Think Like a One Year Old

While at Gwyneth's one year check up we received a handout from her new pediatrician.  I have always enjoyed the handouts Kaiser Permanente gives at each visit.  They document your baby's current stats and there is a wealth of information applicable to your babies age.  It's basically the cliff note version of the What to Expect series of books, listing milestones, healthy habits, feeding advice, etc.  One of the bullets under "Healthy habits" says children under age 2 should not watch TV or videos.  WHAT?!  I knew infants shouldn't sit and watch TV all day, but none?  Surely I am not the only mother that has failed at this by letting their one year old enjoy an episode of Sesame Street?  Have I stunted my baby's development by introducing her to Elmo?  In all seriousness, I don't think I have done permanent damage to my baby, but I do think I will attempt to limit her TV time a bit more now.

So in light of this breaking news, I decided it was time for me to find some new activities for Gwyneth during the day.  We do the usual playing but you can only do so much block stacking, pots and pans banging, and chasing each other around the house.  I searched the internet for ideas and it looks like I am not the only one running out of things to do with a one year old.  A one year old's attention span is VERY short so finding activities that will keep him or her engaged for hours on end is not an easy feat.

Here are just a few of the activities I came across that I plan to do with Gwyneth over the next couple of weeks:

• Paint with water - get a paintbrush and a cup of water and head outside to the sidewalk or back patio.  Let your child "paint" the sidewalk or patio.  Best part about this is that it is pretty much mess free.
• Paint with pudding - put your child in his or her highchair and put a blob of pudding in front of them.  Let them "paint" the highchair table.  This may require a bath or dip in the baby pool afterwards. :)
• Fingerpainting - cover your table or patio with paper, give your child non-toxic finger paints, and let them go to town.  Warning: this one is messy!
• PVC Pipe Phone - take two PVC pipe "elbows" and a small connector piece of PVC pipe.  Put them together to make a phone.  This is often called a "whisper phone" or "phonics phone" and is used by young children as they learn to read so they can hear themselves as they pronounce words.  Gwyneth has recently learned to "answer" the phone and puts everything she finds up to her ear like she is answering it.  I think she would love this!
• Paper bag puppets - decorate small paper bag lunch bags with your child then put on a puppet show for them.
• Make a Cheerios bracelet - sitting in their highchair help your child put cheerios on a short string.  It's great for their fine motor skills plus they can snack while they play.

Anyone else have any ideas?  What do you do or have you done with your one year old?