101 Activites To Do With Your Toddler

April 26, 2007

I found this list online and I figured I'd post it. Also, if you are in the Pacific Northwet, then check out the Procession of the Species in Olympia, Washington this coming Saturday. It is a great family friendly and inspiring adventure.

101 Activites To Do With Your Toddler

Most of these activities you can do at home with little or no expense.

1. Color
2. Blow bubbles
3. Play hide-and seek
4. Peek-a-Boo
5. Play chase
6. Do fingerplays
7. Sing a song
8. Collect rocks in a basket
9. Make an obstacle course out of cushions and/or furniture
10. Make a fort out of cushions and sheets
11. Go for a Walk
12. Make a car out of a box
13. Read a book
14. Go to the park
15. Fingerpaint
16. Play with play-dough
17. Toss bean bags into a bucket
18. Play the shell and pea game
19. Dance to music
20. Download games for toddlers from the Internet
21. Practice putting things in and taking things out of boxes and bags
22. Make a temporary slide out of a table leaf and your couch
23. Roll a ball back and forth on the floor
24. Scoop dirt of sand into a child’s bucket (or use a serving spoon and bowl)
25. Practice climbing by stacking boxes on top of each other
26. Put on a puppet show
27. Go fishing with a yard stick and yarn
28. Make a horseshoe game
29. Make a shape puzzle
30. Play paper basketball
31. Run through a sprinkler
32. Play with a bucket of water and sponge
33. Make a drum out of an oatmeal box
34. Play with a kazoo
35. Wash windows together
36. Bang on pots and pans with a spoon
37. Brush each others teeth
38. Play dress-up with stuffed animals and your child’s clothes
39. Stack canned or boxed food on top of each other
40. Let child stack mixing bowls inside each other
41. Make a playhouse out of a large box
42. Play with stickers
43. Put stickers on your fingers for finger puppets
44. Play a musical instrument together
45. Go on a smelling hunt
46. Frost cookies
47. Plant a flower or vegetable together
48. Roll a tennis ball into an empty trash can or bucket
49. Draw on a mirror with dry-erase markets
50. Play hide and seek together, trying to find a stuffed animal
51. Have a splash party together in the bathtub
52. Put a leash on a stuffed animal and walk around the house
53. Record each other on a tape recorder
54. Make and try on paper hats
55. Give a piggie back ride
56. Play horsie
57. Talk into an electric fan (it distorts your voice)
58. Play tug-of-war with a blanket
59. Collect flowers (felt, artificial, real)
60. Make a camera and go on safari
61. Play games with frozen juice lids
62. Disconnect you phone and pretend to make phone calls to relatives
63. Leave your phone connected and really make phone calls to relatives
64. Sting beads onto or along a shoelace
65. Squirt each other with squirt bottles
66. Glue shapes onto paper
67. Make sock puppets
68. Make paper puppets
69. Fill an old purse with toys
70. Use a paper towel tube as a megaphone
71. Make binoculars and go “bird watching” or “stuffed animal watching”
72. Put snacks in different fun containers (paper sacks, empty canisters, etc)
73. Act out a story from a book
74. Walk on a balance beam – use a 2x4 placed on the ground
75. Draw with chalk on the sidewalk
76. Sketch an outline of your child on the sidewalk or paper with chalk
77. Paint child’s palms with tempura paint and blot on paper. Makes a great card for loved ones
78. Put lipstick on a child and kiss a mirror
79. Make a puddle on cement and splash barefoot in it
80. Let child decorate and eat an open peanut butter sandwich
81. Make a toilet paper barricade for child to go over, under, through
82. Do the hokey pokey
83. Make a super-hero costume out of household items
84. Do knee bouncing rhymes
85. Play “red light, green light”, saying “go” and “stop”
86. Make a shoebox train for stuffed animals
87. Make a pillow pile to jump on (keeping clear of hard surfaces, walls)
88. Make an easy puzzle with felt and Velcro
89. Make bracelets or collars for stuffed animals out of pipe cleaners and jingle bells
90. Lean numbers from a deck of cards
91. Play the matching game with a deck of cards
92. Make a domino chain
93. Have a picnic in the backyard or living room
94. Play dress up in mommy or daddy’s clothes
95. Make a tin cup telephone and talk to each other in it
96. Make a nature collage
97. Mirror each other
98. Make a mummy mommy with toilet paper
99. Make a tape recording of short music selections and instructions to move in different ways
100. Make and walk along a toilet paper trail
101. TAKE A NAP!

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are you wondering

April 23, 2007

It is all good. Life is rolling along.

My mom and my step-dad are living with us for a month (just got back from their stint in the Peace Corps). The kids clamber into their bed for morning books and snuggles and leave me and Dave sleeping in, drooling on pillows. We all grocery shop together with our lists divided and kids passing back and forth between our carts, all of us whistling the family whistle for each other. Having Deb and John here is just peaceful and fun.

We reorganized our whole house and now Tess has her own room and a big girl bed.  It took her a few days to figure out that she could get out of her big girl bed but the transition over all has been very smooth. Her room is cute. I made her a mobile and Dave made her a magnetic board for her wall.  She just turned two.

The boys are sharing our old room and we stacked their bunk beds. Sammy has a little nest up there with his Clone Wars comic books and his mathematical drawings in his clipboard. Simon is on the bottom bunk with a multicolored silk curtain all around, which he calls "sleeping in a rainbow". We just found them in the middle of the night snuggled in Simon's bed sleeping with their heads on the same pillow. Most likely they just whispered themselves to sleep.

And Dave and I have our own bedroom all to ourselves for the first time in many many years. It is so lovely I don’t mind a bit that all of my clothes are in laundry baskets.

And today was warm and sunny and Tess didn’t nap. (She’s just beginning the transition into no naps. She still does generally nap every day but she can make it fine without one sometimes) She frolicked in her birthday suit all afternoon. Finally we dragged out the trusty old tin bucket and filled it with warm water to splash in. Simon had to dive in as soon as he saw that action.



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Here’s a story about Sammy –

The other night the kids were all running around naked before bath time and I was in the kitchen doing the dinner dishes. Sammy comes and stands in the doorway looking at me sideways. “Are you the Tooth Fairy?” he asks and I am caught off guard with a handful of dirty forks. I can tell Simon is pretending not to listen. “We can talk about that tomorrow on our date night” I try and say lightly. But Sammy studies me for a minute and says “What did you do with my teeth?”

The next night we go on our date. We go to Pix for desserts and to play cards. Sammy gets the Royal. The place is busy so we are squeezed in a table between what appears to be romantic dates on either side of us.  “So are you the Tooth Fairy?” asks Sammy. I had forgotten that we were having this discussion but I am ready. I tell him I am the tooth fairy. I tell him I have a little box in my underwear drawer with his teeth in it. I ask him if he is sad that there is no Tooth Fairy and he shrugs and says “Not really.”

I am dealing out the cards and he is eating the chocolate meringue straws off the edge of his cake. He thinks that is all there is to eat. He has not realized yet that there is a whipped mousse filling. I am waiting for him to break through the outer layer. “So” he says, “are you the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, too?” And I wasn’t ready for that. I can see that both of the dates on either side of us have paused in their conversations and now I have 5 people waiting to hear if I am the Easter Bunny and Santa. “Yes” I say. And I tell him that now the secret has been passed to him and he can be the Easter Bunny and Santa for those who believe. He thinks about that. He has a few questions. Do I pay for the Christmas presents? Did he not get a Sony Playstation 2 for Christmas because it is too expensive? Do I ever wear a Santa suit?

I lay all my cards on the table. I answer all his questions honestly. (are you wondering if I wear a Santa suit?) I wish he wasn’t across the table from me because I want to hug him. In the end he beats me at the game. He decides to believe in Santa for a little while longer anyway, but he’d also like to put in a request for more money when he loses a tooth.

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