One thing I’ve learned from being a mom to Emma is that she constantly wants to be challenged and learning. She’s happiest when we are doing something new and she loves to be outdoors. Toys are great for keeping kids busy, and educational ones are even better, but there’s nothing she loves more than being out in nature getting her hands (and shoes haha) dirty.
Here are our top five activities for keeping a very energetic Emma entertained:
- Taking her outdoors and teaching her about the many wonders of nature. We especially enjoy teaching her about gardening. We recently planted some lavender and she took so much enjoyment in helping out. She loves to feel like she is contributing and she especially loves when we tell her what a great job she is doing.
- Hiking. She loves to ride piggyback on my husband in a carrier. We like to take snacks and pack a lunch and plenty of water with us and making an adventure out of it.
- Hide and seek. If she’s starting to get frustrated or just bored of being in the house and doing the same old thing all day we play hide and seek and her mood immediately changes. She’s getting so good at it, last night I actually panicked for a second when I couldn’t find her! She had found the perfect little hiding spot and all of a sudden I hear “where are you mommy”. Melts my little heart!
- Baking. She loves to be in the kitchen when I bake, but what she really enjoys is taking out all the plastic baking utensils and pretending she is baking as well. Being in the kitchen baking isn’t as easy as it used to be, but I still love it just as much as before I had Emma and I know that as she gets older we can really enjoy cooking and baking together if I continue to include her in the process. One of our go-to recipes that’s super quick and easy to whip up is my White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.
- Chores. It may sound silly and I’m not sure how long this will last, but she actually enjoys helping with chores around the house. Everything is so new to her now and all she wants is to learn as much as she can about this big world around her, so we try to make the simplest things fun. If we can keep something like house chores amusing then maybe she won’t fight us when she’s older. We like to play music and dance and be silly around her so she knows that even when you have to do something dull you can still have fun!
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