Toddlers have basically never had it better. They’re constantly being entertained, healing given cool toys to play with, cost getting taken to brilliant places. I reckon I could live a pretty happy life as a toddler (Mum? Is that OK?).
As I posted about a while ago, for sale SMA® Nutrition recently commissioned work of 1,000 mums to discover how toddlers today live their lives. Some findings particularly interesting to me included the fact over a quarter of mothers eat out with their toddlers once a week, with 78% believing toddlers are given a more varied diet nowadays than 20 years ago.
Food is such a big part of our family life and I love introducing Hux to new things; it’s very important to me that my family eats a balanced and varied diet which is why I love working with SMA® Nutrition, a company that has over 90 years of experience in advancing baby nutrition. Their toddler milk is formulated for children just like Hux who are over 1 year, as part of their healthy balanced diet. The milk includes essential Vitamin D and Calcium to support growth and development of bones and Iron to contribute to normal cognitive development.
SMA Nutrition asked me to track a week in Hux’s life to see how we compare.
Our weeks are usually quite frantic between work, nursery, school and pre-school. Hux goes to nursery for three school days a week and then pre-school two mornings a week. Wednesday is a nursery day because they have music classes, and as I mentioned, Hux loves a good tambourine!
Because I work our time together is all the more precious, and on the week I tracked our activities we were slightly hampered by the arrival of chicken pox, but we still managed to have a wonderful time together.
Firstly, we went to the cinema – Mr H’s premier trip to see a film on a big screen. I was worried about his attention span, as like me it is slightly lacking, but he sat quietly through the whole thing like an absolute champ. Score one for Hux! We saw the Peppa Pig movie and all really enjoyed it. Myself included…
Our next trip out was to a restaurant. I love taking my kids out for dinner and see it as an important way to show them how we should behave in public. We’ve been dining out together since they were newborns and the whole dressing up – ordering – eating politely – having pudding is something we all enjoy; it’s a treat for me and a treat for them. This time we visited Café Rouge and though I couldn’t get him to try the snails he officially fell in love with Garlic Bread.
Next up, a drizzly day and feeling high from our cinema trip I decided to order an iTunes film for home. We’ve never managed to finish a whole movie without one or all of my children being bored so this would be a challenge – we’ve literally seen the first 45 minutes of Frozen about 600 times. But we bought Paddington and got almost to the end of it – amazing! We’ve watched it again since and it really is a lovely film for pre-school and school-aged children.
You know that I wasn’t going to reach the end of ‘Hux’s week of fun’ without cooking him up something special. This week we tried two new dishes, ham and eggs with avocado and tomato and chicken noodles with green beans. Hux chomped through both of them like an absolute champion.
Another drizzly day, another indoors activity: finger painting! I’m probably being miserable saying this but, good grief, why is it that the messiest activities for kids are also the most fun? Hux (and Elfie) had a ball creating their masterpieces. I had palpitations ;)
Our week came to a swift close thanks to the torture that is Chicken Pox. I spent a long time grumbling about it but hey, we needed to get it out of the way at some point and now was as good a time as any. Poor Hux really suffered with his itching but it meant we could enjoy lots of quiet time together – we discovered Fireman Sam (a new favourite), read books, made cakes and had cuddles. I secretly very much enjoyed those extra cuddles, thanks pox!
What are your favourite activities to do with your toddlers?
To celebrate our toddlers SMA® Nutrition have given me a wonderful prize to pass on to one lucky MTT reader – a family pass to Legoland Windsor! For a chance to win, all you have to do is comment on this post telling me your favourite activity to do with your family and fill out the rafflecopter widget below.
Terms and Conditions: Competition closes at 12.00am (midnight) GMT on Tuesday 18th August. Entries received after this time and date will not count. UK residents only. Entrants must be 18 +. Winner will be selected at random after the closing date and will be notified within 3 days of competition end. Only entrants received via the Rafflecopter widget will be considered valid. SMA/Red are responsible for delivery of the prize, which is two adult and two child tickets to LEGOLAND Windsor.
Thank you to SMA for supporting MTT!
just mucking about! not structured activity. just romping around the house
Play doh! I secretly love playing with it too and get to be super mum when I can make all the requested animals for them. The oldest enjoys playing with the tools (rollers and cutters etc) and the littlest loves feeling the textures and mixing the colours up. Its a “messy” play that’s not too messy (we have lino floors and the door to the living room with the sofas stay shut) a win for everyone! x
We enjoy taking L on a walk then having lunch somewhere be it a picnic or a meal out. L loves her food!
days I have at home with my 3 year old and 10 month old our favourite thing to do is always build a fort. Get all the sheets and move the sofa closer to the dining table and get all the cushions and we sit in there eating and reading. Eleanor will usually take a nap in there too! This summer we have been making them outside with the garden furniture and having picnics in the shade. It’s been a good summer :)
Baking is always a fun thing to do.
We love going for a walk in the deep, dark woods, looking for gruffalos.
Deffo woodland walking, fresh air and nature is underrated!
I love going on family days out to the seaside and spending time together
We love a trip to the zoo! And having cuddles on the sofa, watching Octonauts….
We love craft in this house. There is something really cathartic about colouring together. Glitter usually follows. I don’t think I have yet managed to go to work without scraping glitter off my face, arms or legs -even when we’ve not used it. My daughter breathes glitter!
Days out and picnics. We get to spend time together, catch up on news and lark about.
Ooo what a lovely post!
We love a good movie snuggle session or rooting about for treasure in the garden, much to my dear husband’s chargrin!
Going to the beach or nice long walks in the country.
We love going to the beach. My little one will play in the sand for hours at a time. He even asks to go for a paddle in winter. I pop his wellies on so that he can enjoy himself
We love anything which involves outdoor fun from making sandcastles at our local park, feeding ducks or to go on a bug hunt in the country. Its a great way to spend time together, be active and learn about the world they live in too. Everyone’s happy!
Play catch outside
Playing in the pool
Travelling. We all love it, including Baby Roo who has flown 8 times already and who is not even 8 months old! Xx
My granddaughter loves painting and drawing
I love crafting and scrapbooking with my children and also making mini treasure hunts using cut out pictures for them to find items x
I love taking the kiddies to the library then coming home and snuggling on the sofa looking at them.
We love arts and crafts, junk modelling, drawing and at the moment we have been decorating stones and shells.
Going to Windsor
To the beach or park/playground x
We love going to the kids pool at the gym and playing in the garden with our chickens.
We have to do geocaching all together. My youngest like the treasure hunting and for my eldest it’s a competition to decode the riddles and clues to locate them and teaches both him and I how to read coordinates on a compass
I love taking them swimming at the local pool.
BBQs & games in the garden!
We enjoy swimming as a family
We love visiting different parks, farms and theme parks. My son misses Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster ever since we went to Disneyland Paris and keeps asking to go :-)
We love chilling out in the garden, playing on the slide and swing :)
Definitely the seaside. Whatever the season, you can always skim a stone, dig a hole and play chicken with the waves. There’s also neatly always an opportunity for a treat nearby!
Definitely a beach day…picnic, kite flying, sandcastle making. Topped off with an ice cream!
Digging for treasure in the garden with chocolate coins and tea stained map!
Both my boys absolutely love music so we sing lots of songs with actions, stick the music on and dance like crazy for a front room family disco or get out the guitar, drums, bells and recorder and make up our own music. It’s always so much fun & has them giggling away.
We love baking as a family at the weekend, creating yummy and healthy snack as well as treats !!
Crab hunting in rockpools
We love a trip to the seaside. Somehow the weather is always that bit nicer there and a day in the fresh sea air is a recipe for a great nights sleep, everyone’s a winner!
Cooking
A lovely family day out at the beach, building sandcastles, playing games, in & out of the water & of course a picnic x
We love going on made up treasure hunt to the beach or local parks so lucky to live with so many beautiful places near us
Bike rides
I love to paint and draw and bake with my Granddaughter. x
Going out saw are both outdoor people.
Going out as we are both outdoor people.
We love going to the country park, doing crafts or just simply cuddling up and watching Disney films :)
We love going for a bike ride
We love family walks in the countryside and picnics!
We love going to the zoo, but any quality time doing anything as long as I’m with my family.
There are so many things we love doing…
Going on nature walks, playing hockey outside, sticking/glueing and crafting, general messing about…
I love everything where I get to spend time with my children and help their curiosity grow :D
Just hanging out and being with them when I’m not working
Cooking,walks,park,DVD
List is endless
We love going geocaching as a family, great fun, an adventure & plenty of fresh air!
Spending time with them
When im not working I love having my niece over and we try and have a crafty time and depending on the weather some park time – im taking her to see the Lion king in a couple of weeks and although it won’t be something we can do on a weekly basis im hoping shes going to love it.
Trips to the seaside for swims and picnics
We really enjoy swimming as a family
We both work full time so weekends are sacred to us, we try to do as much as we can with the children, it mainly consists of the park though as they just have so much fun there, it’s free and it’s enjoyable for everyone (I have an 11 year old and a 2 year old!)
Go for walks with the dogs, watch them swim and play then have a picnic xx
Simple things as long as we are together. We go to the beach all year round and always get an ice cream, even in the winter
Our absolute fave is a long autumnal walk in the woods wearing our wellies so we can squelch in marvellous mud and splash in puddles, then home for hot chocolate and cream in front of a Disney movie :)
I love picnics with all the family
My daughter loves the outdoors, she loves being able to get out into the garden and play on her slide and in her little car. There is a woods near us that has Peter Rabbit’s house and other characters homes and we love going there for the extra freedom to run and explore!
We love baking cakes and making pancakes together :)
I love to hit the beach with my family. We’ve just got home from a lovely stay in Devon and we couldn’t get my eldest Daughter out of the sea :-) x
Visits to Great Yarmouth as there’s plenty to do and close by too