Summer time is always a little bit easier to come up with things to do (I’ve survived 2 high-need summers already💪). Our days outside involved lots of dirt, water, dirt, sand, more dirt, playgrounds, some stones… If we could (and by “we” I mean our bossy Fussy boy), we would be out from dusk till dawn and we kinda were, excluding some short breaks for food and basic hygiene.
But what do you do when you are destined to spend an entire day at home and your toddler is getting a bit antsy?! What is your plan of action when it’s pouring outside (and I’m talking end of the world kind of rain, anything else is rated as drizzle and “manageable” with wellies and raincoat) or freezing (Syberian temperatures, as simple cold weather won’t stop a child born in Scotland) or you are too tired/sick/energy deprived/insert you own reason to go outside? We’ve all been there. With lots of hit-and miss-situations, we tested various activities found on blogs and Pinterest posts and prepared a list of high-need proofed options on LOW BUDGET ACTIVITIES TO OCCUPY YOUR KID AND KEEP YOUR SANITY. I wish I could guarantee they will work with every kid, but since when anything works “for sure” in this high-need world😅?!
- Painting!
Simple drawing and painting doesn’t really do the trick here. Since I’m pretending to be sort of an artist myself, I always try to encourage arts & crafts in our house. Things that were a hit included:
- finger painting (or whole hand or foot or whole body painting – depending on how much mess you can take). All you need is a washable paint (unless you hate yourself and don’t mind ruined clothes, walls, furniture, life… 😅), some paper and a plate to put blobs of paint in (prevents from using all paint at once, spilling or performing any other not-so-artsy actions);
- painting with self-made brushes – you can use whatever your can imagine; for example: DIY nature brushes, toilet paper rolls, flower brushes, forks, bubble wrap pieces, little toys (such as cars, wooden blocks, Legos, plastic animals etc.), cotton balls and cotton buds (just be careful as temptation to put them inside ears is almost unavoidable);
- painting with foam and food colouring (just beware, this might be a bit more tricky to clean than regular paint) – you will need a shaving foam (not gel), food colouring (or paint but as liquidy as possible), paper and cotton bud. Put some foam on a paper, spread evenly and lightly with finger (you can also create some peaks), drop few blobs of colour here and there and let your little artist swirl around with a cotton bud (or finger);
- painting on cellophane-wrapped chairs AND/OR windows, if you are feeling extra brave and/or desperate – not judging as I’ve been there.
If you are not a fan of mess, you can find these activities more appropriate:
- painting with water – you will need some coloured paper (e.g. construction paper will work great), brush and water – let them go crazy with mess free water painting!
- foam and paint in a tub –Â
you will need shaving foam (not gel), washable paint and a bath tub (shower might also work); spray some foam and paint all over and let their imagination do the talking! It kept my Fussy Boy occupied for 45minutes!!! Which was a whole 30vminutes of mommy reading a book by the tub and 15 minutes of being a slide supervisor). Be careful though, it gets slippery fast (which we used as an asset towards the end of playtime and pretended bath tub is a slippery slope); - colour in zip lock bag – (or more like playing) you will need a zip lock bag, some vegetable oil (or baby oil), food colouring, strong and preferably wide tape; pour some vegetable oil inside the bag, add few drops of colouring and close the bag; it might be safer to tape the opening of the bag to the table or glass (e.g. window) as in our case opening the bag and spilling it’s content was more fun than playing with oily blobs…
- alternatively you can add just big blobs of paint inside the zip lock and let them swirl it around (you can get an idea  what I mean here)
- cotton bud foil painting – in case your child would like to become the next Van Gogh (minus ear craze); it’s a simple upgrade from previous point about making your own brush – let your child paint with cotton bud on plastic wrap (the one you probably use for food)
- box painting – works with big boxes (put them inside) or smaller; if your kid is anything like mine (who might have some cat genomes in him) they will find boxes more interesting than most of their contents; let them go crazy with paint, crayons, glue and sprinkles and sparkles and whatnot!
2. Getting your hands dirty with DIY projects
- snow dough – this was a big surprise (for me) as he played with fake snow for 1h (this is beyond a lottery win for me; I managed to scrub whole kitchen in peace AND finish HOT coffee; if packed in a tupperware box, it will last you for a while;
- kinetic/moon sand – similar to snow dough, it is a big hit in our house – maybe because my boy is very much into diggers and this is his private building site where he can use all his toy cars; best option is to put in a biggest plastic box you have (rather than spreading it all over floor or table) with cover – saves you some cleaning time and keeps it as mess free as possible (with a toddler);
- butter slime – in general all slime gets huge thumbs up with our boy; both whole DIY process and playing with it for hours afterwards (not consecutive hours, obviously…); there are tons of different recipes available on Pinterest – just type in DIY slime and you will be amazed on what you can use to create your own (edible slime with Starbursts – yes please!!!); what keeps my kid engaged for longest is using slime in combination with toy cars that drive through it (and get stuck but oh well) or with small toys that get burried inside it.
3. Bit less messy DIYs
- construction boxes – you can use old cardboard boxes to build toy houses, garages, slides, castles and whatever you can think of (for inspiration use Pinterest)
- making your own activity boards – we made one with bottle tops and caps, helps them exercise motor skills and occupies for…. hm… well at least 5 minutes
- sorting activities – for us sorting and transfering penne pasta and dry beans with spoons meant a whole cup of hot coffee for me (and I still find odd beans behind furniture but it was totally worth it!); there should
- building blanket car slides and forts
- paper “hair” cutting practice – we used this idea in a slightly modified version – with empty toilet paper roll and attached paper “hair” all around – provided not only excellent opportunity to practice cutting skills (with my supervision, of course) but also a chance for me to make dinner in peace (score!)
- indoor “mud” kitchen – this is for tough times as it gets messy (wet), all you need is some kitchen stuff (pots, bowls, spoons, whisks, ladels etc.) and water (and a dryer afterwards); best to strip your little one to bare minimum (get it?!), put some water in the bowls and let them go nuts! My boy can spend an hour “cleaning” his small toys and transfering water on a ladle from one pot to another; whole kitchen floor ends up wet but it’s absolutely worth it!
Do you have any other fail-proof ways of occupying your high-need kid?! Please share some below – it wakes a village to raise a kid and it takes a village of crafty mums to have a high-need toddler play by themselves for 10minutes!