Fun with Toddlers

I have to say - once Jellybean hit the toddler stage I was a little lost as to what to do with him for awhile. The baby stage is easy peasy for entertainment. You put them under their baby gym or hand them a few toys and they are entertained for awhile. Then you have the exersaucer or feet! Feet were always a huge hit with Jellybean.

Then came toddlerhood. He started walking before he was a year old. He can climb. He talks. He knows what he wants.

He also gets bored.

Quickly.

Thank you Pinterest for coming to the rescue! I turned to Pinterest to research toddler activities and used them as inspiration to create my own.

Toddlers love sensory activities and Jellybean is no exception. They also love to fill containers up and dump them out.

I took Jellybean's love for those things along with a blanket, some bowls and three different kinds of cereal. I used Cheerios, Kix and Cocoa Puffs.

Use different sized bowls and different materials. He liked the different ways the spoons sounded against the metal versus the plastic.

Throw in some spoons and other things you can bury and dig out too. We used some jar lids and the little plastic dohickey for changing out the led light bulbs.

You're going to be tempted to help and show them how to play with it. 

Don't! 

Let them explore. It gets messy. After these pictures he dumped the cereal out everywhere.

Then he had a blast scooping it back up.

The best part to this activity for Jellybean though?

Finally a toy you are ALLOWED to eat while you play with it.

This is just the first in a series of posts I am going to do as I find new and inexpensive ways to keep the Jellybean entertained. I'll be placing them here along with on this board. My board will also have ideas I have come across in other places.

As I grow as a mom I'm learning that sometimes the simplest things are the most entertaining. We pretty much bought out the toy stores for Christmas and his birthday. He plays with a quarter of those toys. So to keep you from breaking the bank and from going insane as your toddler runs around like a maniac I want to share the things we do. Let me know what fun activities you've done with your little ones too. 

Next week I'll share one of his favorite toys. We always have plenty of them to spare and they come on so many different sizes that he never gets bored!