Keep Them Busy, Make Them Think

Dinnertime can be one of the most challenging parts of my day, especially if I’m not using my slow cooker and need to spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen. When my son was younger there was nothing I could do to make him happy while I was cooking, but now that he’s a little older (he just turned 2) things are finally getting easier. Can I get a hallelujah??

I thought I’d share some of the “busy” activities I’ve been giving the munchkin lately, all of which have one thing in common: they make him think. I rotate the activities throughout the week and so far, so good!

Ideas for Entertaining Toddlers While You Make Dinner:

Matching Games

We’ve been playing with Eeboo matching cards for a while, but whereas before the munchkin needed help, now he enjoys playing on his own.  I’ll give him a box of cards, maybe help him lay them out, then I can head off to the kitchen while he searches for matches. There are two kinds of each card and when the munchkin makes a match he shouts “Found it!!” before putting the matches in a separate pile. His favorite card sets are Life on Earth and Wildlife. I’m hoping to add Mystery in the Forest to our collection at some point soon.

Simple Jigsaw Puzzles

Although we still love our Melissa & Doug chunky puzzles, they’re a little too easy for the munchkin these days. So I was excited when I found these cute, wooden jigsaw puzzles on Etsy. The set has a truck, car, plane and train puzzle, each of which comes with a small photo of what the completed puzzle should look like.  My son loves these puzzles and enjoys rotating through them while I’m making dinner. I keep the puzzles in a little wooden box near the kitchen and he only gets one at a time to avoid mixing up the pieces. When he finishes a puzzle he can bring it back to me and trade it for another one. The Etsy member who made these puzzles also has a dinosaur set, a farm animals set and an animals set. All of them are on my “must get” list.

I Spy Books

We recently discovered Walter Wick’s gorgeously illustrated “I Spy” books. Every page has an incredibly detailed, eye-catching image along with a list of things to find in the picture. When we do these books together we sometimes use the list and sometimes we just look for things we find interesting. (These books are great for practicing the names of things.)

But when I’m cooking dinner and the munchkin is looking at these books on his own I give him a general task, like: find all the cars, or all the robots, or all the toy giraffes. He has a lot of fun with this and enjoys practicing his counting as he finds all the different objects. Of course, he also likes just looking at these books and finding items on his own.

So far we have (and love) Toyland Express and Once Upon a Time. My mom jokes that she wants to get these for her office because they’d be so much fun to use during her lunch break. :)

Hope these ideas are useful!