Monday, July 3, 2017
Productively Occupying 3 Year Old Boys
- Boys vs. girls
- Keeping him safe without following him around.
- Scheduling our 3-year-old's time on a typical day.
- Toy/activity ideas to occupy his time.
- Three resources for activity ideas.
I've been asked this question many times, "Could you please give me ideas for ways to productively occupy my precious, but rambunctious 3-year-old little son??" And since most all of us moms have striven to learn to do this well, I'd like to give you a thorough, detailed answer from what I've learned. *smile* Not that I've "arrived" by any means, but these are ideas that have worked well for us. In my post, "Productively Occupying Young Children", I shared with you how we occupy young children in general. However a 3-year-old boy can be a different situation. *laugh!*
Now may I just say first that our sons are wonderful, happy, energetic little guys and we love them absolutely to pieces. And the 3-year-old little man that I'll be highlighting today is absolutely a joy! But they and he have been a lot of work, too, and different work from the girls. From my experience, most boys are an entirely different ball game. *wink*
Boys vs. Girls
These little men are precious, and they have qualities that they will need in order to become great husbands and fathers themselves: creativity, persistence, strength, determination, strength, courage...did I say strength? *laugh* However these qualities can be so difficult to manage when they're young and needing to also learn self-control. A mommy's heart desires for her little son to be productively occupied, learning, and safe - and if you have a son, you know that boredom does not lead to great things!
I don't know about your sons, but our sons are not only creative...but fast. I can be standing just 3-feet away, and suddenly a little son can be standing on the dining room table emptying the salt shaker all over it, or standing in the bathroom sink while it's filling up with water, or balancing precariously on top of the 6-foot privacy fence in our back yard! Before I can blink they can unload the craft/game/office supplies closet, or have a tea party with plastic dishes in the bathroom toilet.

We also have a little spring-loaded hook lock on the computer cupboard in our desk in the family room. I've recently decided to move the desk/office supplies at the desk from the bottom drawers (where all 4 youngest children get in to constantly, despite training efforts so far) up to baskets on the desk shelves, which has totally alleviated a major headache for now. It doesn't each them self-control, of course, but with the 4 of them together training seems to be taking a lot longer than when we were training one child. So, we're training in as many things as we can simultaneously and we'll add back in the other things later as behavior has improved.


I've also had to lock the laundry room door down stairs because the 3-year-old and 4 of his close-in-age siblings would not stay out of the chemicals and laundry soap and were constantly blaming each other for the huge messes so that we couldn't determine who had done what. So for now, that door is locked. Again, it's not requiring self-control of them, but we're working on that in other areas of life and for now I simply can't take on everything at once with so many "offenders" *wink*. To lock the laundry room door, my husband simply switched the door knobs between our locking master bathroom knob and the laundry room one. I carry the key to the laundry room with me on a string around my neck. Inconvenient? Yes, a bit. Safe for now? Yes, and so worth it.
One more thing had to implement was locking the bathroom door door knob upstairs when I was making dinner and all of the young ones were having free time, supervised by the older children. Somehow the youngest 4 children were often getting in there and playing in the toilet when older siblings were not paying attention. We had an exterior door knob lock on the knob itself, but the 3-year-old could technically get past those when he really wanted to and he would then let in the other 3 young children and they would ALL play! So the door knob gets locked on that door from 4:30-6:00 pm; if the older children need to use that bathroom they have to get the key from me (same key as the laundry room door knob). Inconvenient? Yep. But safe. We did eventually improve everyone's level of self-control, but as we were working on it, or until they were older, we had to keep them safe, and keep mom sane. So we did what we had to do. *smile*
Little son's time was scheduled for him during the week just like everyone else's is. I desired not only to keep him productively occupied, but also to make sure that he had his needs met. When learning how to schedule our family (book, Managers of Their Homes, by Steve & Teri Maxwell), it blessed my heart to be taught how to consider each person's needs in a given week. I wrote them down, and made sure that those things were included in his week when putting a schedule together.
Toy/activity ideas to occupy his time.
- Matchbox cars, a garage, and a large carpet car mat with roads printed on it, which was easily rolled up or folded up and put away without taking up much space.
- Duplo Lego blocks, and two 16-inch "Lego plates" to build larger creations on.
- Ride-along toys, with a compartment in the seat to carry his stuff in.
- Drawing with water - Aquadoodle Travel & Doodle (fits on his booster seat tray, found also at Wal-Mart). There's also a large mat-size set for the table, but our little son didn't need that much space yet (our 5, 6, and 9-year-olds use the mat one).
- Constructables - motorized building sets for kids.
- Crayola Magic Pens - pens that only write on Crayola's special paper, so he cannot write on his skin, on furniture, or anywhere else other than on that paper (but he still does this activity at the table). These can be found at Wal-Mart, Fredmeyer, Michael's Craft Supply, or other local places.
- Rescue Heroes - 8-inch tall tough guys, with trucks and tools to go with them, some with mechanical, moving parts. I don't think they still make them new, but you can find lots of used sets on Ebay.
- Plastic dinosaurs
- Nerf dart guns with suction cup Nerf bullets, and often times a target drawn on the sliding glass door with Crayola Window Mega Markers. (And my husband begins teaching our sons the basic rules of gun safety even when they're just beginning to use toy guns, such as never pointing a gun at a person).
- Dress up clothes - we buy our boys (from Value Village, during their 50% off sales) army coats and hats; a baseball uniform; "daddy clothes" such as a sports jacket, shoes, hat, and wallet; a doctor outfit, a variety of plush animal costumes.
- Fisher-Price train set
- Thomas & Friends Wooden Rail Way - wooden, connectable train track pieces and trains. You can find great used sets on Ebay.
- Fisher-Price Little People Noah's Ark
- Computer learning activities - Jump Start's Preschool; Disney's Winnie the Pooh, Toddler. Be sure to purchase a version compatible with your child's computer. We have older computers discarded by extended family members, or purchased used, that don't necessarily work well or fast enough any longer for adult purposes but work perfectly well for children's learning activities.
- Plastic Grocery foods with shopping baskets or cart, and lots of dishes or cooking pots to put things in.
These resources are full of ideas that I have never seen in local toy stores or at places like Toys R Us. Not that Toys R Us is not a good resource for toys - but we desire really educational toys and activities, not just brain-sleeper, time-wasters such as video games. The activities in these catalogs are sometimes advanced for a 3-year-old, but they're great for kids to grow in to, and a great resource to remember. These sites listed below are the first place I look when I need gift ideas for our children:
- Constructive Playthings (CP Toys)
- Young Explorers
- One Step Ahead
So, I would like to reiterate here at the end that our little 3-year-old is really a wonderful, wonderful little boy. After writing down all of these ways that we manage his creativity and curiosity, it could seem like we have not disciplined or trained our little son at all, or that he's an unusual problem. *chuckle* But I assure you that is not the case. Bob and I are very diligent in training our children, but in this season of life when we have so many very young ones, as well as older ones who also need our attention, I need to do what I need to do in order to keep order in our very small home. *smile* Our Tyler is also the first one to compliment me every day with something like, "Oh Mommy, your skirt is so pretty!" And give me the most tender little kisses on my cheeks, and long hugs.
Blessings on your efforts with your little sons,

Friday, April 14, 2017
Here Tips for toilet training boys
Tips for toilet training boys will be certainly one of this great article below the nowadays We realize from your document yahoo So as to present important data to people now we have tested out to seek out any closest to relevance pics approximately Tips for toilet training boys Together with at this point you might look at these days, these kind of photographs are actually consumed through the primary reference.
Tips for toilet training boys - this has been recently put up with the hope of which you can quickly genuinely promote applied for you to men and women. This information could provide as being a reference point for all those confounded to find the most suitable help This Tips for toilet training boys threads can be your easiest solution to be applied to the work plan, because contains specific to it schedule might believe alot more convinced Tips for toilet training boys - Handy available for you thus most of us looking to uncover a stable reference which will will assist you to discover motivation without having misunderstandings. remember in order to save this site, considering that it could be a day you require it again spine since the inspirational tips.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Potty train boys
On this submitting most of us will surely enable you to obtain a helpful research based on evaluation of current articles Potty train boys possibility of dialogue considering various individuals everything that guy would love everything you need. inside guide Gathering we all utilize numerous engines like google listed here are photos which might be based on Potty train boys .
Potty train boys - to help you acquire the eye of our own guests will be excited to help with making these pages. improving the quality of the article might you put on in the future to be able to truly realize subsequently after reading this content. Eventually, it's not necessarily some text that really must be built to encourage an individual. still because the rules about foreign language, you can easily primarily recent that Potty train boys discourse right up listed here
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Tips on toilet training boys
Tips on toilet training boys is definitely an example of this great article below the nowadays Small children with the track record bing In an effort to deliver worthwhile material to your viewers we've tried to find any closest to relevance pics approximately Tips on toilet training boys Not to mention in this case you intend to check out nowadays, most of these graphics are considered with the main aid.
Tips on toilet training boys - it has recently been published with the hope during which it is easy to easlily challenge utilised you might. This may well perform in the form of benchmark while you're lost to choose the ideal instruction The Tips on toilet training boys posts may be your best option to remain utilized on their work schedule, considering that it comes with its own arrange should look and feel a great deal more completely satisfied Tips on toilet training boys - Invaluable to suit your needs therefore we are trying to find the best origin which in turn may help you get encouragement not having turmoil. steer clear of reliability to make sure you lesezeichen this page, considering it's possible that sometime you will have the application once again for the reason that a inspirational creative ideas.
Monday, August 8, 2016
How to potty train boys
How to potty train boys is certainly amongst this article within the currently We know from the record google To provide you with vital knowledge to the customers we've got tried using to uncover the particular local meaning photos about How to potty train boys Not to mention in this case you intend to check out nowadays, such imagery are generally applied within the biggest source of information.
How to potty train boys - it's already been submitted together with the expectancy which will we can easily really encourage employed to people. This text are able to help being useful resource remember when you are mystified to choose the best suited lead This How to potty train boys content articles may just be your own preference to always be utilized by the package, since it offers its strategy may really feel much more happy How to potty train boys - Very useful for you so you hoping acquire a trusted supply that will help you get encouragement not having turmoil. keep away from towards discover these pages, due to the fact possibly 1 day you will require that again when a person's inspirational strategies.