water and have as much fun as we can, within a small unity.

Also buying a big rug that is the exact size of our living area, so no more sitting on the cold lino, is making a big difference. i wish i had this set up when i was pregnant, but oh well, getting there now.

Gigi - DD only gets a small amount of TV when she gets home from preschool (so three days a week) to 'chill out' in front of with a snack. Then she has a bath and there's definitely no TV after bath. We found she was very uncooperative and grumpy if she had any more TV, especially regarding dinner. I think she's so tired by then the stimulation of TV pushes her over the edge. Turning off the TV definitely builds their imaginative play. I play with her if she's really whingey.

I thought of another one: Balloons! DD loved it when she was little if she had a few balloons to chase around.

Wow - so many awesome ideas here. I want to contribute but everything's been covered. Just thought of one little thing that has helped me soooo much in the kitchen. DS used to just tug at my pants and whinge until I picked him up so he could see what I was doing - then I couldn't do what I was doing because I was holding him. So... I got a little step ladder so he can stand at the bench and see (the layout of my kitchen means he's nowhere near the stove). While I'm cooking dinner he stands there and picks at the vegies (LOVES frozen peas). I try to find little jobs for him to do, like putting vegies into a bowl, getting out onions or potatoes or peeling garlic. It makes more mess but its so much easier to deal with than the whinging.

Awesome thread - keep it coming!

:bump: bumping for everyones benefit :lol:

Oh this is SO great. I was just looking for some ideas for things to do at home while it's too hot to go out!
I use t.v A LOT and now that I have started turning it off more he is such an imaginative little boy. I find that if he watches tv a lot he turns into a little cheeky boy who is hard to deal with.

Great thread!
DS is only 10 1/2 months, but I wanted to start some crafty stuff. I thought of play dough, jelly 'paint' (finger painting with different flavour jellies, non toxic so doesn't matter if he eats them!) but was after a recipe for 'edible' paint. Have heard of cornflour paint but am afraid to google it as two friends have just had crashed pc's from googling children's art/cooking! Anyone??

great thread!!, i'm also guilty of using the tv as a babysitter and i think it's about time i did more things with DD. So with this thread and ZF's thread i'm putting together a list of craft supplies and craft ideas and really going to get into it and hopefully have the tv on less.

I think I'll have to send this to my DH ;)

This has given me some great ideas, unfortunately DD is bored but too young for 99% of these activities.

You might be surprised Charlotte. I remember with DD I didn't think to try lots of stuff because she was too little, but then DS came along and he already had an inbuilt babysitter lol who was doing stuff. He tried paint, crayons, chalk, playdough etc far earlier than DD did and loved them.
The painting with water type stuff - great age.
Playing with rice/flour in a tub with some spoons and cups. Yes they make a mess, but it's summer and it washes off.
Empty mixing bowl/spoon/plastic utensils when you're cooking

Charlotte, I remember both my DDs loved 'posting' activities at your DDs age. I used a tissue box, a peanut butter jar with a hole cut in the lid and a cereal box with a slit cut in the lid and used pictures I had cut out of magazines, photos of family members, pics from catalogues and milk bottle lids for posting. Both DDs loved them and often found other things to post too like blocks, animals, toys... They also loved me naming the images for them and then graduated onto naming the pictures themselves. Great for fine motor skills, spacial awareness (big things don't fit in small holes) language development and the development of self confidence - it is something they can do themselves, just like a big person.

DDs both loved pouring at that age too. Water, rice, dried beans, whatever is around, in a big plastic tub with kitchen implements, muffin trays, egg trays, scoops, funnels, cups, toilet rolls, string, dolls and animals, milk bottle tops... anything you can think of can be added. Just try to keep it simple to begin with and rotate the pouring material and the implements to keep it interesting.

I second what jackrose says - DS LOVES 'posting' and putting things into containers, taking lids on and off, pulling them out. And he just adores pouring too - mostly at bath time or tipping water/milk out of the cup at meal times, lol! He really likes the water table and will play independently here for waaaay longer than he will at anything else (except Duplo!).

DS is also enjoying gardening atm - weeding and digging in the dirt. At least it means there is actual dirt to wash off at bath times.... ;)

Bumping again

I'm starting this thread partly for myself and partly because I'm sure there are others out there who find themselves doing the same things day in, day out. New ideas are always good!!!

I do lots of different things with DD1, but now that the days are getting colder I'm finding that we are both getting a bit bored at home. Add to that the fact than she has started to drop her day nap and I'm finding it hard to fill her days with entertaining and, where possible, educational activities. I am finding the tv being turned on a little too often for my liking recently.

So, my question is, what activities do you do with your baby/toddler? Please include their age so that people looking for new ideas have a reference.

Here's what I do.

DD1 (29 months old)
Painting
Play dough
Cooking
Visit parks (when the weather allows)
Read books
Story time at the library (occasionally)
Playgroup once a week (occasionally)
Play with toys
Play with the iPad (I try to limit this)
Watch tv (I try to limit this)
Go for walks (when the weather allows)
Feed the ducks
Play outside
Colour in
Sing songs
Puzzles
Crafts

DD2 (almost 5 months)
Read books
Practice holding/shaking toys
Tummy time
Talk to each other
Sing songs
Go for walks

(I know there are more, but I've come to a blank)

For cold day activities I love Pinterest. There are so many clever ideas on there.
We do activities for the seasons so for Autumn we collected leaves and did printing we also made an artwork with a twig from a tree and buttons for the branches and lots of different textured materials like hessian. Bub got to play with leaves while 2.5yo dd and I did art.
We do colouring in, build with blocks, play instruments, dance, dress up, put on puppet shows, build a tent using a blanket over the table, play hide and seek, playdo, play in her kitchen, fill the sink with soapy water and she washes her Tupperware, read books, bake at least once a week, fill containers with different pastas and lentils etc and scoop them and pour them into a funnel etc, lacing boards, watch dvd's. I'm sure there's heaps more. Bub 6 months old joins in with everything in his own way :)

Some new ideas already. Thanks Babyluv :)

Great post hun, I'm totally in the same boat!