Let’s talk about some ideas for quiet time activities. My Littlest is still napping during the afternoon, and my now 5 year old doesn’t. So we’ve found many things to do when the little brother is asleep and the rest of us have to be quiet. These are also great options for days when the weather isn’t cooperating, or if Mama isn’t feeling well and we need to keep things low key.
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We all have moments in parenting where we need to find a quiet activity to occupy our child(ren). It can be hard to come up with something on the spot, so it’s nice to have an arsenal of ideas in the back of your mind to pull out when the situation calls for it.
The Baby Footprint sent us a cornucopia of items to review this summer, and three of them were perfectly suited to just such an occasion. If you’ve ever been to their shop’s website, you’ll know that they are an Usborne Books retailer! These are perfect for our quiet time activities list.
Books
In case you’re unfamiliar with the brand, Usborne is the kind of publisher and book brand that you can really expect the utmost quality from. I hesitate to use the term “heirloom quality” for a book, because any book can be passed on for generations if you really care for them well, but Usborne really nails the heirloom concept. They are high quality materials, well curated content that kids love, and a fair price.
We received two Usborne Books from The Baby Footprint, the first of which is a large encyclopedia style book called “The Usborne Big Book of Colours.” It’s full of vibrant, eye-catching illustrations that teach your little ones all about the different colours, how they interact with each other on the colour wheel, and fun facts and titbits about each descriptive hue.
My two year old loves this book, but while he’s napping I find myself sitting and trying to sound out the phonetics for each of the colour names with my 5 year old. He finds the book engaging, and I find it one of the more pleasant quiet time activities.
Wipe-Clean Books
We own several scholastic dry-erase books, but this Usborne wipe-clean book titled Ready for School with ABC & 123 has been a real hit! My 5 year old starts kindergarten in the fall, so along with reading we practice writing in this book during our quiet time activities. We’ve mentioned these types of books before in our article 5 Low-key things to do with your preschooler and toddler.
The pen is just the right size for his small hand to grip and we work on pencil-holding as a fine motor skill. He’s a fair bit below the age-average in his pencil skills, so I’m glad that this Wipe-clean book was included for us to review. Already I can see his ability improving as he works hard to hold it properly and trace along the dotted lines of the many images, letters, numbers and shapes that the book offers. And, my son keeps a square of toilet paper tucked into the book for easy wiping! I guess when you tell a kid they can “wipe the book clean” they immediately think of wiping their butts. 😉
Magneti-books Magnetic pictorama box
I had never heard of Janod, a company that makes these amazing Magneti’book magnet sets, until Natasha at The Baby Footprint showed them to me. And trust me, this one here is the true star of the quiet time show.
My 5 year old loves books, but like any child his attention span is not unlimited. However, this Magneti’book can almost indefinitely keep his focus! I haven’t seen him walk away from it yet. Playing always ends with me interupting him for some other task, like quiet time being over, or “your brother woke up 30 minutes ago, it’s time to head to the grocery store.”
The box is sturdy and so far, durable. It’s a convenient place to store all the magnets (did I mention there are 115 magnets?) and can be put on its side to store on a shelf like a regular book. It includes some cards that demonstrate all the major scenes you can create, and I find it interesting that one of my kids loves to follow the suggestion cards while the other goes completely off-script.
Our version is the Four Seasons set, and there are a good dozen different ones to choose from. The moment we opened this toy I knew we’d be buying more. In fact, I have two others sitting in my shopping cart over at The Baby Footprint waiting for pay day. They have 12 different options in their shop, and offer both English and French sets.
I’m also ordering some reusable snack bags to store the magnets in while inside the box, to prevent any accidental spillage when storing on its side. This is entirely optional, and more to serve my voracious appetite for cloth bags than to solve any potential storage issues. Don’t judge me, my kids are out of cloth diapers and Mama needs some new fluff mail, so bags it is!
Where to buy these, and more
The Baby Footprint has an extensive collection of Usborne books, wipe-clean activity books, magneti’books and more toys and games (suitable for quiet time) over on their website. I also highly recommend the Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks which is not shown in this article, but is a huge hit with us at quiet time. Tegu also has a travel size set that’s perfect for entertaining toddlers in restaurants.
Visit www.thebabyfootprint.com and be sure to follow them on social media for updates
Facebook: facebook.com/babyfootprint
Instagram: @babyfootprint
What are your favourite quiet time activities?
As I always say, we’re a village here and my readers all enjoy hearing from other people about their ideas, tricks, tips, and even concerns- so please fill out the comment section on all my blog posts and share your thoughts and opinions!
Do you have a favourite quiet time activity you would recommend to other caregivers? Share below! And be sure to share this resource with your friends and family so we can all have a peaceful quiet time.
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