Three days a week, Lydia has about an hour when she has to entertain herself while I teach piano. By that point, she's already had a snack and has colored to her heart's content. Then, comes the dreaded hour, where whining and tantrums are abundant.
At the suggestion of sis-in-law Vanessa, I set up a little reading nook on our stairs' landing.
She really likes her little area, but now the challenge is keeping her happy with enough activities!
I set up different books, toys, and stuffed animals each day. But she soon gets bored with these. I've started giving her old canisters with different things like fabric pieces, popsicle sticks, and craft pom-poms. She loves to take the items out of the canisters and put them back in.
I want to rotate her activities from day-to-day so she doesn't get bored, so I want LOTS of suggestions! What do your kids like to do when they don't have your attention?
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6 comments:
Wooden puzzles! The Melissa and Doug puzzles are great but can be kind of pricey. Maybe it's worth checking them out. I also made grandparent puzzles. I took a pic of each of mine and Kiff's parents and cut them in thirds (a top, middle, and bottom). They are laminated and Macy has to put all her grandparents together. She gets mad when I put grandma's nose with grandpa's eyes. "Not like that, Mommy!"
Macy has also always loved to build/stack things. She has big lego blocks but also likes stacking random things like cardboard boxes, etc.
One day I crumbled up a bunch of single sheets of colored paper. We took turns throwing them into an empty trash can. She loved that. Does she have balls? Yes but this was new and more interesting to her.
Another thing I tried once was teaching her how to string Fruit Loops. We've made necklaces and bracelets. Then she eats them and makes another one.
I keep an emergency fun box in my room. It's hidden from Macy and full of random new things. I pull something out from time to time when she's driving me bonkers. I also have an ongoing list of ideas to entertain her in case I'm too stressed to be creative.
I'm always up for new ideas so I'll be checking back to hear what people have to say!
If you fill water bottles with water, then add food coloring and some sequence it's a neat little toy to roll around and play with. You just have to make sure you seal the cap tightly, maybe with hot glue or super glue.
Or, instead of adding water, you can make noise makers by adding rice, or colorful beads and buttons. Simple things you might have around your house so you don't have to spend a fortune!
Love that puzzle idea with the grandparents pictures! That's super cute!
Max and Mia love looking at pictures of themselves and people they know. I have little photo albums just for them to look at and to keep them entertained. They also love to paint with water on our patio and porch. If all else fails. I have Dora on my tivo.
They also have those magnetic dolls. It's like today's version of paper dolls. Cori will play with them for hours!
Maybe you could get some special toys that she only gets to play with during piano lessons. Have several and rotate them.
Honestly maybe I am bad but I just make them figure it out themselves lots of the time!! I don't want them to always need me to tell them exactally how to entertain themselves and you know what? They figure it out on their own! Sometimes that is. I am all for kids learning to "make do" even if for a little while it bothers them and even with little kids too! With that being said though I do always do stuff WITH them everyday, there is just a part of the day where I expect them to learn to play by themselves. That is a good thing for kids to know!! The kids I nannied did not know how to do that, they needed constant entertainment. Not that my kids are never like that either....Anyways am I rambling...yes I am. But my two cents is to help her learn to figure it out herself! Abby will just find a peice of string and play with the darn thing for an hour, tying it around things, talking to it...it is very funny. Cameron sits in her corner and puts things in and out of baskets for a long time...they find things like that all day. And then sometimes they get in moods where they hate to play by themselves too...
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