We've been back in Iowa for 3 weeks now (hard to believe it's been that long already!) and we've had a lot of ups and downs. Definitely to be expected with a toddler during a time of so much change. Throughout the process I'm figuring out when Eli is fine and when he's definitely NOT fine. And I'm trying my absolute hardest to keep our days smooth! It helps when we stay at "our" house where there's more space for Eli to play and his toys are all right there. It's not even like he plays a TON with his toys, but for whatever reason he's pretty rotten every time we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Within just a few minutes he'll be bouncing off the walls, rowdy, and just throwing a lot of fits. So I've figured out that we just need to stay put as much as we can and not plan too much. I've also been working hard to put more structure into his day by providing specific activities for him. Before we even moved I had started thinking about how I wanted to make our days more productive with learning and doing real quality activities together. Even if it's just one or two of these things in a day, I at least put together a little list of things for me to pick from, and as our days our more stable we'll work more things into our daily routine.
1. Flash cards-- letter sounds, numbers
2. Craft (anyone have good links for toddler craft ideas??)
3. Story time/ Bible time
4. Song time
5. Counting/sorting activities
6. Blanket time (~40 minutes of individual play time)
7. Show/movie
8. Cooking
?? Any more ideas, anyone?
Time has really passed me by and I'm just now starting to really get excited about fall, so I've been thinking about fun fall activities to do. Today we made pumpkin cookies! Just nice and easy, those cookies that are ready to go and all you do is put it on the pan and bake. Very manageable for little Eli!
Ooo, they're getting fatter!
And done!
Ready to eat!
Clever and lovely boy.
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Hey Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling - my two kiddos are a wicked handful... But not on days I let them run themselves a little ragged with each other. I guess you could call it unstructured playtime.
I know it isn't exactly civilized, but it works. They're both happy when they get some playtime without our meddling rules, and they're both monster pains when they don't.
Plus, we don't have carryover problems with their behavior on account of the playtime.
... for what it is worth. And good luck, Sarah!
I think your activities are great! I've seen other moms put aside specific toy groups for certain days, like toy soldiers on mon, blocks on tues, ect.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget little boys need to run around-lots! Make sure there is plenty of outside time with racing or tag or the like for him, you'll be challenged to keep up, benefit from more exercise and then will be able to keep up even better!! I am serious: you must make sure he has a time to run alot, it does wonders for my boys, they become less fussy, are more helpful, learn better and sleep more soundly and restfully!! Even my 6 month old MUST go outside, he will be fussy until we mention it. So, make sure the activity at the park is more vigorous and you'll see half your problems go away!
Another thing I've noticed: if you have not spent enough one-on-one time with the children their happy tickles turn into stale tickles, which are fussies! Spend time to get the stale tickles or they WILL turn into fussies!
Hope this helps! Enjoy this time with your babies...you can see it goes by so quickly!