Please help me brainstorm ways to occupy my 21-month-old and give him enough intellectually stimulation that he is happy/satisfied/not throwing temper tantrums. I'm not finding much on google searches for under preschool age.
My son likes to identify flashcards pictures of animals, but he has learned all he has and the novelty has worn off. Forget "frog" and "toad", try "American Toad" versus "Natterjack Toad". He loved learning these!
I started teaching him violin this week. This is going to be a rough ride for me. He doesn't tolerate nearly as much repetition as is expected for Suzuki style teaching but he's not ready to progress. This is my mental puzzle, but as far as occupying him, it's 2 or 3 minutes at a time, as many times a day as he asks for it.
I started showing him piano keyboard. He points to music with a quizzical expression. He's so young, I'm at a loss! I'm familiar with Suzuki piano (my mother was a Suzuki teacher), but this is brand new territory. My mother would not have helpful advice. I asked her about violin and she told me to get a cardboard violin and set it on his shoulder. My son learned how to put the violin on his shoulder by himself and put it in rest position from watching a DVD.
He helps me a little bit with chores - washing the patio door glass, loading the dishwasher, sorting socks, and he folds washcloths (ehh, good enough, LOL).
We go outside for a walk when it's not terribly cold. We're in WI so winter is a very cooped-up time of year. I do yoga and bodyweight exercises at home - he tries to copy me sometimes. He can play outside and tag along with gardening etc in summer.
He has little interest in toddler toys. He doesn't like kids his age. He hated daycare. I did observe from daycare that he seems to like imaginative play along the lines of "playing house". He liked a baby doll toy, although the novelty has worn off. He likes a lacing toy. He likes to throw a ball for the dog to retrieve. He likes to scribble (supervised because he's a kid who will color on the walls!)
If I can squeeze everything above into the morning, we have a lovely morning without tantrums and he's happy to take his nap(s), but by afternoon it's not novel and he doesn't want to participate. If I don't give him enough to do with his brain, he screams for books, throws things (hard), hits or kicks the dogs, throws himself on the floor screaming, puts himself into a time out (thanks daycare :sarcasm: ), he doesn't eat well, begs for junk food, and fights sleep. It's exhausting.
Can you help me with a few more activities ideas I can mix in to avoid the boredom tantrums?
