Ring Toss

Materials:

Bowl

Wooden spoon

rings (or play bracelets, like I used)

playdo

The pictures are pretty self explanatory. But just in case, put the playdo on the bottom of the bowl, stick the spoon in the playdo, then toss the rings to try and make it on the stick.

This was not Riley's favorite, I don't think she had the motor skills to throw the rings that well. Next time, I might just have her throw them into a bowl, with out a stick. I'm sure that kids 3 1/2 and older could do it, though.

Idea stolen from my friend Robbin

Beans & Noodles

Keep the beans/noodles in a Ziploc bag and then get a variety of kitchen utensils and containers, the aluminum bowls are good because they make that cool "chink" sound. For today, I used some of R's play kitchen set. She played this for over an hour, and asked to do it the next day. One good idea my friend gave me, is to do it on a tray, so that they keep some sort of order. (I used chick peas and white beans and some old decorative noodles)

BOX!

I saw this on my friend Tennille's blog a while ago, and thought it was so simple. So, I now save the diaper box every time we get them and let the kids play in it for a few days (only a few days because I get annoyed with the box just lying around).
Riley loves to get in and just sit and curl up in a ball. This morning I was pulling her around like a train and she loved it! Chloe likes to bang on the top of the box and sometimes venture inside, if the box is tipped over.

Leaf Activity

Fall has arrived finally in San Jose, so I thought we could do something with all the leaves outside. We got a bag, collected as many leaves as R liked.
When we first dumped them out, I had her sort them into piles of similar shape and color. Then I showed her how to do a leaf rubbing, (being 2 she had a hard time holding the crayon right, so I did hand over hand with it). She kept wanting to put the leaves on the paper, so I gave her some tape and then just had her tape the leaves on, she really liked this!

Tops and Bottoms

Everyone knows to have "free cupboard" in the kitchen for when you are cooking. But I never thought to organize it a little.
Put out Tupperware, with matching tops scattered around. Have them match up the tops to bottoms. Then you can build a tower, and knock it down over and over. Finally, make sure they take the tops off and put them away.

This wasn't a favorite of R's, she had a hard time fastening the tops, so she got frustrated, maybe I'll try again in a few months.

Wrapping up toys

So, I was wrapping a present for a birthday yesterday, and on a whim gave "R" a piece of the paper with some tape. I told her to go wrap up a toy, and to my amazement she spent a good 30 minutes doing this. She would walk up to me and say "Happy Birthday" then unwrap the toy, then go find another toy and do it all again. So easy, so cheap!

Play Dough

So Easy! And cheap! The actual playdo is priced so reasonable, some of the tools area little more, but worth it. (I want the new ice cream maker thingy). Riley will easily be entertained for a good half hour with it.

A few things I try to make sure of
- keep it in a bag all together
- have a tray she can play on, so that it doesn't get anywhere, I got mine at the 1$ store
- Make sure she cleans it up herself! (which is a general rule for most of these activities)

Sheets

Building Forts is one of the old school activities that many of us have done. So in training Riley to keep herself entertained we made a fort for her with just a few sheets and chairs. She loved it! The goal is that when she gets bit older, we can give her a sheet and just say "go build a fort" and then be occupied for hours - right??

You can also have them sit on the sheet and pull them around on the ground - then you get some calorie burning for Mom!

Tape Street

Materials:

Masking Tape

Any floor

Cars, trains, feet

I just put the tape down all curvy on the ground. Riley got her trains out and her Polly Pocket car and pushed them all around. We also walked on them like a balance beam, then had a fun time puling the tape back up again! Riley probably spent 20 - 30 minutes on this.

Making a schedule

So first things first, I sat down with an activity book for toddlers (which has given me tons of ideas) and wrote down something to do everyday for this month. I don't plan on being interactive for every activity. Some activities are some very simple independent play items, although the first couple of times I have to teach her HOW to play independently. These ones are great because, sometimes I need to "clean the house/make dinner...", which I also like to call "sitting and watching a show".

So far this week:

Monday: Finger paint (Messy , but loved every second of it!)

Tuesday: Stamps (Big mistake: I didn't teach her how to do it, so the ink got everywhere)

Wednesday: "Tape City" (Check back for pictures)

Thursday: Fun with sheets

Friday: Play do