After almost a month-long Christmas holiday we were looking forward to sending our 3-year old Maia back to her nursery school for the mornings (9am-12pm). Maia started attending her nursery school in September and she really loves it and has friends there. The activities and social interaction have given her development a real boost! This has been very important since during most of 2020 mixing with other children was not possible, and playgrounds and playgroups were closed. Of course it’s also been a big help to me since I have a baby too, not to have my toddler at home all day. The early years settings have been allowed to stay open throughout the second and third lockdowns in England, although this might change soon… We were lucky and Maia stayed healthy and her school open throughout the autumn term. But I must admit that after Christmas we felt a bit apprehensive about sending her back because of the new coronavirus variant but in the end we decided it was a calculated risk we were willing to take, because for all we know, we could be in lockdown until the summer! Sadly, this decision backfired and after only nine days there was a positive case in Maia’s nursery bubble and the school had to close its doors and everyone was sent home to isolate for ten days. On the bright side, Maia had shown no symptoms and has been her happy self. But I was faced with the challenge of entertaining a three-year old and a baby in the house for a week and a half!
Maia’s school has been incredible, sending us daily activities and recordings from the teacher via an app called Seesaw to keep up with her learning and to help keep her entertained. I would expect this from a primary school, but I wasn’t expecting them to take such good care of the nursery children too. ❤️ I wanted to share with you the favourite activities we did at home with Maia during the first week. Her baby brother Noah naps in the morning which gives me the chance to do activities with Maia one-to-one, which has been helpful. I don’t know about you but I find trying to do anything crafty with a baby around a nightmare- toddler art is messy enough without a little one crawling on the floor putting every piece of paper/sticker/bit of play dough they can find into their mouths!
Easy and fun toddler activities:
Note: Most of the activities make a mess. You just have to accept it, take a deep breath and let it happen. Tidying up together can be another activity! 😉
- Drawing, painting and making cards for grandparents. Maia loves all arts and can easily sit at the table for an hour with her paints and crayons and stickers (stay away from glitter for your own sanity)
- Making our own play dough and cutting biscuits out of it to use for Teddy tea party (recipe below!). This was a fun activity with lots of different stages to keep her engaged
- Teddy tea party with (dried) play dough biscuits. This works as a maths activity too as she needed to count the teddies to have enough cutlery and biscuits for everyone
- Threading pasta through straws stuck into play dough – such a simple activity but kept her entertained for quite some time
- Baking muffins or cupcakes. Maia enjoys mashing banana and mixing ingredients and putting the muffin tin liners in. Also for example making their own sandwich by choosing the filling and spreading butter etc. can be fun!
- Reading books and talking about the story: What was your favourite part? Who were the characters?
- Yoga and dance class: We received videos from the school but for example Cosmic Kids is a great one! (Check them out on Youtube)
- Gardening: It’s winter here in England but when it’s not raining we’ve been in our little garden prodding the dirt and finding slugs and worms, tidying away dead plants from the flower beds and even watering the plants (which don’t really need watering right now but who cares)
- Finger gym activity: Sort little toys or pom poms by colour into bowls with kitchen tongues or tweezers
- At home playground: I bought a little slide with a basket hoop for the garden (£65 from Amazon for a sturdy one), but we’re actually currently using it indoors because of the weather! You might want to forbid ball games indoors – I’ve allowed it and to be honest I might end up regretting it! At which point the slide will move into the garden. Obviously the classic “let’s build a den” or “make a big pile of cushions to jump into from the sofa” are all time favourite games!
Maia’s school has a morning routine which starts with a good morning song and a weekday song and then they discuss how they are feeling that day, what the weather is like, and what day of the week and which month it is. Her teacher recorded it for us so we’ve tried to stick to the routine.
Play dough recipe:
Ingredients:
- One cup by of plain flour
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 1 cup of boiling water
- Food colouring
Method:
- Mix the dry ingredients and oil.
- Add the boiling water and stir stir stir.
- Knead once cooled down.
Have fun!
xoxoxo,
Sini
PS. If you’re actually sick then just do whatever it takes to get through the days until you’re all better!
