1 and 3 year old. What do we doooo all day!?

[ahead]

New SAHM here. I have this awesome list of tons of fun places we can go and things we can do. Turns out it’s really exhausting going out with a 1 and 3 year old. And especially with the weather turning I’m needing ideas for more things we can do at home. My oldest loves games and art but my littlest destroys games and eats art. I can sometimes kill time with sensory bins but need more at home ideas please!

ETA: thank you everyone for the wonderful suggestions!! My kids are actually almost 4 and 18 months. I’m hopeful we’re almost to the end of eating everything phase for my little one. And my big one goes to PreK 5 hours per day. Which is awesome but also makes getting out of the house extra weird since we can’t do it first thing. Going to respond to as many of you as I can directly!

 

[blackswordsman]

@ahead I realize you’re asking for indoor ideas but noticed you said going out is exhausting - to which I agree.

When my kids were that age and I’d take them somewhere, library, zoo, park, wherever - I’d try to arrive around 9 or 10 am and leave by lunch. When we got home we would ear lunch and then they’d take naps. I rarerky went anywhere all day at that age.

Just my two cents - I picked up that routine from my in-laws and it made sense.

Another thought - anything at home, limit to really short periods of time. The three year old may be able to do a project for 10-20 mins max. The one year old, ha! Destroying their project is about all you may get, but they are learning about how the world works, cause and effect, etc.

This was an incredibly difficult stage for me…. I feel for you!

 

[brucepjr]

@blackswordsman I agree. It’s way easier to be out than at home. Most places don’t open until 9:30 or 10. We’ve been up since six, so it’s like mid day.

Go out from 9:30-11:30. Do lunch and naps. Now you’re at 3 something. Home stretch til dad gets home!

Library, local museum, friends houses, heck take a trip to Home Depot and go run around the aisles. Or if you have a mall with ramps! My kids would just run up and down and it’s dead at the mall at 10 am. Mall children’s play area. Grocery store is an outing. See if the bakery gives out cookies to kids.

 

[ahead]

@brucepjr I wish we could go out first thing! My big kid has preK in the morning so we can’t all go out together until 2 or so. I love some of these ideas though like running around the mall and the bakery! Genius!

 

[brucepjr]

@ahead Take the littles out while big kid is at school.