Occupied Toddler.......Naah

Is it possible to keep toddler sit at one place continously for more than 20-25 minutes.... Sounds really impossible..atleast in my case where my daugther is a butterfly who keeps fluttering here and there and is a complete chatterbox, keeps on talking talking and more talking.. time comes when we really have to ask her keep mum for atleast five minutes, which she clearly refuses to do so..It becomes more difficult to handle the situation on weekends or on holiday as there is no school....The day acircular comes from school or a note in diary that there won't be school tomorrow and my first expression would be WHAAAT NO SCHOOOOOL TOMORROW , OH NOOOO

:D *Giggles* but this actually happens and first thing that come to my mind would be what will we do all the day :(
All stories have been told, all activities have been performed, no more play dough, no more painting ... then what's left.
Here am jotting few of the activities which we dou perform to keep ourself busy and would like more suggestions coming up in form of your valuable comments which can help us both to learn and enjoy more..

Before writing the activities am listing few of the pre-requisities or some pre-arrangements to be done :

•  Look for a place where you can perform these activities, it can be any corner of your house, or kids playroom, or it can be your dining table or any other table you can use for the activities.
• Play mats or some other old mats to be spread around in that corner or table as lot of spilling and mess is expected, better to have some rubber sheets.
• Lots of newspapers in order to cleanup in end and save the mess.
• White sheets could be handy too for painting activities.

Rest would write more when I am reminded off...

Now coming to the activities:
Painting all time favourite: I belive colors is favourite of each and every kid... though they would not end up being picasso but they would love to indulge in this activity and can be messy .. Mind you kids love being messy so let them what they are :)
Painting can be taken up in following ways:

1. Gather non-toxic colors, you can easily find that in stores these days or even can think of making your own herbal colors. Here is a nice article on creating home made colors, made from kitchen ingredients, you can definitly give them try :) Home Made water colors
2. Play mat/ Plastic Sheet/ Rubber Sheet/Newspapers.
3. White Papers to be used for kids for their master piece or pieces :P.
4. Paint brushes.
5. Sponges, Bubblesheet, leaves, bird feathers... In case your little one is tired of using paint brush again and again .. this will be a welcome change for kid.. believe me they can paint with anything including their toe :)

So what are you waiting for, make the little one sit at the pre-designated place and handover all the material, roll action camera .... Little one will be busy for minimum 20 mins, I bet :D

Don't forget to capture the moments in your camera , you will love watching again and again and even sharing with your near ones :) do share with me too...
This reminds me of my own previous post where N had experience with paints and then my hall and sofa was painted and even the walls... So do keep a watch on that too or you will end up looking for some ingredients to remove stains :)
Incase you want to read that instance too here is the link: Painting Experience

Keeping toddler busy.... next to impossible

Today Navyaa had school off due to Varalakshmi pooja. So I thought let me try keeping her busy like she is in school for another four hours(her school timings) so that she doesn't miss school much and do something interesting too. Let me tell you she loves her school now. Though her initial 2 hours of school were managed by her papa as I was busy preparing breakfast and lunch and then sachin declared he is leaving for office in another ten minutes. Now Navyaa is sole responsibilty of mine and so is the job to keep her occupied. It is really difficult to make a toddler busy that too if the toddler is like who wants new activities every 10 mins.

After a quick thinking I thought of using idea from Kids and Parents forum and decided her to give some bowls, vessels, cups, glasses and some solid uncooked stuff for pouring. I took following things:

1. A big steel bowl
2. Two plastic containers
3. Her pouring cup and shovel from her sand set
4. Small Funnel
5. Half cup kidney beans and Half cup chick peas
6. Steel spoon

I made her sit on carpet and gave all the stuff and let her on her own. I gave her all this around 12 p.m. She actually enjoyed  pouring it from one container to another using bowl, cup, shovel, spoon , funnel all which was in her reach. I was happy that am able to concentrate on my work in kitchen. In betweeen I was keeping an eye on her as she sometimes was popping the kidney beans or chick peas in her mouth. So this was one task not to let her put this stuff in her mouth. Another task was to keep her occupied at the same place and not letting her roam all over house(which was tough) Lo ji in just 20 minutes she was done with all this and  now again bored up and giving me silly looks. So I asked her to put all the chickpeas and kidney beans in one container and give it back to me. Surprisingly she did it. But Now what next. I replaced those with moong pulses. She was happy again with smaller pulses now in big container. Same activities started for another 20 minutes. Anyhow I was happy that I stole few more minutes to finish up the pending chores.
I came out of kitchen and lo what I see. To my surprise(which actually was obvious) I found pulses all over dining room and living room's floor scattered, and she was enjoying scattering them further. Felt like screaming on her... but who invited this me only..so tried my best not to let my BP raise. I asked her to keep the pulses back in the bowl and this time she refused and get back to her drawing book and crayons and I was left there with pulses scattered all over and yes I forgot to mention half of the pulses soaked in water too as she got hold of her water bottle and soaked few of them in bowl.

May be blessing in disguise as I quickly decided on my dinner... so collected whole lot of pusles, washed them thorughly to soak them in water , which eventually will turn out as moong salad in evening.

So I was able to keep her busy for almost one hour and she kept me busy in extra cleaning for 35 minutes.
So score card is again Me Zero and Navyaa One... She happily had her lunch and went to sleep and am here writing the post.

Yes I captured few of the moments too which I will share later maybe tonight

Added Later:
Here are the pics I was able to capature while she was busy pouring stuff :)