Playtime Fun

Croix has been getting painfully bored lately. He gets tired of me, tired of our house. I've been trying hard to watch less tv, which means Croix is watching less as well. This means he's even more bored. The other day I realized more structured play would probably be helpful. He has also been so attentive lately. He seems like he just wants to learn. He's picking up on new signs really well and very quickly. He's also been wanting to help, help with dinner, help clean up, just help.  I posted a facebook status asking for ideas for crafts, projects etc for a 16 month old. Anything I can think of seems too advanced. I got a lot of great ideas as well as good references to websites and books. I'll share those at the bottom of the post.
Today we tried to have some structured play time. Croix loved it! I was thinking I'd get maybe 15-20 minutes of playtime, he was occupied for about an hour! We started out making play dough. I brought all the ingredients to the table (I think that was his favorite part, that he got to stand on a chair at the table) then we added and mixed all our ingredients. I did the cooking  and coloring of the dough. He didn't really get it. He played with it for a minute but wasn't overly interested. I thought about how much he enjoyed mixing the ingredients for the play dough and came up with something new. I busted out a pack of pinto beans three bowls  and some measuring cups. He loved it! I eventually gave him a funnel and a water bottle to play with too. He loved it! We even pulled everything back out after dinner so Brent could check out all the bean fun and he sat happily on the floor moving beans from one bowl to another for thirty minutes! Guess what Croix will be doing while I'm fixing dinner! I'm excited to try new things with him and help him learn and grow! Here's to many more fun craft time posts!

 With all our ingredients set out.

 Tasting the flour.

 Mixing

 Ta-da!

This was so funny.  I was trying to get a shot of him playing with the play dough.  I was leaning further back to get on his level, so he started leaning back!  Monkey see monkey do.

 Fun with the beans

 When Brent came home we bust out the beans again so he could see how much Croix loves them.  They had fun together.

 I think I'm going to start calling them my magic beans.  I pulled them out while I loaded the dishwasher.  Usually Croix is pulling out all the dishes, climbing in the dishwasher, impossible to keep out of everything. With the beans out he didn't bother me at all!  It was unbelievable!  Magic beans!

Some of the links are just to blogs some are to activities I thought looked fun.

http://www.abcand123learning.com/

http://activitymom.blogspot.com/

http://activitymom.blogspot.com/2011/01/baby-activity-sticks-in-container.html 

http://preschoolprofessional.blogspot.com/2010/02/build-name-recognition-with-this.html 

http://gironlife.blogspot.com/2010/03/aidenzilla-or-alphabet-learning.html

http://littlepageturners.blogspot.com/2010/06/fishing-for-feelings.html

http://littlepageturners.blogspot.com/2010/08/myo-awesome-spelling-train.html

http://activitymom.blogspot.com/ 

http://ucreatewithkids.blogspot.com/

http://structuredplay.blogspot.com/2011/01/learning-shapes.

html http://ucreatewithkids.blogspot.com/search/label/toddlers

http://www.create-kids-crafts.com/playdough-recipes.html 

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ http://www.abcand123learning.com/

http://mommyme-thewonderyears.blogspot.com/search/label/Toddler

http://sphickman.blogspot.com/2009/09/montessori-toddler-class.html

http://www.ittybittybookworm.com/?catID=14351

http://montessorimom.com/toddler-scope-and-sequence-lesson-ideas-practical-/

http://totallytots.homestead.com/ABC2.html


http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/

http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/

A big thank you to all my friends for sharing their knowledge!