Summer Activities for Toddlers

Cori - posted on 06/07/2011

He just got a rug for his birthday that has roads all over it. He loves it. He is big into the transportation stuff. He sets up his little wooden train track on it. The toy mat sounds great though!

√v^√v^√♥ - posted on 06/07/2011

If your into sewing at all? my mother in law created a car toy matt and my boyfriend loved it so much he said he played with it the entire time he was growing up. it's basically a quilt that is an activity matt for their cars, or dinosaurs...

hers was a car one for her son, which has roads on it all over the place.

I'm making a dinosaur one right now as my son is very young. i'm going to sew big buttons on it (with sturdy ribbon to make sure them suckers don't come off) as he likes buttons all of a sudden...... and make my own river streams amongst the green leaf patterned fabric 'forest'... that way when he's like your sons age he can use it for different toys.

I love the pinto bean idea!!!!!!!! you is so smart :D
that would be better than sand

Cori - posted on 06/07/2011

The jello thing sound fun but I may wait for a day when my husband is off so I'll have help with clean-up! He likes to help me cook too. He'll help me stir things and pour things into the bowl.

Cori - posted on 06/07/2011

I've also filled a little wash tub with a big bag of pinto beans. Then we bought a little set of sand toys at the dollar store. He loves it. It is so much easier to clean up than sand. We'll spread out a blanket in the living room with it sometimes. I live in Texas, so outside stuff is a little limited in summer. It gets so hot here! We used the same tub to fill with snow during our few snow/ice days this winter. We took him out to play too but it was fun to fill the tub with snow, put it on a blanket in the living room, and let him drive his toy cars through it.

√v^√v^√♥ - posted on 06/07/2011

OH - speaking of him playing with fondant....... my mom used to put me in one of those kid pools and then do stuff like make a huge thing of Jello and cut it up and throw it in for me to play with and eat and make a huge mess of! She also said that she did it with noodles and all sorts of other things :D forgot about that one........ been starting to do that with my youngan :)

I just read about those sensory bottles and was telling my boyfriend I wanted to try it. Cheap toys and entertainment? I'm so there.......

I love the dollar store lately too. They have an isle of activity books, cheap stuffed animals and what not. So if you get bored you don't have to worry about your kid picking a 100$ item off the shelf at Toys R Us lol I'd go there

Cori - posted on 06/07/2011

I like craft stuff too. We've made sensory bottles out of old 20 oz coke bottles. (Filled with beads, rice, water and oil, and other things.) I definitely need to start saving egg cartons and things like that. I've never made the homemade play dough but my MIL and I decorate cakes and let him play with the left over fondant. The only problem with that is regulating how much he eats of it when he plays with it. That stuff is all powdered sugar and marshmallows. Sugar overload!

I think I might try to find some fun hat making crafts. He doesn't really like dress-up stuff but he loves hats. Maybe we'll get some little foam visors and let him paint/glue decorations on them.

√v^√v^√♥ - posted on 06/07/2011

Start saving any junk for random crafts? Like the egg crate caterpillar stuff? You can do his handprints and send them out to all the relatives and tell them you love them and give them something to hang on a fridge? I'm really crafty so I would be going that route. Toy music instraments..... anything to keep us busy. There are also dough-crafts and home made 'clays' you can make from flour and water primarily. I have a whole book on junk to craft using dough... and also, a whole book for when my son is old enough, not sure if yours is?? It's dedicated towards making all sorts of wizard play things. A cape, a magic wand, a feathered wizard hat, painted and jeweled. Even bedsheets (they decorate) so in the end he would have lots of wizard stuff to play with and can run around acting immortal and all powerful. Could do spider man theme, or whatever he is into though and start to decorate his room.

My favorite thing growing up was tents..... one thing I want to do is make a big play house out of sheets to hang in the back yard when my kids get old enough. Also, I've seen cardboard castles erected...... omg are they cute! and they also let their kids paint color and doodle on them... or shape the whole structure into a maze they can run in and out of. It's pretty awesome, I found it through searching in Google 'cardboard castle' pictures section