Fun with Toddlers!

[olive]

just google it hun! its online!

the song choices change arooung 6 monthly

[Snacks]

LOL! I am sooooo backwards
Still getting the hang of this new-fangled interweb business you young folk are using these days...
Thanks!

[olive]

dont worry i could email til around 3 yrs ago!

[Oshani]

We do a lot of the ideas above but one I love is that the other day I bought Oscar a Bubble Wand! So we head outside most afternoons now and make bubbles! He loves running around trying to catch them!

[Mummykins]

Our tv is on most of the time aswell. I'm guilty of that too.
We watch playschool and the other cartoons together. He likes to sing along to the cartoons little songs, and so I have to do it with him.

He makes up games to play. We do pretending games most days. The weather has been crappy so we've been doing colouring in and drawing alot lately, where as we're usually outside alot doing whatever he feels like while I hang the washing out, etc.

Today he's playing alot by himself. Doing jigsaws. Writing numbers and other things like that. We'll prob walk to the park later or something. He usually likes to help with the clothes folding and making dinner, setting the table, etc.
I just go with the flow most of the time.

Thanks for the thread, Mel! it's giving me more ideas too.

[maz]

Ah Mel..honey nothing wrong with having a free baby sitter some times

hmm...what did we do today......

Went down the street were I let Vy pick out an inflatable santa and gave her the money to pay for it.
Meet my parents down there and she loved walking with her Mah - mah. WE hung up chrissy deco's together...she was the foreman and was telling me I was a good girl oh and we bought some snowman chair covers that we decided to wear first..and fell over laughing doing it. We also put potatoes down our tops and giggles like idiots. We sat on the ground and rolled a ball to each other and made silly fart noises

Mel - life is what ya make of it babe...you dont have to go out and buy stuff, or take them to special groups to entertain your kiddies.....house hold chores can be fun and not boring if the kids come and help. I dont know how many times a nappy has been on my head and i just didnt know how to find it with out Vy's help

Let the inner dork out babe!!! you can do it!!!!!

[Arimeh]

Thanks heaps for the ideas guys.. I've been out this morning with DS - he was such a good boy in his stroller, and went shopping with me - and I brought him a truck from crazy clarks for $2 for his good behaviour.. he was stoked.. lol

Didn't end up taking him to the park - its pretty crappy weather.

I went out again once he went to sleep and brought some chalk (for outside) and a colouring in book, and some paintbrushes - thanks HEAPS for those ideas !!!!

I also got some paint for finger painting and he liked that for about two seconds and then wanted to paint his tractors eyes blue... lol

[Liviam]

Well I am feeling like the worst mummy today. Livvy is feeling a little under the weather so all we have done is snuggle on the couch and watch Shrek and read stories.
I love this thread through. Giving me so many ideas of things to do with Livvy.

[christy]

Nah Nurse Dan those are good days too!!

I second the painting with water.... we have a wooden fence at the new house that gets painted daily!!! Then the toys get painted & it doesn't matter... Jovie paints everything & Matilda paints the brick wall. We also got from Ikea that really fat chalk & they do drawings on the cement with it.

I bake with them once a week & its messy but good fun! They love it!

* Hide n' seek
* dolly dress ups (don't know how a boy would go )
* water fun... I fill a baby bath with lukewarm water & add maybe a drop of food colouring to it, I put cups & funnels and bath toys in and let Jovie pour until her heart is content. Often I play tea partys with it. She loves it!
* Picnic time, we set out a rug & have a picnic with morning tea outside together
* wrapping paper painting. We make our wrapping paper every year for Christmas, so I go and get some stickers and some red & green paint. I roll out heaps of butchers paper on the ground & let them paint it all... this year we will probably get some sponges and make stamps for them.
* post things... write letters and post them in boxes.
* dominos... set up a dominos train and let them knock it down... or dominos tower etc....

[lilias]

Great thread Mel!

We watch Sunrise for a while the put on Sporticus and In the Night Garden, I either watch with her and we dance around the lounge room singing the stupid songs or I try to do the washing up, I usually end up singing and dancing though, she hates me washing up for some strange reason. Then it's nap time and I do some cleaning and surf the net, or play with my little man. The tv goes off now and I put the radio on or a few cd's in the sterio.
After nap time, we go out and do any errands I need to run, or just go for a walk. Today we did neither and just bummed about at home. We played tickles, chasing, indoor soccer (with a stuffed fuzzy ball), giddee up, building, drawing. Then I put on some christmas songs and tidyed up while she destroyed things behind me, she 'helped' me fold and put her clothes into her drawers and cupboards and we danced and sang all the daggy chrissy carols.
Then it was lunch time, we ate and nanny came over after, then it was nap time again. And here we are...I plan on giving her a bucket of water to sit in while I make dinner later. We might do some painting, we usually have a tea party for afternoon tea.

Other ideas for messy play are goop and slime- either corn flour mixed with cold water, or lux flakes with water. Or if you have some big windows or sliding doors and don't mind the mess they can paint on the doors-on the outside so you can wash it off with the hose, or give them a spray bottle and squeegee to clean it off, make sure you use paint that won't stain you verandah or whatever.
If you use roll on deoderant, keep the bottles, clean them out and make rolly bottles of paint. Shaving cream makes for good, fun messy play too. Fly squatters are good paint brushes (be careful of the paint splatter!).....there's sooooo much you can do!! I can't think of more at the mo, DS is getting demanding. Will try to think of more later.

[olive]

sophie is currently painting the pavers with water!!

[Rouge]

Hehehehehe its great fun isn't it

[olive]

sure is, even daddy is liking it!!

[Rouge]

The best thing is there is no mess, and it doesn't matter if they get it on their clothes

At Kinder they used to paint the cubby house

[olive]

hehehe your right about the mess and its hot today so its perfect! except she put her cheerios in to the bucket as well!

[Arimeh]

Its a great idea Cai - he really liked it I think. I also brought him a watering can, so he liked tipping water from that into the ice cream bucket that his water was in.

We were just colouring in before together.... then he requested bob the builder..

baby steps right? lol

[Gigi]

Arimeh - you are the BEST for starting this thread!

Please MODS can you turn it into a sticky?

i'm off to google "ABC Playground Radio" - thanks AJP!

i have just started bringing out playdough for bilbs. we don't have a table, so she does it on a stable table (tray you eat off of usually).

i try to turn off telly after playschool too, but sometimes, i want to hear some adult voices, like Kim and David (not the infomercial crap that keeps coming on!!). as long as they are interviewing somebody.

bilby wants me to blow bubbles ALL DAY with her, it's her new "thing". i just can't do it forever.

[olive]

mel sophie is obsessed with the watering can!! loves it!

gigi our kindy make the best playsdough!!!! silky smooth stuff, bubbles are a hit here too