Activites and ideas to do with the young toddler at home

[dozalot]

Thank you Mincy and Icemountain. Very good suggestions!

[buds]

Heyya dozalot,


Make use of free trials from nice playgroups!
Hehee! If you start to like any one of those
you went together with, there are places
that do drop off sessions and parent sessions.
Its okay to feel tired with em' kiddies sometimes.
And its okay to take a break!

[dozalot]

hey buds,


can you name a few places?

[buds]

Sure dozalot,


When my girls were younger, i’ve brought them
to Wee Care @ Devonshire for a free trial and
also at a Julia Gabriel in town for Story Club.

Recently i also saw Art Boot Camp having an
Open House last December. Early birds get
FREE entry! But we had travel plans so didn’t
manage to go. That was a goner…

Wee Care worked with many therapists. For
parents who are so bothered by credentials,
these people really have many, don’t do Singlish
mostly Queens English (even the locals) and they
had games for babies. Aaaaww. The boss/principal
is very nice and accommodating. I went with my dad
and even he was excited! Naturally, their fees ain’t
cheap and i reali went there for the free trial and that
was it. Hehee…

The Julia Gabriel Story Club was free too.
But i didn’t enjoy myself. The class was
PACKED! Overcrowding alert there boy!
And i believe i cud tell a story better than
the teacher then, plus with the crowd of
fussing parents and fidgety babies the
story was kinda long and not so appropriate.
During the painting session, we parents had
to entertain ourselves and get our own stuff.
The teacher was really overwhelmed and
cudn’t seem to handle the group very well.
Oh well, it was free. So just make it fun for
myself and baby - thats all. It was a good
experience and i thanked the teacher for
her time. Much appreciated effort.

I’ve read before that HESS does this month
end parties - themed parties. But never gone.
Small fee for one time session/party.

Tumble Tots is very neighbourhood and we
went for that too, small fee. Which we ended
up enrolling for. It made my shy girl an all
rounder!

If you can afford, the weekend parent and
child not bad for starters.

The abovementioned freebies or small fee
trials were done/read up sometime back.
Good to check if they still do have such
events when checking any of them out.

Hope it helps.

[ChiefKiasu]

buds:

... And i believe i cud tell a story better than

the teacher then, plus with the crowd of
fussing parents and fidgety babies the
story was kinda long and not so appropriate...

You should have started your own story-telling corner there. Give 'em a run for their money

[ChiefKiasu]

dozalot:

I am very fortunate to be a SAHM but I'm running out of ideas and becoming very lazy. Hopefully people here can give suggestions or even direct me to some blogs or books that I can read up.


At home, I do the usual, reading, flashcards, some dvds...but I feel they're not enough and also I get real bored doing the same things. Eventually I bring him out alot (which is not good as he does not get stimulated) as I could tell he's so bored at home and so am I.

dozalot, did you check out all the http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1927, http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1748 and http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2098 activities painstakingly outlined by our effusive buds?

[mamii]

Hi dozalot, my DS is 20months, and compared to you i feel i am super lazy, well DS is rather active so it is not possible to get him to do stuff so i can forget about planning any activities, he would not bother to sing or dance either . So he ends up playing and playing all day long, sometimes i do see him getting rather bored with his toys, boxes, balls, etc but we cannot just keep buying, so i am trying to enrol him in either playgroup or enrichment lessons to let him have a different experience.


you mention going shopping, not sure if you have tried, but DS loves to look at promoters selling stuff, be it cooking pots, iron, chopper, mops … ha ha he would imitate them, so that is part of learning too ya

[dozalot]

ChiefKiasu:

dozalot:

I am very fortunate to be a SAHM but I'm running out of ideas and becoming very lazy. Hopefully people here can give suggestions or even direct me to some blogs or books that I can read up.


At home, I do the usual, reading, flashcards, some dvds...but I feel they're not enough and also I get real bored doing the same things. Eventually I bring him out alot (which is not good as he does not get stimulated) as I could tell he's so bored at home and so am I.

dozalot, did you check out all the http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1927, http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1748 and http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2098 activities painstakingly outlined by our effusive buds?

Thank CK and Buds, I have bookmarked them and shall get back to them when my DS is older.

[sunflower]

[Moderator's note: Topic selected for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/home-art-craft-preschoolers.]

icemountain:

On the contrary, I see boredom as a good thing. Boredom means the child gets the chance to exercise his creativity.

Please do not think you have to constantly stimulate your child or be more \"productive\" in engaging him. When my kids were this age, they love nothing more than digging into drawers, boxes, cupboards etc. These are great learning experiences.

Agree with icemountain. (BTW, one of my favourite drinking water is Ice Mountain. :lol: )

I think my DD2 has too much free time in her hands so she loves digging for things (esp. tissue boxes, empty toilet/paper towel rolls etc. which I put aside for recycling) and create things from what she can find. Just to share some simple \"crafts\" that she made by herself when she was 3 yrs old (she just turned 4 recently) so parents here can either do with their children if they're too young or you can throw all the materials at them and let them occupy themselves.

It's a pity that I didn't take photos as I was so used to all the \"junk\" she created around the house that I didn't think much of them. Being a laisser-faire mum, I wldn't have thought of these \"crafts\". On hind sight, I thought doing these crafts with your children might contribute to some good bonding time. I've put in parenthesis what she actually did to highlight areas that may need help. Just a word of caution though, DD2 is quite good with her scissors so she'll use scissors to cut the string/tape etc. on her own. If your child is not very proficient with it, I'll suggest that you supervise the activity or help with the cutting. My DD2 enjoyed doing the crafts using recycling materials (kept her occupied for quite a while ) and I hope your children wld too.

Craft 1: Binoculars
Materials: Double-sided tape/glue, 2 empty toilet or paper towel rolls, string or think thread, stickers/colour pencils/scraps of coloured paper (for decoration purposes).
Method:
1. Cut a long piece of double sided tape and stick it along the longitudinal side of the empty paper towel roll (DD2 used these as she likes “long” binoculars, can use toilet rolls too). Peel off the top piece of the double-sided tape (she came to me for help with the peeling).
2. Stick the 2 paper towel rolls together. Cut a long string and attach the ends to each side of the paper towel rolls. (DD2 used double sided tape but I wld recommend using masking tape or scotch tape as it wld be more secure).
3. Stick stickers on the rolls to embellish it. (DD2 stuck one row of stickers on each side of the binoculars). Other alternatives which I can think of now is to glue pieces of coloured scrap paper or use markers/colour pencils to draw on the binoculars.

DD2 actually made 2 binoculars, one for her sister. After that, she hung the binoculars round her neck and played pirates by herself (of course she wore a hat and put on some accessories to make her look like pirate). She played spy/detective with her sister (when DD1 came home from school).

Craft 2: Guitar
Materials: 1 tissue box, 1 empty paper towel roll, rubber bands (abt 4), masking tape.
Method:
1. Loop and space out the rubber bands round the tissue box. (I know it’s the wrong direction, but heck, it produces different tones when you pluck them).
2. Use masking tape to stick an empty paper towel roll on one side of the tissue box. (It kept dropping off when she showed me her guitar so I helped her secure the guitar “handle”).

And viola, a make belief guitar is formed. DD2 used it and pretended she was singing in a rock band or something.

Craft 3: Train
Materials: Tissue boxes (need many of these) and masking tape/double-sided tape.
Method:
1. Use glue or masking tape/double-sided tape to stick 3 (or 4 to make a bigger base) tissue boxes together like an L shape (these are the “seats” of the train. (DD2 used glue initially but it wasn’t strong enough so I suggested that she used masking tape/double-sided tape instead.)
2. Make a few of these and stick them in a row, one behind the other.
3. A long trail of train “seats” is formed. (DD2 carried all her favourite soft toys and placed them on the “seats”.)
4. Loop and attach/stick a long piece of thick thread/rope/string around the backing of the first tissue box “seat” to pull the train along. (DD2 tried to use rubber bands and masking tape to join tissues that were all rolled up into strips (me angry that she wasted so much of my tissue paper! :x) to form a chain of some sort for this purpose but it couldn’t pull properly so I suggested that she used string/ribbon or rope).

She was very happy with her new “toy” and played with it for a few days, pretending to be the train captain. She even put her own kiddie chair in front of the train and sat on it, pretending to take her “passengers” to many places.

Above are just some of the things that she created herself amongst many others while I was busy. However, she would come to me whenever she encountered problems and I wld help her a little or suggest alternatives. Hope you find them useful. Your children might create other stuffs from all the “junk’ at home. So sit back and let them enjoy!!

[fo12eal]

dozalot:

I am very fortunate to be a SAHM but I'm running out of ideas and becoming very lazy. Hopefully people here can give suggestions or even direct me to some blogs or books that I can read up.


At home, I do the usual, reading, flashcards, some dvds...but I feel they're not enough and also I get real bored doing the same things. Eventually I bring him out alot (which is not good as he does not get stimulated) as I could tell he's so bored at home and so am I.

Hi Dozalot
My gal is 18++ heehee... I send her to Growing Up Gifted (GUG) when she was 1yr old. It's a weekend 1.5hr lesson. She has been with the school for nearly 3 terms. All I wanted was for her to socialise with her peers and have fun! When I come back, I will 'revised' everything with her.

GUG teaches phonics with action so everyday, I will do all the actions with her from A-Z. Anyway it takes less than 6mins. Plus other songs taught in school.

I will buy lots of art n craft material and let her doddle about. Every 'activity\" I do with her are usually 5-10mins. If she seems to be able to focus longer on what she is doing, I will prelong the activity. Once she is done, I will put it away and introduce something else with her. Sometimes it's good to do the same thing with them again and again until they become familar.

Being a SAHM too, I have the 'chance' to send my gal for weekdays classes twices a week so I can get some breather and at least there are things/activity to keep her occupied. Rather than staying at home all the time.

Perhaps you can consider swimming too. I will bring my gal for a swim every once a week if the weather is good. Or even cycling? But that would me long banging her

Don't worry about your child not pointing to the body parts. Surely your child understand where is the nose, eyes etc. Perhaps just 'lazy' to do so. My gal is like that. Yeap and singing through learning might be more suitable for your child???

I realised that my gal learn better through singing... Luckily my voice not too bad (heehee) The head, shoulder, knees and toes might be worth trying... Sometimes when I talk to my gal, I converse with her through singing instead.

Oh, try to relax and be silly when you are with your child. Not forgetting being dramatic... Children love dramatic/animated actions :))))

Good luck