We have an active toddler. She is always ON. THE. GO. And she needs to be busy. Constantly. This is part of the reason I decided to start some daily preschool activities, and why we make numerous visits to parks (sometimes more than once per day), and to the Library, and to the muddiest puddles we can find in the backyard. But some days, no matter how much we do, I just can’t seem to keep her busy enough. Today was one of those days.
I thought of something to try today and after I did it (and it worked!), I sent a text out to my group of girlfriends (the same group of girlfriends who’s kiddos were the reasons behind the posts “crayon vs fabric chair….who won?” and “keeping your toddler out of the toilet…”). Two of my mom-friends replied with “Brilliant!!” and “Genius idea!” and I thought: ya know, they’re right! It is a great idea…why didn’t I think of it before when I needed something else to keep Emily busy. Or occupied while I took care of something I needed to do. Or took a shower. Or used the bathroom. Or wanted to have a conversation with someone. Or just wanted to enjoy a glass of Chardonnay before it got warm (I would have said my coffee before it got cold, but I am so used to drinking cold coffee, it actually doesn’t bother me anymore… I never really got a taste for warm Chardonnay though). And I thought it might be a helpful idea for my fellow toddler mom’s out there!
This idea actually isn’t my own idea at all. I have no idea who came up with it but it’s been a “thing to do” ever since I was a kid, and pretty sure since my parents were kids, and likely since my grandparents were kids too. It’s not necessarily a “normal” thing that you would plan as an activity for your kid , but they would figure out how to do it on their own eventually. Some people may think it’s weird or gross. Some people might think it’s not “good” to do. But you know what… it really is perfectly safe, and harmless, and even if you don’t agree with it, pin this to one of your Pinterest boards, in case you do get desperate and end up needing an idea in the future.
So, this week for Fun School we had a weather theme. (I am a little behind on posts for themes and activities from previous weeks; there are a ton of hilarious pictures I am still trying to sort through, especially the ones from this week. :)). Fortunately our weather today was beautiful and we were able to get outside right after breakfast which was at about 8:30 this morning, so I brought everything we would need for our “weather” activities outside. I can usually spread my planned activities over about 2-3 hours (not continuously, its a mix of activities and snacks and lunch, and distractions) but today Emily’s attention span was about 2.5 minutes so we were completely done with our activities by 8:55 am. Great. I should mention that my truck is in the shop right now so packing up to take a trip somewhere for the day wasn’t an option. And she wasn’t in the mood to sit still long enough to hop in the stroller and go for a walk (not too long ago I thought it would be a great idea to take Emily and our dog, Kallie, on a long hike/walk when they were both stir crazy. It ended up being a shit show and a half with me trying to push Emily in the stroller, while Kallie tried to take us both for a brisk jog, and Emily trying to crawl out of the stroller as we went. I got a lot of odd stares from people that day; I hope it gave them something to laugh about). So, what did I come up with to do next this morning?? Well, we drew with sidewalk chalk. Then finger painted. Then hand painted. Then feet painted. Then body painted (the feet and body painting are always a given with Emily. She’s what you’d call a “feet on” learner). Then we did a load of laundry. Then we gave Kallie a bath and rinsed the paint off a bit. And after all of that, it was only 10am. But I noticed that Emily was trying to pick some dried paint off of her hands, and she was really enthralled in it. Instantly, one thing popped into my head, are you ready?
Elmer’s glue. That good ol’ white school glue.
Ah yes…if you were a kid that enjoyed doing this, you are now remembering back to those days. Oh, the weird pleasure of it. Well, I went and got the bottle of Elmer’s and slathered a thin layer onto the palm of one of Emily’s hands. She was curious what was going on but when I told her she could “pick it off” she was very interested. I told her she needed to keep her hand open to let it dry for a few minutes but of course she immediately closed her hand into a fist. I got her to keep it open by telling her we’d have to wash it off if she didn’t (it worked!) and then we blew on it to help it dry. We were outside in the sun so it didn’t take too long. When it was dry, I told her to pick it all off. And she literally sat in our garage and picked at it for about 30 minutes! Then moved out to the grass to pick for about 15 minutes more. Score!
Instead of taking advantage of a few free minutes though, I sat there and watched her and how articulate she was being with pulling at each piece (and also kind of wanting to get in there and pull off the biggest piece I could. Remember how fun that used to be, when you would use a TON of glue and try to pull it off as an entire hand?? The only thing that sucked was waiting so long for half a bottle of glue to dry on your hands). After she picked most of the glue off, she of course wanted to put it on her feet, but instead we had some lunch and then played with the hose to get the rest of the paint (and glue residue) off. And the best part? She then took a 2 hour nap. I’m thinking about trying this idea when we take our next trip to the grocery store.
Elmer’s glue. There’s a reason it’s stuck around for 72 years and I definitely will keep a stock of it on hand. LOL. 🙂
Do you have any unique or oddball ways you’ve kept your 2 year old, (or 3 or 4 year old) busy and STILL for a while??
