Question for moms of 12-18 months old

[dulcemariamar]

What do you do all day with LO when you are at home? Play group  is canceled this week because of holidays here and my LO has a cold and a little bit of a fever. She is cranky but still have enough energy to play.

she doesnt sit still to listen to books and tries to eat and destroy them if I give her one. She doesnt like to scribble or play with a toy for more than five minutes. She just like to get into everything and make a huge mess. I know that is normal for a toddler but this week is going to be so long.

what kind of activities do you do that last more than 5-10 mins. 

[gibbinator]

At that age DS loved the 1/2 sized basketball I bought him, would spend 30mins or so just throwing/kicking it from one room to the other. He has a tennis ball too which added variety. Also his push and pull toys. There wasn't much sitting still.

If she likes making a mess you could give her something relatively easy to clean up like tissue paper she can shred. I just saw an amazing FB video of my friend's 17mo playing in a huge pile of popsicle sticks.

Admittedly when he's cranky/sick my default is cartoons ...I don't have the energy to keep him entertained all day if he's clingy.

[ryry]

At that age DD1's favorite activity was taking all the stuff out if drawers, so I picked a drawer in the kitchen and let her go to town on it.

If your LO is old enough to not put stuff in her mouth, we also spent a lot of time playing with uncooked rice. Dd1 still loves it. I'd just fill a big tub of rice give her some spoons, cups, whatever, and she'd play for a good 30 min or so

We also liked to do bath paint. I found a recipe online, just strip her down to her diaper and let her make a mess in the tub.

[AmyRI]

Dance parties are the only things that keep her attention well. Mostly I just let her make a mess for 10 minutes, clean it up when she gets bored, and give her something new to make a mess with. She'll sit well in a cart so I take her shopping a lot, too.

She's currently making a mess with Lincoln Logs.

[pinkpinot]

I just let him destroy the house.

[grosnl19]

I let her go through the cabinets :-). She will also walk with her walkers and annoy the dog ;-)

[Brie]

Feb 17, 2014 9:18:03 GMT -5 pinkpinot said:

I just let him destroy the house.

Basically this.

It's a lot of him moving from one activity to the next quickly.  We have a large finished basement so sometimes I take him down there to run laps/tire him out. 

The only thing that keeps him occupied for more than 10 minutes at a whack is TV, which we try to limit.

[leonard131]

We just let him go to town in the basement and take out all his toys. He likes to put things back into baskets and read books so I would just let him do that.

Now at 16 months I do see he has more of an attention span and will play with something for a little bit. He loves his duplo blocks and playing with his cars.

[MadamePresident]

I had a few board books I didn't mind if my daughter destroyed, so I would let her chew on those. She likes the most random things. I save a lot of our recycling and put it in a cabinet for her. She likes to climb in, and pull things out. She likes her play table that plays music and will press a key then dance. She liked playing where is the baby when we she was about a year old. I would put an A&A blanket over her head, say "Where is the baby?" then she would pull the blanket off and laugh. We do a lot of silly stuff like that.

I interact with her a lot, to try and show her how to play - feeding her toys, putting blocks together, etc, but I also will put her with her toys then GBCN. I want her to learn to play independently sometimes.

[dcn]

Music, dancing, play with trucks, play with duplos, put pillows down on the floor and he loves to run and fall on them, give him spoons and bowls to play with. He likes to be chased and he likes to chase me. Look out the window and watch cars, dogs, kids. He plays with my phone if I get really desperate.

He will take everything out of a bag or bowl and then put it all back in, repeat.

[dcn]

Music, dancing, play with trucks, play with duplos, put pillows down on the floor and he loves to run and fall on them, give him spoons and bowls to play with. He likes to be chased and he likes to chase me. Look out the window and watch cars, dogs, kids. He plays with my phone if I get really desperate.

He will take everything out of a bag or bowl and then put it all back in, repeat.

[dulcemariamar]

Thanks. My LO loves destroying things and
I dont care but it wont keep her attention. So I take her to the sock drawer and she has fun for a minute and then sees something else so she gets up and walks away. Or if i roll the ball to her, she will roll it back once and then walk away. I guess it is normal but it is boring just watching her walk from one area to another. And the second i pull out a book to read she tries to pull on the tv wire or do something dangerous. But she only does it when i am not giving her 100% my attention. She will play by herself in the PNP when i cook or clean though.

[drloretta]

DD loved to stand at the sink and play water. It would keep her occupied for quite a while.

A friend kept all of her junk mail for her son to rip up and destroy. Better than a shredder!

[lmb5109]

DD has our entire living room blocked off for her. Between all of her toys, the dog, the cat and Blue's Clue's playing in the background, she's entertained for a few hours. Yesterday she maybe sat and watched tv for 15 minutes. The rest of the time we were playing and it was just background noise.

She'll bring me a book but won't let me read it to her. As soon as i flip a page, she takes it from me. She will take every single toy out of the toy box and then put them back, that takes about 30 minutes. We also have a bin of big legos she likes to throw and sometimes stack.