In the last few weeks we’ve been thrown head-first into the world of toddler activities.  Scribble dropped his morning nap a few weeks ago, and it has become a challenge to keep him entertained through his fussy mid-morning phase.  Around the holidays we had errands to keep us occupied.  But this year we have fewer excuses to get out: I’m trying to avoid unnecessary spending, and illness and weather keep us at home.  We try to get outside every day, but thanks to the cold we can’t stay out for long.

I started scanning Pinterest for activities, hoping to find something worthwhile.  My expectations were running high; my head was filled with images of Scribble and I peacefully sorting beans.

Needless to say my expectations were dashed!

The thing about Pinterest is…. the photos you see of kids happily doing activities don’t tell the whole story.  A photo is just one moment in time.  A child smiling beatifically while pushing pipe cleaners into a colander might have been crying two minutes before, or putting the colander onto the dog’s head two minutes after. It can get discouraging. After an activity flounders, I spend an embarrassing amount of emotional energy wondering if I introduced an activity the wrong way, or if Scribble was somehow playing incorrectly. Frankly, what we do doesn’t always look like what that family on Pinterest was doing.

I found myself getting frustrated. I decided it was utter nonsense to feel that my son was “playing wrong.”  Maybe he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of pushing the pipe cleaners into the colander, but did it really matter?  Did I really want to limit his interaction with the colander to the specific way that I wanted them to interact?  Scribble doesn’t need assignments; our home is not a preschool.  At 17 months, the whole world is still novel to Scribble; many times, when given new things to explore, he will find a way to play that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.

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This is not to say that I don’t value activities for Scribble. But after doing them for a few weeks I just don’t take it personally when they fail.  Below are some activities we’ve tried.  I’ve rated them out of ten, given you an estimate of how much mileage we got out of them, and written a little about why the activity worked (or didn’t) for us.

Sensory Goo

Rating: 7/10

Time Engaged: 19 minutes (yes, I looked at the clock!)

This is an activity that fared pretty well.  Scribble is learning to play with tools.  Still, at 17 months, he still sees most sensory items as food, and doesn’t seem to make the distinction between what is gooey fun and what is gooey and edible.  Considering that this goo is simply a mixture of food coloring, flour, and water, I can see why he found those distinctions to be arbitrary!

 

He played with this for nearly twenty minutes before losing interest.  By “losing interest,” I mean he stopped caring about playing with the goo in the bowl, and instead tried to carry the goo-covered utensils off into another room.  By the time I had cleaned him and the mess up, I had invested more time in the setup than he had in the experience.  I still consider this a successful activity, and hopefully his time engaged will increase with age.

Pom-Pom In Paper Tube:

Rating: 1/10

Time Enaged: 30 Seconds

I set this up one day while I was making dinner, hoping it would keep him occupied near me.  He immediately set to work pulling the tube off of the wall.  So much for that activity!  Maybe this one was a little below his level; but at the same time, I don’t know if there was a time when he was physically able to put a pom-pom through a tube when he was also not able to pull something off the wall.  Either way, this one was a dud for us.  Maybe if the setup was more elaborate, he would find it more fun.

Discovery Basket:

Rating: 9/10

Time Engaged: 5- 25 minutes

Discovery baskets are a huge hit in our house. Scribble’s favorite mode is destruction, so these are easily his favorite activities. They take almost no prep for me to put together, and they keep Scribble entertained for anywhere from 5-25 minutes, if the items I include in the discovery basket are especially interesting.  I have also found that discovery bags work better than baskets, as Scribble really likes to open drawstring bags.

I am only critical of discovery baskets for two reasons: First, Scribble has a preternatural ability to know when something given to him is a toy, and when it isn’t, and he will always show more enthusiasm for an item that is not a toy.  For example, the above discovery basket entertained him for about five minutes.  On the other hand, emptying out my purse would keep him entertained for 25 or 30 minutes no question.  He just seems to know when something is “off limits” and will gravitate toward those things!

Second, don’t make the mistake of believing that everything in the basket will stay in the basket.  You will find the contents of discovery baskets strewn all around your house.

Scribble and an exploded discovery bag, now commingled with his regular toys

One tip I’ll give for any of these activities is to make the space in which you will do the activities as free of distracting clutter as possible.  This is something we battle every day as we don’t have a specific play area in our home.  So the key for us is to try and keep the toys picked up so that Scribble can concentrate on what is in front of him.  Sometimes this happens, other times it does not, and that’s ok (in the above picture, it had not happened).  But I have found that the more effort I put into an activity, the more likely I am to take time preparing the environment that surrounds the activity as well.

Pom-Poms into a Container

Rating: 10/10

Time Occupied: 20 + minutes daily

This one worked well for us.  You can’t tell, but I cut a hole in the top of the lid. Scribble enjoyed pushing the poms through, and he kept returning to this toy throughout the week.  The only downside is that I eventually had to remove the toy since he wanted to swallow the poms.  But I can always bring it back out again!

Goo Bag

Rating: 2/10

Time Occupied: 1 minute (not including setup)

Scribble really enjoyed watching me mix up the goo (just mayo and food coloring) and put it into the bag.  But once I taped it on the window he took no interest!  So that was disappointing.  Plus this requires a single-use bag, which I try to avoid.

Pipe Cleaners into a Colander

Rating: 9/10

Time Engaged: 20 minutes

This was a successful activity for us. Scribble enjoyed pushing the cleaners through the holes.  He did eventually grow tired of it and decided to push the colander around in his wagon.  But then he returned to the original skill again! So I count this as a success.

Tees into Floral Foam

Rating: 6/10

Time Engaged: 25 minutes

 This was a mixed bag.  Scribble liked poking the tees into the holes, but he tired of that pretty quickly and then just started carrying it around the house and putting it in odd places.  I was worried he would eat a tee or the floral foam, so eventually I had to take them away.

Dried Food Sensory and Sorting Tray

Rating: 5/10

Time Engaged: 10 minutes

 This was less successful than I would have liked just because Scribble kept trying to eat the pasta and the beans!  He did eventually start to put the pieces into the heart tray, but it took a little while to coax him, and then he lost interest a few minutes later.

Parents of young toddlers, what are your go-to activities for slow days?  Have you experienced any real stinkers?