Intentional Toddler Time {17 months old}

{Timmy is currently 17 months old}

We have been having so much fun playing and learning together lately. Since we’re preparing to move right now, it’s easy to let time with my kids go on the back burner. However, I’ve found that getting on the floor and playing for at least 15 minutes every day does a lot for our sanity.

It’s easy to think we don’t have time to just play with our kids. I can get so nearsighted and forget that these little daily investments add up to great reward later – a good, foundational relationship with my kids. Plus I love playing with them and it’s a great distraction from the stress of life, right? Who doesn’t like to escape into the imaginary world for a bit?

Anyway, here’s what we’ve been up to with our littlest one. You can see all our intentional toddler time posts here.

I put together a button sensory bin for the boys to play with one day. I was in a bright and colorful mood on a gray day, and these were just the ticket to cheerful fun.

Button Sensory Bin Contents

• Buttons in various colors and sizes
• Number buttons
• Counting chips
• Empty toilet paper tubes
• Piggy bank
• Ice cube tray
• Plastic bowls from our counting bears set
• Egg carton
• Scoops and spoons

The boys jumped on the button sensory bin like little vultures! They absolutely love sensory bins and usually play for about an hour with a new one on the first day. It blows my mind to tell you the truth, but I’m glad they love them because I love making them.

I usually let them play on their own until they start to lose interest. Then, I get on the floor with them and play. I will use the time of playing with them to talk about colors, counting, sorting and practice fine motor skills. It’s a fun way to extend the play and learning.

Timmy loves to drop “coins” in a piggy bank (real or pretend like above). This is hands down his favorite activity.

One day last week, I was completely “touched out.” The boys were a little on the sick side and we’d just had a crazy week. I needed something that would distract them from needing me!

Insert: colorful shaving cream!

I filled a muffin tin with shaving cream and added a drop of food coloring to each section. Gave a little stir with a paint brush and sat it in the bath tub. I gave the boys some various types of paintbrushes and let them go to town.

This guy loves messy play! I knew he would love this activity (my four year old had an absolute blast as well). They painted and squished and giggled and explored for thirty minutes of glorious time for me to sit on the toilet untouched and stare at the wall. Sometimes I need to just do that. 😉

This activity was super simple to clean up too. After they had tired of the fun, I gave them a bath right there and rinsed everything down with warm water. Everything was cleaned up and the boys were bathed early in about 5 minutes. Totally worth it!

Since we’re moving, we have various packing supplies around the house right now. One of which was this Styrofoam block. The boys were playing with it when I decided to just make it a little more fun.

I handed them some stir sticks and pipe cleaners and let them just have fun.

They LOVED stabbing the block, and it was great for my little guy’s fine motor skills. It was harder for him to push the sticks through the Styrofoam, but he loved the challenge.

Yes, it did cause a mess, but it was fun and it wasn’t anything a vacuum cleaner didn’t fix in about 3 minutes.

Timmy loves magnets so our magneatos have been really popular with him lately. I pulled a white board down (again since we’re moving), and gave him the bin of magneatos. He loved sticking them to the board and after he put the straight ones down he added a ball to the top of each one.

He’s clapping for himself in this picture. He was very proud of himself!

Every time I pull out the pattern puzzle, this little guy gets soooooo excited. It’s interesting to me to see what he gets excited about. Sam didn’t enjoy this pattern puzzle, but Timmy loves it. He can choose the shapes he needs all on his own and other than the triangles, he can match them all where they need to go.

These chunky puzzles are not his cup of tea though. Again, so different from his brother who loved these puzzles.

Anything his big brother does, Timmy wants to be involved. Samuel asked to write letters one day so I gave them both some coloring pages and colored pencils. Timmy colored for a little bit, but he was more interested in taking the pencils out of the jar and putting them back in.

Samuel has been getting into pretend play a lot more lately. He asked his brother to “play store” with him. Timmy loves to play with his brother, and it was cute listening to Sam teach him how to buy food and checkout.

Of course they both wanted to run the cash register and neither wanted to actually do the shopping, but they had fun.

I recently pulled out every single piece of children’s clothing we own and sorted them. For some reason, they had gotten all out of sorts after Timmy was born. Plus we had FAR TOO MANY clothes.

Timmy was a little helper as you can see. Turning bins over, climbing on top of them in order to get to anther bin to pull everything out onto the floor. Also known as, not helpful. But at least he’s cute!

This was my favorite picture from the week. He was just hanging out with me in the bed after naps. It was a rare moment of him sitting still. 🙂

What about you? Do you have a toddler running around? I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to!

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The Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum for Toddlers is designed to help you teach early learning skills to your child while instilling God’s truth. One week at a time (for 18 weeks), I will guide you through sharing the Gospel with your child through various Bible stories and learning opportunities. Click here to learn more.