Keeping Little Ones Busy

Keeping Little Ones Busy

You might need to keep little ones busy while you homeschool older ones. You might need to entertain them while you are on bedrest. You might need to keep them busy while you are vacation or visiting Grandma, who doesn't have many toys and lives in a fifth floor apartment. You might need list just because you're fresh out of ideas and you have a very busy toddler who is destructive without direction

Ever single idea below will not work for each of the situations above, some will work better for one, some would be wildly inappropriate for bedresting Moms.Use what works for you.

The FYG once upon a time

 This particular list got its start about 15 years ago when somebody gave it to me.. I discovered later that much of it had been copied from other places, perhaps here:

http://www.angelfire.com/mo/sasschool/preschoolers.html

Or here:

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/preschool_activities.htm#Dolly

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/preschool_activities.htm

Or maybe here:

http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2008/06/toddler-activity-bags.html

Or maybe not- one or two of those sites are newer than 15 years ago. But I don’t want to not give credit where credit is due, and there are great ideas at each of those sites that might give a jolt to your creative powers and get you started thinking about other ideas.

Another source is this blog- right here, where you're reading=)  Click on the 'index card files' label for other posts with other ideas.

Here’s what I have:

1. My little guys loved to move packing peanuts from one bag or box to another. Sometimes I gave them a ladle, tongs, or a scoop for the moving. They also like to melt the biodegradable ones (put 'em in water and stir)
2. 
   .Other non-toy items we like:Pinecones, seashells, and stones: sorted, stacked, and just handled.Cereal box and a butter knife/dinner knife or Tupperware cake slicer- use the butter knife as a saw. Works great and makes a satisfying 'sawing' sound
3. 
   .Chunk of styrofoam (packing from a stereo or television- nice big solid piece) and golf tees and a hammer. This was awesome for my son.
4. 
   coins: plastic, cardboard, real, or checkers and a piggy bank- bought or home-made.(Pringles can, slit cut in top; coffee can, etc)Painting; watercolors, paint books, or food coloring in water with a Q-tip.
5. 
   Easy-to-use paper punch and strips of paper.
6. 
   Lacing cards; Cardboard shape with holes punched around it. Attach yarn , wrap masking tape around the end.
7. 
   Poke holes in thick cardboard with a tack- obviously, with supervision.
8. 
   Shallow bucket on a towel on the floor. Add water, boats. Plastic fish, measuring cups, etc.
9. 
   Writing tray; Put a layer of rice or cornmeal in a cookie sheet. Good for spelling practice or picture-drawing or practicing A B C's.
10. 
    Make a tunnel of kitchen chairs by lining them up in a row and then the kids crawl underneath.
11. 
    Stack cups or containers of different sizes.
12. 
    Nuts and bolts, same or different sizes.
13. 
    Scrap wood, hammer, nails.
14. 
    Bucket of water and a paintbrush-for outside painting. Works best on wood or concrete.
15. 
    Let them "wash" a few plastic dishes. Put an egg beater and baster in the water.
16. 
    A retractable measuring tape to measure with.
17. 
    Super ball or small car and a paper towel or Christmas paper tube
18. 
    .Look through the button box. You _do_ have a button box, right? If not, check out bargain tables at thrift shops and yard sales. We buy some very ugly clothing items with plentiful or unusual buttons that have been marked down to a dime or a quarter. We snip the buttons off and use the ugly clothes for rags.
19. 
    Watch a bug ! At the table, at an anthill, wherever.
20. 
    Water colored with food coloring, eye dropper or paint brush, coffee filter. Once this is dry, you can iron it. Then cut the center out of a paper plate. Glue filter to it for a sun catcher.
21. 
    Pins and pin cushion. Kids love to stick pins in pin cushions.
22. 
    Beanbags and a bucket. No beanbags? Put some rice or beans in one of those thousands of unmatched socks, tie a knot in the sock and there you have it. Toss it into a laundry basket or plastic trash can. Toss it to each other. Balance it on your head, your arm, your knee, your right shoulder, your left shoulder
23. 
    Blow up balloons, toss them to each other, draw faces on them, rub on your hair and stick them to the wall.
24. 
    Magnet and paperclips, washers, a nail, etc.
25. 
    A large box.
26. 
    An old deck of cards.shaving cream finger paint- I've put swim suits on the kids, sprayed shaving cream all over the bathtub sides, added a drop or two of food coloring here and there and let them finger paint away. My mom used to do this on the kitchen counter for us, and you can also use a cookie sheet.
27. 
    Tear colored paper into pieces into a wash tub (or pages from a magazine). Later, use a glue stick and make a mosaic with it.


 



Give a child a feather duster or dry wash cloth and let them him 'dust.'

IME, your best bet is to fill your bag of tricks with as much variety as possible. Things that work like a dream one day will be utter failures another day, and nothing works as well as just waiting until the little one grows up a bit.=) Try sorting different toys (and nontoy playthings like measuring cups, tape measure, a dead cell phone, tongs, etc) into different containers and use one on Monday, one on Tuesday, etc.

Keep notes wherever you find them as you build up a notebook or whatever with a full spectrum of different ideas such as those offered here, or some of your own, from simple nutritious snacks in the high chair while you whiz through one subject, to changing locations for lessons, to offering a toy or activity that Baby *never* gets to do except during lessons (such as playdough or water in the high chair tray), to keeping shoeboxes of toys and activities ready for when you need them for distractions.