Sahm with a toddler, what is your daily routine?

[Hope54321]

What do you do on these cold days to keep your toddler entertained?

My toddler is a very active child and always wants me to join in every game.

Stop them eating play dough, stop them eating the cats tail, attempt a 'walk', stop then chasing the random cats tail on the walk, bribe them with the promise of a snack if we can move off the driveway on our 'walk', turn around after our 20 minute non walk. Show them the clock says 8am and we've been up 3 hours. Snack time. Clear up the dropped snack. Convince them we've had enough snack. It's continues....

No helpful advice sorry! We try and get out everyday, even just pointless trips to look at cars or to pet shops, the days feel long with this weather. We also play hide and seek a lot!

I try to think how much I will miss these days of endless time in years to come

Get up, wash dress breakfast.

Then whatever needs doing at home interspersed with play and errands or outings. We always dress for the weather and go out at least once a day whether it's cold or raining or whatever!

Then dinner, story bath and bed.

We do things like:

Jumping on the bed when I change the sheets and play ghosts in the clean bedding before it goes on.

Sock fights with toddler socks.

Get the musical instruments out.

Bake.

Go for a walk: to look for rainbow colours, to look for bugs, to walk like animals, to chase cats and spot the birds, to collect 'treasures' on the way to explore at home, scavenger hunt.

Go to the park.

Go to the supermarket.

Go to the library.

Walk to the postbox (we send a lot of post and artwork to grandparents)!

Walk around the block choosing our favourite front gardens/doors/cars.

Go to the woods/beach/playing field.

Go to soft play.

Scoot.

Go to National Trust places. Run.

Throw and kick a ball in the garden. Paint with water on the floor/fence.

Go to a big open shop like M&S and explore every department. Hide in the coats.

Play hide and seek (at home).

Dance with scarves to different music - guitar music is the toddlers current favourite.

Playdoh.

Build dens - inside and out.

Create an indoor obstacle course with blanket to crawl under and cushion stepping stones.

Read books and act them out with toys.

Some days are quieter than others, we don't do loads every day!

Aim to get out and about at least once a day doing various things from soft play, toddler classes, play dates or coffee dates, to doing the big food shop or just running errands.

We aim for an afternoon walk too, unless the weather is really bad. But if it's cold or raining a little it doesn't usually stop us - puddle suit, hat and wellies on! In fact I think he prefers it, splashing in the puddles 😂 we might also stop at a park for a couple of slides on the way home.

We also do activities at home like baking, play doh, helping to prepare lunches and dinners, play cars or build something out of his blocks, and he likes to help me with jobs like unloading the dishwasher and changing to bed, hanging up washing etc.

He's also at an age where he's discovering imaginative play which is really nice, and sometimes we set up one of his little sets he got for Xmas (coffee shop, supermarket, etc).

He also enjoys having a bit of chill and likes to watch the Julia Donaldson mini films that are like 30 mins. Zog is the favourite at the moment.

Then from 5pm our evening routine starts - dinner, bath, story and cuddles and bedtime.

The days can feel long and tedious but to them it won't feel that way, and it'll be the little things they remember as part of their childhood 😊

We had a DVD of dance music... songs like YMC, macrarena, ghostbusters etc with kids showing the actions. They've it until they were 5/6

Nowadays there are Justdance videos on YouTube.

Days can feel long and tedious. I've also got a very active LO, always in need of stimulation and not content playing alone.

We usually have slow mornings. Wake up, cuddle, read one book, make breakfast together (I'd advise getting a learning tower if you don't have one), then have a bath (we started doing it in the morning instead of at night and I prefer it, it means a different type of play time during the day and less of a rush in the evening), then do chores that need doing (DC helps with laundry, filling and emptying dishwasher etc), then Playdoh or Duplo or something like that before making lunch.
After lunch, we read a book and attempt to nap (not successful everyday!) then we have a snack and go out no matter the weather. If it's really cold, it's only for a short while in the area but otherwise we go to a playground or a park.
Get back home, attempt to encourage independent play (=more Playdoh, drawing or Duplo for me!) and prep dinner together. I put some music on when making dinner, DC loves it and it keeps her happy and entertained.
Then we eat dinner, she runs around a bit, we tidy up together, brush teeth, put PJs on and read books in bed before sleeping.

If the day really drags on, we do a video call to grandparents (she loves it and so do they) or make some biscuits.

My 4 year old goes to pre school a few times a week then my 1 year old is at home with me. We attend different classes. Dance and Art. Then softplay, reading, library, park, colouring and drawing, baking. Always look up what's on such as theatre shows, childrens events. I've been very tired lately so not done as much the last couple of weeks but the usual is as I've mentioned above.

I remember when mine were that age and how much they loved a den! Used the clothes horse/maiden all the bedding and cushions and all the teddy bears. Just making them takes time and is fun and they had lunch or whatever in it
Huge roll of paper (like wallpaper) and drew a track or town on it and got all the toy cars etc out. We also had an inflatable car (it was a toddler paddling pool and I filled it with ball pools, that was fun
I know the days are long but it really does go quick they are 12 and 21 now 🫣