Creative tips to keep your toddler busy while you’re working from home

With more and more parents choosing to work from home, many households are opting to forego the luxury of having a nanny. Yet when one or both parents are glued to their computer screens, it leaves them little time to tend to toddlers rushing about the house. This could be a potentially perilous situation as kids often tend to do mischief that could unintentionally harm them or their siblings.

As an uninspired solution, if the television screen or your tablet has been the unofficial babysitter for your little one; then it is probably time to make a change. We suggest a few activities that can creatively hold your child’s attention and keep them occupied so that you can get on with your work without being constantly pestered for attention.

Whether your child would become an inventor, a literary genius or a storyteller in future, developing their imagination is always a good idea. So, you can create make-believe situations where you allow your child to think to have an immersive imaginary experience. They could pretend they have a busy restaurant and go about serving customers (their toys) in toy dishes. They could re-enact a scene from their favorite Disney movie or even pretend to be a doctor in a hospital treating his or her patients (read dolls).

Help your child’s early development by setting them jigsaw puzzles. You may choose large puzzles that keep them occupied for hours and improve their logical reasoning as they plan to complete the picture. If you have a child younger than 3 years of age, choosing a simple puzzle is advised so it keeps him or her engaged.

Yet another neat way to keep your kid busy is to give them modelling clay to play with. They can use this to make all kinds of animals and birds that they’ve just learnt about. In case your toddler is at the age where he puts just about anything in his mouth, then you must opt for child-friendly and non-toxic clay.

Another nifty hack is to use food colouring of your choice and colour atta made of wheat or all-purpose flour. It would make the ‘clay’ safe for use just in case your little one ends up eating some of it.

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