Keeping My Kiddo(s) Busy!

When it gets dark at 4pm (so thankful the days will be getting longer from here on out!) and it's cold and rainy (although today was actually beautiful and therefore we spent 2+ hours at the park!  Yay!), conversations with other moms of toddlers often revolve around the same question:  how do you keep your kids busy in meaningful ways?  I've picked up a few great tips along the way.  Most of them revolve around keeping toys put away and then pulling them back out so they're new.  Almost all of the kids toys are in bins in their closet or in the basement and every morning I pull one out (legos or dolls/doll clothes or puzzles, etc) and they're happy to play with them for a good long while because they haven't seen them recently.  This tactic might also keep their slightly OCD (who me?) mother from  tripping over toys constantly :)  They're old enough now to get interested in art projects so we'll often spend a chunk of time in the afternoons painting, playing with play doh, etc.  I get a lot of good ideas from my creative sister (it helps that she was a kindergarden teacher too!)  She has just started a blog with great montessori ideas -- you can check it out here.   (She's also started an Etsy shop where a lot of the ideas from the blog are for sale -- it can be found here).  Really great ideas for ways to keep toddlers entertained in educational and meaningful ways!