Toddler activities to keep their hands busy and your butt in a chair
Here’s three of my favourite activities for when you’re in early pregnancy and riding the waves of morning sickness, OR late pregnancy and too heavy to continuously bend over, or worse, sit on the floor. The bonus is they move nicely into postpartum when your hands and/or lap are busy with baby.
ONE: Paint your toys!
All you need is some toys you’ve been meaning to have “lost” or whichever ones you don’t mind having painted.
Use a water based, kid friendly paint for ease of washing after.
Head outside and put down some old towels, either over a table or on the floor.
Some paint brushes and a cup of water.
Let them go crazy. Be firm and clear on the boundaries - only the select toys are to be painted, paint must stay on the towel.
If they’re messy little creatures and the day is hot, take their clothes off - this saves laundry and if they get paint on their body, just hose them down later.
Now you get to sit on a chair close by to supervise while you rest and they have a blast.
Then once they’re all done, grab some warm soapy water and a cloth and direct them to the grass to clean the toys!
Scrub all the paint off and leave them in the sun to dry.
This activity is such a favourite of mine because it’s easy to set up, does not require adult participation, and kids bloody love it. My son was about 20 months when I first started doing this with him, and it saved my butt on days I just NEEDED to sit down and be left alone.
TWO: Pom pom bath
I should note: this does require heavy supervision, but since it’s in the bath, it’s kind of a given, right?
All you need is a bath and a bag of pom poms. I remove all the small ones before offering them to my kids, mainly because the little one can’t be trusted with small objects yet.
This is a great trick to ride out witching hour, regardless of the weather outside. Summer:cold bath, winter: warm bath
You can add some various sized containers and other random kitchen cups for extra fun, and after they’re all done, just strain the pom poms and they dry like normal - rinse and repeat!
This is also a great sensory activity in a small tub, if you don’t feel like (or it might be too early in the day) putting them in the bath.
THREE: Stickers
Usually, I cannot stand these stupid, sticky little trouble makers, but for this purpose, I’m a fan
This game is called: stick the stickers on mum. It’s basically exactly how it sounds. You’re tired, sore and just don’t want to leave the couch. So you grab a book of stickers and let your toddler go crazy covering mums body with stickers.
They love it and you get to sit down, and maybe even get a few little massages.
I love this game for quiet bonding too. Often my son would gently stick them on my cheeks and come in for a cuddle before going back to decorating mum.
What happens when they’re done? Well they take them all off of course.
You’ve just doubled your time on the couch ;)
