Get your thinking hats on!

Ok, I'm assuming I'm not the only one out there who tires of the winters here because it limits the activities you can do with a toddler. So here's a little list of things we've either done or seen other mom's with toddlers do! Disclaimer: I did not think of ANY of these ideas originally! Most of them I either found in a magazine or can attribute to wonderful friends out there who are also wonderful moms, so thank you for your examples! If you have any more ideas of things to do with little ones indoors, I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear about them!!

*Set up a card table somewhere half up. You can then set a chair they can climb up and use the table as a slide!! It works better if you have a longer card table. We don't, so we mostly used it to slide cars and other things down.



*Paint the Snow! I just posted a little about this, but you just get an old spray bottle, put water and food coloring in it and then let them spray the snow outside! Miles wants to do it inside too, so we just put plain water in a spray bottle and let him spray the floors.

*Play-Doh- A daily activity here

*Blow Bubbles- Also a daily activity

*Paint! You have to feel semi-ambitious for this one because there is always a mess to clean up. :)

*Sometimes we fill up the ice cube trays with water, then Miles helps me drop food coloring into each little capsule. He thinks it's awesome.

*Spread rice or corn meal on a cookie sheet and trace designs. (Can also tend to get very messy)

*Bake! Miles loves to help me "make" things in the kitchen. A favorite was him helping me make sugar cookies. We got to talk about shapes and then colors while we frosted them.

*Helping with chores. Miles really likes this actually. He can help hand me clothes for laundry, put the silverware in the dishwasher, "make" his bed etc.

*Color! He's starting to like this more, so we do a lot of tracing his hand and practicing shapes. Crayons are off limits for a while however since all he does it tear off the paper and break them.

*We love sidewalk chalk, but obviously can't do it outside. Solution? Get an old cardboard box and you can sidewalk chalk on that! It works great.

*We build forts with all the boxes in the office area

*Make a fruit loop necklace! Just did this the other day at a friends house and Miles loved it SO much, we had to do it again that night at home.

*Something that's been fun lately is flashlight tag! (Hide and seek in the dark) We wait till dad gets home for this one. Super fun!

*Play with bubbles in the sink. I'll just put a chair up to the sink, fill it up with water and bubbles and give him all sorts of utensils to play with. This usually keeps him occupied for about 20 minutes

*Singing and Dancing is really fun lately with Miles because he's starting to really "sing along" with his favorite songs.

*We run lots of errands! I can't stand being in the house all day for more than 2 days in a row, so I frequently take him on errands, even if I just make the errands up. For instance, we'll just go to the DI to look at things and he can play with the toys there. Or you can go to a place with a indoor play area to get some wiggles out. We visit Richie at work and he gets to "ride" the forklift. The library is another good one. They do these awesome story times that usually have a craft to go along with the book. We've never made it past the first 2 minutes. Miles can't sit still long enough, but we sure try!

*Let's face it, we watch a bunch of movies too.


OK! I'm all out of ideas. I need some more! Please!