How to get 5 minutes of peace

If you’re struggling to make and finish a cup of tea at the moment, hopefully these super simple ideas will give you a chance to breathe and more importantly, boil that kettle!

Object outline puzzle

We’ve seen this great hack a lot lately. Using a felt-tip pen on a big piece of paper, draw around household items such as a wooden spoon, spatula, hairbrush, plastic hanger, TV remote etc. (or plastic role play toys) and then ask your child to find and place the item in its correct space. Amazingly this can have them hooked for quite a while! Check out Happy Hooligans.

Sticker match-up

This is a great idea from Five-minute Mum. Find some spare sticker sheets that your child hasn’t got their hands on yet – the bigger the better. Cut each sticker in half and then stick them to a piece of paper. Mix all the remaining halves together and ask your child to complete each sticker scene on the paper.

Card games

Our Lots to Spot Flashcards are really versatile and can be played with in lots of different ways, including play 'spot the odd one out', find pairs of cards with matching colours, play snap using the numbers or colours on each card. If you dare to dream about having a longer break than 5 minutes, ask your child to pair all the cards so that they add up to ten.

Lots to Spot Flashcards – Miles Kelly

Sorting activities

There are so many different ways to do this but you could use soft toys, coloured balls, pom poms, letters, numbers, shapes etc. (all of the above is best!). Simply fill up a big bowl with as many of these objects as possible and give your child some kitchen tongs. Ask your child to pull out all of the red objects, then all of the soft objects and so on. Take a look at BusyToddler

Ice excavation

This does require a little prep in advance so make sure you make a big batch. Place small individual plastic dinosaur or animal figures in to individual balloons. Fill them with water, tie, and pop in the freezer to set. Cut out and place them in a big washing up bowl (maybe lay a sheet or waterproof down too!). Give your child a washing brush, spoon, plastic hammer etc. and get them to dig for dinosaurs! This will keep them occupied for ages.

 


3+ years
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Lots to Spot My Busy World Flashcards Set
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