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.

I’m being really rubbish with my tuff tray. Bought it after this thread. Day one I did a load of oats/cereal and diggers etc which went down well but was very messy. I then put the play dough out on it and have ignored it since.
I’ve looked at pictures online but they all seem fancy and to require stuff I haven’t got. Feeling low and bored so struggling to think of anything exciting atm!
Anyone have any suggestions please? Boys are 2+3.

Congratulations @MonkeyPuddle! She’s gorgeous 💐

Congratulations @MonkeyPuddle. She looks adorable and so round!

Congratulations @MonkeyPuddle, she’s gorgeous. Those cheeks!

@Postmanbear DS is younger but easy tuff tray stuff we have done that you could adapt (some quite messy though):
-washing station for cars/animals that have got muddy outside first (bowls of soapy water, sponges, brushes, towels)

• tape some paper over the top then do colouring/painting/stickers/Potato printing (the big sheets of brown paper that come in Amazon parcels are good for this)
• draw directly on tray with chalk
• blocks/train set/farm etc with props like stones, twigs, river made from foil or fabric
• pouring station with water with lemon/cucumber slices in, lots of bowls/ jugs /funnels.
• Digging for treasure (e.g. dinosaurs out of jelly/ice, sieving them out of polenta)
• roll out play dough and make different tyre and animal tracks across

Can anyone recommend an alternative to a tuff tray please? Currently using a roasting tray but could do with something larger. Unfortunately I haven't got the space to store a tuff tray :(

Cat litter tray

Paddling pool?

Oh I'm glad I found this thread!

2 year old and a 3 month old here. The problem I have is my 2 year old doesn't really get games, or crafts, or if he does it doesn't last very long. He is I think starting to understand colouring but he hold all the crayons upside down 😂

AUDIOBOOKS
I've found audiobooks really helpful in helping him play on his own for longer. My local library uses the BorrowBox app. You type in your library card details then can borrow up to 7 audiobooks. It has all the biggies like Room on the Broom, Paddington, What the ladybird heard etc.

REUSABLE STICKERS
@Porcupine83 Melissa and Doug reusable stickers are good - no residue and can reuse over and over

LESS MESS COLOURING AND PAINTING
There is also a mess free colouring book you can buy, it has a special pen that you fill with water, toddler rubs it all over a blank page that actually reveals a picture c

There is also a finger painting book you can get which is less messy than actual painting.

Also:

• when baking measuring all the ingredients out first (if you can) and cutting butter into small cubes helps, as means toddler just needs to plonk everything in a bowl (he doesn't yet get mixing)
• on rainy days going upstairs to play for a bit seems to be an exciting thing so here
• and finally toy rotation 🙌

Ahhh congratulations @MonkeyPuddle so so gorgeous

This mornings weather was a perfect autumn day here - crisp and cool but sunny with blue skies. We walked up the big hill to the post box with a few letters then scooter down. Cleared leaves from the garden with dd, she just filled the bucket with leaves then I chucked them over the fence (not as bad as it sounds, we back onto some woods so I’m just returning the leaves to nature underneath the tree they fell off!)

Then we planted some winter pansies our neighbour gave us which has really brightened up the place.
Lunch was leftovers so zero effort there. This afternoon I need to clean the bathroom so I will set dd up cleaning the bath toys in the sink I think.

@zoey92 that must be so stressful for you and worrying about money is awful, I feel you. That’s a good way to look at it. Either way try and drink in the extra time you have with baby. At least there is a silver lining.

Oops wrong thread to tag zoey92

Has anyone used garden grow bag trays as a tuff tray please? I'm thinking that it can be stored under the sofa when not in use but I don't know if they're deep enough to scoop things like rice and lentils?

@PinkDaydreams I think I linked it up thread, but we use the Garland garden tray instead of a tuff. Ours is the square one but you can get different shapes and sizes. Tenner off amazon, slots under sofas and beds

Congratulations @MonkeyPuddle

@MonkeyPuddle what a beauty, congratulations and well done you!

@FolkSongSweet I'm on for a baby elephant I January as its currently over the 100th percentile!

@Postmanbear don't be too tough on your self. How about just putting normal toys on there of serving food on it?

Thank you @OhRosalind that’s helpful. I did the washing up bowl on the tuff tray and it kept his (DS3) happy for 30 minutes!
I need to work my way up to letting them play with paint but might do some baking with them this afternoon. DS2 has just turned 2 and won’t concentrate on anything yet, I can’t remember if DS1 was the same last year but he did get a lot more one on one time and I probably had more patience!

@Postmanbear.

Sorry to hear you're feeling a bit deflated...I felt like that yesterday.

Low mess or mess-free ideas? Even just putting toys on a tuff tray seems to make them more interesting.

Otherwise:

1. Print some colouring in sheets/shape outlines. Tuff tray keeps all the crayons in one place.
2. Stamping.
3. Hide some toy animals under autumn leaves/twigs etc. and make DC look for them.
4. Jigsaw tuff tray - big favourite here. Put out a few jigsaws. Just having them on the tray makes them more interesting and keeps the pieces together.
5. Cars. If you have some masking or other white tape, you could make some roads for cars. Use a cereal box/other empty box to make a parking garage.

While DC play, and for you in the corner.

Congratulations @monkeypuzzle!

Does anyone know if I can use sea salt instead of table salt to make homemade playdough? The bought stuff just keeps going hard really quickly for DS as he plays with it so much. Annoying I only looked up the ingredients after my shopping came

DS1 in Reception is a delight to have the the class apparently - we had our first ever (zoom) parents evening, just showing of to you guys instead of on facebook

I've also used a roasting tin as a tuff tray before! Plant tray sounds like a good idea (and if it all still gets spilt my DM can use it for gardening)

Maybe try and make a small sea salt batch? I think it would be fine though.

*off

serves me right for showing off

Does anyone know if I can use sea salt instead of table salt to make homemade playdough? The bought stuff just keeps going hard really quickly for DS as he plays with it so much. Annoying I only looked up the ingredients after my shopping came

I've made it with sea salt before and it was fine. I can't attest to how long it would last though as it was for work and unfortunately no matter how it's made it never lasts long in the hands of 60 germy 4 and 5 year olds.

Thank you @ReallySpicyCurry

I saw collapsible washing up bowls in b&m today which I thought would be good as well for keeping messy play contained. They were £5.

Good luck to us both then @footprintsintheslow 🤣. DS was 9lbs and it was fine but they think this one could be 9.5+ at term and I was 2 weeks late with DS!

We had a nice morning playing in the forest - picking up leaves, finding sticks, hide and seek behind trees. And then spent the afternoon singing songs and bashing DS’s large collection of percussion instruments.

Also made some chocolate mousse by whipping cream and stirring a couple of squares of melted chocolate into it. DS loves watching the mixer and doing the stirring - an easy and delicious dessert and actually pretty low sugar as a v small amount of chocolate goes a long way! (We used 5 squares of dark in a standard (250/300ml?) pot of double cream).

A box file is good for mess containment. I use them with pupils with rice or glitter in so then can write letters in. So toddlers you could just play with whatever is in it. Obviously not waterproof though.

Today's successes:
🍁 those water colouring books someone mentioned up thread. If it says find ten shells we take it in turns to colour the page and when someone finds a shell we pass the pen over to the other person.
🍁 shopping list game again today. It occurred to me that this is very good for the bilingual children on here as easily adapted to any language. There's a few of us bilinguals here on this thread which is fab.
🍁 stickers include coloured paper. It seems coloured paper is much more fun than white.
🍁walk with you pram.
🍁make a Christmas cake.
🍁jigsaws. 🧩Will definitely try them on a tuff tray soon. That was a great idea from PP.

And exciting news is that I got a toy recycling lorry from freecycle and I thought it could be part of a tuff tray game where there's loads of rubbish in the middle and they have to be sorted into paper, plastic, metal etc. ♻️

Tbh I feel that collapsible washing up bowls would be useful for a whole range od things, and I need one immediately for as yet unspecified purposes.

We actually were within a few feet of other toddlers today. It was an outdoor playgroup. It's a bit of a trek away, so we really won't manage to go too often, but it was worth it. I packed a lunch for DD, so we drove into town on the way back, and had a car picnic in a busy retail park, so DD could people watch (she loves this) and there was a cafe doing takeout, so I got a latte and we shared a Mars Bar square. DD was happy just to sit and munch away, it felt really quite decadent after being outside rolling in mud for two hours.

I love the idea of the recycling lorry tuff tray! I might try and set up something post office themed tomorrow. DD loves the post office, the post van, everything to do with the post...

I'm starting a list on my phone to add ideas