Free (or cheap) INDOOR things to do with toddlers?

hex2

Spiddy, mine are 16 months apart and it was very hard work when ds2 was too little for things, and ds1 wanted to do stuff -bit easier now they are 2 and 3. We made an awful lot of buns - eg every day as one egg mix makes six buns and is about 25p. Doesnt matter if they are awful, he just likes the mixing and measuring.

Have a look in your library for books on things to do with toddlers. Take boxes from the supermarket. One banana box each is a plane, a train, a car, a rocket, a picnic table......

Find out if there is a toy library locally. We also have a non pub softplaythat is run by a local charity - cheaper, no smoke, and no need to buy drinks. Worh asking around.

moozikgal

Hi,
I have just done a course which covered birth to 3 matters education which gave me some great ideas of what to do with kids when you are stuck indoors.
Get some large cardboard boxes and have them ready to get the kids to play in. Choose a theme for the day, like transport, take them out to the town and pop on a bus, show them a train and cars etc and when you come home, get them to make a bus or car out of the boxes. The boxes can be used again for another activity! we watched children using them to make jungles, castles and all sorts! You can finish the day with a story book about that theme and if you also take a digital camera out with you, they can help you make a scrap book about their day too.
Make glove, sock or wooden spoon puppets with them. buy a few crafty things from ebay and show them how to play with them and make their own puppets. you will have to help the youngest one of course.
Make their own musical instruments with chickpeas and yougart pots.
make them some playdough, i think there is a recipe on the old style board.
hope these help!
vicky

sooz

i'm afraid for my suggestion you'll need to wait a few months, but thought this might interest others....

go to your nearest ikea..

i love going there, especially early on weekday mornings, after the morning rush hour's finished. children over 3 can go into the supervised creche with ballpit for an hour for free, and you can sit down and have a coffee and read the papers in peace. total cost 50p plus driving there. (the cafes also have play areas the little one can play)

our local (council run) swimming pool also has a creche, although this you need to book your session about 2 weeks in advance as it is very very popular. it costs £1.50 for 1 hour, and they look after my younger one whilst i take the elder one swimming (or i could swap....or even better put them both in!)

do you have any other local playgroups? we have atleast 1 within walking distance every weekday morning, and they are all on for 1-2 hours, cost between £1 and £2 pounds per session (and a token 20-50p per sibling), and you get free tea or coffee and biccies. You could try asking your local NCT group for their playsession dates/times, or look at the notice boards in local church halls, which is where they are usually held.

spiddy100

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Boo no Ikea locally, probably just as well as I would probably spend a fortune rather than relaxing with a coffee!! Lots of other good suggestions I will check out

Moonbeam

My son and I have a lot of fun playing with water - either the bath or a basin in the kitchen - lots of washing up with bubbles and plastic plates - seeing what things float and what things sink - filling up ballons to see what happens to them - filling up and pouring out containers and empty washing up bottles - even use some food dye to change the water ....can get messy. Have also bought some crazy soap from local supermarket (in bathing range) which is fantastic for clean fun....

If he gets soaked we then run a really deep bath with lots of bubbles and chuck in all the toys - he gets a glass of milk and I get a glass of wine (although using apple juice for me just now due to 2nd one on the way) to celebrate all our hard playing.

If the weather is really bad and we still need to get out and about for some fresh air I simply open the back door and we tog up in wellies and raincoats - at least then we aren't to far from home to warm up - we also take my digital camera outside to take piccies and then bring them in print them off and make scrap books - fairly cheap and cheerful....

Have a look round local theatre's too - are there any things going on during the day - our local one has a free creche for an hour monday - friday and they do loads of creative things whilst I get to chill out with a coffee for an hour - it's based at our local university so don't discount these sorts of places - you might be surprised at what's around you already.

Hope this helps

looneyleo

Do you have any Sure Start or Children Centres as they are known now near by? You can go on the website to find out. They used to be geographically limited but are now open to anyone to use. if you're lucky you'll have one close by that has loads of free playgroups and sessions. Go on your local council website who will list things that are going on locally. You can also try your local college. They often have creche's available that you can use even if you aren't doing a course. Ours costs £3.50 for a two hour session and you can leave them there! (Bit of piece and quiet!) Have you tried the swimming pool for parent and toddler sessions? Lots of help there from other parents and the tutors...

If at home you can try to rotate the toys and set it up as a "session". So this morning we are going to do XXX and this afternoon we are going to do YYY. That way they aren't just playing with everything all of the time. Are there any other parents locally you can suggest having little play sessions with in each other's houses?

I've got a 4 year old and 1 year old and this winter seems to have gone on for ever! Can't wait for light evenings! Good Luck

Spendless

looneyleo wrote:

Do you have any Sure Start or Children Centres as they are known now near by? You can go on the website to find out. They used to be geographically limited but are now open to anyone to use.

ooh I didn't know that :j I thought it was still limited by postcode. I'm going to look up my nearest one now :T

I have a 3yo at nursery each morning and she is getting bored too on an afternoon. Some of the thing I have done/intend to do.

Toddler group 2 hours long costs £1.20 including juice and biscuit for her and tea/coffee and biscuit for me.

Free session at town library where the staff read children a book and then they colour/play afterwards.

Swimming is free for under 5s at our council run pools and cheap at the private trust one.

I discovered our town centre has put in a small soft play area with bouncy castle &, ball pool that is free to use in our shopping centre.

Trains/buses are free for under 5s, so I intend to go and meet DH from work one day catching 2 trains to do it and then all come home with him. Exciting for them and will take a while to do the journey.