Comments on: Baby toy alternatives (part 2)

By: barackoli

barackoli — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:47:55 +0000

thanks for sharing about baby toy alternatives

By: Inexpensive Entertainment For Children

Inexpensive Entertainment For Children — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:36:19 +0000

[...] More Resources: Unclutterer has a good article with more ideas like helping with laundry- now that’s a good [...]

By: A

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:44 +0000

When my brother was little, there was a spot in the back yard where no grass would ever grow, and he started digging in it with a little hand shovel. If he was asked what he was digging for, the answer was always “dinosaur bones.” He never found anything but roots from nearby trees, but boy was he determined to keep looking! Hours and hours out there….

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:45:22 +0000

My oldest would collect rocks from various places, and could spend an hour out on the back deck washing the rocks.

Another big hit is flat sheets, a classic. Draped over the dining room table, chairs, over the couch and coffee table, they became all manner of forts, castles, etc. A blue one laid flat on the floor became a lake.

My daughter asked for scotch tape from Santa one year and had a blast making big spiderwebs in the doorways with it.

The boxes that Capri Sun juice pouches come in make great building blocks– very sturdy.

By: ash

ash — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:11:14 +0000

children may not realize an ad is sexy, but the more they see scantily clad women, muscle-y men, may really start to force them to conform. the world isn’t only full of skinny women, and bulky men. i mean, you KNOW the population is diverse. if a kid only sees a certain kind of thing, they start thinking it’s all that exists. be careful what you put in front of children, for sure!

By: Niobe

Niobe — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:23:03 +0000

For computer time, I love baby type:
http://www.raize.com/CProducts.....efault.asp
It responds to any keystroke and ignores naughty keys.

As for magazines, I always read the flyers with my 3 year old, and now she knows all her numbers without coaching. Prices are printed in bold font with contrasting colors, and loads of numbers are repeated (.95, .99) etc. and it really helps them learn numbers without paying loads for educational books. Which aren’t bad, but they point is to recognize numbers in all their applications.

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:14:54 +0000

A shovel, a hose and a pile of dirt. During his preschool years my son would spend hours in the backyard digging holes and filling them up with water. He would get covered in mud and soaked to the bone — and he loved every minute of it. When he was finished I’d pop him in a hot shower. Happiness, pure and simple.

By: Cat

Cat — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:28:28 +0000

Thank you for the Keyboard-0-rama link, I sent it to my sister because I am sure my niece will love it. She always as her hands on any technology she can find.

Lee, I love your ‘useful trash’ box idea. Its a great way to recycle and still get children craft materials! I’ll keep that in mind for when I have my own children

By: Mom101

Mom101 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:14:39 +0000

My daughter also LOVES keyboard-o-rama. Hilarious.

Bathtime can also be a good time killer on a rainy day. Sit in there with a magazine, give the kid a few empty cups or plastic containers to play with, and you’re good for an hour.

By: tara

tara — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:48:29 +0000

My kids help with chores too! They love to pull the clothes out of the washer, put them into the basket, and hand me clothespins (which we use to practice counting) so I can put them up on the line to dry. And they hand me dishes out of the dishwasher and I put them in the right cupboard. I have them help stack the plastic bowls, and we practice counting and colors. I’m going to try the paintbrush and water tonight. We got paintbrushes as a gift but I feared the mess and haven’t used them yet. Great article!

By: amy o

amy o — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:00:22 +0000

My kids (5, 4, 2 and a half) played for *months* with a box they could sit in filled with paper torn up from an old catalogue, which they tore up themselves. They took baths in it, stood on a chair and dumped it out for “snow”, got the little handbroom and dustpan and swept up all the paper, and started again… kids who came to visit loved it, too.

Two toilet paper tubes taped together with colored celopane over the ends makes a really fun pair of binoculars.

Cat’s Cradle! A piece of string! Would never have made the 11-hour trip from Tokyo by myself with three kids without that…

Anybody else regularly make long flights with *really* little ones alone? (Great tips, everyone!)

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:22:58 +0000

@ Monica Ricci – While the gut is not often a good guide to human cognitive development, yours is right on: the more structured a toy, the more it turns a child into an agent of the toy rather than building his or her imagination. The same is true of computer software as well, frankly. Just because it’s not physical clutter doesn’t mean it’s not mental clutter.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:44:42 +0000

Although my boys are grown, I loved reading about what these other parents have done to let children help or to keep them occupied in productive ways. My younger one loved the vac, which was taller than he was, so my mother bought him a little one. I’ve been impressed with the testimonials on Flylady about how little children enjoy having one of her dusters as their own and how motivated children are to clean their rooms when they use the House Fairy system.

My first son had a box that we called “useful trash”. I would ask if an item was trash and he’d tell me that it was useful. He spent many hours making things out of short pieces of ribbon, pretty paper, cardboard, small pieces of nonsharp metal – all things that I would have discarded! It had so many cool things in it that I had to put it away when he had guests as so many kids wanted to play in it.

By: Kathy@brazoscowgirl

Kathy@brazoscowgirl — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:35:59 +0000

I should have posted about shaving cream and corn meal. You put shaving cream on a cookie sheet and let them draw. Okay it is messy but they do love it! Corn meal is the same idea. Later it is a great place to practice letter writing.

By: Sammy

Sammy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:29:33 +0000

Regarding the paintbrush-and-water – check out a product called Aquadoodle, which is basically a blue surface (either a little pad or big mat depending which one you get)which changes from a light to a pale to a very vivid blue when wet, and dries within about five minutes. Sure, the kid could have “painted” on the sidewalk, but this is useful when we’re stuck inside, and probably a lot better than going through a ton of paper.