Structured Playtime Activities?

[NayNay]

The way I work with my 15 mth old DD is that I take the day as it comes. I do some house work whilst she has independent playtime, and then at random points throughout the day, I will get down and help her build a tower with her blocks, or we'll play dolly's together or whatever.

But then I saw some show on Foxtel and a woman had a more structured approach where Wed arvo's was "Arts & Crafts" time and Fridays were "to the park" days!

How are most people filling their days?

The last 2 days I've tried doing set activities... yesterday I bought some crayons thinking we could try and learn how to do some drawings, but after all the colours getting at least two bites out of each of them, we put that away. Today I pulled out some paints and thought we'd do some hand and footprints for the Grandparents, but again, after eating some of the (non-toxic) paint, that got packed away within 5 minutes of starting!!

I rotate her toys every few weeks so she isn't playing with the same things all the time. Is that enough, or should I persist on being more creative with my playtime activities?!

[Astrid]

I am very much a wing it parent when it comes to play time. I just see what ever takes our moods, even trips to the park are rarely planned. I find planned things just sit on the shelf and don't tend to get to them. I have a ginger bread men kit sitting there for 3 months now. Even painting I tend to leave it till Maggie asks to paint. I will pull out different toys/activities based on her, if she really wants to go for a run, then I wont make her sit down and roll play dough.

[ZigZag]

Yep, I move into every day totally unplanned. I have all her 'activity' items on two shelves that she can reach in a large cupboard, so when we need to go to another activity (usually a quiet one), I'll tell her to go to the cupboard and pick something. Things stacked in there are; puzzles, drawing items, paint, felt faces, magnetic pieces to play on a board, musical instruments, activity cards (pictures with opposites etc on them), play dough and a mixture of other craft activities. I generally leave the days open because I never know what the weather's going to do....i.e. if it's a beaut day, we'd rather be outdoors and possibly take a trip to the beach etc.

I've also borrowed this great book from a friend called "365 activities for toddlers" by Di Hodges. It covers activities for both in and outdoors for 0-4 year olds.

[rosehannah]

I don't think it needs to be too structured, as long as they have things that exercise their gross and fine motor skills and imagination. What happens if it rains on Friday and she couldn't go to the park? I think you set yourself up for failure if you try too hard to control every moment.