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I have twin boys who are 15 months old. My mother-in-law does daycare for us and also lives with us. Recently I have noticed a trend where they are spending more and more time watching TV during the day. I am starting to look for some books and other resources with games and activities that they can do with Grandma. They cannot go outside as Grandma can't keep up with them so they are stuck indoors most of the time during the week.

There are a lot of options out there and I am looking for specific books and/or websites that you have used with your children that were good ones.

Update: My boys are now 17 months old and we are running an experiment where we took the TV away completely. Now things are crazy. They don't do any one activity for more than 2 - 5 minutes at a time and appear to be bored silly.

I am still looking for activities, books, websites and anything that we can use to help create a more structured day for everyone.

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    Converted to community wiki because there will no single best answer, but a collection if useful suggestions.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Commented May 27, 2011 at 14:01
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    per pediatrician recommendation, try to avoid TV until the age of two, or close to it, if possible: parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/3/…
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 9:40
  • Try to find a neighbor kid or two to do supplementary baby-sitting or can take them outside and run them around. Connected--is it possible to fence part or all of the yard? We had the same problem at a home daycare w/too much tv--finally moved the kids to KinderCare who does indoor and outdoor activities. Big difference.
    – mkennedy
    Commented May 14, 2015 at 0:04

4 Answers 4

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If you want to avoid TV then avoid the computer as well. Some things we did were get:

  • Foam Blocks, big and easy to handle though at a teething stage you have to watch them
  • Baby Book readers, LeapFrog has an infant version of stories and does both music and reading
  • VTech has some very simple games with lights and music, kept our 1+ year old entertained
  • Dolls that dance and or sing
  • Play Mats or the Child Tents and tubes you can put together to make mazes
  • Inflatable ball pits, or a kiddie pool with lots of small balls - my kids love that stuff, even the oldest
  • Little People sets, most have action and or sound

We found anything that made noise tended to be good distractions for our kids, our toddler loves my oldest's Zhu Zhu Pet. They are kind of annoying but he loves the toy running around and making weird noises.

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    Just a small note on toys that make sounds: do yourself a favor and buy/select toys where the sounds are short. I agree that the sounds help attract and keep the child's attention, but it can be stressing for the parents when the child pushes a button on one toy, then moves to another toy while the first one makes noise for a minute.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Commented May 27, 2011 at 17:59
  • Yes, my point on the Zhu Zhu Pet's, they get annoying when they keep running around for minutes. Good point though!
    – MichaelF
    Commented May 27, 2011 at 18:38
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As I go for work i will be busy in my work after reaching home. When I get time I spend the whole day with my DS. I just find it hard for the activities but I go online for the activities so that I can engage my kid and has lot of fun.

I would like to share few of the activities that i do with my son. I use to play

Indoor basket ball: This one of the best game for the toddlers were they can have lot of exercise.

Cardboard box car I make a car with the cardboard box. Take big box and turn it into a car for your kid.

Paintings: My kids love doing this activity. Every kid would be attracted towards colors. So most of the time my kid will be doing paintings. For kids painting with the bubbles http://artful-kids.com/blog/2012/02/02/3-ways-to-paint-with-bubbles/

Pillow jump: As kids love to jump on the pillow so make a small playground.

Play with the musical jars

Coloring pages As this also one of the best activity were kids love doing this. So take any sheets and make our kids to color those with the crayons. here is the cat coloring pages which i have made my kid to color those. http://www.momjunction.com/articles/cat-coloring-pages_00103938/

Playing with clay: Make any thing with the clay and paint them.

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Type in "activities for toddlers" and "preschool crafts" to a search bar and you will find a million things to do online. Also try "sensory activities" because these are pretty engaging for some reason.

There is a wonderful book called, "the busy book" that will help

Give them water to splash in, dough to knead, cook with them and let them do the measuring and stirring (with your close supervision and help of course). Have them chop and mash bananas. . .

Read stories together.

Little people toys are especially popular with two's.

Act out favorite fairy tales by dressing up or using puppets.

Seat them somewhere and give each a pair of children's safety scissors and a piece of paper and just let them snip away. Yes, you'll have to sweep up (or grandma) but used once/month or so it'll probably keep them busy for awhile.

There are more ideas on my website.

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Some things where you don't have to think constantly what to do are commercial offers like Kiwico or Kinedu. As others mentioned things from Vtech are also good but anyway, we figured out, that our kid loves daily things as much or even more than toys. Despite from that I wouldn't recommend to have an urge to entertain your kid all the time. Spend time together, provide things but let the kid also play alone a bit. And when the kid wants to investigate something, do it together and explain/play.

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