Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Activities for My Toddler

I have a 19 month old that I know is advanced, and I believe could be gifted. I was a gifted child and I believe my husband probably was as well, although I don't know that he was ever identified as such. My daughter loves the alphabet, books, shapes, puzzles, coloring, etc.. but she doesn't necessarily have the longest attention span. She requires a lot of stimulation and variety to be happy (at least she gets it honest!). I have tried making various 'sensory' activities I've found online but she doesn't seem to interested in any of them yet. I try and interact with her a lot during the day but I also have my own business and I absolutely have to have some hands free time to work. I like to keep her in here (my office) with me but I'm just curious as to any suggestions for things that will keep her occupied for a nice half hour while I try to get something done. I end up having her watch educational TV and I feel horrible about it! I want to nix the TV as much as possible. It's hard to keep up with her and my business at the same time.

If you look in Walmart there's a section with plastic drawers. If you get the smallest one there's four drawers which nicely hold a set of wooden blocks, a set of army guys, etc, so you can pull out one drawer. I'm considering getting a nostalgic little people's playset - house, barn, & school.

I worked from home for awhile when my two were little.

I had my office at the end of the hall. I put one baby gate at the other end of the hall, one at my office door so he couldn't come in, outlet covers in the plug ins, door knob covers on the other closed doors: it was like a giant play pen in which I put out toys for my son. I am a safety FREAK so I cannot adequately express how careful I was (examining the carpet for anything he could put in his mouth, checking the toys for loose parts, etc).

DD meanwhile sat happily (and quietly) in a high chair in my office drawing and colouring. She was about 3 and didn't need the chair, but I didn't have a desk for her and the tray worked really well. DS in the hall, meanwhile, was about 1 1/2.

It worked for awhile until DS outgrew his "playpen." Then I had to quit... only because it was a telephone job and he got really noisy in the end when he was perpetually bored. If it was anything else I think I could have continued.

Do you have a large area like this that you could safely gate off for your daughter? My son loved the relative freedom, and was able to enjoy the volume of toys without being overwhelmed. Sometimes when he started getting bored I would switch out some of the toys.

I worked from home PT with my older ds...hard! I also felt guilty with the pbskids TV watching - but I do really think he learned a lot...a LOT from it. My dd2 is more content to play alone than DS. She still loves to take objects from one container, sort them or count them, put them in another container...rinse and repeat. Right now she's doing that with her hair barretts, but she'll do it with match game cards, flash cards, colored macaroni (she doesn't put things in her mouth...YMMV). She also loves playing games on my Kindle (puzzles, match games, early reading and counting). She "tries" to play Angry Birds like ds, but isn't quite there yet. Honestly, I try to make the mort of naptime. With my ds, I did a lot of late-late night work.

Ohhh... lucky you. Mine was a telephone sales job, so I had to work office hours. I eventually had to quit because it didn't pay enough for me to hire a babysitter.

Phone calls + kids = disaster

I did two jobs: one answering intakes for a counseling agency (of course my ds would always be TERRIBLE when I was on the phone). And the other was as a portrait photographer (I did shoots on the weekends and editted at night) - but I also concluded that my time was worth more than either of these jobs could pay. I'm extremely fortunate that my "real" job as a psychotherapist allows me to completely create and modify my own schedule.

I do some random free-lance writing, and that is the perfect "after hours" gig.

LOL yup! (sigh)


So funny... me too. I shoot stock rather than assignment (although I've been out of it for a bit and not adding to my portfolios) and now I do a little freelance web content writing (nothing fancy - just piecework)

I think I have a touch of DS's ADHD though because I have a hard time disciplining myself to get much done. Now that my kids are 8 and 9 I can no longer blame them ;p

A kindred spirit! I no longer do for-hire shoots because the market is saturated and people think they should pay JCpenny Studio prices for an on-site, artistic and candid shoot. Ah well, I take great pics of my kids.

Do you have a small studio set-up? I probably have camera envy (even without knowing yours) because my Canon DSLR is on its last leg.

Others have mentioned many things we do but I'd like to add 2 items to the list. 1 books with a lot of details to explore (where's Waldo #1 was a favorite for a while). 2 - Lego Duplo on a big baseplate. My DS has a great love for his Duplo that has only grown with time. Oddly enough megablocks are not the same and he just isn't fond of them.

Oh... if you don't have one, I also recommend a big magnadoodle. It is great for a budding artist without as much immediate supervision.

Yes to both!