Inspire me for new things to do with 15 month old DS....we need to revitalise floortime!

[Startathestart]

Hi

I'm looking for new things to do with my 15 month old DS.

Some of the things he really likes:

ball throwing back and forth (a favourite)
jumping on and off the sofa
falling and tumbling all over the sofa!!
building blocks
putting things in / fitting things together
reading - but only to the pages of animals he likes!
helping with washing!
Shape sorter

He has about 10 words and I do nursery rhymes and puppets with him (the former is more successful than the latter!)

I can't seem to get him interested in crayoning which I'd like. I'm about to make playdough. But what else? he seems to have a very limited concentration span except when fitting things together which he loves!

I'd love for some new ideas. I worry that I'm not doing enough with him (PFB alert). Thank you

Rummage in the kitchen for 'drums' ? My ds used to love this! We had the kitchen floor covered in saucepans, tins, etc and ran round banging with spoons.
Noisy but worth it to see his little face smile!

Good idea. He loves instruments and we do play with saucepans but haven't for a while

@ the PFBishness.

Baby Goo is mainly amused by me reading to her. She fetches books and sits on my lap waiting for me to read. I have to sing as well.

Other than that she likes eating very crumbly things or very squishy things that require me to clean the whole front room. Or sucking Ds's felt pens.

She just has to follow me round doing the stuff I want to do so she sorts washing, dusts the house, that kind of stuff. I take her out a lot in the buggy, she likes swings.

Her top activity is emptying all the plastic stuff out of the cupboard and whacking it on the tiled kitchen floor. I'd estimate she spends about 45 mins a day on and off doing this.

At nursery they play with cold spagetti, or cornflour, or shaving foam, other messy stuff.

I am glad she goes to nursery.

Russian dolls
Soft skittle set
Simple wooden puzzles
Messy play with dry pasta/cous cous/spoons/jugs etc
Big bowl of soapy water - wash his toy cars, let him splash about with spoons etc...

We got DS a train set when he was about 15 months and he loved it (still does!) We got one of the little battery operated Thomas trains to go on it which provided hours of fun.

I try trains but he throws them, not pushes!! He likes throwing.

Messy play sounds good Iwillonlyeatbeans. How do you do it so it's messy but safe?

HonourableNagoo - what do they do with cornflour?!

Thanks all, really helpful

Put a blanket over your head and let him pull it off.
Tunnels (bought or made out of boxes)

We also try
Towers - DS and I build them and DD (15mo also) breaks them
Shredding - I give her a big bag of old papers and she rips them into tiny pieces
Very long bubbly baths with lots of pouring water
Hide and seek and peekaboo (endlessly)
Pushing cars around (undoubtedly because that's what DS does all day)
Pulling apart the contents of drawers, kitchen and bathroom cabinets and shelves (definitely the favourite!)
Assault courses and dens from cushions chairs and cardboard boxes
Dancing to whatever is on the radio
Putting a big sheet of paper in the floor and doing scribbles/drawing round things like hands and feet
Playing with anything that has lots of bits to fit together like duplo
We go to playgroups, museums, the library and the park quite a bit. She's just discovered the slide
Can't do too much messy play and have kept the play dough away from her as she loves to eat everything .

I had not even considered that messy play might not be safe!

I am always in the room with him and would obviously intervene if I saw him going to put stuff in his mouth - but he's never been a 'mouthy' baby so it's not something I really have to think about

The cornflour and water makes a horrendous mess 'non-newtonian liquid' (sp?) and it goes solid when you bash it and runny when you don't.

Soon it will be nice and warm and you will be able to play outdoors a lot more, paint and bubbles and cups in a washing up bowl of water etc etc.

DS is a tiny bit older (nearly 18 months), but here are some of the things we like to do:

A towel on the kitchen floor and a washing up bowl full of warm water and bubbles can keep him happy for half an hour. Then 10 minutes of drying everyone off and changing clothes.

I recently discovered cloud sand (I think that's what it's called, can't remember exactly) which is basically 1 part baby oil and 5 parts flour. I used wholemeal for added texture, you can also add in glitter if you want. Mix it together and it turns sort of, umm, sandy - you can mould it to make mini sandcastles with egg cups etc. Anyway, we play with that on a tray, and use saucepans, dry pasta, DS's toy dumpertruck, spoons, etc etc. Again, 20-30 minutes entertainment, plus another 10 while DS 'helps' me sweep it all up and vacuum.

We spent 20 minutes yesterday playing with the contents of my button box. He enjoyed examining the different buttons, and moving them from the box to a tray and in and out of little containers. I put it all away at the first sign of one going in his mouth or being thrown.

I got a sticker book for £3.99 the other day and it has already provided hours of entertainment.

All of the above are safe because there is an adult playing too, I wouldn't leave him to do any of them unsupervised.

Cars, balls and books are also favourites, and he has just (this week?) got interested in colouring ('drawdraw'!) but has yet to grasp the concept of keeping it on the paper and not the floor/walls/chair.

I can't wait until the summer comes and we can spend more time outside, DS's idea of heaven is a puddle and a stick

Cbeebies?

(Sorry - am harried Mum of 2DC and youngest (8months) is lucky if I give him a wipe to play with. The other day he pulled off his own sock and played with that for an hour.)

at stangirl, you're encouraging his autonomy there!

start, please try to relax a bit and I mean that in a friendly way . It is difficult as we all feel the pressure to be playing with (and therefore educating) our children At All Times but it really isn't necessary. A few games of hide and seek with teddy, dancing, singing and lots of time outside is plenty at this age.

Make one of these. he will love it, and you'll enjoy finding new things to go in it.

How about making play sand?

Try googling the imagination. Tree blog hundreds of great ideas there

I found 15 months quite a tricky stage as I couldn't get DD interested in anything for any length of time. There was a lot of jumping on the bed, sitting on my knee while I sang nursery rhymes, and she has always enjoyed books. The only toys she really liked were her v tech babywalker and dolly pushchair. Aside from that we tried to be out of the house as much as possible!

Best thing I did was to encourage mine to occupy themselves for a while. I really don't think children need to be entertained with endless games And horay for Stangirl and the sock!

I don't think it's about 'endless games', or entertaining your DC all the time.

I enjoy spending 1-1 time with my DS where he has all my attention and we can do something together, so it's good to get new ideas for what to do, esp when it is raining and we are stuck indoors and I am bored of all the usual games. That said, I don't want him to depend on me for ideas of what to do, and also have other things to do beside playing toddler games, so do also encourage him to occupy himself at different times.

It's like anything, you need to get a balance.

tbh, there's a danger of directing your children in play too much. To foster independence, autonomy and confidence, THEY need to find things they're motivated by (not you!) . So you're doing fine - if DS is interested in 'putting things together' endlessly - let him, and go and make a cup of tea.