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!

Me too lol


I converted half of our basement storage room into a table top studio. I do a lot of editing in Photoshop that makes up for less than ideal lighting. I also have a 5D (yay Canon! ) with a fabulous full-frame sensor (HIGHLY recommend going full frame). The experienced pro stock photogs stress that proper lighting is critical (which it is, really) but I've done ok by choosing subject matter that I can edit. For example, minimal blues (the noisiest color) and still life subjects with clean edges so I can isolate.

My two kids have point and shoot cameras and I loaded my Photoshop on all the computers in the house. They'll each get on a computer (DD9 has her own laptop and DS8 uses the family PC) and they edit their own pics in Photoshop. It's hilarious. I go back and forth between them - I feel like I'm teaching a class ;p

It takes longer to make money at stock than it does at assignment (like, portrait shoots), but the beauty is that your schedule is 100% your own, so it's very compatible with parenting

Yes!! My kids both LOVED their magna doodle The only drawback is you can't save their art, but that's easily fixed if you keep a camera handy. I took lots and lots of magna doodle pics, lol

Let's see. I worked between full and half-time when my DD was young. It was challenging since I often had to take her TO work with me. It was easier to have her at home, by far, because my lab work first involved heavy metals, and later involved biohazards and radiation. Yes, I know-- but it really (truly) was okay, and she was well-supervised and far far safer than she'd have been at preschool. (See recent thread re: food allergies in 2e).

She's always been a fairly sedentary child-- so no crawling or climbing into things, necessarily, which helped tremendously. She was also very curious, which meant that being at work with me was a lot like being in a candy store at times.

On the other hand, I also had to take her to meetings with me, and that was often interesting, particularly when she was 2-4yo and not yet reading independently. I would coach her to be SILENT during those times when I truly needed her to be invisible; I then provided her with a LeapPad (not even sure they make them now) and headphones, so that she could "read" books by herself.

I second the big magnadoodle. I had a big bag of 'tricks' that included dollar store toys when I needed something novel in a hurry, a couple of jigsaw puzzles that she could do at my desk, and a set of those magnetic building toys (DD never mouthed things-- ever-- this would't be appropriate for many 2yo, though), and some computer games like Reader Rabbit which she could play at my desktop computer while I was nearby in the lab. This left her absorbed enough that she would generally not bug other people working nearby, but it was always a bit of a tightrope act, and I thought I'd lose my mind sometimes when she was really little.

She loved to draw and read; I could leave her in a pack-n-play with a stack of board books when she was a toddler. I often did, too, so that I could grade or work up lecture notes at my desk.

I hate to sound like I keep giving the Apple I pad free advertising, but it sounds like you need one. The IPad is by far the best "thing", for lack of a better word, that I ever bought my children. I have three children. All of which are probably gifted, at least two of them for sure. My first two did not have an ipad as toddlers, but my youngest one has had it since he was 2. He has learned more than both of his older simblings knew at his age. He may even know some more things than they know now. I know he knows his countries better than anyone in the family. He has been using it since Christmas of 2011. I cannot begin to tell you all the things that he has learned. From his states and capitals; all of the countries in the world; how to spell all of his states; how to spell most of the countries; his planets; how to write; I can go on and on. He was already reading by the time he got his IPad. So I think that he was probably pretty smart to begin with. However, his knowledge of the world has just exploded since he began using it. There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of educational apps. Apps that can teach writing, spelling, reading, math, anything you can think of. My son will be 3 in October and can write words that he spells on his own with upper and lower case letters. Some of these words are 13 letters long, like Massachusetts. The amazing thing is that he learns most of this from his IPad. My wife and I don't teach him much of anything. Not to sound like a bad parent, but any kind of acedemic knowledge that he wants to learn he can learn from the IPad. I too would feel guilty leaving my children in front of the television. The IPad solves this problem. In fact I don't allow my youngest one to watch videos on his iPad. Although, he sometimes tries to go on YouTube and type in his own movie titles. Like Blues Clues or The Fresh Beat Band. However, I never leave his IPad connected to the Internet. Which is another great feature of it. You can download any app you want and always have access to it without being connected to the Internet. I have a great protective case for it. My children have been using it since last December and have not damaged it one bit. It is still like brand new. It is the most versatile, educational tool that our family has ever experienced. I would reccommend it to every single child out there. If you get one, you will see what I mean. I am absolutely sure this will solve your problem.
Good luck.

Mind sharing your favorite apps?

I've been looking for an excuse for days now to tell someone outside of my immediate family that Starfall finally ported the "Learn to Read" section of their website to an ipad app! Previously, they had only ported the Alphabet part. I downloaded it a few days ago, and so far it's great. Slightly better organized than the website, and of course, a tap-able interface.

I so wish they would have had this done for my daughter to use when she was learning to read. It would have saved me a lot of trouble, as she forced me to click everything for her for months. Eventually I grabbed a USB mouse and told her she was going to learn to use it. She immediately started using the touchpad like an expert, having apparently learned perfectly well how to use it without ever having touched it.

Other great apps include matching games, puzzles, Bob Books. CandyCount (color sorting and counting) and a shape matching app from technolio (which also speaks the names of the shapes in English or Chinese, maybe other languages, too). There are a few Montessori inspired apps that are nice as well (some that are not as nice).

I have been so busy and not around much this summer, but what a timely thread. DD1 has just started a half day Montessori program, and I am in grad school. She was previously at an all day daycare.

I need activities she can benefit from while I am on the computer in the afternoons. She loves TV, and I admit to having let her watch more than I usually would, though I limit her choices (she is enjoying Frannie's Feet and Pinkie Dinky Doo right now)...

I do have an iPad but haven't updated apps much since she was a 2 yr old, and many of those are pretty easy for her now. I will be looking for the apps DAD22 mentioned, and any others - please keep them coming. As well as any ideas for other activities. She is very into painting right now and we are going through paint like crazy. She asks to do it nearly every day, which we do. I also take her outside for a while, especially while it's still summery and nice. And I want to take her to a local museum/kids place/etc once a week or so.

Of course, in a few weeks time, when she has settled into the Montessori, maybe she'll be content pouring things. Who knows. But more ideas are great!

My almost 3 year old has over 40 apps that he has been using for about 8 months now. He started Last Christmas. He was 26 months old. Here is a long list of them starting with the ones he started with, up to where he is now. I hope you find this helpful.
1)English Plus flash cards
2) First Words Delux
3) Amazing First Words
4) Shape O
5) Little Reader ( three and four letter words )
6) Toddler Teasers
7) monkey Preschool Lunchbox
8) Little Speller
9) Dr. Seuss books. ( They are great. Interactive. )
10) Educreations ( a drawing board)
11) Animal Puzzle
12) My First Words
13) Word Wagon
14) Spell
15) Kids Puzzles
16) Caterpillar
17) Montessouri Intro to Math
18) Montessouri Crosswords
19) Write Words
20) Coloring
21) Umi Numbers
22) Teach Me 1st and 2nd grade
23) My Name
24) Kids English
25) Montessouri 100 board
26) Write On
27) Cursive
28) Montessouri United States
29) Montessouri US Capitals
30) Learn the World
31) Spell Music
32) Wonders ( about the Universe)
33) Solar Walk ( the Planets )
34) Stack the States
35) Stack the Countries
36) Spell USA States
37) I Spell Countries
38) Bone Scan

There were a few that I missed here and there, but this should keep your children busy. It's all about what your child may be into right now. For example your child may be into Dinosaurs. I'm sure there are plenty of dinosaur apps. Whatever subject you can think of there is probably an app for it. Good luck and enjoy.

By the way I would love to see some ideas from anyone else out there who has some good apps for children. Thanks in advance.

Also Teach Me Kindergarten. I forgot about that one. There's a similar more playful app called (or starring) Bugsy.

Monkey Mathschool sunshine (terrible name... fun, educational app)

Hooray, thanks! love this list. I think I have only 2 of these, so this is great!