Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Bored Toddlers

I think my boys are bored. How many times can you build with Legos, put all your plastic animals in a van the crash it into the wall, take the cushions off Rob's bachelor couch that now resides in our bonus room? What about reading all the library books and then playing Candyland by 2 year-olds' rules and finally running in the hallway with the lights off?

We've tried coloring. That works for about 10 minutes. Then they start snacking. We've tried play-dough. See above comment. We play games - Candyland, Memory, etc. But they don't quite understand the object of the game. They would be happy as little larks if I'd let them watch TV all day. Nope!

My friend, Laura, who used to teach pre-school, recommended watercolors. It was a HIT! They painted for about 30 minutes.

Another other ideas to keep my 2 year olds busy?!

Henry before painting

Henry after painting

Jonathan before painting

Jonathan after painting

posted by Suzanne at 7/11/2006 12:54:00 PM

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4 Comments:

At 9:39 PM, Anonymous

We use to let Grace outside in her diaper and paint the deck and glass door with tempra paint (w/ a little soap) and then spray everything with the water hose. She loved it!

Terra
At 8:16 AM, Unknown

Want to go to the Splash Pad with us?
At 8:54 AM, Rebecca

I can relate. Here is the list from the girl talk blog of toddler time things.
http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/files/toddler_time.pdf

hope it helps some. Of course you could go through the list all in one day since toddlers have a 2 sec attention span.
At 1:03 AM, Kate

I just let mine run around in the yard in their diapers. I schedule a lot of my day, but not too much because I want my kids to learn how to use their imaginations and entertain themselves more. Sometimes they use their imagination on each other, and then the fights break out! But, hey, they have to learn to get along somehow, right? They play on the swingset, in the sandbox, in the sprinkler, etc... I don't care--as long as they are being watched. But, I have to stay where they can't really see me, because they do better when I am not around.