What do you do with them during school time? How do you keep them busy AND entertained?
If you are like me and have an inquisitive, always eager and wanting to be busy toddler on your hands then no doubt school time can become a little chaotic.
How do you spend time with all of the children, whilst keeping your toddler nearby and having them engaged as well. Not an easy task and definitely in our house some days are better than others.
Where possible I always try to 'fill his cup' before we start any school time. If he feels that he has had some special time with mummy he is usually happy to spend some time independently exploring. He has his Montessori inspired Bambino Academy Shelves where we spend some time together, but I wanted activities that I didn't need to be there with him and that were different from what was on his shelves.
So I have started compiling my list of things that are easy to pull together, this list is a work in progress and has he grows it will continually change.
I didn't get a photo but he loves gluing of all kinds. I keep our junk mail and cut it up, place it on a tray with a glue stick and a large sheet of paper and he will glue to his hearts content.
He has been very interested in cutting recently and up until a few days ago he would use both his hands to ush the scissors together to cut a snip, very laborious but he achieved what he set out to do. So I have started to alternate my cut up junk mail to glue with junk mail straight from the letter box and a pair of scissors, he is now really getting the hang of this and on same days this activity alone will keep him going for up to 30 minutes.
The Aqua Doodle is always a quick and easy standby but I don't use it too often as its value quickly wears off. However he has recently discovered that you can also 'paint' bits of your body with the aqua doodle pen and that is loads more fun than the sheet you are supposed to use.
This is my homemade felt board/white board. It did have cork on this side but I just glued down a large piece of felt cut to size, it is great having a really large board to play with.
He loves to scribble on things that he shouldn't, well c'mon what 2 year old doesn't!!! So I gave him some pieces of a cardboard box to colour and decorate. To extend this I could give him some glue so he could have fun collaging his previously cut up pieces onto the box, or even stickers would work well with this.
I do plan to continue posting other activities that we utilise for this time of our day so stay tuned for some updates.
I am linking this post to:
Toddler Tuesdays at One Hook Wonder
Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity
Tot School at 1+1+1=1
Fun With Toddlers
5 comments:
I ended up just putting my toddler in with her big brothers.
I posted about this topic today too!
Hi Kylie,
Wow, you've really taken me back a few years to when I had a toddler in tow...it must have been hectic because I literally don't remember how I managed it all! You have lots of great ideas. I do remember stumbling over a lot of train sets in those years, so that is what must have been keeping my little one busy :)
Melissa (from Secular Homeschooling)
Hi Kylie,
I try to keep our toddler occupied, but sometimes she finds her own entertainment. Like yesterday... when she took every piece of clothing out of her sister's dresser drawers and off the hangers in the closet! And that's the tame thing she did this week!! (I'm too embarrassed to write about the other (which has to do with the scissors that were out for the cutting activity)! Oh my!)
Great topic! Thanks.
Liesl
Thanks for the suggestions as we try to keep my 2 1/2 year old entertained while I teach my older 3. I have been rotating my older children to be with my 2 year old throughout the morning by putting at least one activity in each of their workboxes that can be done with my 2 year old. This is helping a little. I also use the Aqua Doodle on occassion :)
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