At such a young age basically anything you do with your toddler is fun and also educational. Sitting back and letting them explore the world around them is the best way for little ones to learn. Buuuut sometimes they need some guidance or more likely you may need some peace and quiet! I’ve put together some ideas that work for our family, that will hopefully give you some ideas.
books
Read as many books to your little ones as possible. Kids are like little sponges, soaking up a crazy amount of knowledge every day. Row has created a routine for herself that once she is finished breakfast she goes and reads in the living room until I’m done cleaning the kitchen, then we read together. It is something they can enjoy individually and together.
Toilet Paper Castle
I brought out all our TP and PT, Row and I made her a “castle” for her to snuggle up inside and read books. She then proceeded to make castles for her stuffed animals. This killed an entire morning!
baking
I’ve found a “small batch” cookie recipe (makes 8 cookies) that we’ve made a couple of times. It makes great cookies but you’re not stuck with too many to temp you for the week -or in my case they’re gone in 2 days. I’ve added the recipe here to my food blog.
i spy walks
We’ll go on walks and search for different things, ie. I spy a red car, a blue house, pink bike etc.
Letters
We’ve been writing letters to our grandparents which makes for a fun craft activity plus a trip to the mailbox!
Stickers!
Stickers have been a saving grace this past week. I had quite the teacher collection in the basement that I brought out, the 45 minutes of quiet was totally worth finding stickers on the walls, floors, tub, dryer and in her diaper, somehow? But we got the hang of putting them onto paper and made some Easter cards for our grandparents we won’t be able to see this year.
beading
I found some big beads at the dollar store and Rowyn had fun stringing them together, or putting them into containers to make maracas and her personal favorite -throwing them everywhere!
decorating cookies
Rowyn received a cookie decorating kit from Nana and Papa for Easter and loved getting to “color tookies”. If you want to shop local the Creative Cookie Co here in Saskatoon are selling DIY cookie sets for very reasonable prices.
When you have the time, sanity and patience, follow their lead. If they want to explore/destroy the tupperware drawer -let em! Allow them to guide their own play. Afterwards, we always make sure that she cleans it up on her own (even if we have to redo it later). Giving her independence but also making sure she knows our expectations.
Some days we crush quarantine -get lots of stuff done, have great behaviour, learn lots and have a super productive day. Other days the house looks like a disaster, we have a terrible toddler (and sometimes adult) attitude, and watch Frozen on repeat. It’s a balancing act and no matter how good or bad the day we have to cut ourselves some slack and be thankful to be home safe and healthy.
Xo,
Surviving Mama