30 day challenge - Activities

I'm challenging myself to try new activities with the boys. After this, I think I'll try a 30 day food challenge to try new baby recipes from the many, many books I've checked out from the library. But first things first! I have pinned I don't even know how many pins about toddler activities on Pinterest, and I have half a dozen toddler activity books (many of the ideas are intuitive, things anyone would already do, so I wouldn't recommend these), as well as things I've seen or heard or done with babies over the years. It's so easy to get in a routine rut, though, or get tired. But I need to break the routine rut, and try to make a habit of trying new things.

Our current schedule is play time with dad in the morning after breakfast with some roughhousing :) After lunch we usually have an outing; either shopping, the park, Little Gym, or our sign language class - something to get out of the house! After their afternoon nap we have bouncing time and floor play, where they play with their toys or we do singing, nursery rhymes, read books, etc. Typical stuff - this is where I'm hoping to incorporate something new each day. That will become easier and easier as they get older, I think.

When the babies were little, I was so scared that I was too tired to do everything right - what if I'm not stimulating them enough or exposing them to enough language, etc. etc. Fortunately, that bit of neurosis passed, but I still want to be sure I'm varying things up. I don't know if it's my age, or if it's because it's round-the-clock when you're an actual mother, but I'm finding myself with much less energy than I had back in the days when I was a nanny. Wouldn't have needed to challenge myself 10 years ago :) So, I'm embarking on a 30 day challenge of different toddler activities to try. I'm going to try to post weekly to recap what we did and how the boys reacted.

Day 1 was a success! I put a bag of pinto beans in a bowl and let the boys go to town. They were cautious at first, but then they really got into it with diving their hands in, grabbing handfuls, shaking the beans around, and picking them up. So it was a good sensory experience and they worked a little on some fine motor skills and pincer grasp. I buried a couple of small toys at the bottom of the bowl and the boys would immediately fish them out - so fun! They had a good time with it, but I had to eventually call it a day when Jack continuously grabbed a handful of beans, then clapped his hands and sprayed the beans all over the room. Also, it was very interesting to see how differently the boys approached it - Jack was all about diving his hand and arm into the bowl, scooping the beans out of the bowl, and spreading the beans around - he was a little wild man. Ben was much more methodical, and would put just his fingers in at first, or flick a few out of the bowl with his fingers, before he started scooping them out just over the edge into his lap. He did not throw the beans around nearly as much as Jack. It's so funny, because in the bathtub it's Ben that splashes like a wild man and Jack who is more interested in feeling the water or playing with toys. I love how different they can be!

Tune in next week for our next 5 :)