Saturday, January 9, 2010

Keeping My Toddlers Occupied

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Well I think that we are slowly starting to get back into the school groove again. After the holidays I feel like we have a lot of ground to catch up. We've started to do some Toddler School activities during the day with both the 3yr. old and the 1yr. old. They love having their own activities to do with either me or one of their older siblings.


This week I thought I'd be a good mom and let the little ones make a mess. Oh wait, they do that every day! :) I purchased some finger painting paper but forgot the paint. I decided to use pudding instead and when I looked in my pantry I found that the only instant pudding I had on hand was pistachio. So that's what we used!


This was DD#4's first time finger painting. She was also the first one to figure out that the finger paint tasted good :)



Yummy! This was fun!


DD#3 had a blast. Every day this week she asked to paint. Oh and as a side-note---pistachio pudding does not make good finger paint--those nut pieces kind of look gross on the paintings :)


 I pulled out an older activity for DD#3 to do this week. It involved transferring cotton balls from one bowl to another using the salad tongs.  When I see this picture I can hear the screaming. See that hand with the purple shirt? I failed to realize that I should have had two of these set up. DD#4 was not happy to wait for her turn and she let everyone know. :)



With DD#3 I pulled out the Unifix cubes and pattern cards. She enjoyed matching the colors on the cubes, but when it came to extending the pattern--she didn't care. I don't think she's quite ready for doing patterns this way at the moment. We did have fun making towers and using the blocks as pretend doll food though. :)


We also had a nice snow blanket the area this week. DD#3 had a blast trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth. She also was a good helper and shoveled snow with me.

For Christmas the girls got a Read 'N' See DVD Bible. We've been trying to do a story a day. We have been enjoying sitting together to read the book and then watching the DVD.

Here's a listing of Toddler Activities that I've compiled. I find it helpful in planning activities for my two toddlers.

For even more toddler ideas be sure to check out the Tot School links at 1+1+1=1.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Jo Shabo said...

the pistachio finger paint cracks me up! Great idea!! :) I've used the cotton balls too- that's a great activity. Thanks for sharing!!

January 10, 2010 at 10:56 PM  
Blogger sbswtp said...

your pictures are great!!!! we have done the finger painting with the chocolate pudding...sooo messy...you are really brave!! :)

January 11, 2010 at 12:06 AM  
Blogger A Learning Journey said...

Hi! I LOVE the pattern cards you used with your kiddos. I went to the amazon website and they are currently unavailable there, but I am sure I'll find them at a teacher store. I use workboxes with my daughter too and she LOVES them?
Tracey

January 11, 2010 at 6:11 AM  
Blogger Susan-Chasing Marcus said...

Thanks for putting together such a great list of activities for tots. I am printing it out so when I can not think of something off hand I can reference it. I am thinking about starting the work box concept for my little one instead of more random placement of activites.

January 11, 2010 at 4:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

yummy! Thanks for the list!

melissa
www.homegrownfamilies.blogspot.com

January 11, 2010 at 5:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks like a great week! I will have to try the pudding painting.

January 11, 2010 at 7:09 PM  
Blogger Kama said...

We did the cotton balls with tongs and bowls today. I was surprised at how much fun my 2 year old and even my 1 year old thought it was! They did try to eat them and the 1 year old did like throwing them on the floor, but I'd say it entertained them for at least 15 minutes. That's record-breaking in this house!! :) Thanks for the idea (and squidooing about it).

February 4, 2011 at 3:11 PM  

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