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My kids (1 and 3) love playing in their sandbox and play kitchen (making mudpies) and their favorite is ‘watering’ they love playing with the hose or buckets of water and digging in the dirt. Sometimes they are happy for a long time on their own or sometimes they like if I’m outside too even if I’m doing my own thing they just like a little company. We also have a lot of edible plants that they have helped plant and like to care for and check on…blueberries, raspberries, orange and tangerine tree, carrots….
If you want them to go out on their own, ice sent my 4 yo out with a paper airplane to fly and she did it for an hour. Then it was frisbees. She loved seeing how high and far she could get both to go. If your kids haven’t done either, you would obviously need to show them how it works first.
Art is a good idea. Both my girls will draw the nature around them on our walks and be absorbed in this activity for a long time.
Don’t underestimate the power of a simple bucket and some gardening tools to make magic potions or dirt pies. This occupies my kids for a long time.
Most recently this week, we got some tree tree stumps from a neighbor and placed them in our yard in a row. There’s only 4 and the girls love them and go back and forth again and again. When they get tired of that they just sit on them and do pretend games.
To summarize, simple is often better and easier!
Hope that helps!
Hi there! Suburban small house here that’s old with hardly any closets, so I hear you!
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/trones-shoe-storage-cabinet-white-00397307/
I found these bins to be great for shoes – they are plastic and wipe down easily (doors/bin easily come off too, to clean behind the bin, if you are a better person than I am), are very slim and fit easily in a tight space behind our door. Little one can easily put her shoes away and get them with no hassle too. Only downside is I find the occasional dead spider when cleaning it out, but we’ve got them here and they would get in anywhere in our house, so its always a check before put on situation anyway.
We put our very large boots underneath (think snow), but small boots for the pre-schooler still fit inside. Right now have 5 pairs of shoes and small boots (size 10) inside the shoe bin, with some room to squeeze in more. 2 tall fancy boots, 1 pair snow boots, 1 pair room boots sitting right under).
I have 3 bins stacked vertically on the wall, but could do 4 to reach the top of the door. Only the bottom is currently for shoes. Other accessories are in the next up, with less used/mommy gets (think swimsuits and accessories) in the top one.
I would add images of our setup to the post, but haven’t found out how to to that yet, haha!
Would love to know if this helps!
I use the notes feature with each activity to remind myself which ones resonated with my 20 month old and which ones we want to revisit in a few months time.
Having a schedule has really helped our two year old be able to have time to focus. And remembering to not interrupt him, even with verbal encouragement when he’s focused.
We’ve been continuing to use these as activities in our stay at home/work from home life. We usually do one a day as part of the other activities we use.
Good luck!
My children (aged 2 and 4) love to read:
‘I Am Bear’ Ben Bailey Smith / Sav Akyuz
‘Meow and the Pots and Pans’ Sebastien Braun
‘Fabulous Pie’ Edwards / Parker-Rees
‘Off To Market’Dale / Pal
‘Welcome to our World’ Butterfield / Lynas
‘My Encylopedia of Very Important Dinosaurs’ DK
‘The Bee Book’ Charlotte MilnerI Love You Rituals has a lot of sweet re-written nursery rhymes! One of my 3 year old’s favorites:
A wonderful woman lived in a shoe
she had so many children
and knew exactly what to do
she held them
and rocked them
and tucked them in bed
“I love you, I love you”
is what she saidYou can do a fingerplay with them – have your child sit in your lap and take her hands and massage them palm up. Then motion “sooo many children” with their hands spreading out. Touch each finger in one hand as you say ” she knew exactly what to do.” Tuck your child’s fingers in and cradle their hands to “she held them” and then rock/swing them for “she rocked them.” Fold their arms into their chest and wrap them up in your arms – “and tucked them in bed.” :)
Oh! And we also love banana pancakes or sweet potato pancakes (with extra eggs for protein). Not just a breakfast food!
1 banana
2 eggs
Blend & pour into small (2″) rounds.It can take a bit to figure out how to flip them but my 3 year old loves them. I usually make giant batches and store them in the fridge or freezer.
I love making homemade popcorn and then dressing it with fun salts (e.g., Magic Unicorn Sea Salt, Furikake, Everything Bagel Seasoning) or a combo of maple syrup, coconut oil & sea salt. It doesn’t provide protein but they’re a healthier version than many packaged stuff and fill my kiddo’s hollow leg for awhile.
I love all of these ideas, too!! Thanks, Sabrina, for getting this delicious conversation started!
About the warm boiled eggs with cumin & salt: they are SOOO good BUT I can’t take credit for the idea! It’s totally a Moroccan breakfast staple SO BONUS, you can discuss different cultures’ culinary traditions while dipping those eggs ;) ;) ;) I hope you love them as much as my fam does!
Hi! I’m originally from Cosenza a city in Calabria (Italy) but I’m currently living in Chicago with my canadian husband and almost 4 years old daughter and almost 2 years old son. Would love to hear from other parents who have dual language spoken at home and how they are using the platform. Thank you
We buy mini paleo turkey sausages from Costco and serve those almost every day with some different sides, like yoghurt and granola, a smoothie, toast with butter or peanut butter, or leftover roasted veg. We find our son is calmer throughout the day when he has a breakfast full of healthy fats.
