Keeping Monkeys Busy
You guys! Thank you to everyone who joined in on our Instagram live this morning! It was so fun. I could not believe how sweet everyone was, how interested in our family some of you are. Your comments were so touching to me and added some much needed juice to my mama batteries.
As you could see from our time on the IG live this morning.... these two monkeys are incredibly busy little boys! Like break-stain-destroy-EVERYTHING-in-site-as-fast-as-we-can kind of fellas. If you were watching the live long enough you probably saw Ames eating paint... That is where we are at, people. Soooo, what are my options for keeping them busy in non-destructive ways and without sticking them in front of a TV all day? Since it's winter and we live in a cold place, there are normally a few months out of the year that we can't send kids outside. Lucky for me, it's been a warm winter and I bundle the kids up often and send them out to the trampoline. But it's still too cold for long periods so we had to come up with things to do INSIDE. That is where all of these pics below come in...
One day after spending what seemed like HOURS cleaning and picking up random toys that were broken and thrown all over the house, I decided to hunt on Pinterest and Amazon for toddler activities. I found a bunch that were cheap and easy to do myself. Then I threw away two giant bags of un-played-with, and some broken.... crap toys. Because they DON'T play with them and I'm sick of the distraction of clutter.
All of these activities are GREAT for brain development and to work on fine motor skills. It has been so fun seeing the way Welles is figuring things out and working on these games like some kind of interesting puzzle. And the best part? They stay busy for more than five minutes at a time!!!
I will list all of the activities and what you need to make them below along with amazon links to everything. This is all coming to you from the LEAST CRAFTY woman on planet earth! It was truly the easiest 20 minutes of my life putting these activities together.
Now we keep it all in this plastic box, and when they start getting antsy, I pull it out and let them pick one activity at a time. They have to help me put away the activity before pulling a new one out. Ames especially tends to lose the pieces all over the house, so I put him in his high chair most of the time when he's doing his.
I have spent months chasing these boys and going insane trying to keep them from destroying everything. This has been a great way for me to get little breaks throughout the day. I used to feel bad about how often I turned the TV on to allow them to watch music videos and dance. Now we have limited screen time so much by pulling these games out. Good luck putting yours together! I hope your busy toddlers enjoy as much as mine do!
Sorting color cups and bears (I'll be honest, my boys are still not doing this one right but we are practicing!)
Colorful Buttons and Tupperware-- I used a knife to start the top and then cut out the rest of the insert spot.
Puff balls and Tupperware-- Stab the hole in the top with a knife and cut out the circle.
Pipe cleaner, Tupperware and hole punch... Bam! Some people use a drill rather than a hole punch.
Fidget spinner -- Welles LOVES watching his spin and spin. He lays on the ground for long periods of time doing this. Ours is plain, but the one I linked is a light up one, which Welles would love. I think I'll get it because the light up feature would be really exciting to him.
Big beads and thred-- Ames personal favorite!
Bolts and Screws game-- Welles loves to watch the bolts spin though he still has a hard time doing this himself. It's really good fine motor practice!
