Days in... How do you fill them with your child?

[Valentine]

I am basicly looking for insparation! My littlun is 13 months old and quite active. I thought about baking but i wasnt sure if he might be a bit too young? Were learning about crayons although that does have a limited intrest time.

Tank you! :D

[August Girl]

Hi Nay

I've found that lots of little short activities are better than a couple of more time consuming ones (going by when my son was little, Del is quite easily amused at her age) Maybe if you made up some cakes and then let him put some icing and sprinkles on instead of making all the cakes from scratch with him? I found that his attention span was very short and nothing held his interest for long and I'd be left having to finish activities myself while he ran amuck

I'll have another think. :D

[Damsella]

How about Play Doh?

[Valentine]

dont have any play doh but i do remember once (when i was a kid) making some... do you know how to? i have some blue food dye too!

[bisy backson]

i've found that the best thing is just to play with him tbh, play with his toys with him, play chasing him around, build houses out of duvets & chairs, read to him, sing to him, let him play with a bowl of water in the bathroom, playing with balls - catch, rolling them to each other, bouncing on the bed, putting things (clothes/toys) in and out of the laundry basket, pretend housework always seems to go down quite well too - 'mopping' or 'sweeping' the floor, using the dustpan and brush (with lots of handwashing afterwards ;) )

i know this is totally exhausting but it seems to work much better than an 'organised' activity for us anyway. mr backson has done some baking with splashy ocasionally but s tends to sit in his high chair and be entertained by whacky dad in the kitchen and then eat the mixture.

we have playdough and crayons but i agree they're probably only good for 15 mins or so if that, its still quite a complicated concept at their age.

playing in the tupperware cupboard always works a treat, as does letting him chose something from the fridge to eat & helping get it ready & eating it.

erm, can't think of anything else!

good luck

bbxx

[Pikeypants]

Excellent advice there from my colleague Mrs Backster.

I don't do set activities either. This is because I have tried card making, picture drawing etc at playgroup where i don't care about the mess & she is soooo not interested!

When I have a day in I tend to let her play by herself in the morning while I am on the PC. After lunch she is more demanding/ tired so we change scenery quite alot. She has different toys in different rooms to keep her stimulated. We play with the toys, play chase/ tickling etc, I have recently bought her some animals & she learns the noises. Alot of her toys are in baskets so she does alot of emptying & putting away again :wink:

I hope Princess Buttercup joins the Damsels when she is online again because she has lots of good ideas for entertaining LOs. I think she was a Blue Peter resenter in a former life :lol:

ETA: Singing :o I fogot! We do lots of singing with actions, which she is getting really good at :mrgreen:

[Valentine]

All we seem to do when were home is chase and sing. So i guess i will just stick with that! Thank you ladies! :D