Toddler Activities - Louisville,KY

Hi! I am a SAHM of a 26 month old and a 6 month old and I run into the same issues. I do educate my daughter while we play, but I believe in letting kids be kids. Too soon, school starts and as the years go by, its more and more work for them. My daughter loves to go for walks, so I'll strap my son into the Baby Bjorn and my daughter will grab her baby stroller and well go for walks around the neighborhood. I'll point out things and ask her about them, like today we saw the mailman and his truck was parked down the road and I asked her "What goes with the mailman?" and she pointed to his truck. I agree with Mandy B, she LOVES her water table! I fill it up and I give her cups, kitchen utensils and bath toys. She would play all day if I would let her. She loves to paint even though I hate it because she makes a huge mess. I bought her a very large t-shirt that we use as her paint shirt and I put a huge tablecloth on the kitchen floor and let her have fun. She doesn't really like to paint on paper so I buy L. wooden jewelry boxes, bird houses, etc from the craft store that she paints. I have used the finished jewelry boxes as gifts for my mom from my daughter (my mom loves that stuff). She really loves the Elefun game too. Ok, one last thing...my sister got me a subscription to Family Fun magazine, it's mostly for older kids but there are some really cute ideas in there. Check out their website: http://familyfun.go.com. Ok, I'm done : )!

Wow, we have kids that are the same ages! My oldest is 21 months and youngest is 5 months!

I recently introduced play doh. He loved it!! A little messy, but not too bad as long as you are not on a carpet. Ryan won't color unless we use markers, for some reason he doesn't like crayons. We got the washable crayola thick markers...that activity doesn't really last that long though - 10 mins max. He loves, loves, loves his water table. I put it out on the deck and give him all different size cups and put a few of his bath toys in there. That literally keeps him occupied for hours!! We sing a lot - he really likes the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song right now. He is a little bored pointing out all of his own body parts - but if I ask him to point them out on his little brother, he gets a HUGE kick out of hit.

I'll be interested to read other mom's suggestions, as I am in the same boat. There are nights where I am like - OK, 2 more hours till bed time, what can we do now, we've already played with every single toy!!!

Hi.....
I have given this suggestion before and it works.......let him help you make him a game. Get a file folder, open it up, and draw circles or squares or triangles, whatever you want and make a game board. Be sure to leave room for pictures either drawn or cut out. Then either buy clear contact paper or take it and get it laminated. Then go to the dollar store and buy some cheap "game pieces", they can be erasers, or whatever they like.......next cut some paper and make playing cards. These can go from ABC's, pictures or words, to letters and sounds, whatever you want. You can laminate them too if you want........Get some dice......now you are ready to go.......you can use the game for quite a while, and you can just changed the cards as they progress to new things.....When the board is in bad shape, make a new one......this can go on for years......and it's cheap, simple to make and they have fun playing a game, not realizing that they are learning as they go.

I H. this helps, remember, stickers are great too for the board, cards and as rewards for a great job done!
Take care and good luck.

I would suggest getting involved in some playgroups. There are several Mom's groups in Louisville that get together and do things with kids and moms. They can be fun for both of you. I am not sure what part of Louisville you are from but if you search for Louisville moms in yahoo groups you can find several groups. One is south Louisville Moms in Valley Station/ PRP/ Okolona areas. Then there are East End Moms and several others. Let me know if you want more info.