In case you didn’t know, we have a new baby in our house!  When I was pregnant I was very concerned with how I would manage the needs of a newborn while having a toddler who needed me as well. I wanted to come up with some activities Lucas could do without much supervision (so no crayons, paints, scissors, tablets, etc.).  I also wanted (okay, who are we kidding, NEEDED) it to be something pretty easy for me to get that didn’t require much prep.

Thanks to Pinterst, I decided to make some quiet time boxes.  Little did I  know these would become a life-saver when Lucas decided to stop napping (or rather, Mommy and Daddy decided to stop letting him nap because when he did he was up until midnight!).

I found shoe box sized containers at Walmart for $0.88 each with a variety of colored lids. I wanted to make a box for each day of the work week that way I’d always have an activity ready to go when Daddy wasn’t home.

I also knew I wanted to have similar things in each box to some extent – ie: puzzles of some sort are in each box.  Finally, I didn’t want to spend a ton of money buying new things so I looked through what we had at home that wasn’t pulled out as often.

I’m so pleased with what I came up with!

Monday: Frozen books, Color matching puzzle, Under the Sea felt cutouts for the felt board I put in L’s room (yes, I cut them out and yes it was awful!), Look and Find book

Tuesday: Farm Animal puzzle, Button and Felt activity, Color and Shape cards, Color Matching Clothespins (I got this for $1 at Target!), Frozen books

Wednesday: Lacing Beads, Transportation puzzle, Jake and the Neverland Pirates Flap-book, Etch-a-Sketch

*You can check out the contents of this box in the photo at the top of the post – we were using our Wednesday box as I was writing this post!*

Thursday: Blocks, Look and Find book, Farm felt cutouts for the felt board, Puzzles (this is L’s favorite it’s a 3, 4, 5 and 6 piece puzzle set).

Friday: Construction puzzle, Look and Find book, Dress up Joey, Matching game, “Snake” toy (you twist it and bend it into different shapes and things).

Like anything, how successful the boxes are varies from day to day.  Some days L will play with one, independently, for 45 minutes!  Other days it’s not even 5 minutes before he’s yelling for me to play with him.  There are certain activities in each box we tend to do together while the baby is napping and that’s a lot of fun for both of us.

I also make these boxes something we do in his room with only his small bedside light on.  I want to limit the amount of external stimulation, especially since he’s not napping anymore (and a total cranky pants by dinnertime because of it!).

We also got some cool things as gifts for his birthday in February that I’ll eventually work into the boxes.  The books will get switched out after a month or so because we have SO MANY books to choose from.

All in all, these have been a huge success (he’s actually using one of them now as I’m writing this post!).  I’m really glad that I took the time to make these before the baby was born, but even without a new sibling, these are great for preschool age kids!

What are your favorite quiet time activities for your little ones?