Mine has tons of fun with a yoga ball. Flashlight tag? We play "Five Little Monkeys" and I let him jump on the bed and then he falls down and acts it out. Does he have a tent? Everything is more fun to play with inside a tent.
Are you looking for minimal interaction on your part so you can work? I don't have many of those - dd will sometimes play by herself, but usually she wants some level of parental involvement.
A long standing favorite here is rainbow rice. I died rice 5 different colors and put it into a plastic tub. Now it's all mixed up, but she still loves to play with it. White rice may work just as well. She scoops and pours into a variety of containers. Sometimes we hide things in it. You could use it with cars, etc. Makes a mess sometimes, but easily cleanable. (As I'm typing this I told dd it's nap time and she cried, but I didn't play with rainbow rice!)
Last week I brought snow inside for her in the same tub, and gave her colored water to pour over it, plus spoons and such.
My oxo pop containers have provided hours of play. They should be organizing my pantry but are mostly empty still. We put cereal, beans, whatever dry goods on hand and dd will open, close, pour into others or a bowl, for quite a while.
+1 for playdoh
Does he like baths? Dd would stay in there forever. We used to do color baths - add food coloring and all the objects of the same color you can find.
Shopping - saw you got rid of your kitchen, but could work with other things. I set out all the play food, dd picks it all up, loads it into her shopping cart, and brings it to me to check out.
Building with pillows/ jumping on pillows.
Tape obstacle course - use painter or masking tape, something that won't screw up your surfaces to create areas to crawl under, step over, etc. Works best in a hallway.
I don't have a sense of how much other 2 year olds are like this, but dd lives in her head and everything talks - stuffed animals, babies, milk, water, feet, everything. At least half of our day is me having conversations with her in a voice other than my own. Then I can direct her to get teddy bear food, take him somewhere, etc.
Most often of dd says she doesn't want to do something, if I get it out and set it up, she will play with it.
This is DD. She'll even say, no sing momma. I was dancing with her one day and she stopped, looked right at me and "not you!" Lol my kid isn't into it much either...
hahaha yes! i get told to stop singing all the time. "NO MOMMY SING, STOP IT!!!"
I'm actually a little jealous of you guys in my house it's constantly sing mommy, dance mommy, let's play music, you be the shaker etc....I'm like enough already and I can't sing so it's terrible.
Are you looking for minimal interaction on your part so you can work? I don't have many of those - dd will sometimes play by herself, but usually she wants some level of parental involvement.
A long standing favorite here is rainbow rice. I died rice 5 different colors and put it into a plastic tub. Now it's all mixed up, but she still loves to play with it. White rice may work just as well. She scoops and pours into a variety of containers. Sometimes we hide things in it. You could use it with cars, etc. Makes a mess sometimes, but easily cleanable. (As I'm typing this I told dd it's nap time and she cried, but I didn't play with rainbow rice!)
Last week I brought snow inside for her in the same tub, and gave her colored water to pour over it, plus spoons and such.
My oxo pop containers have provided hours of play. They should be organizing my pantry but are mostly empty still. We put cereal, beans, whatever dry goods on hand and dd will open, close, pour into others or a bowl, for quite a while.
+1 for playdoh
Does he like baths? Dd would stay in there forever. We used to do color baths - add food coloring and all the objects of the same color you can find.
Shopping - saw you got rid of your kitchen, but could work with other things. I set out all the play food, dd picks it all up, loads it into her shopping cart, and brings it to me to check out.
Building with pillows/ jumping on pillows.
Tape obstacle course - use painter or masking tape, something that won't screw up your surfaces to create areas to crawl under, step over, etc. Works best in a hallway.
I don't have a sense of how much other 2 year olds are like this, but dd lives in her head and everything talks - stuffed animals, babies, milk, water, feet, everything. At least half of our day is me having conversations with her in a voice other than my own. Then I can direct her to get teddy bear food, take him somewhere, etc.
Most often of dd says she doesn't want to do something, if I get it out and set it up, she will play with it.
not looking for minimal interaction, it's more for the weekend. If he's at home with me during the work week it's probably because he's sick so i'm ok with him watching tv on the couch. We don't have a shopping cart or anything like that as it would more likely be rammed into the walls and furniture but he likes to play tea party and runs into the kitchen repeatedly to fetch me more cake. I'll try the rice thing although i'm honestly scared of how much rice i'll have to clean up by the end!
Question about food colouring in the bath, how does it not dye their skin? Whenever i use it to bake with i end up with colour dots all over my hands
Are you looking for minimal interaction on your part so you can work? I don't have many of those - dd will sometimes play by herself, but usually she wants some level of parental involvement.
A long standing favorite here is rainbow rice. I died rice 5 different colors and put it into a plastic tub. Now it's all mixed up, but she still loves to play with it. White rice may work just as well. She scoops and pours into a variety of containers. Sometimes we hide things in it. You could use it with cars, etc. Makes a mess sometimes, but easily cleanable. (As I'm typing this I told dd it's nap time and she cried, but I didn't play with rainbow rice!)
Last week I brought snow inside for her in the same tub, and gave her colored water to pour over it, plus spoons and such.
My oxo pop containers have provided hours of play. They should be organizing my pantry but are mostly empty still. We put cereal, beans, whatever dry goods on hand and dd will open, close, pour into others or a bowl, for quite a while.
+1 for playdoh
Does he like baths? Dd would stay in there forever. We used to do color baths - add food coloring and all the objects of the same color you can find.
Shopping - saw you got rid of your kitchen, but could work with other things. I set out all the play food, dd picks it all up, loads it into her shopping cart, and brings it to me to check out.
Building with pillows/ jumping on pillows.
Tape obstacle course - use painter or masking tape, something that won't screw up your surfaces to create areas to crawl under, step over, etc. Works best in a hallway.
I don't have a sense of how much other 2 year olds are like this, but dd lives in her head and everything talks - stuffed animals, babies, milk, water, feet, everything. At least half of our day is me having conversations with her in a voice other than my own. Then I can direct her to get teddy bear food, take him somewhere, etc.
Most often of dd says she doesn't want to do something, if I get it out and set it up, she will play with it.
not looking for minimal interaction, it's more for the weekend. If he's at home with me during the work week it's probably because he's sick so i'm ok with him watching tv on the couch. We don't have a shopping cart or anything like that as it would more likely be rammed into the walls and furniture but he likes to play tea party and runs into the kitchen repeatedly to fetch me more cake. I'll try the rice thing although i'm honestly scared of how much rice i'll have to clean up by the end!
Question about food colouring in the bath, how does it not dye their skin? Whenever i use it to bake with i end up with colour dots all over my hands
I bought colored bath tablets on Amazon. Then you can see how red+yellow=orange and stuff like that.
Are you looking for minimal interaction on your part so you can work? I don't have many of those - dd will sometimes play by herself, but usually she wants some level of parental involvement.
A long standing favorite here is rainbow rice. I died rice 5 different colors and put it into a plastic tub. Now it's all mixed up, but she still loves to play with it. White rice may work just as well. She scoops and pours into a variety of containers. Sometimes we hide things in it. You could use it with cars, etc. Makes a mess sometimes, but easily cleanable. (As I'm typing this I told dd it's nap time and she cried, but I didn't play with rainbow rice!)
Last week I brought snow inside for her in the same tub, and gave her colored water to pour over it, plus spoons and such.
My oxo pop containers have provided hours of play. They should be organizing my pantry but are mostly empty still. We put cereal, beans, whatever dry goods on hand and dd will open, close, pour into others or a bowl, for quite a while.
+1 for playdoh
Does he like baths? Dd would stay in there forever. We used to do color baths - add food coloring and all the objects of the same color you can find.
Shopping - saw you got rid of your kitchen, but could work with other things. I set out all the play food, dd picks it all up, loads it into her shopping cart, and brings it to me to check out.
Building with pillows/ jumping on pillows.
Tape obstacle course - use painter or masking tape, something that won't screw up your surfaces to create areas to crawl under, step over, etc. Works best in a hallway.
I don't have a sense of how much other 2 year olds are like this, but dd lives in her head and everything talks - stuffed animals, babies, milk, water, feet, everything. At least half of our day is me having conversations with her in a voice other than my own. Then I can direct her to get teddy bear food, take him somewhere, etc.
Most often of dd says she doesn't want to do something, if I get it out and set it up, she will play with it.
not looking for minimal interaction, it's more for the weekend. If he's at home with me during the work week it's probably because he's sick so i'm ok with him watching tv on the couch. We don't have a shopping cart or anything like that as it would more likely be rammed into the walls and furniture but he likes to play tea party and runs into the kitchen repeatedly to fetch me more cake. I'll try the rice thing although i'm honestly scared of how much rice i'll have to clean up by the end!
Question about food colouring in the bath, how does it not dye their skin? Whenever i use it to bake with i end up with colour dots all over my hands
Just a couple drops. It's incredibly diluted in the bath.
not looking for minimal interaction, it's more for the weekend. If he's at home with me during the work week it's probably because he's sick so i'm ok with him watching tv on the couch. We don't have a shopping cart or anything like that as it would more likely be rammed into the walls and furniture but he likes to play tea party and runs into the kitchen repeatedly to fetch me more cake. I'll try the rice thing although i'm honestly scared of how much rice i'll have to clean up by the end!
Question about food colouring in the bath, how does it not dye their skin? Whenever i use it to bake with i end up with colour dots all over my hands
I bought colored bath tablets on Amazon. Then you can see how red+yellow=orange and stuff like that.
Crayola makes tablets for the bath they also make paint and crayons for the bath. DD will stay in the bath painting or coloring for a really long time then you can just turn your shower on and rinse the tile walls clean afterwards.
I bought colored bath tablets on Amazon. Then you can see how red+yellow=orange and stuff like that.
Crayola makes tablets for the bath they also make paint and crayons for the bath. DD will stay in the bath painting or coloring for a really long time then you can just turn your shower on and rinse the tile walls clean afterwards.
In my experience, the bath tablets and finger paint soap are really easy clean up. The crayons take a little bit of scrubbing, and if you don't clean it up right away it becomes increasingly harder to clean off. Our tub at our old house had some seemingly permanent purple marks that my cleaning lady and I both tried to remove and couldn't. So bath crayons are not welcome at our house anymore.
DS loves the bath but we usually do it in the evening as part of bedtime. He would spend hours in there if he could though, he had some bath crayons over christmas and had some fun with them then lost interest, then got mad if i drew on the tub with them
so don't judge too harshly, but my MIL plays candy pickup. She'll take m&m's and throw them in the air and let the DC kids all go pick them up and eat them.
What about 52 card pick up with cards. Or give him an old deck of cards to play with?
Do you have dominos? Eliza loves to play with them when we have company over and we play with them.
Empty out a change jar and let him put it back in, lol
I'm just thinking of random things my kids would enjoy.
I do this with his toys - hide them around the house and shout "go find" like he's a dog (poor kid). He runs about for ages hunting.
bliz1712 we have the same child. Mines plays with cards for at least half an hour. He loves snap - no idea what he's doing but he flips over the cards one by one and hits them occasionally and shouts.
We do a lot of "missions" on the weekends. DS1 is really into paw patrol and little einsteins where they go on missions. So, I'll hid certain toys (or more often they are naturally lost) and announce "we're on a mission to find xyz". We use flashlights and look all over, under tables, couches, upstairs, downstairs, etc. He seems to enjoy it.
Jello? Play and eat! Stickers entertain DD for a long time. I got a Melissa and Doug cleaning kit for DD. It sprays water and she loves cleaning the windows with it.
Post by springbeduk on Jan 26, 2017 21:20:59 GMT -5
Jealous of ones whose kids will use spray bottles nicely. Mine only wants to spray me.
I'm scared to try play-doh, too.
Dd loves standing on the stepstool with me at the sink and washing dishes, though. She gets a pot full of sudsy water and a spoon or two, sometimes a ladle, and a few of her plastic dishes on her side. I wash the real dishes on my side.
Before that a mixing bowl full of dish-soap suds with a spoon and a couple little bowls entertained her quite well. That was on a towel on the kitchen floor.
Post by BurritosAtEveryMeal on Jan 27, 2017 6:37:48 GMT -5
Do you have a basement to throw some bikes/outdoor toys in? DS rides his big wheels all winter downstairs. He is also obsessed with ping pong balls so they're in his water table now. You can make your own play doh- tons of recipes for gingerbread play doh and other scented play doh online. DS is also into hopping now- so he hops from toy to toy that we set out on the rug. Kids are so weird.
Do you have a basement to throw some bikes/outdoor toys in? DS rides his big wheels all winter downstairs. He is also obsessed with ping pong balls so they're in his water table now. You can make your own play doh- tons of recipes for gingerbread play doh and other scented play doh online. DS is also into hopping now- so he hops from toy to toy that we set out on the rug. Kids are so weird.
I wish we had a finished basement for being more active in but it's totally unfinished and dangerous for a little kid. We do swimming lessons every Saturday morning but I feel like it's not enough for him, he has so much energy
Post by jennyinheaven on Jan 27, 2017 7:30:45 GMT -5
Regarding play doh, if you still use some sort of seat for meals use that. DD sits in a booster with a belt to keep her in at our table. I only let her play play doh at the kitchen table while sitting in her chair. We clean up before she can get down, no mess. Eta:autocorrect
Do you have a basement to throw some bikes/outdoor toys in? DS rides his big wheels all winter downstairs. He is also obsessed with ping pong balls so they're in his water table now. You can make your own play doh- tons of recipes for gingerbread play doh and other scented play doh online. DS is also into hopping now- so he hops from toy to toy that we set out on the rug. Kids are so weird.
I wish we had a finished basement for being more active in but it's totally unfinished and dangerous for a little kid. We do swimming lessons every Saturday morning but I feel like it's not enough for him, he has so much energy
Any indoor playgrounds or trampoline parks near you? We went to an indoor playground that seemed kind of lame to me, but dd enjoyed it. Haven't been to the trampoline park because not sure I can hack it wearing a baby, but our neighbor has raved about taking her same aged ds to toddler time.
Regarding play doh, if you still use sounds sort of seat flute meals use that. DD sits in a booster with a belt to keep her in at our table. I only let her play play doh at the kitchen table while sitting in her chair. We clean up before she can get down, no mess.
same here. I only let DS play with it at the table and belted into his booster. I do not want play doh ground into the furniture
I wish we had a finished basement for being more active in but it's totally unfinished and dangerous for a little kid. We do swimming lessons every Saturday morning but I feel like it's not enough for him, he has so much energy
Any indoor playgrounds or trampoline parks near you? We went to an indoor playground that seemed kind of lame to me, but dd enjoyed it. Haven't been to the trampoline park because not sure I can hack it wearing a baby, but our neighbor has raved about taking her same aged ds to toddler time.
nope, nothing for kids under about 6. I'm still shocked that there is nothing like that since everyone is house bound for 4 months over winter. We took DS to a couple of indoor soft play places over christmas in the UK and he loved them so much. If we had one here we'd be there every weekend.
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