Thursday, January 31, 2008

Mommy Poll

How do you keep your kids busy in the winter?

If you haven't guessed, I'm running low on ideas but here are mine:

With me:
reading,
baking,
attempts at board games (not real successful yet),
going to the library or some other indoor play place
baths
"cooking"- giving them utensils etc while I cook

Without me:
reading,
crayon, glue, scissor experiments (the best word for it!)
books on CD for R,
playdough with plastic forks and knives for practicing cutting (big with R),
flashlights in a dark room,
puzzles (new skill hooray!)
music for dancing, parading about like crazy people

Any thoughts helpful as more snow is on the way!!!

4 comments:

rae ann said...

we bought one of these beauties (http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/35001_PE125385_S4.jpg) at ikea last summer and it's officially saved me on yucky days when the girls just can't settle down. we pull it (the tent) out, pop it up, fill it with pillows, books and blankies and let their imaginations run. when things are REALLY bad (close your ears, dana), i'll put on a movie (::gasp!::) and let them hunker in their tent with a bowl of popcorn. it translates to 90 minutes of peace and bliss!

rae ann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dim and Jana said...

My secret is to put away toys--I have Lincoln Logs, TinkerToys, a house with people, Legos, musical instruments, etc. all put up. When the natives get restless I get down one of the put away items and it keeps them occupied for hours. I try to rotate what I put away and usually it is things that have small parts that I don't like to pick up all the time, so I only get them down when it's a "rainy day". I try to only have a limited number of toys out at a time (again because of the picking up issue), so we have quite a bit stored away. Good Luck!

Kate said...

Amy,
Thanks for the email, and I just love this blog. My "secret weapon" toys at the moment are my dustbuster and mop. Now you may be wondering why in the world these would be such great toys, but they are fantastic! Fischer loves to carry my dustbuster everywhere, and pretend to vaccuum up "messes." He also used my mop today on the tile for at least 15 minutes! I think anything that distracts Fish for longer than 5 is a great thing. :)