A few months back I posted about how I was preparing for the arrival of baby Reuben by trying to create some new activities for my two year old sam (read it Here with some great links). Well now baby is here, along with the nights drawing in for winter, it has become more important to have plenty of activities ready to distract my two year old whilst I am feeding or playing with the baby. Here are some of the things I have done and plan to do:
Egg box boats. Simple - I just let him loose with a paint brush and egg box lid and voila! A brand new toy for playing with and fun art and craft time.
Leaf collecting and pictures. Again, not a tricky idea but this killed two afternoons - one taking the boys out to collect leaves and another making the pictures.
Trip to the library. yes my two year old does destroy it whilst he is there, but it kills an afternoon and he is always really excited to have new books to read at bedtime. Sometimes we even pop to a different local library just for a change of scenery...
Indoor playcentres. Our local playcentre offers free entry after 3pm during school term time, so we have been making good use of this! I also collected some free entry vouchers before Reuben was born, so we are exploring lots of other playcentres on Friday mornings!
Christmas decorations. It filled in a whole afternoon putting up the christmas decorations with Sam, as each decoration was something new to discover.
Housework. Two year olds definitely think that the most mediocre tasks are exciting, so my son joins in with the hoovering (he has his own pink hoover), hangs up the washing, put his washing away, fills the washing machine, sweeps the kitchen floor and helps me clean the windows. He spent almost a full hour ''cleaning'' the garage door in the summer -if only it was warm enough to do that still!
What are your toddler distraction methods?? Please do share them with me below....
