WHAT do you do all day?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2006
WHAT do you do all day?
8
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 6:25pm
My creativity fails me. I'm trying to find things for my 18 month old to do all day. We do the usual...go to the store, to the park, etc. What do you do all day?
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2004
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 7:48pm

Jessica this is a great time to introduce some learning and art and music time. Quite frankly with this age you wear the little buggers out and then enjoy their nap time~! If you are looking for ideas for learning for this age I have lots.


Traci

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2006
Tue, 08-15-2006 - 7:06am
If you have any ideas of what I can do with my 18 month old, please feel free to let me know. THANKS!
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-04-2005
Tue, 08-15-2006 - 7:52am

My boys are 2 & 4 yrs old and love to go to our community pool. I also take them to parks as well. Do you have community activities for the kids? We have a festival in the early fall where there are tons of activities for the family. Have you checked out your library? Our library has crafts day once a month and other activities throughout the year.

About 45 minutes away from me (I live in Michigan), Ann Arbor has a Children's Hands-On Museum for young kids and toddlers. It's inexpensive to get a daily pass and you can pack your own lunch and go at your own pace. I took my boys there and spent 3 hrs there. IT's huge. Do you have anything like that in your town or close by?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-15-2006
Tue, 08-15-2006 - 10:49am
I'm a nanny for an 18 mos. old and what I LOVE to do is (when he's having a good day) have ADVENTURE days. For example, we go to "destination parks" (parks a tad further away than the normal ones), we go to busy areas he might find interesting (we live near Baltimore, so we go to the Inner Harbor or even just the mall) or we go to places like gardens, where you can enjoy the scenery and he can run around. I've taken him to the children's museum before, but he is still a little young for this, but I think he still enjoyed it. We are practicing so he can learn to put his clothes/shoes on by himself (this can entertain for quite a long time on a rainy day!). Check out your local library, as they have some excellent books with ideas for this age group (I'm sorry,no titles come to mind right now, but my local library is TINY and they still had a couple to choose from). I really love taking him to paved trails. He can run and I know he won't suddenly dash into traffic--as all around us are trees--but I can still push the stroller, so when he gets tired and is ready for a snack, it is right there for him. We sometimes picnic, but that doesn't always go well, unless I have him seated in the stroller, as he is more interested in his surroundings than his food ;) Hope this list helps!
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-09-2005
Tue, 08-15-2006 - 11:28am

We go to Kindermusik and to the Library story time.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2006
Tue, 08-15-2006 - 5:59pm
You know what I think kids don't get enough of? Unstructured imagination play. Simple toys left alone. Christopher is only 10 months and he gets about a half hour where he is in his room with his Little People toys, the door open with the baby gate up. And I sit and read a magazine in the kitchen. Or I scrapbook in the dining room at the table and he plays with some toys, "eats" some shoes, squeals, etc. I don't think every single moment needs to be spent down on the floor physically playing with the kids. Yes, it's good to do that daily, but not ALL DAY. Lol, I'd get sick of me all up in my face, so why wouldn't my kids get sick of it too?!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-03-2005
Wed, 08-16-2006 - 11:42am

Hi Traci -

Sorry to horn in on a thread that wasn't addressed to me, but I was wondering if you also had any ideas for entertaining a nine month old? If I do row row row your boat one more time I'm going to jump off the roof, and she doesn't really care for her toys....she seems to prefer everything she shouldn't have....

Any ideas on fun stuff for this age?

Thanks!

Cookie

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2004
Wed, 08-16-2006 - 1:48pm

18 month old activities ideas...


Dora the explorer: Help your child learn basic Spanish by watching Dora with them. Reinforce the words learned in the show that day. Children can learn a lot more by watching educational tv with parents then by themselves. (sesame street is also a GREAT show!)


These are some activities I do/did with my kids and kids in my preschool classes. Most of the time was free play time for this age but I would do at least one large motor skill and one fine motor skill each morning followed by a children's exercise video(we did yoga for little ones) and then some down time like reading before nap.


Large Motor Skill


Developing large motor skills can help your child later on to excel at sports :)


Activities you can do are:


Sock basketball-have your child play basket ball using a laundry basket and socks


Color jumping- buy a twister game and call out colors for your child to jump on


hop scotch- buy rug remnants from a carpet store and paint the hop scotch on rugs (it might take a bit for little ones to "get it" )


Car Wash- put a small amount of water in a bowl with soapy water and let your child wash all the outside toys.


Lilly pad jumping-lay out four or more large hula hoops close by one another and tell your child they are a frog hopping on lily pads. Count as they hope to learn their numbers.


kickball- buy a large playground ball and teach your child how to kick and run to bases (use cut up boxes for bases)


baby baseball- I love the t-ball sets they have for small kids! Help your child swing and run to bases


Fine motor skills


Here are some great websites with free curicculum ideas...for this age I would not do more than 30 min a day.


http://www.letteroftheweek.com/


http://www.first-school.ws/


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Activities for 9 month olds


Reading is a great way to help your

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