Rainy day recess:
Child tested ideas for activities when everyone is stuck inside, using stuff you already have on hand.
For babies who can sit up unassisted and older toddlers too!
Knock the blocks- use the largest lightest weight blocks you have & do re purpose any smaller cardboard boxes around the house.
Make a stack of blocks, narrating what you are doing- I’m stacking up these blocks, what’s going to happen next? If your baby doesn’t immediately knock the blocks down, do it yourself- “Wow, those blocks all fell down, what happened? “Repeat process as long as baby is interested.
You can spice the game up for older babies by asking them to wait, wait until the stack is finished and then “Knock it down!” Older babies will soon want to make their own stacks and you can ask them “Can I knock it down?” Making you beg to knock the stack down can be very appealing to your baby’s emerging sense of humor. XO Sally221
With older toddlers you can add in silly challenging items such as balls & soft toys, problem solving & experimenting to see what unlikely combinations you can pull off. Older toddlers may become interested in measuring the height of the stack or counting how many items are in the stack. If attention seems to be slacking ask if they are ready to do something else.
Balloon play made safe for babies-Balloons are the 1# choking hazard for the youngest set so for the under 2 crowd so eagle eyes, folks! Here is a safe way for the littlest ones to interact with a balloon- find a clean stretched-out sock or better yet, some at the end of their life pantyhose/ tights to pull over an inflated balloon. If you tightly tie off the end of the sock or the cut off end of the tights you will have a safe and very light weight plaything for a baby to experiment with, babies who are pre crawls can still push the balloon with feet or hands, grab it and mouth it, see what it feels & tastes like without fear of popping it and then possibly swallowing fragments. Toddlers can play keep the balloon in the air with their caregivers and do experiments with static electricity- rubbing the balloon against their hair to see what happens when they put the balloon against the wall afterwards and looking in a mirror to see what happens to their hair. Do make sure you monitor where the balloon is and confiscate all popped balloons promptly!
Instead of jumping on the couch here are some large motor activities for small people (&large!)
The indoor jumping Olympics- the only equipment you will need is a carpeted floor and material to mark the jumps, masking tape, scotch tape or even the sticky backing on envelopes or tape ripped from packages & some sort of measuring tape or ruler and a clock or watch that measures seconds and a way to write down the data you are going to be learning.
Mark off the starting point of your jumping field & then take turns seeing how far every one can do a standing 2 feet at the same time jump ( no running jumps unless you have a HUGE space) mark off everyone’s best jump with what ever you are using (adults participate!) Try Jumping backwards, try jumping swinging your arms and keeping them at your sides. Encourage kids to think (hypothesis) about why some moves are harder/easier let them experiment rather than you explaining. Asking “I wonder” questions can get the ball rolling- with older kids you might measure everyone’s height and find out what percentage of one’s height everyone is able to jump. See how much each person is able to improve their own performance, cheer each other on!
Ready for a new activity? Move on to the hopping trials - some toddlers are ready & able to hop on 1 foot & some are just beginning to develop this skill.
Take turns and cheer each other on as you try these ideas out: How many times can each of you hop up and down before you need a breather? How long can you hop up and down as fast as you can? How long do you want to rest before trying again? Are you better at hopping on your right foot or your left foot? Who can hop with their eyes closed? Who got dizzy doing that first?
Any activity that you make into a game is a place where you can add rules as part of the game- this changes the restrictions into challenges rather than just us telling kids “NO!” When we are participating in the game, we are fellow players and the kids are going to be making sure we are following the rules too because it’s no fair if we don’t. If any activity devolves into chaos then it’s time to move on to something else, don’t try to restore order, move on and do it again another time. Having a snack ready to go before you start and going directly into hand washing can be a good idea if you sense hunger is part of the melt down. Keeping up a routine is very reassuring & empowering for little kids (and adults when we are feeling uncertain about life, right?)
