to as what on earth you do with older babies/ young toddlers at the weekend?

[ChunkysMum]

DD is 10mo, just walking, into everything and gets bored easily at home. When she's bored she's very whingey.

We go on walks/ to feed ducks/ to farm/ to park etc but all of this will get more difficult as winter sets in. We do have an all-over waterproof but need to find appropriate footwear which is tricky.

Soft play is not good as she's now quickly bored by the baby areas but is not quite big enough to do the older kid areas without an adult. She'd love to get into the bigger areas.

We go swimming but this is currently the only thing that seems appropriate and there's only so many times I can take her.

There are no baby groups on on the weekend where we are.

What on earth do you all do to keep yourself and your baby sane?

[WelshMaenad]

Well, we tried a large dog crate, but social services didn't like it.

[pleasethanks]

We tend to do any of the following at the weekend, all of which DD enjoys. She is 2, but we have been doing all of this for the past year;

• zoo
  
• trip to supermarket (she LOVES this)
  
• swimming (every sunday for a while)
  
• local farm shop for an early lunch and look at animals
  
• out for early lunch
  
• museums (we have a great free one)
  
• have friends round
  
• just a walk to the local shops
  
• arts/crafts
  
• reading books
  
• watering the plants in the garden
  
• park (local one we walk to and take drives to different ones)
  
• library
  
• indoor shopping centre - have a browse and share a hot choc
  
• she enjoys the rare time we go to ikea
  
• make dens at home with sheets and blankets etc
  

Hope some of that helps!

[cory]

Never found there as a problem with going to the park or feeding the ducks in wintertime. We also went for walks in the woods, to the library.

[DawnOfTheDee]

I pass DD to DH for some 'father/daughter bonding time' then go and sit in a cafe & read the papers. That uses up a good couple of hours.

[Gilberte]

Go in the older areas of the soft play with her or isn't this allowed? I've always gone in with my DDs since they were very small and we have great fun.

It is difficult entertaining older babies when they don't have siblings around. DD1 was easily bored and I think I did take her out for walks a lot of the time once she reavhed 14 months plus and like pushing a toy buggy around.

Libraries sometimes have rhyme time on at the weekends- it might be worth a visit anyway for a change of scene. Toddlers like pushing around the little chairs and emptying the bookshelves.

Cafes (if they are family friendly) can be a good bet for a short visit/ drink and snack as lots of people watching

Short bus ride to local shops and back

Water is your friend at home. Get her up at the sink- plenty of towels on floor, pouring washing up activities

If you really get stuck give her a bath in the day- new toys, food colouring, bubbles

[pleasethanks]

Also, as she got a bit older she could 'help' me out with chores. Empyting dishwasher, hanging up washing on clothes horse etc. She seemed to enjoy it and it let me get on with some stuff.

Also, a washing up basin, tubs and a whisk keeps her going for a while.

[InvisibleHotPinkWeasel]

Well once the traffic playing season is over due to cold and rain we turn our attention to knife juggling

Small cheap paddling pool and balls are good.
Paint and water play.
Home made play dough.
And top favourite was alway pans, wooden spoons and whisks etc.

[THETrills]

What do you do with them all day during the week?

[gordyslovesheep]

going OUT - anywhere ...but OUT - farm, park, shops, drive in the car, cafe etc etc

[IPredictADiet]

just get out, anywhere
get a thick winter coat and gloves each and keep going to the parks and farms
child-friendly museums are good - interesting stuff to look at, big wide indoor spaces in which to crawl and toddle
warm milk and cake in a cafe
bus/tram/train ride

at that age, both dds like being wheeled around the Trafford Centre, which suited me fine.

[Tigresswoods]

Trip to nearest biggest conurbation on the TRAIN!!!!!!!

[Kveta]

meet up with friends

make playdough and play with it

make a 'fort' out of a sheet and some chairs

baking - DS loved pressing buttons on the mixer and still does on the kitchenaid stealth boast

crafts - painting, drawing (crayola pens which wash out!), sticking.

go to garden centre

library

[Softlysoftly]

Lentils and various containers and spoons to "dig" with and sitting at the sink with a few cups and floaty things.

I find rough structuring your day helped relieve the boredom if you are stuck in (mainly my boredom to be fair), we still do this now dd1 is 3 dd2 is 4 months, so:

Up and breakfast bit of tv while I tidy up --MN and drink tea-/.

Tidying up for real tv off they play freely or help do chores in a fun way eg climbing in washing basket, chucking stuff in the washing up bubbles.

Snack

Read/jigsaws/games/dancing to music.

Lunch

Move rooms so go upstairs to tidy or something, I keep different toys upstairs but she inevitably destroys her bedroom tomake a den and raids my wardrobe for shoes and bags.

Snack

Crafty stuff like painting, glitter, stickers, play dough and beading now she's older. Sometimes we make cards to send to people then walk to the post box and post them.

Maybe play in garden or go for a walk, we look for dandelion clocks or flowers to pick for home etc.

Teatime

Bedtime wind down with the tv on more MN and tea

Bed

Ignore destruction of house and collapse in chair. Oh and run up and down 50 times as DD2 won't sleep, then give in a breed constantly until pass put from exhaustion.

[ChunkysMum]

When I'm not at work during the week we go to the many different baby groups/activities at our local Surestart centres.

Thanks for the great suggestions. Never thought of just going to the Supermarket.

I struggle with cafes as the little bugger hates sitting still so trys to escape and is under everyones feet.

It really does seem to be hard to entertain her at this age. I'm hoping it it will get easier.

[Softlysoftly]

So many spelling and strikeout fails in that I CBA to list them. Am at pass out from exhaustion stage of the day!

[Softlysoftly]

If you don't want to actually achieve anything going anywhere can be fun. We went sofa shopping the other day she spent a happy 2 hours trying out different chairs like flipping goldilocks!

[tootssweet]

Softly - I think that constant breeding would exhaust most of us!
Am trying not to laugh too hard as don't want to wake ds

[Viviennemary]

I must be sadly out of touch. Ten months old and bored. How can this be. Sombody made mine a little farmyard and they did play with that a lot more than most of the toys.

[LovingKent]

My DS is 2.5. Its hard isn't it when they are rHe loves:-

Going to the local train station to watch trains (he is mad about them - he doesn't have to ride in one, just watching them is sufficient entertainment!)
Going on a bus
Running riot through the local shopping centre
Watering plants in the garden, "weeding" (ie picking grass / flowers / leaves)
Going to the park (I try and alternate them - we carry on with this through winter as long as it isn't bucketing with rain!)
Walking round the block (we live near a main road - he loves just standing on the pavement there watching and commenting on all the traffic! )
Going for a walk somewhere
Running up and down our hallway
Building tunnels using the sofa cushions
Going swimming / soft play
Going to the butchers or to run errands with Daddy
Baking
"Helping" with chores - bought DS his toy own dustpan and brush, he also likes taking dry washing off the rack

Hope that helps!

[KellyElly]

The outdoor stuff is still ok in winter as long as its not chucking it down with rain. If you have friends or family with kids the same age just visiting each other is good. Do normal stuff you want to do as well like go for lunch, go shopping etc as they get used to it and you won't have a child that needs constant entertainment when they are a bit older. My DD is now 3 and we go for lunch together at pizza express and she loves it.

[ledkr]

We played cars made cakes ate them watched the night garden jumped on sofa (her not me) lol. Had a long bath then early night.
Was a long day though dh working and dd1 with her dad.
I did find out i dont like playing cars though

[wheresmespecs]

outdoor activities if weather bad -

if it rains, just go out in the street you live in in wet weather clothes and splash through puddles. If she gets soaked, doesn't matter, you can be home in seconds.

Woodland walks if you can get to a wood. less windy and exposed and lots to pick up and talk about.

Shopping arcade - lots of shops, things to look at, people to look at.

Indoor activities - whatever you do with her during the week!

get one of those big mats that you can do 'water painting' on (no paints, just brush and water) - washing up bubbles in a bowl, let her sit on the kitchen floor and 'wash' things - get a cupboard or cardboard box with safe kitchen utensils, like wooden spoons and saucepans, and let her unpack and bash them them around (kitchen activities are great for letting you get on with stuff in the kitchen anyway) -

These are all things where you have to supervise, but you can be in the same room and get on with something else at the same time, chiming in when needed.

In all honesty, getting on with household tasks with them right there is worth it - everything will take four times as long but it will get done and toddlers do love 'helping'.... Ds will sort laundry with me (by flinging it round the room mostly) as long as I put pants on my head and sing an appropriate song.

I don't want to scare you.... but if you do a lot of classes and scheduled activities during the week with your DD, then they all disappear during the summer holidays anyway....

[IceBergJam]

Have a 91/2 month old. When can you start crayons and painting?

[wheresmespecs]

crayons and paints whenever you like - they just do different things with them at different ages. Washable felt tips are lovely too - DS likes taking them all out of the pencil case and putting them back in again. Good for talking about colours.

Very big pieces of paper, like a3 size (is it A3? big) so crawlers and toddlers can spread out all over them on the floor is good. no point expecting them to ne all neat with little pieces of paper.

I admit, I find the close supervision and cleaning up afterwards with actual paint is a bit much....it just gets everywhere. That's why I love art tables in toddler groups or messy play. it's not my kitchen getting spattered!

[happydotcom]

We took ds (15 mo) to our local pet shop today. He had a lovely time looking at hamsters, rabbits,fish etc .

DH calls it our local 'zoo' . Perfect and free when it's pissing down with rain !!!!