This week marks 4 weeks in quarantine. How crazy is that?!
Honestly, I’m still kind of struggling over here. Having a newborn and two toddlers home 24/7 is a lot — the days go by so slow sometimes and yet I can’t seem to keep up with even mundane stuff like showering or laundry. But day by day, we do seem to get into a groove, especially as Doug and I learn to enjoy a slower pace, and figure out through trial and error what works for our family during this time. It’s actually been nice to pause a bit, and the extra time with our family has truly been so special. One of the biggest game changers for us has been finding at home activities for toddlers that help to pass the time, which is why I’m so excited about today’s post!
Our Family’s Favorite At Home Activities For Toddlers
I’d like to level set upfront by saying that, while I love our home, our family is not used to being so stagnant. The adjustment has been hard on us all.
Quick background for those who may be new here.
Our newborn baby, Beau, was born March 12, right when all this Coronavirus craziness started picking up. Our family of 5 has been quarantined in our house since Beau was 3 days old to help protect him — no grandparents, no visitors. We also have a 4 year old, Grace, and a 2 year old, Josephine. Their preschool was cancelled for a month the day Beau was born, and just last week we learned that it’s cancelled for the remainder of year. And, Doug found out a few days after Beau was born that he lost his job. It’s been a crazy stressful time – as I know it is for EVERYONE – but we’re trying to remain positive. You can read more about our story here!
From the onset of us staying at home we were like deer in headlights. What the heck do we do with a 4 year old and 2 year old all day, every day, for months on end?! Of course, we have Beau too! But he’s the easy one since he mainly just sleeps all day, so our days are mainly focused on activities for Grace and Josephine. Beau has been a great side kick to it all.
Before I dive into everything, I do want to note one thing.
Some days we’re positive and feel like we have things together, and others we are stressed, anxious and I have multiple ugly-cry breakdowns. We’ve been trying to take everything one day at a time. I want to remind everyone that you are a perfect parent, no matter what that looks like right now. Whether you’ve color-coded a schedule or are relying on lots of screen time (We’ve done both!), you’re doing great. I think the biggest thing in all this is practicing patience — with ourselves and of course our families.
But, first…
Remember last year when I partnered with some amazing bloggers to chat all things Mom Talk? (Check out How Our Family Approaches Parenting and Gender Roles + Healthy Recipes For Kids to see some of the past “Mom Talk” posts.) We’re back, baby! In what’s a very timely subject with the “Stay At Home” orders happening with the Coronavirus pandemic, today we’re tackling the subject of activities to do with your kids when you’re stuck at home.
Be sure to also swing by the below blogs to see how some of my other mama friends are keeping their kiddos entertained at home during this crazy time:
Alright, let’s do this!
Before diving into our favorite activities, one overarching suggestion that’s been game changing for us was to make a schedule – complete with pictures for the girls to “read” – for our days.
Before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out! One of the things we noticed from Grace and Joey’s preschool is that every day when they come into their classroom there are symbols nothing their schedule for the day. (Sunshine for “outdoor time”, etc.) Every morning the teacher reviews the day’s plans with the kids. This way the kids know what to expect, and when they want to understand what point they’re at in the day they can refer to the chart. So we adopted that to help bring a level of routine from school to home for them. For us as parents, it has been helpful to make the days feel more manageable.
Our schedule is called “Grace and Joey’s Home Camp.” You can see from the photo below that it’s nothing special, and honestly most days we very “loosely” follow it – just yesterday we let the girls watch multiple movies because we just needed a fricking break – but overall I can’t recommend it enough!
We’re very much a work in progress at this whole homeschooling thing, so take the below with a grain of salt! But, here are some of the top activities and things that have been working for us during this time of what feels like endless home days.
Letter Of The Day & Number Practice
Every morning when the girls wake up, they’re greeted with the “Letter Of The Day.” It’s fairly informal, but we talk about the letter, what it sounds like, and brainstorm/write words that start with that letter. Then, Grace practices writing the letter for a few minutes. (Josephine sometimes tries to practice writing too but she’s still a little young so we don’t push it!)
Another helpful thing about doing this is that it almost acts as a theme for the entire day itself. We try to bring it into other things we do as the day progresses. For example, on “C” day, we made crowns as an art project, drank from special cups, talked about how our driveway is made of concrete, and colored with crayons.
We also practice numbers with the help of jelly beans. We’ll do things like start with 7 jelly beans, and add 2, then ask Grace and Joey to count how many there are now. Then we’ll subtract a few and then ask for how many there are. They get to eat the jelly beans to the math problems they do correctly. It’s a simple thing to do that we’ve noticed is helping them understand basic math and number principles!
It sounds kind of blah, but the girls actually really enjoy it! They get excited in the morning to find out what the letter is, and they also seem interested and are engaged with the different ways we tie in the letter and number. It’s a win/win for us too, because we feel like we’re teaching them important reading elements but without it being overbearing.
Help With Beau
It’s amazing how having the girls get involved with Beau has helped with their transition to having a little brother! We’ll have them “Read” him a book, or help to pick out his outfits. Little things that, to Grace and Josephine, allow them to feel included in caring for him. It’s amazing to see how eager they are to be great big sisters!
Facetime & Zoom Calls
The socialization helps us, and it helps them! We try to Facetime or do Zoom calls at least once a day. We call family, friends, and Grace and Joey have even been on calls with their friends from class.
Scholastic & STEAM Learning
Scholastic has some really great printables, activity ideas, and games that are super easy to print off and have your kids do. You can sort by grade — we do the Pre-K ones — and there are a TON of great ideas. Grace and Joey made cute “About Me” books from a template we found on here, and we’ve had them do a lot of the activity prints. This was a suggestion from my cousin, who is a school principal, and it’s been a good resource for learning-based activities.
Another great educational resource is the STEAM blog, which has a lot of activity ideas that are problem solving/hands on based. This was sent to us by Grace’s teacher and it has a lot of the activities that they would normally do in class!
Get Crafty
When in doubt, we get crafty. There’s nothing that Grace and Joey love more than getting a bit messy with paints, markers, or something colorful. Usually when they’re doing a craft, we hand them markers and paper and let their imaginations go! But we also try to do organized crafts with them, too. Here are a few ideas that they’ve enjoyed:
- Cut out construction paper squares and make a rainbow. We did this on our front windows to try and “spread smiles” for neighbors walking by.
- Bring out old magazines, cut out pictures, and make collages. (Anything with glue is a hit!)
- Save boxes that you receive packages in and create things out of them. We made rocket-ships that we “flew” the girls around in, and they loved that! Currently we’re saving enough boxes to make a box fort.
- Pick a person for the kids to create a picture for. Every day we’ve tried to do this and we’ll either mail the picture, or in some cases drop it off, to that person to help make their day.
OH! If you haven’t already, check out TinkerTots! It’s a monthly subscription service that sends pre-packaged crafts for you to do with your kids. There are 5 activities per box, and my girls love to do them. (Shameless plug: This is one of my best friend’s company — it’s a great way to support a small business during this time!) If you’re interested, use code ISNTTHATCHARMING for 25% off the first box when you sign-up a month to month subscription!
Kid’s YouTube Channels
…Does this count as an activity? I vote yes — sometimes you need a little help to get by!
In the morning, we put on a movement based video. Cosmic Kids Yoga is so cute — each episode features an “adventure” that kids go on, and they do yoga right along with the instructor. It’s a great way to get them to move! Another and our girls love to do is Go Noodle, which is all about promoting dance and movement.
Others that are a hit around here are Blippi – our girls are OBSESSED with him – and they also like to draw along with Mo Willems Lunch Doodles. Doug and I like to put on Toddler Fun Learning or Peek A Boo Kidz when we want to promote learning.
Embrace The Great Outdoors
There’s really nothing that’s as rejuvenating as time spend outdoors. When in doubt, we have the girls play outside in our yard. We also love a neighborhood walk, or if we’re feeling super ambitious, we’ll go to a park and walk around the trails. (Don’t worry — no playgrounds, and we stay very far away from other people!)
Cooking
I recently read The Montessori Toddler (GREAT book for parents!) which noted the importance of building independence through letting kids do things like pour their own cups and cereal, and even helping to cut foods with a butter knife. So lately we’ve been having them be more involved in the kitchen and I have to say, our girls have pleasantly surprised us with how much they’re able to do! There’s spills of course, but they’re getting better with practice.
With all that in mind, cooking has become a great daily activity for us! We’ve baked a lot of things like brownies and bread, and the girls have helped us to make morning smoothies and even sandwiches.
Busy Toddler
You guys. This Instagram account is a GOLD MINE of toddler activities. If I’m at a loss for things to do with the girls, I will literally scroll through this feed and pick something. Here are a few activities we got from this account that the girls have loved:
- Animal Parade – Get painters tape and create lines on the floor. Bring out all the animals and figurines your kids have, and have your kids make a parade on the tape.
- Lego Bath – Pour block legos into a bath. That’s it! Seems simple but this entertained them for a half hour one night!
- Box Road – Get a large cardboard box or sheet of paper. Draw roads. Have your kids build “buildings” with legos or blocks. Bring out cars and have them “drive” on the road.
- Shape Art – Draw shapes on a big piece of paper. Have the kids color in the shapes.
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I hope these ideas are helpful for you as you navigate being home with your kiddos! Be sure to swing by the below blogs to see some more activity ideas from these amazing mamas:
