I need ideas of things and activities to do for our 9 mo and 2 yo.?

Question

We have a 9 month old daughter and I have a 2 yo step son. We get him 3X a week for 6 hours (3-9pm) I am a younger mom (22) and am new to being a mommy let alone a step mom. I plan on taking a parenting class to learn a bit more about activities, but in the mean time I would like to know what I can do with both of the kids to entertain them. We have a pool. so we hang out in there and we have toys but I would like things to be a bit more structured. Any ideas of what we can all do? I want to include BOTH babies. Any and all activities you can give me I would really appreciate! Also, what are other moms out there doing for discipline when it comes to a 2yo? He has temper tantrums all the time, his mom lets him get away with everything...he doesn't stay put in a time out. What should we do?

Answer 1

finger painting is great for both ages but because you have a young baby get that vanilla pudding and dye it with food coloring works just like paint and tastes real good too!!!!   and the tantrums thing i have a 2 year old boy and he throws tantrums too all you can do is keep your cool and make sure he knows that it was not nice or dont do that please be sturn but dont yell he is only 2!!  dont pay him much attention when he throws a fit because really that all he wants he is just jealous of the baby just watch out he doesnt hurt himself or anyone else during one of his fits

Answer 2

oh boy temper tantrums.. i have dealt with this one.. my 4 year old was bad at this.. and what i do is if she gets mad i just make sure she dont fall on nothing when she falls on the floor to kick her feet.. and then i ignore it but i try to watch her so she dont hurt her self.  this all started at 1 1/2 years old, by the time she got to three she finally relized i wasnt going to give in, temper tantrums all done now. waahoo it was rough going thought this however the doctor just told me to let her through it as long as she didn't hurt her self.. as far as what you can do for activties.. going for walks through the park, zoo.riding tricycles, paint.. some of the paints you buy now are edible so the nine month old could eat some and not get sick however most are not toxic, coloring in books.. they got the enormus crayons.

Answer 3

i am a mom to a 10 mont old and 22 month old

try

peek a boo - cover the 2 year olds hed with a blankie and ask where is "so and so " then he with pull off the blankie and the baby will laugh

Answer 4

Wow. First of all, its great that you are taking on such a big job. When my baby was 9 mo. I couldn't imagine taking care of another one.

Your stepson must seem light years ahead of your baby, but he's really a tiny person too with a lot of brain development and growing going on. Think of all he must be experiencing and not being able to communicate about it all.

I recommend you search the web for "time-ins" and "gentle discipline." Its a whole new way to approach things. There are some good books you can get from the library, "How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk" by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish and "Unconditional Parenting" by Alfie Kohn. The first one is really easy quick reading. The second one is longer, but worth it.

I recently read an excellent article about tantrums: http://www.mothering.com/articles/growin...

Another easy place to go is Mothering magazine discussions. People there have a lot of experience and a lot of good ideas. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/

Things both children can do...that's a challenge but not impossible. You can try cornmeal and water. Use the cornmeal like sand. Make goop with corn starch and water. Both of these things can be both eaten and washed down the drain with no problems. Sometimes I set this up in the bathtub. Finger paint. Its a mess, but fun. I set this up outside or in the bathtub. Containers and kitchen utensils and water are good. A tub or bowl of water and some rags, old socks or any small piece of fabric to dip in the water. Then the 2 y.o. can hang them out in the sun to dry. I found some miniature clothespins at  a website called Montessori Services. http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/

You can also put together a basket, box or bowl with some interesting things from around the house or neighborhood with different textures. A box of playing cards you don't use anymore, a tape measure, an old wallet with old cards, keys on a keychain, cotton balls, pine cones, leaves, walnuts, seed pods. Whatever your baby won't choke on... If you can find little boxes that you can put inside other boxes or fabric or paper bags they can "discover" the things inside.

Have fun and try to remember that they will only be little for a little while, and the older they get, the closer in developmental age they'll be. In another year or 2 you will be having a lot of fun.

Answer 5

play doh- just watch to see that the baby doesnt eat too much of it.

go on walks

go to the playground

color

remember that the baby probably enjoys just watching at this age. She probably likes to hold a toy and watch what is going on.

Also, remember that peoples attention spans are about thier age in minutes, plus or minus 3.

So, I am 27. That means that I pay attention for 24-30 minutes before I start to lose attention. A good teacher will change activities, or topics in that amount of time. With a little kid, that means that they have an attention span of 0-5 minutes! What does that mean? Well, they might only color for 2 minutes. That is okay.

Also, let them help you around the house. Have the two year old help you wash the bathtub (with a plain washcloth) while you clean the bathroom. The baby can watch.

Put them in high chairs and have them watch you while you cook. I sometimes give my daughter a plastic knife and let her cut something soft and eat it while I chop veggies.

The two year old can help pick up the toys in front of your vacume (make it fun)

Answer 6

I don't really have an "answer" for you, but just something I would like to share.  As far as the "activities" part of this question I don't have a lot of ideas for you.  The disicpline part is what I wanted to talk about.  I have two younger step siblings.  I'm 10 years older than the oldest, and learned a lot growing up around them.  My mom and step father only had them every other weekend.  My sister and I lived with my mom and step father full time.  We had always been well behaved, and really growing up never did anything wrong.  My step siblings on the other hand were a different story.  They weren't expected to do much when with their mother and therefore didn't have a lot of disicpline.  It's really hard trying to discipline kids that you only have for a short period of time.  It seems like as soon as they would start to catch on and start behaving, it would be time for them to leave.  In order to disicipline, I kind've feel like the same rules have to be enforced in both households.