To ask what you can do in isolation with a young child?

[GrapeJuiceIsYuk]

So here we are, isolating for 10 days with positive 11 month old DS!

What can we do? Ideas welcome ☺️ he is perfectly fine in himself so far touch wood so looking for some nice ideas to keep him a bit entertained in the house.

No problem with messy ideas either! 😁

Have an early Christmas day for him.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Have an early Christmas day for him.

That is a cute one but fortunately he's out of iso just before Christmas day and we have some family coming to celebrate it then 😊 plus DH is still going to work so it's just me and DS!

Lots of screen time and floor play at that age!

Take him out in the buggy somewhere secluded for a walk?

Al the lovely things you’d normally do with an 11 mth old which happen to be inside? Is he mobile yet?

@JanglyBeads

Al the lovely things you’d normally do with an 11 mth old which happen to be inside? Is he mobile yet?

Yes! Crawling everywhere and not far off walking either actually, he's a little rocket. But isn't all that interested in his normal toys 😖

I may get flamed for suggesting this but in your circumstances I would get myself onto Amazon and order all the fun sensory stuff I could find!!! Colour changing lights, jelli baff, finger paints, colour changing pens, bath crayons, bath bombs, shaving foam, magic sand, play foam, sticker books….. and dilute them with regular bouts of television!

Do you have a garden?

I would do breakfast, activity 1, tv, lunch, garden, activity 2, tv and repeat until we were free again…! Good luck x

If he's not interested in normal toys just pull loads of stuff out of your kitchen to play with. Pots and pans, spoons, dried pasta in bottles etc etc.

Build a fort out of sofa cushions.
Water play in the bath
Do you have a garden?
Order a sippy cup and teach him to use it.
Lots of finger foods and dips
Order a couple of new toys.

Baths with lots of pots and utensils to splash about with.

Can you get hold of a lot of large cardboard boxes? Make dens, tunnels etc. Paint them.
Make hand prints in clay as gifts. Make Christmas cards.
Look at sensory play ideas using a big tray (buy a builders tray from b and q ). Use shaving foam and push cars through. Sand castles etc. Painting with hands or feet. Maybe rotate ideas each day.
Spend an hour playing with bath toys each day.
Dig holes in the garden and look for worms.
Watch for birds and cats out of the window.

Cold noodles or dry pasta etc in a big tray such as an under bed storage box.

Painting

Colouring

Chalks (can even be done on the floor if you have old stone tiles, mops right off)

Dough (doesn't have to be shop brought stuff - you can make salt dough)

Baking - messy but even young ones can have a go at mixing, pouting and decorating

Lots of bubble baths

Water play - give little one cups and a washing up bowl filled with water, utilise whatever you can

Busy box - put safe household items in a box for them to rummage through

Lots of stories

The baby club on CBeebies- it's like 10 minute episodes, lots of interactive singing and play ideas made for around his age

Planting- let him stick his hands in and mess around with soil. Plant whatever seeds you can find about the place - even if they come from your lunch peppers and tomatoes

Thank you, some good ones here 😁 we do have a garden yes but it's pretty miserable here at the moment so not sure how often we'll get to use it!

I think I'll have a look on Amazon for some safe baby paints and things like that. We have a big kitchen that is practically an open space at the moment and is being completely overhauled decorating wise over Christmas so not bothered about a bit of mess!

I just find he sleeps so much better when he's had a bit of stimulation that day, we usually go out ALL the time so spending lots of time indoors with him is a bit daunting. His attention span for the TV and regular baby toys is quite minimal but he enjoys banging / mess etc so will get the pots and pans out tomorrow to start ha!

With an 11m old it’ll be you that hates being inside rather than the baby. We had a 14 day period of isolation with a 4yo and 1yo. I don’t know if the 1yo actually noticed but the 4yo went completely mad by about day 3. It was a very long 2 weeks but the younger one was much more straight forward.

Things we did that might hell you: sofa softplay (basically taking cushions off and letting them go slightly feral), washing up random objects, disco lights and silver foil, light up stuff, easy peel stickers (millions of them), wrapping paper.

The age is quite hard as they can’t really do anything at 11m and certainly none of the lockdown activities you’ll see online which are aimed at much older children.

I know some of these are too old but my kids liked a lot of activities on this site when they were little - www.notimeforflashcards.com/ some other ideas rainydaymum.co.uk/activities-for-18-month-old-and-younger/ and www.earlyyearscareers.com/eyc/learning-and-development/10-activities-2s/ and ohheyletsplay.com/home/activities-for-1-2-year-old-toddlers and happytoddlerplaytime.com/100-no-prep-activities-for-1-year-olds/