In my recent transition from the daily grind, to the daily grime (just kidding), I’ve noticed that my ever growing toddler has become increasingly bored as the days go by. This may be due to her advancing in age, or the fact that I’m completely clueless when it comes to being creative with a 20 month old. For the past few days I’ve been beating myself up over the idea that a daycare might be able to do a better job than I at raising my kid. This thought was extremely alarming because I truly believe that if you have the ability to have at least one parent home ‘til kindergarden, do it.
It wasn’t long after complete and utter panic overtook me that reality set in. I thought to myself, “self if the daycare centers are able to entertain several toddlers for 8 hours+ a day without any of them going home broken, battered or completely covered in dirt, then you too can employ some of their methods.” Eureka! I spent the rest of the day brainstorming ( I learned that word in elementary school, and it’s still one of my favorite activities) all kinds of diversions for my little ones.
After I finished cleaning house and researching what other well intentioned parents were doing with their tots I headed off to the dollar store for supplies. Let me tell you by the way, that you can really get some great inexpensive things for kids at the dollar store. On my particular list was play-dough, shipping paper (the brown paper you wrap packages in), chubby crayons, a coloring book, yarn, die cut shapes, wooden letters and numbers, and a wooden circular board with numbers and colors complete with a little dial. My total bill was $19.00, I also got a few other odds and ends for the house and "containment" for the goodies I just purchased. On a side note, who knows if dollar store windex works, but when I find out I’ll be the first to let you know.
I think It’s pretty obvious what my plans are for the play-dough and coloring books, but I’ll kindly fill you in on the rest. The role of shipping paper I bought has 50 feet of paper on it, and it’s approximately 20 inches long. I think it will be great for cutting sheets off, taping them to the kitchen table and letting her go at it with crayons and washable markers. The yarn really has endless possibilities including teaching her how to thread things onto it, making binoculars with toilette paper roles (obviously I’ll have to assemble), and making worms in a bucket. I was considering doing this by cutting sections and taping/gluing a length of each section to make it stiff. and then punching holes in an old yogurt container lid so she can smush her little worms into their bucket. The other items I got like the die cut shapes are for the few minutes a day I spend teaching her what things are. Very recently she has starting asking, “What’s that?” about everything, and when I say everything, I mean I hear it 2 billion times a day. I think it’s time for the interrogation to switch directions. I’ll be asking the questions around here now little lady!
I really think I might be more excited than anyone else about this adventure! My husband has been looking at me like I’m a crazed lunatic all day. he says, “Babe, she does what we do.” I asked him if he thought a toddler could really appreciate my blogging, Face-booking, and general laziness or his video games. A very gratifying look of understanding creeped across his face after that!
Again, I’m all ears if anyone else has any other suggestions for keeping boredom at bay.
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