BabyWhispererForums.com
ACTIVITY => Activity Time & Toddler Activity => Topic started by: Gigismom on May 17, 2006, 21:40:51 pm
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so my 18 month old is bored. how did that happen? she has tons of indoor and outdoor toys, an easel, coloring books, videos, etc. pretty much anything a child could want. AND she has full and unlimited access to the coolest playmate around...ME! ::) but she still never really plays much with anything, just kind of walks around bored, whining, and never engaged in anything really. she has fun at the park, when she plays in the sand with her sand toys. but that's really it.
has anyone's lo been like this? what is going on? how did you fix it?
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Mine is starting to be like this. Sorry i have no advice. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
I'd also be interested in any ideas.
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This happened to us too. I started putting away some toys and then bringing them out a few weeks later, one at a time. That way, the toys were 'new' again. We also starting pulling out things from the cupboard...cans of soup for him to stack, measuring cups for him to stack and organize (even though has stacking/nesting toys, he loved the 'new' toys).
I don't have much else to suggest...except for just waiting for the whiny phase to pass. It sounds like you're offering a lot of toys/activities and are available to her as a playmate, so that's great. :)
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We've just hot this stage too at 21 months. She had 12mo+ toys for hre b'day and 18mo+ toys for christmas Three is nothing new now till 3yrs+!!!!
All my DD wants to do is read books, which is great if she wants to do it on her own, but I have to read them too, three times plus a day!!!
Sat down with my mum and brainstormed last night, we're going to try reusable sticker books and fuzzy felt.
Also going to move some toys around to creat some interest.
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we went through this with Ryan , he was never really interested in his toys , he had too many.we started to keep some upstairs in his room (never played there ) and left some in the living room , after a while we would rotate and we found when the toys were fewer he would play more.Ryan had only just started to walk at 17 months so we didn't get the bored stage till later , but it was winter.he enjoyed mega bloks and stacking toys at that age. Also loved musical toys with lights ! noisy i know ::)
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Another thing I just thought of was changing rooms. Sometimes I take ds upstairs to his room when he's getting whiny and we play in his room. Sometimes just a change of scenery works for us.
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dd has 2 tubs in the family room and if they are full she never really plays with anything as the bigger things sit on the top, if the tub are a 1/3 full she plays with most things, i went out and bought dd some jungle animals and we have been giving her 1 every few days this way she learns the names, she loves them, we sit them in a special place in her room, what about a tea set, but really i think if you limit the amount of toys and then rotate you may find an improvement, also i try to leave dd as much as possible to play on her own, try to sneak away when she is happy and then be happy to return when she needs you, then sneak off again, also i find if everything has its place and is put away dd love to destroy it all, so what we do it clean everything up before nap and night sleep, this way she has heaps to do when she wakes, i really hope something i have said helps as i can really feel your frustration, oh do you go to a play group with gianna, we started about 6 weeks ago and dd loves it and the best thing is they have load of stuff set out and you don't have to clean up the mess like at home
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yes i think that we have too many toys. today i tried pulling some stuff out of the bottom of the toy box and that worked for a while. i guess i will just have to hide some and rotate them. no, we don't go to a play group, but maybe we should!
kimberly-we bought gianna a felt "play house" which is just a big book with felt figures that go on it. this is actually one toy that she really likes, so hopefully yours will too!
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yes find a playgroup and there is no reason why you can't go to two different ones in your area, here they run mostly in the mornings for two hours the cost is minimal and it is not structured just free play and it runs for 2 hours sometimes it runs over, you can come at any time and leave at anytime and the good thing is it is in a kinder room so we get to use all the equipment, paints, block, prams, cars ....... and outdoor equipment, hope this encourages you, i wish i had have joined earlier at about giannas age
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hiya,
My current saviour for a bored toddler is doing the dishes. I get a chair for her to stand on (and if you heart can stand the stress) let her 'wash' the dishes. She LOVES it. With the added bonus of the dishes being done more often! We have a dishwasher, but I don't put her cups, or bowls etc in there as it seems to wear them so quickly.
I have found my dd to be bored lately. Last Thursday at about 4pm we just had to go out, anywhere! I was tired, and I just wanted to lounge on the sofa and see what was on telly. But I needed to get some oomph and go for a drive. I think she is sick of being in the living room (where most of her toys are) and needs to 'see' more things. It's a bit of a bummer as it's getting cold now here.
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I've noticed that, now that we do more things away from home - since the weather is finally nice enough - ds practically runs to his toys the second we come back home. It's like he missed them, even if we were away for just a couple of hours.
Also, if your lo is old enough to want to help, I've read that it's good to give them the extra attention and take the extra time to let them help (as mum101 does with the dishes). My ds is too young really to understand but he does like watching me clean (until he gets bored). He especially likes to watch me vacuum. He sits as still as a mouse. (As long as I'm not using any chemicals, like when I'm cleaning the bathrooms, I don't mind.)
Something else I've thought about: for centuries, babies didn't have as much to play with as our little ones have now. What did moms do to get the housework done? Not to mention that the kids obviously learned somehow, without the leap frogs and gazillion toys. Maybe giving lo's too many toys makes them confused and bored. Maybe we should limit them to a small number of toys (say, 3-4) that they can play with each day and rotate either daily or every few days. This may kickstart their imagination because they'll need to find even more things to do with these same toys to keep them occupied.
Just a suggestion... am I pushing it here? :-\
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Just a suggestion... am I pushing it here? :-\
not at all! i completely agree with you on the fact that most kids probly do have too many toys. and pre-baby i was one of those people who swore i would never buy toys. i would just give my kids a rock and a stick to encourage imagination! yeah right! i have totally gone overbaord in the toy department. add to that grandparents, aunties, friends, baby shower gifts and we are swimming in toys. a few days ago i came to the realization that that is not how i want our house to be, so i listed most of her toys on ebay. i kept the things she really seems to care about...her coloring books and crayons, her easel, her outdoor toys, bath toys, dolls, her doll stroller, etc. i'm sick of being surrounded by it. i am saving small and light items to take to the orphanages when we go to kazakhstan, but otherwise, all the junk is going bye bye!
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WOW Lindsey,
I can't believe you put her toys on e-bay!! You are so brave. I think our family would lynch me if I attempted that!!
Ciara is 3 and has (I kid you not) 10 buggies, 2 scooters, 4 bikes. At her birthday party yesterday my mum said 'I've decided what I am getting Ciara for her birthday ... a bike with a buggy attached to the front' :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o
OMG!!!!! You cannot MOVE in my house without bumping into some sort of baby paraphenilia (sp?).
Good for you for having a clear out!
PS About keeping dd amused - will she 'help' with housework? Ciara used to love it at that age
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yeah, she saw the toys ready to boxed up and she was totally ok with it. i told her the toys were going byebye to live with some other kids who wanted them. she waved to them and walked away. LOL about that bike with buggy attached to the front!
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The fuzzy felt is working a dream!!!
I also got her some cards (like playing cards but bigger) with TV charactres on. They are for 3+ to use as snap games etc,but she loves sorting them and I can say to her, find me 2 bumbles, can you put all the fifis together, whilst I'm eating my breakfast or cooking.
Ditto the cleaning, Holly has a toy mop and broom and loves to help, esp when I actuallt let her put the mop in the bucket of water. I let her have a duster too.
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Was searching for things to help my bored toddler and found this thread. What is fuzzy felt?
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hi
a felt board is something like this:
http://www.thefeltsource.com/Entertainment.html
just google "felt boards" and all kinds of them come up. my daughter really liked her around 18 months to 2 years old. she's kind of over them now though.
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lindsey, what am I missing? Gianna is 18mos???
Sorry am prob beign dumb :-[
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LOL, this post is like a year old! she is 2.5 now but i think marisa's mama pulled this out of the archives.
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d'OH!
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LOL sorry to cause confusion - just desperately trying to find ways to make my DD (and myself) less bored!
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LOL no worries ;)
My DS was very similar till a few days ago, I have no idea what did it buthe suddenly 're discovered' all his toys and will now hapiily play on his own for 30mins or so, never done this before!! Maybe it's an age thing?
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Karen, all you need is a sibling for Marisa. Allie is just starting to get into Katie's toys and lo and behold, whatever Allie has is immediately Katie's "favorite" toy (even if she's shown NO interest in it for about 6 months).
I'm guessing there are probably easier (and faster) ways though :)
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Karen, all you need is a sibling for Marisa. Allie is just starting to get into Katie's toys and lo and behold, whatever Allie has is immediately Katie's "favorite" toy (even if she's shown NO interest in it for about 6 months).
I'm guessing there are probably easier (and faster) ways though :)
yup, that seems to be working here too. ::)
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and here, lol
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LMAO - unfortunately we won't be doing that for some time!
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Whos 18 month old??!!! Im so confused!!! :-\
I havent read all the posts yet, maybe ill read through and try to find out..... ::)
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LOL
Ha ha ha ha!! Im tempted to delete my post but thought Id give you all a giggle!! xxxxxxxxx
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Karen, all you need is a sibling for Marisa. Allie is just starting to get into Katie's toys and lo and behold, whatever Allie has is immediately Katie's "favorite" toy (even if she's shown NO interest in it for about 6 months).
Yep... here, too. Not only is he interested in them again but, apparently, everything is his. ::)
I'm sure that if you brought some of the old toys out again that dc will be interested in them. LO's are fascinated by all toys and, if they haven't played with them in a long time, they may find another use for them.
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I think rotating toys works great.
Asher LOVES books...I ask him a lot of questions as we look through them. Like where is the cat? How many ducks? I find him looking at the books by himself and later bringing them to me saying, "cat" and pointing to it.
We have also started play dates with friends that I used to avoid and I am becoming active in our church where the mommies do a lot of group play activities. I was always too shy. But, I know it is best for Asher if he plays with others.
Your library should have a toddler story time (free). And your mall should have an indoor playground (free) - go in the am since it will be freshly cleaned ;). We also create "splash days" where we set up a sprinkler and a kiddie pool with bath toys for all our friends. We rotate houses and stuff...
I got tired of buying new toys and now, he seems more interested in the toys he already has, I guess because he doesn't get to see them everyday since we are off playing with others.
Annette