Sidewalk Chalk and Other Activites




With more waking hours in the day for Noah, I was desperate for ideas of things to do with toddlers...



(I should point out here that Noah actually sleeps as many hours in the day as he did before he dropped the morning nap, but he sleeps them all at once. This is a slightly mixed blessing! Sleeping them all in one chunk gives me time to do get all my "stuff" done in one fell swoop, and allows for more lengthy projects and tasks to be done~for example, I can now get all my laundry folded AND put away AND get the floor mopped, etc etc. BUT there are now fewer breaks in the day, which makes it harder to keep Noah occupied in those long stretches of time. I found myself going slightly batty those first couple days with no structure to the day.)



SO without much delay, I came up with a new schedule to make allowance for one longer nap, and got to work brainstorming ideas of fun stuff to do with Noah. And it's funny, I think I'm having just as much fun as he is! Here is a sample of the activity ideas I found:

Sidewalk Chalk
Bubbles
Drawing/Coloring
Finger Painting
Building Forts
Paint with Water
Play-dough
Sandbox/Ricebox with toys and scoops
Go to the Park (duh)
Puppets
Nature Walk


I've tried a few of these, with relative success. With such a short attention span though, you have to keep varying the activites even within themselves or your little playmate moves on to greener, more interesting pastures. :)


Here is our revised schedule for those interested. And keep in mind that I don't stick to this religiously. It is just a guide for a general structure and I don't mind if I veer off of it a bit. Mostly it is so I can know what to do next, and so we don't spend our days idly. This ensures we get stuff done!


7am Get up/shower
7:30 Get Noah up/changed/dressed
7:45 Breakfast
8:15 Noah free play/I get Josh out the door
8:30 Mommy and Noah time
9:00 Playpen time for Noah/Devotions for me
9:30 Run Errands
10:30 Outdoor playtime~park?
11:30 Lunch
12pm Noah Free time/I clean up kitchen
12:30 Naptime Noah/Choretime for me
3pm Noah up; snack, then free play
3:30 Sitting time: Noah sits with books on a blanket
3:45 Go for a walk
4:00 Structured Play: choose activity listed above
4:30 Video time for Noah/I make dinner
5:00/5:30 Supper
6/6:30 Josh home! Supper for him, catch up on our day
7pm Bathtime for Noah/Alone time for Josh :)
7:30pm Daddy and Noah time/I clean up kitchen
8pm Bible story for Noah, wind-down activities
8:30 Noah BEDTIME
9pm Unwind/relax with Josh
10pm Joanna's bedtime


What do you think? Are you tired yet? :)


Oh and P.S. I'd welcome any ideas of Things To Do With Toddlers (Active Toddlers, that is!)

Comments

Ruth said…
Along with sand and rice of course kids love to play with water (bubbles could be part of this as well). Many good science lessons here - sink/float, etc. :-) I assume building forts is block play? Block play is REALLY, REALLY good in so many ways. There are also other forms of dramatic play aside from puppets - do you have stuff he can wear to "dress up" in obviously different than for girls but still fun for boys too to wear different hats (pretend to be a fireman or whatever). I assume that during mommy/Noah time you are READING to him lots and lots and lots every day. :-) Sorry the educator in me is coming out! Puzzles too are very good.

I would try to keep the video time as little as possible. The less young children look at tvs and computer screens the better! In fact it's best if they're not even in the room when the tv is on (something I want to start being more careful of with Nadia) even if you're just watching say Jeopardy - it's not just the content that is the issue. Just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth!

Also if you find any other friends who have kids Noah's age then it's nice to get together now and then so he has more chances (aside from church nursery) to learn to SHARE and such. Of course if you ever have any other children he'll get to learn that at home. :-)You said you don't know how moms with multiple children do it. Well that's part of what helps - an additional child doesn't double the workload as they at some point become a playmate so Mommy doesn't need to be the playmate quite as much.
October 17, 2008 at 8:29 AM
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