Trapped Toddler Parents of Winter 2020/21 Support Thread - Puddlesuits at the ready!

[ReallySpicyCurry]

Are you the parent of a small child who doesn't yet sit still for more than five minutes? Do local lockdowns mean there are no baby and toddler groups for miles? Are you sick of walking the same three routes every day since March? Then come and join our support thread! I have started this after some of us had a good moan on a thread in AIBU ("To be worried about staying sane stuck inside all winter with a 2 year old?") because I thought it might be nice to share ideas/activities/general moans and concerns, over what is probably going to be a tricky winter for those of us with babies and toddlers.

Don't forget the answer to all your prayers though... The ever reliable puddlesuit. Puddlesuits are absolutely mandatory this year, and you are expected to wrestle your child into one and make them jump in puddles daily. If your child goes blue with cold, administer a swift dose of hot chocolate and hope your local Amazon delivery driver gets move on with your latest order of kinetic sand/playdough/ball pit/stickers. Failing all else, Peppa Pig is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, in October as in March.

@MonkeyPuddle would you mind sharing a pic of your train buys please? My boy has very recently got into wooden train tracks. I've got him a couple of Thomas sets for Xmas/birthday too but am very intrigued as to what you have bought?!

@ReallySpicyCurry are you in the US?

I found a bit of a theme for the day helped- for a gruffalo day we would read the gruffalo, some crafts (colouring in gruffalo characters, making a wood from leaves and twigs), watching the gruffalo, going on a gruffalo hunt. I basically chose a book and went from there.

I also found a rough routine really helped.

@PinkDaydreams the train set was £17 and the expansion things were £6 (I think)
The internet assures me that most wooden tracks are compatible but if they’re not you can get little connectors from amazon/eBay. I’m gonna test them out next week to see if they attach to his current set. He loves building different tracks.

No, soggy N.I here! Though I'm surrounded by people who think they're cowboys

I think I'll construct a bit of a timetable then. Especially now toddler is doing Good Sleeping in her Own Bed. I really, really want that to continue I'm very much go with the flow in the early days, but there does come a time when I appreciate a good routine.

Thank you for setting up this thread OP. I’m not sure if my ten month old baby counts as a toddler yet, but she certainly tries... along with her specialities of climbing, eating shoes and bumping her head on every item of furniture we own. I also have her four year old brother, who gets greviously upset if she grabs one of his toys but also likes to dangle his toys in front of her face. Although he’s four, sitting down for five minutes is a long time for him - even watching the TV is done upside down, or jumping between sofas, or while doing roly polys. Not looking forward to lockdown but thank god schools and nurseries are staying open this time, many thanks to all teachers and nursery staff!

@MonkeyPuddle they look fantastic! Thank you so much for the pics, I'll have to do my weekly shop in there this week and pick some trains up!

Went to the supermarket today to buy food for a roast dinner tomorrow, little one enjoyed emptying the bags for me when we got home :) I actually remembered today that I've got him a shopping trolley and play food for Christmas which I'm hoping he will like. He's already got a small bag for life from the Disney store which he likes to unpack.

@PinkDaydreams no worries lovely. DS loves a good train play they also had little tills as well if he’s into shopping play.

I popped into local charity shop the other day and noticed a small box of wooden train track and 3 trains. The price tag said £15, I couldn't believe how much they were charging for it!

@MonkeyPuddle. Thanks so much for the tip - we'll have a look in our local Lidl. Sorry, took a while to reply - passed out with exhaustion straight after DS's bedtime last night, we've had a few interrupted nights of sleep here and it's really hitting me (apologies to those with small babies, but I'm out of practice ).

We also source bits off gumtree and ebay sometimes. DS loves the Thomas trains. He's not a great colourer, but he'll do Thomas colouring-in if we find pictures online for him and then print them.

@MonkeyPuddle do you know if they've got these magnetic toys...

They are fantastic and my toddler loves them. She used to just love them on the fridge but now she makes little hen houses with them so I could do with a few more. With my teacher head on they are brilliant for young ones to really understand the net of 3D objects and shapes going together. But most of all they are really fun.

Anyway I'm asking as in Wales middle of Lidl is shut through our lockdown.

@Twilightstarbright I agree on theme days or even theme weeks. I love January and doing icy themes. Especially with ice and shiny stuff. The tuff tray comes into its own when you can freeze toys in it to smash out like maniacs or make giant ice rink for toys to go on. Ice painting is fun too.

@MonkeyPuddle I've got a few types of train sets and they all fit. Some of them are new and some are over 20 years old.

@Debradoyourecall 4 year olds are still like toddlers really aren't they!

@PinkDaydreams we bought some train bits from Facebook marketplace. Roast dinner on the cards here too today so toddler can 'help' with prep. I've also been trying prep ahead roast potatoes for days I don't feel like making a full roast but still want to eat one.

Maybe we should all suggest a theme and then a day's worth of activities for that theme .

So I'll start.

Theme: Rain (I sense this is going to define the coming lockdown).

• Reading - Lift the Flaps What makes it rain - Rain (Carol Thompson).

• Songs/music - I'm singing in the rain - Rain, rain, go away - I hear thunder - It's raining, it's pouring - The animals went in two by two.

• Physical activity - rain walk - jumping in muddy puddles - dancing in the rain (so long as no one is looking ).

• Creative - Colour in umbrella picture then glue pom poms on top as rain (this worked well for us with Christmas tree pictures last year). Another (messier) option - make your own muddy puddle in a tuff tray or large oven tray or pot. Add leaves, grass, stones and creepy-crawlies. Do some indoor toy animal 'puddle-jumping' in said muddy puddle.

• Numbers - make a large card cloud to stick on the kitchen window with sticky-tape on the back. Get the toddler to add card raindrops underneath (you need to put double-sided sticky tape on these so they can add them by themselves). When finished, count how many raindrops there are and number them. We've done this one before, it works surprisingly well. Toddler also enjoys colouring in the raindrops on the window.

• Cooking/baking - make raindrop biscuits or sandwiches.

We could then all try out our own day and report back on what works and what doesn't.

Well at least the uncertainty is over (lockdown)

re: trains - as DS1 is train obsessed, IME Brio is the best but lidl is a close second, Asda and Ikea are both ok, Aldi and Big Jigs the worst quality.

Its All Saints day in Italy, I considered making some traditional bone shaped biscuits with DS1 but they take 3 days to make

DH has announced he wants to go to Primark as he's down to his last pair of non-holey jeans. Might all go (DH can go in, we can go for a walk on the high street)

MessAllOver Great Idea having a theme day, I'll have a go after coffee :)

Morning may I join in?

I have a 5 year old, 2 and a half year old and 7 month old. I barely survived the last lockdown (hubby is a school teacher) with a newborn and two bored no longer in school/nursey kids!

Can anyone recommend a good outdoor womens coat? I dont mind it being ugly ha just practical!

Morning all. I'm another deflated by the lockdown announcement, which is made 50 x worae by the fact my only mum friend goes back to work tomorrow from Mat leave .

It's going to be a very long, wet and lonely winter so having this thread I suspect is hopefully going to stop me spending the next few months wallowing in self pity.

Also serious question, is it wrong I'm desperate for the 10 month old to finally master walking, just so I can make walks to the park or town take up most of the day .

@LittleMissLockdown I was desperate for mine to start walking... he kept me waiting until nearly 17 months!! It was a very hard winter (he started walking in Jan/Feb) but It was doable. Would be more tricky with lockdown though!! Hopefully yours is a bit more keen!

@Littleseeds11 Hi, welcome! I have a Berghaus waterproof jacket (hiking style, not padded but has a fleece you can zip in) that is still fully rainproof (with no effort on my part) about 8 or 9 years later so I would definitely highly recommend Berghaus! There was a conversation about waxed jackets a few pages back too that might be worth a read.

I’m STILL pregnant, despite lots of exciting false starts. Thankfully managed to wrangle myself another sweep today.

Oh yes to theme days! Right I'll have a go. I did this with a bunch of 4-12 year olds years ago and it was pretty popular. Disclaimer- pick and choose for God's sake, only the Duracell bunny would do all this in one day

Theme- Space

Sensory/tuff tray activity - put tinfoil at the bottom of your tray. Scrunch more foil into balls for moon rocks. Mix sand with glitter and sprinkle over- moonsand. Add some ripped up cotton wool for that hazy nebula effect, and if you're really fancy, glow in the dark stars (especially if you're inside and can turn off the lights) Any old car and figurine can be a moon buggy and astronaut.

Numeracy/Literacy-I also provided sticks/old paintbrushes with the bristles cut off, printed out some space related words, and encouraged the kids to trace them into the sand. Again this was older kids, but it's fairly adaptable for younger. You can also count the moon rocks, count the stars etc.

Books Aliens love underpants/My First Usborne Book of Space

Music God I'm itching to come over all pretentious and suggest Holst's Planets, and actually this isn't a bad one for an older preschool age child as afaik it's used with primary aged kids as an introduction to musical theory (Mars= war= sounding all fierce - sorry, I am so not a musical person apart from listening to it, but you know) but failing that, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Five Little Aliens, Star Light Star Bright, I See The Moon etc.

Craft easy peasy- loo roll tubes, paint and glue- make a rocket.

Slightly trickier but bear with me- cut one of the sections out of an egg box. Paint and glitter it. Cut a circle out of a plastic bag, attach your circle parachute style to the egg box with glue and string. You have a parachute!

Physical activity Go for a walk in the dark, preferably on a clear night. Try to get up somewhere high. Bring pictures of constellations with you - can you spot any? Or can you see any of your own?

Baking- make basic round biscuits, and ice them in the stages of the moon. Or get a Jaffa cake and do that thing from that advertisement years ago "full moon- half moon- total eclipse!". Or make cupcakes and buy little edible planet cupcake toppers off ebay (my personal favourite option)

STEM - if you made a parachute earlier, take it out on a walk. Investigate gravity by chucking it off things. You can make a simpler parachute by tying a pencil to the handles of a plastic bag. Chuck it off things too. Chuck leaves off things if you are too knackered at this point to make a sodding parachute. Explain the concept of gravity to your toddler and good bloody luck to you note: please do not chuck yourself off anything though at this point you may be sorely tempted because you've just looked at the clock and realised it's still a million years until bedtime, and your house is covered with balls of tinfoil and moon sand

Other things you could do depending on what you have and how energetic you are

Shadow play with a torch and a blanket in a darkened room
Space playdough - black or purple food dye with star shaped sequins stirred through, star shaped cutters
If you can get hold of a telescope - I know some heritage type places randomly have big telescopes mounted on ruined castle walls and stuff like that - might be worth a trip out if you can find one.
Get a cardboard box and pretend it's a rocket. Round laundry baskets make good rockets too.

@MessAllOver great ideas! Might try that next week. We’re going swimming today - bliss for me and massive bump and now it seems likely to be our last chance for a while!

I’ve also bought DS one of the Lidl train sets (as well as loads of other things from there - their wooden toys are brilliant!). He’s got a brio one already so glad to hear they are compatible and Lidl is good quality - hoped that would be the case.

Wow @ReallySpicyCurry also great inspo there. I’ve screenshotted!

I was desperate for mine to start walking... he kept me waiting until nearly 17 months!! It was a very hard winter (he started walking in Jan/Feb) but It was doable. Would be more tricky with lockdown though!! Hopefully yours is a bit more keen

Oh I bloody hope he doesnt make me wait approximately another 7 months! He's already getting so frustrated at not being able to get his legs to do the right thing and it would make park trips so much more tolerable.

Side note, I'm sorry to hear you still haven't popped.

Oh, the irony of typing all of that out when I'm lying in bed with a coffee, a toddler watching Bing, and no intention of moving or doing anything until DH brings me another coffee

Mine didn't walk until 18 months, and although it was good in some ways (cafés - which ofc aren't an option now) it is really awkward for other things - I found it was quite hard to use the garden for example, because she was past the sitting quietly on a blanket with toys stage, but not at the toddling around poking at snails stage

I have 2 boys; 2 & 1. They haven’t yet mastered the art of sitting still. I’m excited for daily puddles.

Hi everyone. Would like to join in if you'll have me! Have an 18-month-old DD who never stops and is obsessed with going outside in all weathers.

Hits for us this weekend have included a giant sketch pad to scribble all over with crayons.

I found it was quite hard to use the garden for example, because she was past the sitting quietly on a blanket with toys stage, but not at the toddling around poking at snails stage

Sadly we are long past the sitting nicely on a blanket stage, keeping him still enough to even take a photo requires a rediculous effort these days.