Author Topic: What to do with 14 m/o during the day  (Read 6600 times)

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Offline Gabi1023

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What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« on: January 11, 2014, 17:35:10 pm »
Just wondering what is the best thing to do with an energetic 14 m/o during the day.  My wife stays home with our LO every day, and when they are not going out for a walk or eating together, my wife is either figuring out what food to fix for our daughter, or she is cleaning up after feeding her, or doing laudry.  During this time, our LO basically just makes a mess with her toys and tries to draw on everything.  Just curious if this is normal or what ideas there are for LO to play alone.

Offline cath~

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2014, 18:34:13 pm »
Hi there,

I'm going to move this over to "Activity time" for you.

At that age my LO liked to make a mess too (still does :P)!  She was also into exploring everything.  Could you have a special drawer/box/cupboard in the kitchen with stuff she can explore when your wife is busy tidying up? Eg wooden spoon, plastic bowl, other random bits and pieces from the kitchen. She could change it around from time to time so there are different things to find.

Wrt the drawing - I always kept any 'problematic' stuff like that well out of reach so at times when I couldn't keep an eye on her 100% I knew she couldn't be up to too much mischief...
« Last Edit: January 11, 2014, 18:46:23 pm by cathn »
DD1 - 8 years old
DD2 - 5 years old

Offline Gabi1023

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2014, 19:50:05 pm »
Thank you for your reply, and with only 3 days til your due date... I appreciate your help.  Good ideas, she actually does like to go into the kitchen and has figured out how to open doors and drawers even though they all have child safety latches on them... We will try to give her her own drawer and see how that works out.  Wrt the drawing, also a good point you made, I do like to be with her and color with her so that I make sure she isn't drawing on the wrong stuff, but definitely best to keep it out of reach.  It sounds to me like I have a pretty normal little girl then... Her messiness and mischief come with the territory I guess. 

Offline michaeljacknnugg

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2014, 22:13:02 pm »
We too limited our DS at that age. We didn't have many child locks, but we also had stuff like knives, chemicals etc well out of reach.

I had a lot of success in doing jobs with him - so for example when shopping I'd put him in the cart seat and show things to him and talk about them as we went along. Ditto cooking - he started cooking with me at age 2 and before then was given foods to explore as part of normal life. Little ones can help with laundry too!

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Offline Erin M

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2014, 03:54:25 am »
You might have to strategically arrange your kitchen -- I keep pots, pans, plastic, etc down low where my kids could reach them and explore -- we always kept knives, breakables, and things like that up higher where there was no chance of them being found.  Making a mess definitely comes with the territory of a 14 month old!  You could practice putting things away with her when she's ready to move on and make a game out of that (singing song while you do it always works here!) -- though it will be a long time before your LO will do it independently.  LOs at this age just want to explore and play and figure out how things "work" (even if that entails dumping something out over and over)!

Offline Erin M

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2014, 03:56:49 am »
Also, there are a ton of ideas on this thread if you're looking for some other activities during the day: Toddler Activity Ideas

Offline Gabi1023

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2014, 04:23:09 am »
Thank you, good advice and suggestions.  We will give those things a try. 

Offline creations

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Re: What to do with 14 m/o during the day
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2014, 17:55:51 pm »
Bit late to the party but wanted to say those magnetic sketch pads (various makes but magna doodle is one) are great for LOs who love to draw and make marks but can't yet be trusted not to draw all over the walls.  They usually come with a couple of shapes which I believe are big enough to not be a choke hazard, but if you are not sure then just remove those and leave the pen-on-a-string.  There are sometimes other options too depending how your home is decorated for instance chalk and a chalk board is fine in my kitchen as there is so little wall that could be got at, or pavement chalks outside.  Aqua doodle is also lovely at that age, the sheets are 'magic' where by plain water is brushed on (or there are brush pens you fill with water) and they come up colour. If the water spills it's just water rather than paint.