Toddler Activities: 28 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Decorating a Paper Tree: Emma loved decorating our tree, so I wanted to do some sort of Christmas tree activity this month. I cut out a pine tree shape from green card stock, and taped it onto some white printer paper and added a star. Throughout the month, she decorated it with various objects like Fruit Loops, pompoms, and paper circles. It turned out to be a great quiet time activity and kept her occupied much longer than I anticipated. This activity could easily be done as an "apple tree" at other times of the year.

 

Bird Feeder Craft: Okay, I know what you're thinking. We made a bird feeder last month! In my defense, it has been REALLY cold here the last couple weeks - honestly too cold to take the kids outside. But both Emma and Bryson love to watch the birds and squirrels in the trees outside. So making a feeder to attract the birds is our way to connect with nature when it's too cold to actually go outside to enjoy nature. This craft could not be more simple. I took a pipe cleaner and made a loop at one end, then Emma threaded on a handful of Cheerios. I made a small loop on the other end to hold the Cheerios in place. Simply hook the loop onto a tree branch and you're done. Full disclosure: I hung the feeders we made on our Christmas tree and was waiting until nap time to take them outside. Later that morning, I discovered that Emma had gotten all three down and devoured the Cheerios while I was in the other room nursing Bryson. So ours ended up being a toddler feeder instead of a bird feeder.

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Baby's First Christmas by Christina Goodings
• Snow by Uri Shulevitz
• Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson
• Merry Christmas, Ollie! by Olivier Dunrea

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We have great weather outside for playing in the snow!
2. Bryson is fully crawling, and...
3. Bryson is pulling himself up on furniture to a standing position. I am choosing to keep a positive attitude and regard this as a "good thing" and NOT utterly terrifying!