5 Ways to Keep Your Toddler Busy with Stuff from Around the House:
1. Kids Love to Pour
During these warm summer months, fill up a bowl with water, give them a few cups out on the deck, and they'll happily pour for a long time, which is great for fine motor skills. You can also try rice, beans, anything that pours well and has an interesting texture. You might even tell them they are making soup for some fun imaginary play. Of course, be sure you closely supervise your young children during all of these activities so they don't put anything in their mouth.
2. Paint Anything You Can Find
Even kids as young as 18 to 20 months can do painting. Give them just paper, or an egg carton and show them how to make a caterpillar. Or even try a paper towel tube and cut slits in the bottom to make an octopus.
3. Make Your Own Racetrack
Get some long butcher paper from Hobby Lobby and set it out on your kitchen floor and be sure to tape down each end. Draw a long race track with markers and get out some cars. You go on one end, and your toddler goes on the other. You can roll the cars back and forth to each other on the long race track. This is especially fun for little boys and it usually only takes a few minutes to help them understand to stay at one end.
4. Make a Paper Plate Sheep
Get out some cotton balls and glue. Show your toddler how to put a small dab of glue on each cotton ball and affix it to the plate. If you have older children, they might be capable of gluing cotton balls around the exterior for a true "sheep" but for the younger crowd (20 months to 3 years), they will more likely put cotton balls all over the plate, but praise them lavishly for being able to get the cotton balls on there at all. The first time we did this, I really had to force myself to let go and allow my 20 month old boy to hold the glue bottle, but he amazed and impressed me with his ability to do this. If you want to finish the sheep, you can glue on eyeballs, and cut a nose and ears out of construction paper.
5. Experiment with Baking Soda and Vinegar
Buy some squeeze bottles from Wal-Mart. (Don't worry, this isn't money wasted. You will be able to use them all the time.) For this experiment, get out a foil tin pan and pour some baking soda in the bottom. Fill up the squeeze bottle with vinegar and show them how to squeeze into the pan. The vinegar will make the baking soda fizzle and this will be fascinating for your toddler! Feel free to mix the vinegar with water so you don't waste so much vinegar. They will want to do this over and over again and it's a great way to build up those arm muscles that they will need later for learning to write. To make it even more interesting, add paint to the bottom of the tin so that they can see the colors swirling together.
The important thing is to not let all of these activities overwhelm you. They are meant to be a fun way to spend an hour with your toddler. I have even noticed that after I spend some good quality time with my kids, they are more likely to play on their own for awhile so that I can pay some bills or do the dishes in peace. And what Mom doesn't want to do the dishes in peace once in awhile?
It is amazing the things you can learn to do with your kids as they get older. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, I know it is a lot of pointless stuff but it is a place for me to get out all the stuff that goes on in my head, as crazy and pointless as it is sometimes.
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