As much as we love taking Eli outside this time of year, it's kind of hard living in a townhouse and having no space of our own. Eli's constantly getting into things and there's no defined boundaries. Some grass is fine but two steps farther and then it's uh oh, no, Eli that's too far. come back. We get annoyed just listening to ourselves because there's no way we can really expect Eli to understand. So yesterday after hearing how frustrated Kevin was getting with Eli, I tried thinking of more specific activities we can have him do outside:
1. He's not into riding in his wagon anymore, but perhaps he would have fun pulling it along, collecting "treasures" as he fills the wagon with sticks, rocks, leaves, etc.
2. Bubbles. Enough said.
3. Take his push-along car outside.
4. Give him a water bottle and let him "water" plants or just have fun squirting. And that's the one we tried this morning. I wanted to let Eli get outside but Hannah was asleep on the couch so we couldn't go far. So I gave him the water bottle and we just went right out on the deck. He had a blast! Check it out...
uh oh! it squirted him in the ear!
okay... AND we're squirting the camera!
this is better
Do you have any other ideas of what we can do with Eli outside???
1. He's not into riding in his wagon anymore, but perhaps he would have fun pulling it along, collecting "treasures" as he fills the wagon with sticks, rocks, leaves, etc.
2. Bubbles. Enough said.
3. Take his push-along car outside.
4. Give him a water bottle and let him "water" plants or just have fun squirting. And that's the one we tried this morning. I wanted to let Eli get outside but Hannah was asleep on the couch so we couldn't go far. So I gave him the water bottle and we just went right out on the deck. He had a blast! Check it out...
uh oh! it squirted him in the ear!
big boy
okay... AND we're squirting the camera!
this is better
Do you have any other ideas of what we can do with Eli outside???
That is such a cute idea. He looks like he had a great time.
ReplyDeleteI always love using those squirt bottles in the winter with food coloring on the snow. Great idea to just 'cool' off and play with them in the Spring and Summer too!
ReplyDeleteSome other ideas for things to do with Eli that don't really require much space or "stuff" might be...
- Create a home made water table or rice table. Similar to those ones you can buy, but instead use a big tupperware bin and some soap suds with some tub toys! Or instead of putting water in the tupperware, put rice in it. I've found that kids LOVE things that are tacktile and rice just sparks the creativity since you can't really mold it like playdough or blow it like bubbles, but just wiggle your fingers in it. Maybe put some kitchen utensils in with the rice so he can "strain" or wisk or measure and pour. Plus it's outside so it's not making a mess in the house when it all spills over. You could even get Hannah involved by filling a small tupperware with rice and having Eli shake it for her - she'd probably really like to hear the noise and sounds the shaking makes.
- Maybe when you send him on his Treasure Hunt, he can collect a bunch of rocks and then you could finger paint them!
- If you let him play with water, maybe he could give his push toy a "Car Wash". Let him soap it up and get it all clean - might go along with your Spring Cleaning theme, plus it would be fun!
- Does he have a hula hoop? That would be a cute site to watch him attempting to make it go round and round. :)
- Cloud games - if he knows animals and shapes maybe you could lie on your backs and check out the clouds trying to figure out what they look like or making up a story about what they are doing.
Just a few ideas I came up with off the top of my head. Can't wait to try some of them out myself next year when Colby will be a little more into exploring outside and we can do those "toddler" games. For now we're enjoy the 'baby' things and taking those first steps with the grass between our toes. Plenty of time for those big boy games, for now we'll stick to rolling the ball to each other :)
HAVE FUN!
Those are adorable pics, Sarah. I especially like the one of his giant smile on the chair with the squirt gun. Fun times!!
ReplyDeleteThese are great pictures, Sarah!! He is adorable!! And, I love the ideas that the lady above had, I want to try some of those out this week!
ReplyDeleteHave a great rest of the week!
a ball...
ReplyDeletesidewalk chalk, a clean paintbrush and some water, a toy mower...
ReplyDeleteIsaiah and I LOVE to play outside too!!! Some other things that we do that are tons of fun for both of us are:
ReplyDelete--sitting on the ground and playing "catch" with a ball
--we have a small basketball hoop that Isaiah loves to "shoot" at, he loves to take the ball and hand it to me and say "shoot mama"
--Isaiah still loves to go on walks, but he really likes it if we point out the birds, rabbits and squirrels. Sometimes he does better in the stroller rather than the wagaon.
--He also has a small wagon that he will sometimes put rocks from the rock garden in and then back. He needs help with this though or he'll throw them all over the yard :)
--and of course his favorite is the PARK!! He could play at the park all day long...
He is so adorable! What an infectious smile! We live in a condo so we have very little space that we can play in too! The kids love to take blankets outside to lay out on the grass and have picnics. Since I have a girl we have the plastic dishes and food so that helps! We also love sidewalk chalk, bubbles and freeze tag. Especially since if they get too far we can yell freeze and they have to stop! Have fun!
ReplyDelete