Toddler activities

Can anybody share some activities you do with your toddlers at home? Even some fun toys that I can buy for him? Now that he’s on only 1 nap a day I feel like I’m not entertaining him enough and I’m trying to cut down screen time as well. TIA x

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

Following for ideas. I definitely don’t feel like I’m entertaining enough.
One toy my LO loves is the fisher price vacuum cleaner. If only it really worked! But he’ll push it around the house for ages!
I’m finding he’ll spend a while looking at his books independently at the moment as well so board books that can’t be easily destroyed if you don’t already have some. That’s not my books are great

Our little girl loves to ‘potter’. We just leave her toy baskets out and she gets everything out, walks around with it etc. Makes a mess! Like our daughter also loves looking through books and will bring books over to read. We gave her an old diary so she could practice turning pages and rip them if she wanted to explore that, which was a hit! We were recently given a hand-me-down little toy kitchen which she adores. She love to open/shut to doors and ‘cook’ all of her toys. We are always eating stuffed penguin over here 😂

These are the things I’ve recently bought for my almost 15 month old that he loves:

Bright Starts, Press & Glow... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01C5L5DZ8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

nicknack Baby Shape Sorter Toys... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1QD6ZXD?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

IREENUO Crystal Led Light Fidget... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071XD861J?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Baby Einstein Magic Touch Mini Piano Wooden Musical Toy https://amzn.eu/d/eAj5T7U

Jumble Dream Wooden Sensory Activity Cube Toy - Handmade Montessori Fidget Educational Travel Toy for Early Development https://amzn.eu/d/em6Rybv

Offfay UFO Activity Toys, Sensory... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B8VMN2GZ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Pakuyi LED Busy Board Wooden Busy Board for Toddlers Montessori Sensory Board Preschool Education Activities Board for Training of Children's Thinking and Cognitive Ability (L) https://amzn.eu/d/i0YTmEk

Our LG loves exploring with her toys, although her favourite is her play kitchen (and throwing all of the food around the room) and a shape sorter cube. We also give her rice crispies to play with in a bowl with a whisk. Luckily we have dogs to clean the ones that go astray 🤣🤣
When we collected her from nursery she had been playing in the snow and also threading pasta shapes onto spaghetti to help with their holding etc.

She also loves her books, particularly “that’s not my” ones due to the textures.
I’d suggest looking in charity shops for toys too, as they are often in very good condition and can be cleaned easily x

I gave my son some empty spice jars and dried pasta and he loves just putting them in and emptying the jar. Spent ages doing the play by himself. And outside in the garden playing with pans and water, practicing pouring and playing thjngs.

We also do baking together and I get him involved with cooking to help pass the time.

Word queue cards, reading books, playing hide and seek, colouring, painting, helping me clean, he loves playing with his train set and play kitchen, going out in the garden for a run around, puzzles/ peg boards, i got these key lock cars on amazon he loves at the minute, he loves his dyson hoover and spends ages hoovering haha

Her favourite toy is her kitchen!
At this age they can start to sort things, so making up say 3 baskets of all the same colour things/toys (red,yellow,blue) and then teach them which things are the same colour and matching together.
Teaching to pour, today I put coloured rice on a big tray with scoops and spoons and bowls and showed her how to pour and scoop the rice into bowls.
We’ve started using crayons too.
She loves rummaging through our kitchen cupboards and playing with the pans.
The other day completely on her own and unprompted, in the cupboard she found a cat bowl and poured in dry cat food and tried to give it to him (completely supervised) I’ve never shown her to do this but she’s obviously seen me do it, I couldn’t believe it 🥺

in our community

No sitter but cant let myself go into postpartum depression

Brought my little girl to my lash appointment she was so well behaved thank god !!!! Any other mamas end up bringing their kid to their maintenance appointments ?

Am I doing something wrong?

I went for brunch with a new mum friend, both our little boys are 7 months. My LO would not sit at and tbh he rarely does, he had just had a feed and nap, I also offered him a banana which he had half of and convinced him to play with multiple toys but he either wanted to bounce on my lap or for me to walk around with him and eventually got cranky/whingy. I wasn’t able to finish my food. The other LO was sitting calmly the whole time and chewing on his teether. I even offered my LO a teether. Am I doing something wrong, am I spoiling him by picking him up constantly if he’s not crying and just whinging 😅

Has the new government rules on screen time stressed anyone else out?

Screen time reliance was already stressing me but I'm home alone as many of us are...I have no village and a very full on and demanding boy. My son is 19 months and in a really hard phase whinging and clingy wise....we don't do iPads and tablets (unless I absolutely have to if he's throwing an absolute fit having a nappy change and I don't want shit all over the wall!)
We do however end up doing teletubbies and dancing fruits during "high stress times" of the day. Usually cooking or if he's having an awful meltdown...popping teletubbies on means he smiles and relaxes, and I can get our food cooked and the kitchen tidy.
In the evening we allow him another half hour whilst we make food if he's in a particularly demanding mood and wanting to be held the entire time. Then we switch off teletubbies and put something soft like quiz shows or comedy on for my partner and I and we play with our son at the same time. He usually zones the TV out if it's not his program.
I feel so guilty for every second of screen time now. By the time he's finally gone to bed at 9-10pm (he fights sleep like crazy) I just have to fall into bed myself. My partner can stay up watching his TV but I can't make it past 10 (proof that being a stay at home mum is harder than a regular job much!?)

Husbands attitude..

I’m unhappy with the way my partner acts with our son. So before we had kids he was the most chilled, fun loving person & I thought what a breath of fresh air compared to my ex who was an abusive narcissist!

However since we’ve bought a house and had our son (he’s 4) it’s like he can’t handle parenting.
His fuse has become short & the last few months he just seems to lose his temper at our son & me over the smallest things. I understand kids are frustrating and we all shout at times but he screams in his face and it really upsets our son & honestly it makes me so sad that he gets so angry over trivial things, often I have to step in & take over cos I’m worried he might smack him or something.

I’m a SAHM and so I’m with my son every day yet I can control myself. I’m more laid back (he’s my 2nd child) maybe cos I’ve been here before. I feel maybe as he was brought up with an Asian father who was quite strict it’s given him high expectations of expected behaviour?
I have spoken to him about how I’m not happy with it & that he should walk away but he just gets defensive and throws his dummy out the pram!
What’s your partner like with discipline? Do they shout and do you ever disagree with the way they are?

USA people - have you ever personally experienced a school shooting?

we talk about moving over there every now and again but in our heads it’s so risky, even if the education system was good, to send kids to school over there

School

I know being a stay at home mom is meant to be staying at home with the kids. But do you ever consider sending them to school? Especially if you have multiples? Or do you just homeschool? I feel like I want to send my oldest to school and stay home with the baby. My oldest just turned 4. What should he be in (pre k or… ?) I’m not sure.