Inspiration needed for activities with a 15mth old over the coming months - what does your toddler enjoy doing?

[MrsFogi]

Unfortunately becoming a mother has not meant I have suddenly become imaginative! I am falling into what is becoming a boring routine of taking poor old dd to the park or soft play and various classes each week but I'm sure we could be doing more fun things together now she's walking and (in her own special way) following the odd instruction and seems to understand so much. Please, please share what you works or worked for you with a 15-20 mth old (whether in or out of the house). Don't worry I don't want to organise every waking minute of her day, just want to get a bit of variety into our lives and not being very creative or imaginative need the wisdom of mn to help me!

swimming

library

Dont underestimate her abilities
painting/drawing, have you got pond.river nearby-feeding ducks, take her to libary to choose some books. will give some thought to this and get back to you

DS also absolutely loves scribbling -so we get out the plastic table cloth and washable felt tips and some paper on rainy days.

I'm sure you're doing enough. We do much the same here. We like glueing and sticking and also just some quiet time, with books. Sometimes, if its been raining, we just put some old clothes on and jump in puddles. She'd probably like that, just one to one, no organisation or other children to distract her. Good luck

Cardboard tubes (ie wrapping paper inners) and marbles / ping pong balls to post down them

Pot of water and big paint brush (like a house painting brush) to daub on the fence, outside walls etc

Pasta / oats / popcorn / jelly / cooked spaghetti etc in a sand table or just a large bowl or bucket - a few spoons and a cup or two, let her squidge it all about

dancing to music - wave scarves or ribbons around

Percussion stuff - bells to ring, saucepans to bang, a shaker to rattle

I also keep a bottle of bubbles handy for a quick fix activity

Thanks for the ideas. More are welcome!

Doing forward rolls on grass

I used to unroll old wall paper, lie DSs down (cue much wiggling) and draw their outline. Lots of scope for colouring or painting and you get to see how tiny they were in years to come!! You used to be able to get rolls of plain white paper from IKEA, same sort of thing. Mine are now 7 and 5. HTH x

Ds adores playing in water, so I get a bowl of water down on the floor and he splashes around in it with some wooden spoons etc. It will keep him occupied up to an hour, so it is a favourite of mine

I just give her a large sheet of paper and some felt pens. Make sure the felt pens are water-soluble

Collecting stones (then washing them and putting them into pots!)
Washing things in bubbles (anything will do but my ds loves washing his toy cars)
library
sand pit (sweeping up sand with a dustpan and brush!)
picking leaves and flowers
long, long baths!!

DS enjoyed messing about with playdoh and paint from about 18 months

Do you have an inflatable mattress - great for jumping on!

Playing hunt the whatever (hide little things around the house/garden).

Make a Wendy house out of a large cardboard box (great for peekaboo)

Blackboard and chalk

Books a plenty

Copying you doing anything! (ironing, funny walks, funny faces, waving, wiggling, stirring, washing etc.)

I'm hushed to find that I can't remember what ds liked doing at this time... so why not come and post an update about what was successful, then print it out for your photo album??

Best £30 of my life:

£7 tent from Ikea in £4 Nemo paddling pool, filled with £8 Asda play balls plus £11 safety mirror from local glazier

As far as DS (16m) is concerned, his palyroom is complete. Seems to amuse him for hours in different combinations!

Also, our local libraries do a free story time - each village library hosts on a different day of the week. Half an hour again he seems to love, and an activity I think that will be more useful over time.

my dd is 15 months too
loves playing tea parties (with REAL WATER hurrah)
carting around plastic food you know the sort from the early learning centre
will chase and retrieve a ball rolled around the kitchen for AGES
likes the doctors set (well anything involving lots of bits in a suitcase - ds's toolbox is also popular)
loves swings and slides (goes down really big ones on her siblings' laps)
musical instruments especially maracas
loves those sort of shape sorter puzzles
v into books
loves the dollshouse and people

would stay outdoor all day looking at cows and dogs and picking daisies (can't pass a daisy without picking it)

not interested in playdough except to eat it
not really interested in pencils and pens, slightly interested in paint but not for long enough to justify the mess