Indoor Ideas

Get the book Baby Days by Barbara Rowley. Tons of good activities based on age and location! I love this book!

www.dltk-kids.com has great crafts- even my two year old loves paper crafts. I give him a pair of childrens sissors and let him cut. In the end they are happy and I generally have a contained mess that we all clean up.

I had my husband bring in a BIG bowl of snow. Then we put towels and cookie sheets on the table, gloves on the kids and made mini snowmen with baby carrots and raisins for a face. We took pictures and then threw the snowballs out the back door.

Another thing to do inside is buy foam shaving cream and spray it on a table and they can rub it all around and draw pictures in it and they love the feel of it. It's easy clean up because shaving cream will disappear if rubbed enough and just wipe with a wet rag because it's just soap! Also at a craft store they have these foam shaped stickers and my girls love to just take the wrapper off and stick it on paper it's great for their motor skills and keeps them busy for hours. Make sure to have a garbage near by for the wrappings that come off! Have fun

We have started indoor "fishing" to try and beat the winter blues. I had the girls color some pictures of fish and then let my 5 yo cut them out. I put a paperclip through the mouths of the fish and attach a magnet to a string. I throw out the fish and they "catch" them with their fishing poles. My two yo loves this game and your one month old will probably love to watch the process. Good luck and remember spring is just around the corner!!!

Why do you have to be indoors? If you have snow in your yard it is fun to make spray chalk and spray the snow different colors. my kids love it! just mix 1cup water for every 2T. cornstartch and then add whatever color (I use food coloring) you want. put it in a spray bottle and you are good to go. I also works on driveways and garage doors. It washes right off with the rain or a hose down.

One thing that will keep my kids entertained for hours is a roll of butcher paper. You can roll out a section and give them crayons and they will color for hours. There is something about the big size of the paper. They love to color big pictures, color a picture together, or trace their bodies, hands, or feet. Robert's and other craft stores sell it by the yard or foot. The foam stickers are also great. You can use them on the butcher paper or regular paper.

My 3 year old son loves forts and boxes. He will take his toys in the fort and play. A simple fort we like to make is to just throw a blanket over our card table. Sometimes he pretends to be a turtle using the laundry basket for a shell.

I know it was already mentioned but young kids love to help too. Lately I have been involving him more with helping me and he really likes it. He can now fold some clothes and he likes to put them away, he helps water the plants with his own cup and a little bit of water, it is also amazing what he can wipe off the walls or floor with just a handi wipe.

Good luck, we are ready for Spring too! Tonya

Depending on the age of your kids. My daughter and I found that we could make a quilt kid friendly. take the pages out of their favorite coloring book and pin it to a white cotton cloth hold it up to the window and trace it on the cloth. Than trace that with a pen or marker. Color with Cayola colors dark. than put on iron board, paper towel under it and on top iron until you can not get anymore wax, this sets in the color and than you sew them togather and have a great memory quilt that they colored.

My kids loved to play "kick the balloon" I would blow up small balloons and set "goals" (laundry baskets on their side are great for this) at opposite ends of the room. We would then "race" each other to see who could kick the most balloons into our perspective goal.

Bring the outside in... I have set up the kiddie pool in the living room (on a big tarp) and put about 2 inches of warm water in it. Toss in the pool toys, beach towels, swim suits, and a lawn chair...you have a day at the pool.

Have a picnic in the living room. Pitch a tent for nap time and go camping.

Get out scraps of fabric, buttons, paper, noodles, and other tuchable art supplies and make a 3-D picture for the fridge.

Have a puppet show.

I am a mom to 3 kids (71/2 -2) and work in a daycare. We need to think outside of the box, toy box that is!

When we just can't stand being in the house any longer, we go to an indoor play place like McDonald's or the mall. We also like to go on "field trips" to Cabella's to look at the animals. Of course, that's totally dependent on what's close to you. (If you're in Orem, Point of the Mountain isn't super close)
I have been saving up soda bottles to use for bowling pins. Then I stuck a piece of masking tape on the floor and my kids (4 and 22 months) have to stand on their piece of tape and roll a foam ball to knock them down.
A laundry basket and rolled up socks or that foam ball makes a fun basketball game.
Try cutting up scraps of wrapping paper or construction paper into shapes, then give your 2 year old a glue stick and let him glue them on a sheet of paper to make whatever he thinks looks cool.
Make a tent with sheets! Then have a picnic lunch inside.
For a fun snack, give him sliced cheese and small cookie cutters (tiny ones, actually) to cut it into shapes to put on his crackers. OR use them to cut up his sandwiches into shapes.

When I was a nanny I used to bundle them up real well and take them for a walk around the neighborhood. If it was too cold out I would play indoor games, art activities, story time, libraries usually have age appropriate story time that is always good for an hour or so, most of the kids I took care of also were enrolled in a gym or ballet class we did once a week. I always loved rainy days (as long as it wasn't too many in a row) where we would play "house" or "restaurant" or something of the sorts. We also would practice coloring and naming the colors same with numbers and letters. Hope this helps!
K.

hi we have a 5yr old a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 mo old here are some things we do so we dont have to go out in the cold

playdough you can make homemade or buy some
make cookies or buy pre made ready to decorate ones we just got out our play kitchen and they love it they can make anything to eat
we also have play tents and a fabric tunnel to play in
finger painting and coloring are fun too my 2 yr old will pretty much do anything i do so she will do dinasore walking(lunges) or any exercize just give it a fun name. you can get some clothes that look fun and play dress up my middle one loves pretend stuff if you do deside to go to a play park just remember the purell its a life saver from the grems

also if you have a big enough area you could also get an inside big wheel or like to ride
you could also make forts with big blankets hide and seek hmmm what else do we do ......movie time that is all ican think of sorry about the punctuation typing and feeding :)

Some ideas I did with my little ones at that age - blanket tents and box forts. I took a piece of cardboard and made two red swirls that looked like a stove top and gave my oldest a couple of pans (you can get them from thrift stores if you don't want yours ruined). Fill the sink with lukewarm water and lots of bubbles with a cup, something that squirts, and a spoon (cover the floor in towels first). In a high chair or booster seat with a tray put a dollop of pudding (in diapers is suggested) and allow for finger-painting. You can do the same with a bit of flour and a spoon too. Gather old hats, scarves, and a varity of colorful clothing and make a dress up box - this is a hit with boys and girls. just a few ideas :)

Tina

If you have a small plastic pool from summer bring that inside and the kids get to sit in it and they can play play doh, or anything else that you would not want to make a mess on your carpet. I pull our car out of the garage and then shut the door and then we play kick ball or anything like that. I have also bought an inexpensive ball pit and the kids have a blast with that! We finger paint using pudding! That way they can lick it off their fingers! Google homemade crafts for toddlers and you will be amazed! Have fun watching them explore their world. Good luck

We have a few places we visit on cold days:

The Children's Museum (http://www.mychildsmuseum.org/)is a great place to go. You can get a membership for $75 for the family, or you can pay by the day. Kids 1 year and older and adults have to pay.

We also go to Monkey Bizness sometimes. It's down south, just a bit east of I-25 behind the trail dust steakhouse. (http://www.monkeybizness.com/01denver.html)It's $7.50 for kids over 23 months, $3.00 for 12 months - 23 months, free for kids under 12 months, free for adults. It's a lot of fun!

Other places: Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Cherry Creek Mall play area, and REI (flagship store downtown) kids section has a play area.

That's all that comes to mind right now. Let me know if you have anymore questions...

S.

For your two year old you can move all the furniture in the living room and set things up so he can jump over them. Tumble, and run. It helped a lot with my kids and if you do it with them it makes it more fun.

When the weather is too cold to go out, my 2 year old daughter and I love to build forts out of blankets. It helps us both get creative and we have so much fun hanging out in there together when we are done.

My kids (5,4 and 1) get way cooped up in the winter (or the summer in Arizona when it's too hot- that's where we just moved from). We find ANYWHERE we can go to get out of the house and get some exercise (so the kids sleep better). We have a pass to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point and escape there often. We also go to the "squishy" park inside the mall, McDonald's or other places with an inside playground, Boondocks playground, Cabela's (great museum and fish tank- for free!), LDS Museums downtown, etc. It makes such a difference to grab the stroller and get out and about!

I puul out the playdough and coloring books for my 2 year old. I also help build things with blocks...this can get monotonous, but it's fun while it lasts. I also try and have "playdates". I invite friends over - or go to a friends house - who also have kids so they can play together.

Check out your local library to see if they have storytime. That's at great way to say inside, but also a way to get away from home.

You could have your kids "paint" with pudding. It's great in that if they eat it it doesn't hurt them. Kids love it. Play with blocks. Play hide and seek. Get a copy of the "Toddlers Busy Book". It's full of great ideas.

If you're looking for things to do to get out of the house, I hear Mr.Biggs has some great things to do with even toddlers. The library is always a great place to go to. They often have story time for different age groups.

for the 2 year old try window art that washes off or hand puppets they draw with paper sacks and crayons, my grandsons2 and 3 love this in the winter.

We have an indoor play tent for the kids, and they love it! They play in there for hours. We also sometimes make a fort out of the couch cushions and blankets. They also love to paint, color, or make playdough (I have an easy recipe--email me if you need it). We also play hide and seek, make cookies, or practice with scissors--your older child can try this, but keep an eye on him/her--my daughter will cut pictures from magazines for hours, and I left her to go change my son, and came back to find that she had cut herslef some bangs!!! ANyway, I know how hard it is when you are stuck inside in the snowy, cold winter--sometimes my kids just do laps around the couch!!! A good set of books are the "Toddler Busy Book" series--I think they have a preschool version and an arts and crafts one too.

If it's not too terribly cold go outside. I would reccommend getting a baby carrying backpack. Check out this blog for some ideas http://www.diapersdogsdaypacks.blogspot.com/

i teach preschool in my home and durign the winter almost never go outside for playtime. i bought a really neat thing called the Cranium fun fort ( i think that's what it called). it is a set of foam rods and plastic connectors. everything snaps together magnetically and you can make whatever you want out of it, a castle (just don't let them use the foam rods as swords bcause the magnetic end hurt if you get hit by one), a boat, a tunnel, etc. plus it all puts away in a carrying bag that it comes with. my preschool kids have lots of fun with and it lets them be active and creative during the winter.

My two year old loves to "wash" dishes. She gets an apron on and I fill the sink w/soapy water and she plays for a LONG time. She's been at it now for about 1 hour and shows no sign of stopping. I put measuring cups, spoons and her own cups in there and she knocks herself out. We also finger paint, lay out a huge piece of paper on the floor to color on, picnic in the livingroom and now she likes to help w/laundry.. Hope this helps!

If you have the room, you can allow for some extra rough housing. We allow play in the basement, or the kids sometimes run around through the kitchen. Running is not usually allowed, but they (and we) are much happier if they do not have pent up energy. If it's dry, we usually will go out and just bundle up.

I just bought a book that has tons of ideas week to week. It is called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander. It is geared every week from newborn to 5. But in the mean time you can make paper plate masks! That is all I can think of right now.

I take my kids to Magical Moon Toys (in Logan), it is a small locally-owned toy store that allows kids to play with the toys. They have a huge Thomas the Train city set up that my little boy will play with forever while we just look around.

Play doh sets are inexpensive and keep my kids very entertained.

If I need some time to myself, I will let the kids get on the computer and play at nick jr.com or sesame street.com, the games there are easy enough for a 2 year old and they help with colors, numbers and motor skills.

We installed a hammock chair swing. That is great fun for our active kids.

puzzles
music and dancing
painting on an easel
sliding down stairs
a yoga ball is fun (maybe too big for a 2 yr old??)
and one of the best of all is blow up some balloons to bat around!

Get out some stuff and do crafts, paper plates, dixie cups and washable markers. Do puzzles, dance to silly music. Read stories.
Snuggle up with a good kid movie and have jammie day! Also try getting that homeade play dough off the internet, or even just playdough. My kids could play with that forever. On yucky days we stay in our jammies, play games (they are old enough for board games now) and maybe a bubble bath for fun. Warm bubbly water is a fun entertainment and they get clean at the same time. Get two paper cups, some larger sized objects (since you have young ones) and firm tape the two ends together and make a rattle. Color Wonder markers to draw with. There are so many fun things at the age of two you can do. It is when they are older you will hear "I am so bored!!"..hee hee

We like to read books, color, bake cookies, build forts and dance. These long winter days can be tough, so you really have to stretch to keep the troops entertained! Another thought: a phrase we use around our house is "there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes". Bundle 'em up and head out, if only for a few minutes.

-B. C.

Have you visited the Family Fun website? It is free, and full of fun ideas. Also story time at the library, swimming at the YMCA, and Carl's Jr playplace are all regulars of ours in the winter.

R.:

What we do when it is cold out. Do you have an unfinished basement? We usually bring the kids bikes in and let them ride around, we play baseball. We make tents, sometimes we have been known to go to the rec center and swim. Or just play games, read books (especially with animals and they can learn their sounds). I hope that helps some.
V. C.

A one mo. old is a little young for some of those suggestions i think. I don't know about you, but in my little town the closest kids play place is an hour & a half drive, and the closest chuck e cheese is a 6 hour drive. (I live in the boonies.) So when it's cold outside, we just stick it at home. I also don't like taking my kids outside even for a trip somewhere when it's cold out, especially when they were little babies. Mine were both jan. babies so i know what you're going through. At their ages what i can think of is when the baby is awake, let your 2yo play with him with you. The older kid will understand that when the baby is hungry that it needs your attention. Also let the older one help with baths and feeding (if you use a bottle.) 2 yo & up can be a big help with baby, and this will help them connect. When the baby is sleeping, put him in his crib in the bedroom and turn on the baby monitor and you can play with the older one by him/herself. Kids like to help with housework, color, do puzzles, read books, listen to & dance to music, play cars, there are alot of things they will like to do at that age. By the time it warms up they will be close siblings and want to play in the grass together.

It tough in the winter in MT too! I visit Barnes & Noble a lot...they have a childrens section and a Thomas train station set up for play. Also, the mall has a soft play area where it's carpeted and enclosed and a place for parents to sit and watch the kiddos. Another suggestion is your local Parenting Place or Children's Museum. Lots of stuff to do and only $3 admin. and it also has an area for tiny tots with lots of soft stuff to crawl on as well as exploration and discovery things for the older.

I think, when it is cold and impossible to take a baby and a toddler outside, you can read to your two year old while you feed or nurse your baby. Also, when the baby is asleep, give your toddler extra attention. He or she feels as if her or his life has been turned upside down. He or she has to share you and you are tired and have so much to do with a new baby. Still, make time for your 2 year old and play together or do puzzels. Special time with Mom will pay off.
If your two year old takes naps, make time for yourself. Get a nap in. I promise you the load of laundry or the dishes will wait. It is more important to get some rest or some time to yourself. You will wake, energized and ready for more indoor activities with your children.
You are a wonderful Mom. Use your love and your imagization to think of new and fun things to do with your children. As your baby grows, the opportunities to have your children interact will grow also. Take care good luck. I lived to tell about having 4 little boys, born very close together. It is all worth it-- a million times over.

i'm a big fan of chuck e cheese. only we go at like 9 in the morning when there's no bigger kids there to push my son around. if you sign up for their online club you can get coupons for like 100 tokens for $12. my son is four now but i've been taking him there since he was about 2 and the great thing is when they're that young they aren't worried about just spending the tokens, they're happy to just run around. 100 tokens lasts us a several trips.