Home Activities to Avoid TV Watching

This is a great age to introduce art and science activities.
Art:
Finger painting (messy - save for a weekend when you have clean up time)
Make instant vanilla pudding. Divide into 4 bowls. Mix in different food colors. GIve him some paper & let him go wild! Be sure to put him in old play clothes, as this can stain. But you don't have to worry about him eating the paint!!

Macaroni Master pieces
You need Elmer's glue, different shaped macaroni noodles, paper, and paint. Help him glue the macaroni on the paper. Have a snack while it dries. Then let him paint his master piece.

Science
Heavy & light
Take a container of water outside and help him gather stones, sticks, leaves, whatever. Then let him put them in the water to see which are heavy and which are light. My son loved this at that age.

Sweet & salty
Make up several types of little snacks, some sweet and some salty. Blindfol him and tell him he has to tell you which are sweet and which are salty to get the next treat. Sounds silly, but again, my son thought this was hillarious at that age.

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Just like it has become a habit for my husband and I to turn on the TV at night, it is a habit that kids get into easily too. My friend has 3 kids ages 4, 3, and 1. They loved TV, but eventually just went cold turkey with the TV (for her and her husband as well) and she really stopped trying to get any work done around the house and just played with them until they broke the habit. Now the TV is a special treat for when babysitters (such as myself) watch them. However, when the TV comes on, they watch for a few seconds and then start looking for something to do such as read, play, etc. Gymboree, parks, cooking together, cleaning together, can all be good things to distract him.

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good luck. my little girl is obsessed with barney and elmo. she'd watch then all day long if i'd let her. i jsut let her watch her dvd's one time each and then tell her it's time to play and elmo and barney are going to go take a nap. she throws a fit for a while, but then she's fine when she realizes i'm not giving in. now that it's warmer, you can take him outside to play, and i'm sure he's got loads of toys, or there's coloring books, finger paints, blocks, etc. and some tv isn't bad...at least it gets you a few minutes to do stuff yourself...like take a shower...haha.

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Play-doh, lacing cards, flashcards, stringing big wooden beads or large pasta on a string, singing songs, going to the library...

My 3 year old loves to play with buttons (with me sitting at the same table.) He isn't the type to put objects in his mouth - so this is a great idea for him. He looooves to pour them into little containers, sort them into small and large, different colors, ect. You can find a container of buttons in the craft aisle of most super-type stores. I don't know if anyone mentioned hot wheels, train tracks (Thomas), foam letters and shapes (they work like stickers - stick them on paper / not messy!)Jumbo Styrofoam peanuts are a wonderful trick, too. Take a large plastic container - the size of 2 or 3 shoe boxes, fill it with large styrofoam peanuts and let your child scoop them out into a muffin container and other kitchen containers. This kept my 3 pre-school aged kids busy for an hour at a time. They will come up with all different ways to play and it's easy to clean up. It is important to have some activities they can do by themselves! These work well for us. Good Luck! :)

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He sounds exactly like my son when he was 2. He's now 4 and still loves tv. I don't have a set amount of tv or a set time to watch, but I do try to limit. If he wants to watch tv when we get home, I'll tell him, ok, but lets play outside/with legos/read/etc for 20 minutes first. Usually, he will be having to much fun playing to remember the tv. If he wants to watch morning cartoons, he has to get dressed while he's watching. On weekends, we limit his time to 3 hours a day.

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If he likes Bob the Builder, give him some age-appropriate, safe, "building" supplies and see what he comes up with. Go on a nature walk and collect some things; come back and put them in a child-friendly book of sorts. Read books to, and with, him. Play with balls and tricycles. Just some ideas...I'm not sure what all you've tried...:)

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my kids love to color. i set them up on the kitchen floor, so that the mess can be moped away. they also love dressing up. even little boys have fun dressing as pirates, cops and fire men. this usually leads to long elaborate play involving a lot of imagination and creativity. i found that my five year old was always wanting the tv on for background noise, so i moved a clock radio into the living room, and play our favorite radio station all day.

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