Hellobee Boards

Arts - play doh, paint?

Honestly, I would try and catch up on stuff around the house, and include her in them with you! Do things you ordinarily wouldn't do, wipe down walls and doors. Give her a rag and have her follow you around! We had a power outage a little bit ago and I had an 18 month old, and she loved it! I went through my closets, and piled ton of clothes on the floor to donate, and she would just play in the pile of clothes! hahahah Then once it was getting dark, we gave her a little flash light, and she was running around laughing and giggling for probably an hour straight shining the flashlight!

We had the power go out recently and we just had a normal day without any TV. It was really fun! It was a bad storm (tons of hail, etc) so we storm watched for a little while which he enjoyed. He also spent some time locating his rain boots and placing them carefully by the back door for when it was puddle jumping time.

The big thing we did that was special to that day was build a HUGE fort in our den with blankets / sheets and then get a camping lantern and read books. We also did shadow puppets, which he loved. The only downside is now he's obsessed with the camping lantern and we have to read stories with it every night... when the power is on.

We also did the usual suspects of "rainy day" entertaining -- play doh, building blocks and magnatiles, painting on his easel, etc. I really enjoyed it because our internet was out so I turned off my phone and had a day completely engaged with him with no distractions from the outside world. It's sad that it took a storm to make me do that, I realize. I was 100% healthy though, so different story.

If you have "Cat in the Hat" and your child is verbal, we had fun reading it and talking about what he thought the Cat might do if he showed up at our house.

I also let him have a mid-day bath with bubbles which took a good bit of time.

Another idea - do you have any board games? My son doesn't understand Candy Land at all but he can spend an hour "playing" it.

Clean the house? DD was home "sick" yesterday but super energetic, so I gave her a mini broom and a rag and let her clean while I actually cleaned. We also did a lot of art projects, read books, and I gave her a big box to decorate and play in.

Go look at busytoddler's account in IG for some ideas!

Paint eggs for Easter? Find stuff in pantry for a sensory bin?