activities for a 14 month old.

[Skadiver13]

Hi all looking for some ideas for liam. Hes super active is go go go from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep. It is almost impossible to get him to sit still he squirms and wants down. I've tried white board with  crayola crayons, we have a door in the kitchen painted with chalkboard paint so he has chalk. Fridge magnents that are the alphabet etc lids and containers. He has a water table outside he likes. Balls we throw and roll to each other. Not sure what else I can be doing. What skills should he have or be cultiva r ing ight now. Hes not talking at all (a little worriesome) but does know a few signs.

[Lindsay27]

Ha, I feel the same some of the time.  I don't know what my CM does to entertain him all day!  The magnets is a good idea for me though!

Does he have any trucks/anything with wheels?  I swear Ben just spends half the day pushing his trucks around.  Blocks is also a huge hit - the mega blocks (like large lego) are good and just plain old wooden blocks - he gets a kick out of making towers and smashing them over.

[creations]

Did you look through the stickies? There are lots of different ideas there, even ideas for younger and older are worth reading because they develop their skills and interests at different times.
I second pp on blocks, mega blocks, duplo, wooden blocks. I chose small wooden blocks with alphabet and pictures on (each block has 2 letters and 2 pics for each letter) as they have a very long life and multiple activities for various ages. For instance younger to build small towers, later for picture recognition, later for letter or colour recognition, later for spelling games, oral games using the pictures to make up stories (eg pick 3 out of a bag make up a story containing those items) and then written sentences and stories using the pictures.

We had/have a series of busy boxes so for instance in the kitchen a box with various (safe) kitchen equipment in it to look through and explore, later leading to play cooking and then getting his play kitchen. Other busy boxes just had a collection of 'stuff' to rummage through.
Books were always loved here.
Musical instruments both bought and home made.
Mine liked to do lots of fill and dump so I was for ever looking for different things for that, large collections of anything that wasn't a choke hazard and different boxes and tubs to fill them into then dump out again.
Mine also loved SCLANs (shapes colours letters and numbers) so anything with any of those was a hit.

[Skadiver13]

I chose small wooden blocks with alphabet and pictures on (each block has 2 letters and 2 pics for each letter) as they have a very long life and multiple activities for various ages.

He has these, he just throws them. If I build a tower he just knocks it over and then throws them.

We had/have a series of busy boxes so for instance in the kitchen a box with various (safe) kitchen equipment in it to look through and explore,

We do have this but I think it might help if I swap out hte things as he gets bored very easily.

He does love to fill and dump so I can focus on that more.  Even the alphabet magnets he just throws them. It has a little thing that if you put the letter into it it says the letter than how to pronounce it. It's actually very cute. But he doesn't slow down long enough to listen. He's really just go go go.. He does LOVE his water table though but it's not something I can leave him to iykwim.

Thanks I'll look at more of the stickies.

[Lindsay27]

Ben likes his water table too.  Also enjoys his kiddie pool and we have a sandbox outside that doesn't actually have sand in it, just buckets and shovels and such but he quite enjoys climbing into the sandbox, throwing everything out, then climbing out of the sandbox and throwing everything back in.  This sounds strange but he also has mini plastic golf clubs and he likes chasing around a ball with those.

Ben is the same...sooooo busy!  I think his saving grace is that at daycare he has other kids to help entertain him  

We do have this but I think it might help if I swap out hte things as he gets bored very easily.

I think a separation of space also helps.  We have a living room and a family room, and he has different toys in each so I find moving him from one space to another helps with the boredom.

[Skadiver13]

I think a separation of space also helps.  We have a living room and a family room, and he has different toys in each so I find moving him from one space to another helps with the boredom.

Same here. This definitely helps. See he's just with me no day care until I finish school next May so... keeping him entertained is hard. We do some classes but they are so expensive.

[ZacsMumme]

If he is like Z at this age inside toys or things just did not entertain him for long...
What he loved was nature, sticks, water, stones, cars, sand, duplo, blocks, pegs, playgrounds, balls, leaves, flowers holes, bouncing on the bed, making forts ... he is still very much the same.

Does L like to climb? Z never did till recently but some mums have success with inside obstacle courses

Shape sorting? Stacking? Ripping up paper? Ride on toys?

[creations]

For fill and dump I gave him a milk carton with the top cut off and he put all his blocks in it, then out, then in. Also got him a chunky dump truck.
We had different collections for fill and dump and he would do it over and over with one thing for ages before needing to change it up.
clothes pegs
dry pasta
pine cones
shells
little books
cars
lollipop sticks
cotton reels
plastic cookie cutters

I also looked for a variety of boxes, tubs, baskets, cups, bowls etc to fill.
For more exercise and gross motor I set him up with a box of stuff in one room and the empty box/tub in another room and he would run with one piece at a time to empty one box and fill the other or I'd give him heavy objects to carry like pots of paint and he'd carry those from one room to another and line them all up.

Obstacle courses were liked here too. A variety of cushions on the floor for walking on or climbing up, a big bean bag to throw himself onto or try to climb, a megablocks wall to step over or a dining chair to crawl under etc.

[Mama2Athena]

My 15 month old DD is also super active.  She goes to daycare full time and I know they do a lot of water table activities, painting (with fingers, different objects like sponges, balls, etc), story time, and just open play where she is allowed to climb in and out of wooden crates.  At home, I also find it very hard to entertain her.  Having her 7 year old big brother around definitely helps as she plays with him - sometimes he's pretty rough with her though.  We also go for wagon rides (sometimes twice a day) down to the park.  I also find that rotating toys has helped.  Other than that, her latest obsession is to climb on top of the sofa and futon and sometimes her play table.  We are constantly supervising her and telling her not to climb.

[anna*]

Are there any toddler groups (not classes) nearby? We take Audrey nearly every day they have different activities set up all the time and it is £1 for two hours including a snack for her! She loves it and by the time we get home it's nearly lunchtime and the morning is done!

[Skadiver13]

Thanks for all the suggestions., It's hards with him not a day care. We are doing most of these things so I think we need to switch up the toys and maybe I can be a bit more interactive with him doing an obstacle course things like that. 

As for the toddler groups not that don't cost about 10.00 dollars each time you go.

[creations]

That's pricey.  Are there no church run groups that are cheaper?  (here the church run groups welcome any religious or non-religious mums and kids). Or local community mums who have started groups in their houses on a rotation basis or anything like that?  What about libraries, do they do a rhyme time or story time?   I'd be lost without our groups, we are so lucky here, I take DS to 3 groups per/wk that are free (and he gets a snack too) and another 2 which cost only £1.

Toy and book rotation is really worth while even if it seems a hassle.  Without the structure to your week of groups to go to I would prob time table the week out roughly too, my DS plays so much better independently at home when he knows where we are going later on (which group) and loves the structure and variety to his week.

[Skadiver13]

I'll look into church groups I hadn't thought of that. There really aren't any free groups around here. I belong to two moms groups, but one always and I mean always has their meet ups at 12. I'm like when do the kids nap LOL. And so I don't go because he's always sleeping then. The other he's the youngest as most are 3 or 4yrs old.  We do go to the library all the time and he plays there with other little kids but they only have story time once a month. Maybe i"ll look into surrounding librarys. As for structure he's too young to understand a schedule like that but he plays just fine independently I just know he gets bored and wants to do something else when he gets whiny for my attention. Just trying to get him out of the house as much as possible. Keeps me from going batty as well. We do have a pool luckily so we've been spending a lot of afternoons in the pool splashing around with toys etc.

I just feel like he doesnt' get a lot of interaction with other kids. THis summer we've been doing two classes gymnastics and music class but each one costs 250.00 for 6 sessions. We can't afford that any more.

[We Three]

 Barnes & Noble!  We used to go to B&N all the time...story time, the train table....we still love it there!

 Water play is always fun....you can give him a pail of water and a big paintbrush to 'paint' the patio, rocks, driveway.

 Have you made any connections with the other Moms at playgroups? Maybe one day a week you could host a morning playdate? Parachutes are so fun at that age (we got ours at Michaels for $10)....but you need like 4 adults to hold it!

 DD also loved the pet store at that age...it was like the zoo to her...LOL.  PetSmart has fish and cats, and you can see so many animals just walking around. Always fun. 

[Skadiver13]

Thanks the B&N Story time around here is at 11. :/  sorry not trying to poo poo all the ideas as they are all very helpful. He loves animals, we have 2 big dogs But I'm just not big on pet stores, him seeing animals in cages etc. just not something I want for him. When he's older we'll walk dogs at our local shelter but he's to young for that now. Will look into surrounding library's etc. Thanks for the ideas.

[creations]

Mine started walking at 13 months and straight away wanted to be walking outside, going somewhere. so as an activity we used to walk to a small local supermarket with the aim of buying just one or two items. It really wasn't about needing to buy shopping, it was about introducing him to a quiet shop (not our big one where we do the real shop), letting him experience it and also starting to teach him what behaviour was expected. It was great, he loved it and even though he is still quite young he has learned how to walk around for much of the big weekly shop in the big supermarket, helping get the fruit and veg etc into the trolley.  It's so much easier to put the time and attention in when you don't need to buy anything other than perhaps a carton of blueberries to eat on a bench outside before walking home.
We also did 'trips' to road works He loved to just stand and watch the diggers. Trips to train station, bus station, an airport, car show room, white goods store.  It amazing what kids are interested in.

I hear you on the times of the groups. I always avoid groups that run at nap time, I just don't think its worth upsetting the EASY.

[Skadiver13]

We also did 'trips' to road works He loved to just stand and watch the diggers. Trips to train station, bus station, an airport, car show room, white goods store.  It amazing what kids are interested in.

Great idea. Airports are too far but just letting him go to like target etc. I do do that bgut don't actually let him walk becuase we always go with the aim of buying something. Couldn't hurt to just go and let him walk around and learn not to pull things off shelves. LOL we do walk around the neighborhood every morning with the dogs so that takes a good chunk of time. Great ideas thanks.

[ZacsMumme]

Oh yeah like creations we did a lot of that...Zac loved the plant and outdoor Home Depot like stores!