My friend Jessie, an online friend from way back in my early HP (Hannah's Prayer) days, and now a loyal blog follower, mailed me a book this weekend. It's called: The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner.Jessie, you are my brand new best friend. Seriously. Lovin' this book already, and I am just a short bit into it.
This book could not have come at a better time. I am "trapped" on a tiny Base. There are no indoor playlands or museums or zoo's or malls that I can take the boys to myself. The pool will close down in about a month. There are very few things on Base to do. That means it's me and my front and back yards. That's all I got.
Two toddlers. Me. And now this handy dandy little "Toddler Bible."
I decided that since many of you out there have toddlers (defined by this book as 1.5 to 3 years old) or plan/hope to have a toddler in your foreseeable future, I would share my successes and failures from this book. My goal is to do at least an activity a day. Something new. We read books. We watch videos. We play outside. But when it comes time to do something inside, we are often struggling to come up with something new that doesn't evoke fits of boredom. This book is going to be my guide. For example, let's start with today. I tried TAPE CITY (Page 28). You can see the pictures of my attempt above. We didn't get very city-like. We stuck with the basics: a racing track like the one in Cars for Lightning McQueen. The result: a track that I can leave on for a few days that they seem to be interested in. Isaac actually wanted to run around it like he was a race car more than he wanted to actually use his race cars. But either way, it seemed to hold their interest for fifteen minutes. And that's all I am asking for these days.
So this is how it will work. I'll post about my activity choice and the result whenever we do one. If you would like to participate, I'd love to hear what did or did not work for you as well. What activities are you using with your toddlers to help shorten the long days? It could be something that is in this book, something you've been doing forever, or something new you tried. I may even share it on my blog. You can send a photo and brief description to me via email at: flakymn@hotmail.com. I'm not going to have a contest like I did with the Food Recipes since I never finished them all or judged them all. I'm just going to include what I can, when I can, and I hope you will enjoy and learn from the ride as well. If you want to read all entries from this particular topic, you can click here. The list will keep growing.
5 comments:
So glad you liked the book! It really does have some great ideas!
We have a fantastic game that we play! We call it the Detective Game. I set it up during nap time (no worries it's pretty quick). It's basically a scavenger hunt - first hide one of their favorite toys. Then working backwards create simple clues on little strips of paper that you hide throughout the house (like "brrr it's cold in here with the milk!" and hide it in the fridge or "rub a dub dub I'm getting very clean in here" and hide it in the bath tub) then hide the clues throughout the house. I often write down clues throughout the day on a little note pad if I think of them, then when they go down for naps I only have about 5 minutes of hiding clues. Then when they wake up say - uh oh I think (favorite toy) is missing and I found this clue (the first clue that leads to the second)! Let's go on a detective mission! It keeps my boys occupied for long periods of time! Plus it's hilarious when you realize that your perception of the way you wrote the clue is different from theirs - onetime we looked in the dishwasher for the rub a dub dub clue.
Not sure if this is in the book, but you can have the boys skate on paper plates. Your tile floors will work perfect for this. Just get some paper plates that are coated then just throw 'em on the floor, step on them and shuffle your feet.
Bethany
We go for walks and collect leaves or sticks and glue them to paper. Now we have a nature picture!
One thing my 3 year old likes to do is "Paint the Fence" I give him old paint brushes and a bucket of water and he paints the fence, house, deck...whatever! Keeps him entertained for about 5 minutes:)
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