Thursday, October 16, 2014

Busy Toddler Activities

Back again for another week of One Year and Beyond Link-up. Today's topic is Busy Toddler Activities. I'm a working Mom so I don't have to come up with nearly as many busy activities to take up time before lunch, after lunch, before nap time, after nap time till Daddy gets home....you get it, there's lots of time to fill in a day.

This activity is super easy and the kids LOVED it. This is really good for a small playdate everyone was totally involved and had a blast. What is it? Tracing themselves! Life size, of course! I bought the roll of paper at Home Goods for maybe $6?

 

 
Another fun kid activity we like to do is bake. It takes up a hour or so, and Baby Fox totally gets into it, every single time. Could be that he likes to lick the beaters when we're done and scrap the bowl, haha. Sugar cookies are the best, cause you have to roll out the dough and they get to make fun shapes.





 This last one we did this week. Baby Fox is really into numbers and asked if we could get some flash cards. Cue me thinking, hey we can make those!

All you really need is a piece of paper, some stickers and some writing utensil. 

First you have to cut your paper, I used a 12 x12 paper and cut it into 16 squares. Baby Fox loved helping to do the cutting.


Here's what you get in the end. In hind site maybe I should have cut them a little bigger? But this worked too.
 
 
We used these stamps, and some random stickers we found in his craft box (we started with this kit and then as he uses stuff we replace it with other things)

 
After I took this picture, I decided that I wanted to write the number in the upper right hand corner and then let him try and write the number.
 

As you can see after I wrote the number I drew little arrows to help him know how to make the number. As you can see he did #1 himself already.


Yep I think we might have a lefty on our hands


 

On the back we put stickers and stamps with how many was on the other side. That way we could use both sides of the flash cards, one side was for counting, the other side of number recognition.  We did this project over the course of two days. You could also do this for the alphabet, maybe work on a few letters a week and work your way up to the whole alphabet. Put the letter on one side and then do a picture of something on the other.



Some other things I've heard about that sounds fun are sensory boxes, homemade playdough, and this slime recipe seem super fun too!

What are some busy toddler activities you do? I'd love to hear about them!
 
 What are you favorite toddler busy bags or activities?  Check out the other mama's blogs for their ideas.  And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this topic. 
 
In the difficulty of motherhood, it's so important to find other mamas to relate to.  Toddlers can be a handful and leave you wondering what to do next.  This series is here to help you navigate through toddlerhood while being able to relate to other mamas going through the same thing.  We may not always know what we are doing but we give it our best shot anyway.  Come back each week to check out our new topic and read along with the other hosts of our One Year and Beyond series!
 
Oct 16:   Busy Toddler Activities
Oct 23:   Keeping in Shape While Caring for a Toddler
Oct 30:   Sick Day Tips
Nov 6:    How to Not Lose Your Patience with your Toddler
Nov 13:  Favorite Toddler Outings

2 comments:

  1. I don't think my toddler would stay still long enough to be traced. LOL

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  2. Oh my gosh, love the tracing the body idea! I'll have to see if Mia will let me do that with her!
    Genius idea on the flash cards! Look how fun that was for him!!

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