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.

@ReallySpicyCurry I ordered the mud and bloom box after you suggested it and we enjoyed making the airplants.
We went looking for pine cones to make the little men but couldn’t find any which was weird!

I’ve also ordered the toucan craft box (first box half price) to compare the two as I might ask for a subscription for the boys for Christmas instead of more toys.

I’ve got some Pom poms so going to try and make a web on the tuff table. My boys are obsessed with my kitchen tongs so they might enjoy that!

Thank for the pompom ideas, I love the Christmas trees. Today I just tipped them on the tuff tray and DS spent ages putting them in and out of containers, pushing them into a plastic bottle and in and out of a whisk, then pushed them around with the bulldozer. It was the first time he’s seen them so that was plenty exciting.

Found a new playground today which was good, yet again we were the only ones there though (Not raining but damp out), so much for it being a socialisation opportunity.

Congratulations to the new arrivals!

Love those Christmas tree feet. Does anyone else recommend any other Christmas theme toddler crafts, which are actually achievable? Especially ones which could be a Granny present.

Orchard games - Old Macdonald and Shopping List are well loved here, currently as one player matching and language development.

Pom poms I am a big fan of!

• we get giant sheets of paper (or inside out cereal boxes) and go to town with paint, crayons, sequins, pom poms etc.
• tape loo roll tubes to a window to drop them down with a basket or something at the bottom (complexity level up to you!
• good for colour sorting if you have any colourful bowls, or you could just colour circles on paper for them to be sorted in to.
• get a box, use tape, elastic bands, string etc to create a spiders web effect. Put pom poms in, give toddler tweezers/chopsticks/kitchen tongs to retrieve them.

@PinkDaydreams I've bought water beads too but the are snaffled away for a desperate day.

@GrendelsCat welcome and good luck. You are on the countdown now. I'm due in January.

@OhRosalind The shopping list game is a great starter game and can be made easier or slightly harder.
As for pompoms how about colour sorting with or without chunky tweezers, pompom collage or throw a pompom into a pot, roll pompoms down a ramp and how about can you find something in the room to match the pompom. So put a red pompom on a red cushion. Like a treasure hunt.

So much Pom Pom potential!

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere. Our experience of home-made toddler "gifts" is that, if you want it to last and not get tatty, it has to go in a frame.

Colourful toddler art tends to look good in plain black frames. We use ones like these or a bit thinner...

www.amazon.co.uk/Clay-Roberts-Certificate-Freestanding-Mountable/dp/B00FFC5Q2U/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=certificate+frame&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1604509965&sr=8-6

We've inflicted penguin footprints and dinosaur handprints on grandparents as gifts in the past - examples of each (but not our work!) attached. Also, clay hand and footprints, painted. We haven't really got beyond the hand print/footprint stage yet because, well, DS can't draw anything except squiggles and perhaps the odd very tentative circle at the moment and no one in our family is really a fan of abstract art, unfortunately.

Love those Christmas tree feet. Does anyone else recommend any other Christmas theme toddler crafts, which are actually achievable? Especially ones which could be a Granny present.

Our local pottery cafe is doing a delivery service in lockdown, she drops off your plates/decoration etc. You paint it/footprint etc then she collects it again to fire in the oven. I'll get DS2 to do handrints like DS1 did his first Christmas. DS1 will probably do some 'abstract art' :)

We've also bought Christmassy biscuit cutters - I will find the experience very stressful I love baking and want everything to be neeeat

@Camomila ah, I need to organise doing the same, thank you for the reminder! That’ll be an activity with 3 month old DS2 while the older whirlwind is at preschool I think...

@MessAllOver those are lovely! Top tip on the framing, thanks.

@Postmanbear apparently pine ones drop in summer so we need to be collecting them then. Funny how we all think of them as autumn items.

Today in our house this was what was popular:
🍁 Magformers.
🍁 Grimms rainbow with dinosaurs living in it.
🍁 Lentil and autumn stuff in tuff tray with tubs and spoons and funnels.
🍁autumn leaves all over living room and hiding teddies in the leaves. Sounds a mess but quick to sweep away on hard floors.
🍁 painting a squirrel and sticking on the lentils and beans from tuff tray.

To everyone going into lockdown, good luck and at least you can see people outdoors and the weather looks like it's getting better.

Does anyone have any fireworks plans and craft ideas for tomorrow? I'll be going on Pinterest to have a look now too.

@MonkeyPuddle and @PolarBearStrength Congratulations on the new arrivals!
Just when I thought this thread couldn’t get any better and then there were gorgeous babies too

@OhRosalind re. Orchard games, another vote for the shopping list and post box games. The post box one works from a v young age and my 3.5 yo still loves it now!

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere For Christmas crafts, I haven’t done this myself before, but planning to make paper chains as decorations this year. Hopefully achievable, but not a Granny present! You could cut up any old paper/ magazines etc or buy kits online.

Wish I'd thought of pom poms before going into lockdown tomorrow and everywhere is closed 🤦🏻‍♀️ it'll have to be an eBay order. This sounds silly but what size are you all getting? There's so many different sizes

DS has been at nursery today so we haven't been up to much...Just doing bedtime now.

We'll probably be doing "Bonfire Night" on Saturday since we'll have more time then than tomorrow when I'm working, but ideas include:

• roasting marshmallows over a candle and dripping in melted chocolate - depends how sensible your toddler is . DS is quite sensible and wary around hot things so we may let him do this under strict supervision!
• virtual fireworks displays (all our real ones are cancelled round here for obvious reasons). Quite a lot of organisations seem to be doing virtual fireworks displays with story-time so we might try to watch one of these on Saturday afternoon.
• firework paintings - use pipe cleaners or bundles of cut straws.
• etching pictures.
• bonfire cupcakes with orange and red icing and chocolate sticks. Might be a bit of a sugar overload, though, but sure to be popular!

I'm hoping to do a late night walk tomorrow (6pm 😂) to see if people do real fireworks. We were also given some sparklers so might do those for toddler to look at (not hold).

Also hotdogs for tea and craft ideas below from Pinterest.

Orchard games - my dd loved the cupcakes one (I think it’s called where’s my cupcake?) from 2 years old and still loves it now at 3.5. She also loves woolly jumpers because you get to steal everyone’s jumpers!

Bonfire night - my neighbour brought round a packet of sparklers since the village bonfire is not happening this year - she took some to all the kids on our street. How sweet is that? Slightly nervous of a burning incident so dd might just have to watch mummy or daddy do a sparkler but even that will be mega exciting. Thanks for the idea of watching virtual fireworks. Even a YouTube video of some past fireworks would be good to show the little ones what fireworks are. We might do a classic fireworks picture on black paper.

Love love love the Christmas tree feet! Might do that one! Other idea I thought about was snowmen - coloured paper, then potato print two white circles for the body and head, finger paint some snow falling and then draw on eyes etc afterwards.

My big one has been at nursery today and then we went to the playground after so I don’t have any activities to add from our day. Really loving all these ideas thank you all.

I hadn’t thought through celebrating bonfire night but the fireworks on YouTube and then doing some paintings/pictures is a good idea.

I have just purchased a hobby craft cardboard shop. This will hopefully be Monday’s activity. I’m going to let them paint it 😳 and then we can play shops which DS1 loves.
www.hobbycraft.co.uk/kids/kids-playhouses

@footprintsintheslow

I'm hoping to do a late night walk tomorrow (6pm 😂) to see if people do real fireworks. We were also given some sparklers so might do those for toddler to look at (not hold).

Also hotdogs for tea and craft ideas below from Pinterest.

I love these pictures, thank you @footprintsintheslow

We made DH a birthday cake today. I have a set of old Weylux balance scales, with lots of random different weights. DD spent ages experimenting with all the weights.

Filling up the bird feeders took up a good bit of time as well. She's very interested in the garden birds all of a sudden. I'm going to try and expand on that a bit I think, with binoculars and a make-your-own bird feeder session (lard, seeds, string, empty yoghurt pot-yum)

I'm very tempted by that cardboard shop from Hobbycraft. We were promised a toy market stall over summer when a friend had a clear out, but it sadly never materialised. I notice they have one of those felt decorate your own Christmas tree things too. Afraid to look any further though in case I get tempted by craft bits

You all have some brilliant ideas!

Think I may have to source sparklers. I’ve come to realise it’s less about celebrating Easter/bonfire night/international potato day, and more about it being easier to plan when you have a theme. This is probably old news to everyone else!

I’ve read two good toddler sparkler safety tips. One is to stick it in the end of a carrot, and they hold the carrot. Easier to grasp, keeps sparks further away. Another is to put the sparkler through a hole in the bottom of a disposable cup, so the cup goes over the child’s hand.

@ReallySpicyCurry I've bought one of those felt trees. Having looked at all the different ones I just bought a cheap one from amazon. It's arrived and I've weighted down the bits to attach to flatten them out in time and the tree will need ironing. I've not seen any others in real life so can't compare the quality.

What I did look out for though was the variety of attachments as some have lots of the same thing like lots of baubles and no holly or lots of presents not snow flakes.
I thought it would be good to use to broaden the bilingual vocabulary and be loads of fun of course whilst not taking up much room.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere thanks for the sparkle tips I think the carrot me sounds like I might try it. Also you are right I don't care about bonfire night it's just the thought of having a theme. I do love a theme.

Please talk to me about fuzzy felt!
My boy is nearly three, would it be something that he could be interested in? Also recommendations please as I'm looking online and there's so many! Some have tiny pieces which I don't think would be suitable.

Thanks all, I’ve ordered the postbox game as DS is currently obsessed with a book about London that has one in (the local ones are less interesting looking). If he enjoys it I’ll get the shopping list one - maybe with that cardboard shop for some themed activities. I’ve never heard of hobbycraft but it looks great and does EU delivery... the tree is fab too. Oh dear, lockdown is getting expensive!

With bird feeders, for younger toddlers, if you've got gelatine and cookie cutters you can make some lovely ones. You do have to use boiling water to dissolve the gelatine but if you add the first few scoops of seed in yourself it's cooled down to a safe level for them to start stirring and adding their own.

Felt trees are awesome. We got a two pack from Amazon and gave the spare to a friend. We also have felt books with playscenes which have been a massive hit since 18 months.

We've a lot of Hobbycraft kits for advent. I think we're probably making firework art today- I'll need to paint some card black in advance so she can use chalk or crayons on it. But for now, I must prise the phone out of my hands and force myself to take the kids for a walk.

Skipping ahead to Xmas, has anyone got any brilliant ideas for advent calendars? DS doesn’t like chocolate. I saw an empty set of card drawers and thought DS would enjoy them, but I think he’d also enjoy opening bags... I’d like to involve him in the making process somehow, or build a set of something, rather than just giving him more stuff.

Today I noticed a local shop has a sale of Djeco and Janod toys on - any experience of the fishing game (djeco) or magnetic sets? - I’m thinking they could keep DS entertained at the fridge while I prepare dinner. There is a Janod magnetibook with different vehicle parts that I think DS would like, and some Djeco animal heads/bodies/legs.

Damn you all, I knew there was a reason why the puddle suits are all sold out online

@mopphead

Damn you all, I knew there was a reason why the puddle suits are all sold out online

Quite honestly, I'd go for the trouser and coat combo. Trying to wrestle DD into a puddle suit was a herculean task at 18 months and has been impossible since.