pretty pathetic post title, huh? but look! i’ll give you a recommendation too. maybe even more than one. we need to help each other, people! it takes a village!
basically, winter is here and the weather is bleak… like, highs in the 20s coming up (that puts lows in the teens or even… single digits!!!). add a baby to the mix and we’ll find ourselves housebound a lot in the coming weeks. i’m grateful for any activity i can find for parker that isn’t putting him in front of the tv which, admittedly, i do sometimes but basically am never ever happy about.
we found this coloring book
recently (pictured above) and went through it together in two days (not because it took that long, but because we took a break). it was really fun. you fill in ‘holes’ on one page, flip the page, and it becomes something different. a tree into a circus tent, making polka dots on one page which becomes a decorated dress on the next. parker was always really excited to flip to the next page to find out what our filled in holes were creating. it required a little bit of my assistance–to read and to help create additional pictures on each page (like a bow on the girl, or flags on the tent) but for a slightly older child it could be a solo activity. i wish it had been a bit longer as we could’ve done it in about one sitting (maybe 45 minutes?) but it was fun nevertheless.
recently (pictured above) and went through it together in two days (not because it took that long, but because we took a break). it was really fun. you fill in ‘holes’ on one page, flip the page, and it becomes something different. a tree into a circus tent, making polka dots on one page which becomes a decorated dress on the next. parker was always really excited to flip to the next page to find out what our filled in holes were creating. it required a little bit of my assistance–to read and to help create additional pictures on each page (like a bow on the girl, or flags on the tent) but for a slightly older child it could be a solo activity. i wish it had been a bit longer as we could’ve done it in about one sitting (maybe 45 minutes?) but it was fun nevertheless.
what else? i’ve been asking around about legitimately good apps on the iPad that don’t make you feel like a total loser parent letting your kids play and so far (based on today only!), we are enjoying leo’s pad and monkey preschool lunch box. we already think highly of the endless apps — abc, numbers, reader. any other recommendations here??? tried and true?
and finally, other indoor activities in general that you’ve found to be real winners. word of mouth is golden–i’d rather hear it from you than by doing some random search on pinterest. that’s a rabbit hole i’m just not up for!
My three year old loves to melt ice cubes. I give him a big bowl of really warm water and a smaller bowl of ice cubes. Add a spoon for scooping the ice and a whisk to stir it. He sits and carefully scoops ice cubes into the hot water and then stirs them up so they melt. I usually have him sit on a towel on the kitchen floor so I can quickly wipe up any spillage when he's all done.
This is a great idea — I've heard of freezing little figurines/toys in ice cubes too and then having them play with that in warm water! thanks!
How do you feel about Play-Doh? My 2.5 year old got a little kit for Christmas and I think it is his favorite thing. He has a little activity table and he'll sit there for a half hour playing with his "may-doh". Sometimes I have to help but usually if I'm just sort of watching and talking to him, that's good enough. I think since Parker is older, he'd probably be even better at doing it by himself and creating things.
Parker loves it – I do let him play it pretty often (even though sometimes I'm less enthused about the clean up!).
Bubble baths and doing the dishes were always good ones when I babysat my cousins (it was weird how much they loved the dishes)! My little guy is only a baby, but I'm sure I'll revive those in a few years.
My son used to play forever at the kitchen sink with a turkey baster and one of those medicine syringes! Something about kids and water!
If your little one likes cars you can tape a bunch of "roads" down with masking tape all over the floor, I used to do this when I was a nanny, and it was always good for at least 45 min. of play. When he's done just pull up the tape and toss it. You could do the same with masking tape and a hop scotch square or some type of mini obstacle course or something. Also, my little girl is 18 months and I just taped some paper towel and wrapping paper tubes up on the wall of the shower to make a little track for a small ball to roll down. She has a very short attention span and it kept her occupied for a while. Good luck.
that's such a fun idea!!
I know this actually requires you to purchase things but I have two little boys ages 4 1/2 and 7 yrs. Three years ago we bought them an Imaginex Castle. They have played with it for the last three years and every Christmas since we have added items to go with it. There are knights and dragons and dinasours and pirates, so many things can go with these. But they play, they use their imaginations, they create and it's simply wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone with little boys. Basically it's boy style barbies! They often have things on sale and are super easy to tell other people to buy for presents in the future. I would start with some knights and the castle if you were going to start with anything. It's something your boys will play with for years and years and play together! Good luck.
thank you! i will check it out. a game that is fun for years?? that's a winner.
Definitely water play! A big tub of water, spoons and cups and sponges…..that usually kept the kids I worked for busy. The same with rice — kind of messy, but they always loved it!
good call. parker always loves playing with water (he's at the sink now!!).
Blanket forts usually keep littles happy for a day or so… make one over the couch or the dining room table, or how about buying big macaroni and having him string it with yarn to make you and Lindsey necklaces? : ) Or have him wash windows and vacuum… funny how little kids like to do big jobs~
Sleeping is my only indoor activity I can think of. And, uh… watching really bad daytime television. Can you tell I'm not a parent?
enjoy it tiffany!! i remember those days fondly 🙂
As we were housebound because of a storm, we had a treasure-hunt in the house, which was really funny and kept the boys searching for some time. Also we started creating our own puzzles, I let them draw a picture and help them cut out the pieces afterwards. Also we love playing "freeze" for some time (dancing until the music stops)
Everything I bought my boys (ages 4 and 2) this Christmas I did with last years lonnggg winter in mind. They got the Imaginext castle that was mentioned above and it really was a hit. They got indoor snowballs (Amazon) for endless fights because sometimes it is too cold to actually play in the snow. Kinetic sand and a sand box for the table top. And a popup fire truck tent with firefighter dress up clothes!! And Duplo Legos!!
When my boys were little I bought several bags of dried beans and/or lentils and kept them in a big plastic container. I would give the measuring cups and a couple of sauce pans and they would "cook". But the best fun was letting them use their cars and dump trucks to load up and build roads etc. it would occupy them for a long time. Only one neighbor boy shoved a bean up his nose….it came out and all was well. I scooped up what I could and then vacuumed up the rest
I desperately needed this as well, reading the comments has given me some great ideas!! Thank you, cabin fever was setting in for my three 😉
My 3 1/2 year old boy got a small set of MagnaTiles for Christmas. He told be today that they were his "best best best present" so… That seems a ringing endorsement. Plus, he has played with them for hours mostly unassisted. That's winning in my book!!
I second the recommendation for indoor snowballs. My son (5) got a set for Christmas and we have had snowball fights every day since. Also, we don't have the castle that has been mentioned a couple of times, but we do have a train table and a Schleich barn, and both of those get tons of use. The train table is just a generic table but both of my kids (my daughter is 2.5) love building new tracks and imagining train trips. The Schleich barn is one of the nicest toys I have ever bought and my daughter in particular is obsessed. Also: puzzles. Both of our kids LOVE puzzles and even my youngest is able to do the larger M&D or Ravensburger floor puzzles by herself. We are currently graduating to puzzles with more and smaller pieces because they love them so much. As a bonus, the train table is a great place to assemble puzzles. Finally, if you must watch TV, check out Shaun the Sheep (which is free on Amazon Prime Video). It is a clay-mation/animated British series of shorts made by the same people who created Wallace and Gromit (which are, incidentally, also really great but surprisingly have lots of guns and sinister plots, FYI). Shaun episodes are all 7 minutes long and Amazon groups them into sets of 3 – I find that 21 minutes is a good length of time to load a dishwasher or accomplish a couple of other household tasks while antsy little people are entertained. Shaun is super cute and has almost no dialogue and our kids LOVE it. Best of luck!
Lots of great suggestions. One thing that really worked for me was to have "kits" stashed in a cabinet that I could pull out with one hand (while holding baby) when immediate distraction was necessary. The kits were just old fruit containers or paper bags that had all the supplies ready to go. Examples:
–Rainbow book (construction paper taped together) with stickers to put on the coordinating color of paper
–Stale mini marshmallows with toothpicks to make 3D sculptures (my kids didn't like the taste of stale marshmallows, but use grapes if you are worried)
–Beads with pipe cleaners (vs string) which I kept in a large spice container bc also fun to poke pipe cleaners through
–Glitter glue and cardboard cut from cereal and cracker boxes (better holds the loads of inevitable glue)
These are all activities that worked for me, but best was the ease of pulling it out, so try anything you think P will enjoy.
(And can I just second the magnatiles–get the big set, my children ages 2-8 adore these and so many ways to use your imagination, build, etc)
Also, just to jog my fleeting memory, I taped a list of easy distractions inside the kitchen cabinet bc sometimes in the heat of the moment, my mind went blank.
Belated congrats on the babe, and good luck through the coming months!
such good ideas! thank you!
We loved the Preschool Color & Activity Book for going out to restaurants, and the Melissa and Doug sticker books for home. We make light catchers to hang on the windows by sticking any extra art supplies between two pieces of clear contact paper. As a much bigger activity, we love our Little Tykes bounce house. We can set it up outside in nice weather or inside when it's raining.
Start getting crafty and have Parker make handmade gifts every week until christmas or sign up with a monthly craft kid box. http://www.ramblingsofasuburbanmom.com/monthly-subscription-box-list/#fref Rambling of a Suburban Mom has a huge list just scroll down to the bottom of the link.
Baking. One of my favorite things to do with the kids I nannied for was to bake with them and then give them to the tools to decorate their cake/cupcake however they wanted. Fruit, sprinkles, frosting with their choice of food coloring, toothpicks to make shapes, etc. I don't know if Parker is still too young for that, or if it's too much of a mess in your beautiful new house, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Any of the Rantek Montessori apps are great and of high value. I also like http://www.3dinosaurs.com and http://www.royalbaloo.com for activity packs. And they are free!!
Magna Tiles and Imaginex castle were great for my children, a boy and a girl. Also, you can let him wash his toy cars in the sink.
and empty ice cube tray, a few Dixie cups of water, a box of cheapo food coloring (the water based stuff) and a medicine dropper…make potions! feeze them, then re-melt…we get a lot of mileage out of that one.
Puzzles! My daughter is 2 and she's obsessed. She's really good at putting together 24-piece puzzles by herself and it occupies her for quite awhile. Also, Duplos. She loves to build and then show me what she made.
Loving everyone's suggestions!