Preventing Cabin Fever

Winter can get kind of long here in Kansas (but not as long as in Michigan...), and it seems even longer when you have a toddler hanging on your leg and whining because he's bored. You can't play outside, and sometimes it's just too cold or potentially hazardous to leave the house.

The only good part about winters like this is it forces me as a mom to come up with creative things to entertain Brandon at home. He gets so tired of his toys and books on long days at home, even with my toy rotation!

The following are some pictures from January with some activities we did to help prevent cabin fever!

I wish I could say I did fun, creative activities with Brandon everyday. It really should be my goal to do one novel, creative activity with him each day, but I honestly don't put the mental thought and energy into that as often as I should.

And most of these activities are just silly ones with materials I have around here, so don't be expecting some revolutionary ideas, fellow moms! Here they are:

Digging for toys in the "rice and bean" bucket.

First attempt at an obstacle course. Brandon didn't quite get the point, but he had fun climbing around on things.

What do you do if you don't have a basketball hoop? Make one out of your Costco sized dishwasher detergent canister! Slam dunk!

Brandon's Mimi and Papa got him this awesome easel for Christmas. He loves it! He loves to watch us draw pictures, and he'll tell us what the pictures are. I'm sure you are all envious of my amazing artistic talent to draw a car and a train, right? He likes to scribble with the crayons, but on this particular day, he was way more interested in dropping the crayons through the paint cup hole. And why wouldn't he be?

We use the chalk side of the easel the most often. Check out that tripod grip! This handwriting specialist is very proud. No, 18 month-olds are not supposed to be able to hold crayons and chalk with a tripod grip....but they will if you only give them a tiny broken piece of crayon or chalk. It's the only way to hold something that small. Break your crayons and chalk moms! I know it's hard to damage a perfectly good crayon, but you'll be so glad you did when your child starts writing!

He definitely likes to erase too!

This was NOT part of my winter indoor fun...well not for me anyway. I found him like this after leaving the room for just a second.

Putting stickers on a toilet paper roll. Brandon hasn't had much exposure to stickers yet, and he was both amused and concerned about how they stuck to his fingers.

And finally, what is indoor play without an empty box?

We have seen a few glimpses of spring around here in the past couple weeks, and we cannot wait until we can get outside and play every day!