Finding Activities for Small Spaces

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Finding activities to do with a toddler when you live in a small home takes creativity.  We live in a 2-bedroom condo on the 3rd floor.  We have a small balcony but no yard to put toys.  I keep finding neat activity toys that Ashlyn would love, but we don’t have the room.  I have had to get creative to allow munchkin some of these experiences.

Water Fun

Ashlyn loves to play in water.  She would stay in the bathtub all night if we let her 🙂 Don’t get me started on puddles.  I would love a water table but have no room for one so had to figure something else out.  I still had a “tub” that I got from the hospital when I delivered munchkin.  So, we put down our drop cloth “water blanket” and I filled it about half way with water.  I pulled out some of her bath toys and some of those capsules that dissolve in water and leave a “sponge” toy.  Grabbed some towels and set her up in our living room to play.

water fun                                   finding activities                                                lets get wet

Munchkin had so much fun.  I was going to have her in bare feet. but in typical toddler fashion she wanted her socks on.  By about half way through they were soaked as was her butt.  By the time she was done about half of the water was on the floor.  We did manage to keep most of the water on the “water blanket” so that was a win 🙂

This was an easy way to let her play with water.  During the summer I think we will try this out on the balcony, so she gets fresh air while she is at it. 🙂  I let her play for about 30 – 45 minutes at which time she had a mini meltdown while I cleaned up.

mini meltdown

Big/Play Room

So, we are very lucky that our condo has a common room on our floor that we can use.  This allows us a little more room to set up bigger items.  We don’t have a lot of extra storage so even big items need to be able to be stored.  For her 1st birthday we had been given some money from Ben’s bio mom.  Thanks to the money we were able to buy the Foamnasium Playground for her that we could store in our small storage unit.  We have used them in the house but not in over a year.  Now we mainly use them in the big room.

block fun

We also had gotten her a Kids Playhouse Tent With Tunnel Set, Portable Fun Outdoor Indoor Bounce Playhouse Ball Tent Toys for her because it could be easily condensed for storage.

    

Finding creative options can make smaller spaces feel bigger.  We have set the tunnel up in our hallway when the neighbors are not home.  This lets her run a bit without disturbing anyone.  We use the tent part regularly as her own personal book nook at the house.  For the most part when we want to use these, we set them up in our big room.

We also use the big room for ball playing and general play to let her get extra energy out before quiet hours start.  She thinks playing with the light switches are a lot of fun.

Turning Random Stuff into Toys

So, Ben came home one day from work with an apple box that had Mickey on it and Ashlyn went absolutely nuts.  So, she got the box and let me tell you, it goes to prove that toddlers are like cats.  They prefer packaging/boxes more than what was in them.  She has used this box as a slide, a step stool, a bed basically anything she could think of.

 

 

 

 

She loved it so much that when we had to make an emergency fight down to California to say goodbye to my father-in-law, we went and got one to keep with us while we were there to let her play.  Since her first one was getting too abused we stocked up on a couple.  We even gave her crayons while she was in there to let her color to her heart’s content.  This box allows her and her imagination to go wild.  She figured out different ways to turn it into a slide.  She thinks slides are the best right now and has since last summer.  When we go to park’s or play area’s she heads straight for the slide.  The best part about this “toy” is it is FREE 🙂

Having a small space can be frustrating for me as a mom, but it gives munchkin lots of opportunities to use her imagination.  I can definitely say she does not lack a vivid imagination.

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