Google: "entertain toddler"

What a wonderful resource the internet is! (Aik, takkan baru tahu kot?) In anticipation of next week, when I’ll be working from home, I surfed the web to find some ideas on how to entertain my toddler while getting some work done. (Has my baby really grown to a toddler? How fleeting time is!) I found some interesting games to try. (Jangan pulak rajin surf je, tapi buatnya kurang rajin!)

The Magical Childhood is a simple, interesting, and unaffected site maintained by Alicia Bayer. Amongst the many things that she suggests, I think I’ll try these two first:

Make an obstacle course. Toddlers love it when they get to tear up the room and climb on the furniture! Use couch cushions, blankets, bean bags, etc to make the living room into a giant play land. This is guaranteed to buy you enough time to do at least one chore and at least one thing to make yourself feel pampered. It's remarkably easy to clean up afterwards and is good exercise for the kiddos too!

Crumple up a bunch of paper. Yep, that's it! Use some scrap paper, newspapers or ads and just crumple each page into a ball. When you have a laundry basket full (at least!), wage a snowball fight inside, have your little one try to make baskets or even let her sit in them and pour them over her head. She can throw them up in the air, try to juggle, practice throwing and catching, stomp them and more. When you're all done, have her help you bag them all up and put them in the recycling. You can even count them as you collect them and make it educational.

I’ll probably also try this from Family Fun:

Swept Away. Maybe it's the satisfaction of seeing a big pile of dirt, or maybe it's simply a natural desire to help--whatever the reason, most toddlers are crazy about sweeping, so give yours a diminutive broom or push mop and a dustpan. He'll have a great time using it, and your floor might even get clean in the process.

And this from Child Fun:

Rice play. Fill a dishpan with about 4 inches of clean, dry rice. Put a few plastic cups, bowls, spoons, and small toys in the rice. Talk to your toddler about how the rice feels. Suggest your child bury the toys in the rice. (Tapi nanti dia makan pulak beras tu – hmm maybe I’ll swap the rice with cereals)

But why do I have this sneaky suspicion that the little darling would rather help his Ummi with her reports at the desktop? Hmm.