Please help - Activities for 13 month old at home

[InNeedofIdeas]

Am in desperate need of ideas for things to do with my 13 month old at home. We go to lots of playgroups/music groups etc which he loves but both he and I seem to get quite bored when we're at home. I'm a SAHM at the moment and seem to be all out of creative ideas of things to do with him. His favourite thing is just to walk/crawl about the house exploring and taking things out of cupboards/laundry baskets.

I'm particularly interested in activities that will help his interaction/communication/language development (where he seems to be behind at the moment). Ideas for toys also gratefully received.

Flash cards? mine loves his. they're sturdy card with different animals (from Amazon). He likes looking at them, chewing them and throwing them. He holds one up and I tell him what it is, then when they're all on the floor I get him to find different ones to show me. We've had them for about a year now and he still plays with them.

these ones here: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0746098308/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

these ones here i mean

Thanks KDK12, that's a really good idea .

no probs, here's a link that actually works third time lucky

I know just how you feel and will be watching this thread for some ideas too! Dd (14mo) has a short attention span and no activity lasts more than a few minutes. But here are some of the things she enjoys (when I have the energy...!) in case there's anything new for you:

Playing 'fetch' with a football rolled across the floor
Looking at books (sometimes, depends what mood she's in)
Rough and tumble play - loves this and would do it all day if she could
Putting a hat on her head/my head, taking it off again, repeat...
Peekaboo - still popular!
Being 'chased' round the lounge
Putting things in and out of pots

Will come back to this later
X

My 13 month old has a fairly short attention span & loves to explore. Some things which he really likes (in addition to quite a few of those already mentioned) are:

Putting lids on pans
Climbing cushion / pillow "hills"
Climbing through obstacle courses made of rows of kitchen chairs (line them up in a row and climb through the middle) / large cardboard boxes with the bottom cut out
A very basic form of hide and seek, where I say "Where's X hiding?" and he without fail crawls behind the sofa and laughs hysterically when I find him.
Water play of any sort - shallow tray / washing up bowl filled with water and some cups / plastic teapot to play with is always a winner (although better done outside).
"Dancing" - I just pop some music on (usually mine) and he bops along.
Making towers out of anything he can get his hands on.

There is a nice book called "Wonderplay" (look on Amazon) which has some good ideas.

if its sunny and you have an outdoor space theres nothing better than a bowl/bucket of water and things like stacking pots (they seem to like to pout water out of one adn into another, takes great concentration and therefore takes up time!) and toy watering cans are one of our favourites since he was tiny, now that my DS is 2 and a half he can "watter the totatoes" for mummy of course (read drown them, ho hum) also a paddling pool outside can be great fun, doesnt even have to have water in, a load of those cheap plastic balls is great fun in a little paddling pool, you often see bags and bags of those in charity shops! we have a sand table outside as well, playsand is really cheap and great fun.

sounds like an enclosure/containing schema, InNeed have a read of my link, try some of the activities suggested there

Have you consulted HV/GP about your concerns over his development?

Thanks so much everyone - these are fab ideas, sorry not to thank everyone individually! There are loads of things I hadn't thought of. I think a trip to the toy shop/amazon is in order - mine and DS's week is looking up ! Fingers crossed that the weather improves soon as well - we do have a paddling pool which he loves, and I will look into the sand tray as well, although I have a feeling he might try to eat it at the moment! Re. his development, yes, have consulted a paed who is keeping an eye on it (he's not pointing, not showing us stuff, no words), but we are still hoping he's just a slow starter on that front.

Any more ideas gratefully received.

DS got a great pop-up tunnel for 1st b'day, so much fun inside and out in the garden (finding me at the other end is hilarious every time)

DD is 13 months and loves a sofa cushion assault course. Also a small bouncy glitter ball. And outside she likes messing around with a bucket of water and a big plastic ladle. I gave her an old paintbrush yesterday and she decorated the path with splatty squiggles.

What else...? Her walker trolley. She can spend HOURS pottering up and down the hallway.

My DS is 13 months and obsessed with lids/bottles - taking on and off, pretending to drink etc. He is also a button obsessive - so we spend too much a lot of time turning off lights/lamps/washing machine/dishwasher etc.

Something that we've been doing with DS for a few weeks now (and the penny seems to have dropped) is pointing out hair, nose, eyes, ears etc. I got him on to hair by using the brush - getting him to brush my hair, his hair etc. Now we have a little party trick of "DS, where's your XXX" and he's beginning to get it right. Could be a good one to get him started on two-way comms? It was prob one of the first times that DS was able to be understood by us and he was really happy about it.

All the other ideas sound fab too and once we move out of our flat and in to a house, I am going to do the outdoor ones!!

Another idea...we have an A2 pad of paper and tub of thick crayons and DS loves scribbling, obviously no amazing artwork yet but it's fun and you can use it for wrapping paper afterwards :)