I’ve had some questions on how we keep the Teeny Tot busy during school.
The answer for us as been to give her a desk with her own workboxes and start “Teeny Tot School”! Okay, so its more like, “Make a gigantic mess all over School”, but it affords us some valuable teaching time that’s worth the clean up!
I just keep these activities in the boxes until she stops getting into them, then I swap ‘em out with new activities. I also recruit my other kids to help fill her boxes, they come up with some excellent ideas!
- Stacking cups
- Sorting Keys
- Discovery Toys locking blocks
- Paper cups, pom-poms, PF Chang’s kids chopsticks (My prek filled this box)
- Magnetic Fish Puzzle
- Leapfrog Fridge Phonics
- Old phone graveyard
- Measuring cups, bowls, pom-poms
- Tape, stickers and paper (looks harmless right? ;o) )
- Felt Strawberries and bowl for transferring
If all else fails…we send her out of the room with our preschooler ‘til we’re done!
Results are in and its a….drum roll please…“Thumbs Up!” from the Teeny Tiny Tot.
Some More Great Teeny Tot Busy Boxes:
- The Berry Patch
- 1+1+1=1
- Shannon’s Tot School
- Chasing Marcus
If you have great Tot ideas, leave a comment or join the McLinky for us all to see!
So cute! I need more ideas like this. 🙂 How old is your little one? Mine is 20 months and I'm wondering if she would be interested in the same activities.
Hee hee hee hee….. I love the old phone graveyard. My kids use calculators as phones.Oh, that could be something to add in to a drawer sometime.
Very good ideas-I also had old ice cube trays and those big plastic fruits (come in a mesh bag at JoAnns or Michaels) and put the fruit (lemons and limes work great) in a plastic bowl and then my nephew had to put the lemons/limes in the spots of the ice cube tray. He would sit there forever and put em in and take em out, them put em in and take em out. Eventually they would become balls and be tossed about, so that was my clue it was time to end that activity…but that was a cheap/fun thing too. A lot of Montessori activities would work well for her age-see if your library has some of the toddler books/preK ones for more ideas. Teaching Montessori at home is one that is a good resource. HTH
Great ideas everyone! My Teeny Tot is 16mos old here, she does like to do the sorting between bowls thing too. I also gave her a little snack baggie and she put her pom-poms in there and took them out, then put them back again.
Great ideas! My teeny toy is 17 months and I have been looking for some ideas to keep her busy. Thanks
Great ideas!!
"If all else fails…we send her out of the room with our preschooler ‘til we’re done!" This is the story of my life. Hoping this summer to have the money to pull together some boxes to use with my now 16 mod and get her started with "school" before our new years. With the baby coming, I am in survival mode right now. Thanks for sharing the ideas. We're all learning so much.
Curious about the keys…. Where did you find those? My son would love that!
Great ideas! I'm hoping to fill up some bins and boxes with these things soon! My 18 mth old will love having something to do when big brother is doing his crafts and school time!
Counting Keys: I got them at Lakeshore Learning, here’s the link: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|productSubCat~~p|RR255~~f|/Assortments/Lakeshore/ShopByCategory/mathematics/numberscounting.jsp If this link is too long, just go to http://www.lakeshorelearning.com and search for counting keys.