I have a very active 15 month old son who loves to run around and climb on everything. I am looking for new ideas to help fill our day. He does sit and play at times, usually when "reading" a selection from his book collection.
all with supervision of course:
chalk. weather is good enough, if you have a place in the yard or somewhere nearby, chalk is great.
-you could get one of those bubble machines, and again, yes, yard, but set it up so he can chase the bubbles (always fun).
-playdough. kids love those, but with supervision only as he may think the colors are cool enough to eat :)
-crayons, white paper :)
Our favorite activity at that age was playing with Place and Trace. It's a set of 3 chunky puzzles by Discovery Toys that do double time as cookie cutters. There are 12 shapes of dinosaurs, house pets and vehicles. What fun we had in the kitchen measuring the ingredients, mixing them up and rolling out the dough.
You can find a recipe for making your own play-dough at http://billiediscoverytoys.blogspot.com/2008/08/speaking-...
Take a look at www.toysofdiscovery.com for other ideas.
how about buying a bubble mower... when he pushes it.. the bubbles come out.. they feel like they are doing the grass.. it's so much fun. or taking a small ride on the bike with him.. stickers are fun, blowing bubbles, making a cake.. just have him mix the batter... how about filling a pot with a little water and lots of bubbles.. and have him play outside with the bubbles, or fill a pot with big noodles or pasta... and give him a lot of small tupperware bowls.. they love to mix and put them in smaller tupperware.. give him a big mixing spoon.. they love to play with this type of things..
Hi C.
I used to have a class of 20-25, 2-3yo's. They were great fun. I am too old to keep that pace anymore.
They loved the homemade playdough, playing for a long time as long as it was pliable and squishy. I have a great recipe if you want. Write me.
They love marching with instruments and of course singing to kid songs. aluminum pie pans and a spoon works great.
They love easy puzzles. 4-5 make it easy to swap as they finish. At 2 they are single pieces usually.
They can learn to color and draw, but be careful they don't eat the crayons.
They can finger paint with pudding, which makes a mess, but it is great fun. Chocolate always stained clothes so I used other flavors.
They can play any of the "ring around the rosy" and "London Bridges" type games. They love to have your attention so it doesn't matter if it is exactly correct.
They can also sing songs as their vocab increases
Bubbles were always a hit, if they are not inclined to still put things in their mouth. You blow bubbles and they chase.
God bless you
K.
Weather is getting nice outside. If hes running and climbing, he may like some outside time, teaching him to play catch, with a tennis ball(its softer than a softball), or nerf football.
I bought my little ones (2 1/2 year old girl, and my 8 year old boy) a small trampoline for Christmas. I got it form Kaybee toys, online (really cheap), before they closed up the stores. If you can get them online, they may still have stuff in warehouses.
Something like that is good to expel some extra energy.
Good luck
Sometimes if I need to get my dishes done, or do a load of laundry...I pop in a movie. My 15 month old daughter loves Sesame Street, Barney, Blue's Clues...she likes to dance to the music and I find her "singing" along.
Fill various small containers with activities or hands on stuff. One tub could have Moon Sand with some scoopers and spoons, one could have cards that you sew with shoe laces, once with mega blocks, etc. Any inexpensive activity will do. Then take a picture of each one and print it out on a card. Put all the cards in a small box. During the day you can hand him the box, he can point to the one he wants to play with, and then sit at the table with the activity. Set the timer for about 15 minutes. We call this "table time."
Also, when you say that he loves to run around and climb on everything, do you mean in a typical 2-y-o fashion, or is he more active than most? If you mean that he is more active than most and you are trying to keep him busy so that he is not doing these things, also clean up his diet and eliminate toxic household and personal product. These things can affect behaior. You can contact me through my site for more information on this www.LiveWellShopSmart.com. We HAD a jumper and climber, but by changing his diet and removing as many toxins as we could, he doesn't do these things any more :-)
Blessings to you,
T. E.
www.LiveWellShopSmart.com
www.LovinLifeWithHomeBiz.com
