what do you do with toddler all day

lmahoney79

I am a full time mum of a 22 month old boy. Just curious to know what other parents with children of a similar age do all day to keep them entertained? I take him to different parks and playgrounds etc. But needs more ideas!

pwurple

Toddlers are curious. I have a 25 month old. On my days off during the week we are busy! I go about my business basically, and include her in it.

Washing goes on early, and she 'helps' me put it on the clothes line and 'helps' me make the beds.
I give her some stuff from the dishwasher to put away, her plastic cups and forks. She stirs the porridge to cool it, then we have brekkie.

We go in to the city and do some food shopping in the market. I give her a few olives or a bit of cheese to taste as we go around, name all the fish on the fish counter, name all the cuts of meat at the butchers, name all the fruit and veg in the greengrocer, and their colours etc. etc. etc.

We go over to the library to swap her library books for new ones. She does some colouring there and plays with the other kids, sometimes they have storytelling on.

If we have time go for a coffee in a place with a couch, where she gets a snack and looks at her library books, and I flick through a newspaper. To the park for a run around if it's dry.

Lunch can be either a picnic with dolly & teddy, home for sandwiches, or if we're feeling flush, a cafe or someplace kid friendly.


Visit some relatives, chase their dogs around, get jobs from them... usually something to do with paying bills or a post office. Bring her along and let her 'help' with forms or handing in money.
Home for more laundry and maybe sweeping up (she loves sweeping!).
Then it's cooking time again, so she does some jigsaws or puzzles while I chop stuff, and then she does the pasta or rice measuring.

We eat dinner, then run around playing football with daddy. Then it's bedtime.

If I'm off at weekends, we go to parks, swimming, museums and galleries, open gardens, or any event/festival we can find that looks interesting. Choral festival is coming up this weekend in Cork. She loved that last year. http://www.corkchoral.ie/

wmpdd3

I have a list of 15 activities stuck on the fridge for day that I've had 3 hrs sleep like today (new tooth!)

Thankfully the simplest things keep them happy as long as its ben 4 days since they did it!

Like, stacking the saucepans, painting, lego, tea sets, little cars and a ramp made from a kitchen chair and a baking tray.

I have a 1 yr old and a 2 year old, 1 year old isn't walking yet, this is usually the way the days pans out.

8:00 - 10:00 breakfast, wash, dress etc.

10:00 - 11:00 outside activity, walk to library / shopping / walk around the block / post office etc.

11:15 1 yr old nap / 2 yr old play doh / lego / help with the washing etc.

12:00 lunch

2:00 both nap for 1 hr

3:00 pm outside activity

4:00 inside activity

5:00 swap parents and I go to work, they prepare dinner / creep around the kitchen

6:00 eat dinner

7:00 wash, bedclothes, story, bed.

I hate routines but I found that I couldn't get anything done so I had to do something.

Mr.Fred

I'm tired just reading all that. It reads like something from stepford wives.

How Strange

Fair play to you ladies!! They are very impressive activity schedules!

I feel like I've been pregnant forever so that really affects what I do with my little fella. Recently I've brought him to the park on a Saturday morning and we get a cappuccino (for me) and baby cino (for him). He loves sitting at the table and drinking from a real cup.

Stories are always a great fall back here as he loves us reading to him and he'd happily spend hours listening to them. Jigsaws have become popular recently too. Other than that, when we're at home together, I try to do something in the morning even if it's just a short walk outside, then it's nap time with lunch after that and again we'd aim to get outdoors for an hour or so in the afternoon too. Ocassionally we meet up with other friends who have toddlers and he's always delighted with that.

I'm going to start bringing him to the local library once this baby graces us with its presence as I think he'd love that. I'll be on maternity leave for the summer so he'll be staying in crèche but I'll take him out early most days and we'll go to the park, library etc.

I always find it less daunting to break the day up into compartments and find activities for each one rather than look at the whole day and think 'how am I going to entertain him all day'.

pwurple

How Strange wrote: »

I feel like I've been pregnant forever so that really affects what I do with my little fella.

Oh jeez yeah. When I was pregnant it was mainly her playing with her bath toys on the bathroom floor while I had my head down the toilet, followed by me sleeping on the couch while she watched telly. Totally different situation.

Toddlers have one of two effects on the people I have observed. One is that people feel they have to entertain them all day and hence have no time to do other things they might want. The other is to realise that having the toddler is a good excuse TO DO many of the things you want.

One good example is cooking and baking. I have heard lots of people around me say they can not put any effort into either any more as they have to keep dropping everything to look after the child again. However the opposite effect is also good, if you involve the child in the process.

Bread and cake baking is the best example of this. Mixing - bashing - mashing - sprinkling ingredients and more all seem to keep my 2.5 year old happy for ages. The best is banana bread where she gets to mash all the bananas into oblivion - whisk in eggs - then sprinkle or pour in the other ingredients. All before getting a scraper and scraping the mass into a baking dish while I hold the bowl. She is even at the point now of being able to tell me what ingredients to get - and how much of each one to use.

Washing - hanging clothes - cleaning the floors and dishes - doing the gardening - and much more are all things people say they can not do any more because they are trying to keep their child entertained in parallel - but I find that if involving the child all works out fine. I even get to take nice long relaxing baths albeit with her dropping things in and out and talking to me.

As for what to do with a toddler all day on top of all that? Well my approach has always been to do a meta-list of the kinds of things I would like her to be doing - art - things with numbers and letters - physical activity - etc etc etc - and then use that list as a spring off point for thinking of ways to do them or implement them.

The final trick I find is that for me it is hard to get her playing on her own. It happens when it happens and I think alone time play is just as important. So I have to be re-active to that. As soon as I see she is playing on her own or occupying herself I leave her to it - even if I was planning to do something with her in that moment. I let her lead me in this regard.

Well thats all that works for me. As with most things around children the exact opposite will work for others and everything I just wrote will seem like entire nonsense to them the best we can do is tell you what works for us and you to use those ideas as spring off points to find your own niche. My best advice above however I think is trying to find ways to involve your child in the things you have to do anyway rather than trying to do them in parallel with their own thing which is always harder.

pwurple

Just thought of another one... turn on the radio and have a disco dance. Teddy loves to dance too. I'm passing on all my most awesome dance moves. We can do the mashed potato.... struggling with the funky chicken for now, but we'll get there with more practice. What else... mc hammer sideways shuffle, moonwalking, the dance where you reach back, grab your ankle and pump, the robot of course, the holding up the ceiling dance. If you have a smart phone thing you can use the Just Dance app to make little videos to have a laugh at later.

Hannibal Smith

pwurple wrote: »

I'm passing on all my most awesome dance moves. .

Omg...that has made me laugh. every day here we have a disco....I switch rtejnr radio on upc. We just kind of mess around. Anyhow Sat we were at a party and my 1 year old starts marching around...it was hilarious..no one could figure out what he was doing...was he dancing or marching...anyhow...I started dancing...everyone started laughing and pointing....then I twigged we were dancing the dame way....it was my dance moves he was copying

wmpdd3

My little girl loses the plot if there's no washing to put out after breakfast.

Ash.J.Williams

lmahoney79 wrote: »

I am a full time mum of a 22 month old boy. Just curious to know what other parents with children of a similar age do all day to keep them entertained? I take him to different parks and playgrounds etc. But needs more ideas!

just had a great day at a pet farm recently!

liliq

I go to two/ three breastfeeding groups/ sling meets/ playgroups a week in community centres/ panda play café, which takes up 2 half days/ 1 full day a week.
It's a good way for R to play with other kids but still have me there.
When we're not going to them, we generally create work for each other. I create tidy(ish) for him, he creates mess for me!
He loves the garden, so at the moment it's brilliant as he can potter around outside and I can see him from the kitchen, sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom so can get some house work done while watching him at the same time. In saying that, the important things get done and the rest suffers.
I kinda just go about getting things done. It's a lot slower with a toddler for company. In the supermarket I drive the trolley backwards to entertain him, have to keep in the in the middle of the aisle so he can't leave a trail of destruction (aka dented tins, mashed cereal boxes, apples with one bite taken) behind us!
We see his nana a couple of days a week, and his granddad once or twice a week. Sometimes they'll take him for a walk or to play in their gardens, so I run to the gym/ to get a few things done.
We go on the Luas into Stephens green to feed the ducks, go to the playground, bring the dogs for a walk, have a picnic in the garden, run through the sheets on the line, spend a lot of time hoovering up spilled bowl of cereal. We got a family pass for the zoo so we've been visiting the seals, monkeys and wolves quite a lot. We go swimming once a month or so. Dancing is a great one too. I started drawing with him again recently, must get brave and get the paints out again!

littlemissfixit

I let her entertain me, I pull out a toy and ask her what we are going to play and all of a sudden a cardboard box becomes a bed for dollie, a block is a dish that is put in the radiator-microwave for the toy cat, the things they come up with themselves when you just let them... We do also dance and skip around a lot (if anyone saw us!)
I live far from the city so the closest playgroup is 45 min away, have no relatives to visit and no money so swimming is down to once every two months, it does make it a little harder.
As other have said, she is "helping" with every household task as well and when weather permits we are outside as often as possible.

Even at that young age, I think its important to let their own imagination develop and for that you may have to start them up but then leave them to it and see what happens.

Always have a magazine or two in reserve as well with some stickers, she loves stickers!

aknitter

I have found bubbles and chalk are great to entertain my 2 year old - outside of course!

Inside then is different and he plays away on his own very well (keep a good supply of cars handy). He loves anything to do with buttons, so turning things on is his job!

Also he likes to spend time in the car to drive!