Archive for category Projects with Toddlers
Trip to the Zoo
Mar 6
Music Class Concert
Mar 3
Jack has been going to Prelude Music Classes since he was 10 weeks old, and it is the highlight of our Saturdays. Every semester the class has two concerts, where they bring in musicians to play live music for the kids. We went to one of the concerts last weekend, and Jack had a really great time.
This is Part 4 of a 5-part series on fun things you can do to entertain your toddler. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
Plan to Be Spontaneous
That doesn’t sound right, right? It’s obvious when you say it, but little kids have shorter attention spans (and shorter tempers), and if you don’t plan our outings things can go down really fast. When you plan an outing, have a plan. More than that, though, be ready with a spontaneous contingency plan when the plan doesn’t work out.
This is Part 3 of a 5-part series on fun things you can do to entertain your toddler. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Make Him a Part of Your Plan
My wife had been wanting blinds on East-facing bay windows in our bedroom because the curtains weren’t keeping the room dark enough, for over a year. I planned on installing them every weekend, and every Sunday night I’d realize it would have to wait another week. Installing five sets of blinds on the same window would take at least a couple of hours, and there would be a lot of noise with the drill and the saw and it just can’t be done with the baby there. But the weekend is the only time I have with him so I don’t want to send him off somewhere. But I can’t do it while he’s there. And so on and so forth.
So finally last weekend I decided to try it out with Jack there, and you know, it actually turned out really well!
We measured the windows together–I let him hold the tape measure. Then we went to Home Depot to pick out blinds–Jack was still having fun with the tape measure. We walked around the store while the blinds were getting cut. The next morning, we got started on the blinds. One very important thing I learned is, it’s going to take you longer than you had planned it would. Little kids have shorter attention spans, and no matter how interesting what you’re doing is to you, they’re going to get bored. So I did everything in short bursts. Take the blinds out of the box, and play with the box for a while. Hang one of the blinds, then let him play with the blinds. Get a snack. Put up another set of blinds, while he plays with his toy hammer. It only took a half an hour more than I had planned it might and we both had a great time!
This is Part 2 of a 5-part series on fun things you can do to entertain your toddler. Click here for part 1 of the series, where I talk about having fun with your kid when you’re too tired to do anything special.
Make Your Errands Fun For Him
Let’s face it, you’ve got a ton of errands to run and there aren’t enough hours in the day on weekdays for you to do it. You’re completely out of soap, toothpaste, face wash and hair gel, and the dog raided the pantry on Wednesday so you’re also completely out of bread and salt. But this is the only time you have to spend with your kid and you can’t really watch him and do that, right? And you can’t take him with you because he gets bored and cranky. Yeah, that excuse worked when he was an infant but he’s a toddler now–take him with you and make it fun for him! Yeah, you’re not going to be able to stand in the condiments isle and ponder on the differences between ketchup and catsup for 15 minutes like you do when you go alone, but then if a frog could jump he wouldn’t bump his butt every time he walked. Put him in the shopping cart and run through the empty isles pretending you’re racing him (and he wins). Play peek-a-boo by crouching down in front of the card and popping out. While you’re at it, drift the cart around sharp corners while making car tire screeching noises. Put a bag of chips over your head and catch it when it falls down. Go nuts–trying to entertain a baby gives you the license to be as nutty as you want. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself looking forward to grocery shopping trips!
And it’s not just fun with shopping carts–you can give him things to do. Let him pick out cans of soup for you. Bring a snack trap
I started writing this post and after four days of working on it, realized it is too long to fit it all in one place. So I decided to split it into parts. Here is part 1 of, what I hope to be, a 5-part series.
If you’ve ever had a toddler, you’ve probably struggled with this question many times: it’s 4 hours before lunchtime/naptime/dinnertime/sleeptime–what can we do? I struggled with this for a long time before I realized some things–things that may help save you some time.
It Doesn’t Have To Be Something Special
When you don’t get a lot of time with your child, you want to make the most of the time that you get with him, so there is so much pressure that you have to make this time count. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself for the first year of my son’s life to make all my time with him memorable, which is why this one came as a shock to me–you don’t have to be doing something special for it to be something special to your child. Some of the fondest memories of my time with my dad are surprisingly simple things–where he was paying attention to me. On days when you come home too tired to take him out to play in the park or for a long walk in the stroller, you could just hang out around the house with him–read him a book or just sit with him and watch him play. Just the fact that you’re there, paying attention to him, may matter much more to him than a hasty trip to the park when your mind is somewhere else.
So go get a towel and play peek-a-boo with your kid. He’ll have tons of fun and you’ll forget about the crap you were dealing with at work earlier.
Halloween
Nov 1
It was Jack’s second Halloween and we went trick-or-treating at the kids party at the Sugar Land Town Square. Jack was dressed as a dinosaur, though he only wore the actual costume for a few minutes. That is all.
Mowing the lawn
Oct 20
Mowing the lawn is one of those annoying chores that make the week seem too short. “It’s time to mow the lawn again? #@$#@!! Didn’t I just do that?! Well, might as well get something good out of it. Jack, you wanna come help daddy?”
Seeing as Jack says “yah!” to pretty much every question, he’s always ready to join me. For about 5 minutes, at least!
Swim Class
Oct 11
Traditions
Oct 1
Today is Thursday. I love Thursdays. Why, you ask? Because Thursday evenings are when business is slowest at Somping Grounds, a kids’ play land near our house. They have a great ages 3-5 play area that Jack loves, but can’t play in alone because he’s only 21 months old. Jack and I go here most Thursday evenings because there usually aren’t many kids there and I can take him there to play without getting (knocked over by) in the way of older kids. We’ve been doing this for about 8 months now, and he’s got to where he really wears me out. I always come home exhausted and bruised, and Jack’s not even phased!
What’s even more exciting than having some father-son time, is that I get to watch him grow. Being able to do something this week that he couldn’t last week, or getting excited about something he was too afraid to do before. Check out the video below (or at this link if your reader does not embed videos).
This is a 20 foot long tube made out of netting, 15 feet off the ground. At first, he didn’t care about the tube. Then, he saw some older kids go through it but was too afraid to do it himself. Then a couple of weeks ago, out of nowhere, he just walked over to it and started going through it–and he made it look so easy! (Daddy is clearly very proud of his little one!)
But I digress. The point I was trying to make with this post is about traditions. Kids thrive on routine, and when the routine involves something fun, it becomes a tradition. Traditions are something you remember even when you’re older, and if it’s a good one, maybe even cherish. My father and I don’t share a good relationship anymore, but I still smile when I think about the excitement I felt while sitting through a haircut (even though I was terrified of the razor blades our barber used), because I knew that when we were done my dad would buy me cookies from the store next door. Not quite the same thing, but you get the idea. Good times…
