Ideas for Older Child's Activities Basket

[Caryl]

Hi again, all!

I remember reading a great suggestion in the Sears' Baby Book. If a newly breastfeeding mother has an older child, it's nice to set up an activities basket next to the "nursing station," so that the older child has some special activities they can do while the baby is nursing. I thought this would make a nice gift, too.

We're looking for ideas for activities and items that would work for toddlers and/or preschoolers. What special things could be in that basket, just for that older child? What activities could Mom help with, one-handed? Please add your ideas to this thread.

Miche and I would like to feature these ideas on the Heart of the Home channel and in the Crafts for Kids cubby this coming month in honor of World Breastfeeding Week. We thank you in advance for your input!

[Caryl]

Does anyone have any ideas for this? I am making a Nursing Mom's gift basket for my friend, and she has two older boys. I was thinking of doing this for them as their "happy baby" gift.

Caryl

[acorn]

I'm basing this on babysitting experience/teaching preschool not on nursing a baby with an older sibling!

Paper dolls
Felt storyboard

[KBeee]

Sippy cup, small bags of treats such as Goldfish, books, books, and more books!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as I sit down to breastfeed, my other 2 always pounce on the couch with a handful of books!!!!!

Other ideas are things such as a Magna Doodle and Color Wonder Markers and paper. My kids also have a little tape recorder in their basket. They love to record themselves and play it back!

[ever-blessed]

ooh, i am watching this thread with interest, as i'll have a nearly 3 year-old when this wee one is born in october.

I constantly had to find new things to amuse my 2-year old while I nursed. She would get very clingy and whiny as soon as the baby needed me!

You have to be careful with them (choking hazard,) but I bought a big bag of beads and a package of pipe cleaners and she would sit near me while I nursed the baby and make bracelets. I'd recycle the beads at night after she went to bed. I kept some lacing cards for nursing time too, and a few small Lego and Playmobil sets that she could only play with when supervised. Puzzles, barrel of monkeys game, colorforms - actually it didn't matter what it was as long as she hadn't seen or played with it in a few days. Sometimes I would set her up at the kitchen table with paints, play-doh, or stamps, or as a last resort I'd flip on the TV.

[Maribeth]

Let's add to this thread for World Breastfeeding Week 2006! Share your ideas with us!

[hedra]

Things my older kids liked:

Books I could read to them 'over the baby', or that they could read to the baby and/or the other siblings. Gabe would cuddle up on one side, Brendan on the other, and Gabe would read a story to all of us. Or I'd read a story to them.
Blocks or cars they could play on at my feet (we got one of those 'roads/town' rugs and put it in front of my usual nursing station, so they could zoom around on the roads while I watched - me being able to watch them, and really WATCH them while I was nursing someone else seemed to be the biggest deal for my kids - so activities that they could do themselves, while I ooh'd and ah'd were ideal).
Magnadoodle, definitely.

That's mainly what my kids tended toward. They wanted to show off for me to applaud (that is, 'you love the baby, but you still watch ME, lookie what I can do that the baby can't do yet!' - anything that instilled pride and a sense of 'mommy cares'), and anything we could cuddle up and do *with* the baby, that said 'we're all in this together'...

I'd also recommend a book for handling sibling issues for the mom, in the basket or along with it. I did read "siblings without rivalry" while nursing Brendan... and it helped!