stay at home moms...tell me what you do with your 3 year old

I'm not a SAHM, however I'll be home from about April-Sept. on maternity leave. I stayed home from work today b/c of the weather. I feel like the worst mom. I run out of ideas to entertain dd. We just finger painted but that lasted 5 minutes. I forced her to nap with me this afternoon b/c I am and was up since 5 a.m. I always feel guilty. At work, I feel guilty for not being with her and at home, I'm more exhausted when I'm at work and I feel guilty for not being fun. Please give me your ideas.

Re: stay at home moms...tell me what you do with your 3 year old

Paint, play in the sink with water, wood kingdom, blocks, candy land, hide and seek, eat-help cook lunch, clean, legos...lol the list goes on-today not much we had cesspool issues....lol and I cleaned...

Re: stay at home moms...tell me what you do with your 3 year old

Some days are great and some days not so much. DS is really good with his imagination and playing by himself on days that I am 'busy' ... Try not to worry too much that you're not going to be an entertainer every second of every single day ...That being said, here are some ideas...

Arts & Crafts:
Coloring Books / Color Wonder Books
Painting w/ Tempura Paints
Play Doh
Molding Clay
Dry Erase Markers
Chalk
Stickers / foam stickers
Glue Sticks with construction paper, pom poms, googly eyes, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, feathers, tissue paper, sequins, etc...
Projects: Make a hat, a card for baby, a picture book, foam art (michaels has them for $1 sometimes)
Baking --- he loves to pour and mix

Games:
Puzzles
Candy Land
Bingo
Tic Tac Toe
Uno Moo
Operation
Chutes and Ladders
Go Fish
Bowling
etc...

Learning:
Dry Erase Alphabet Book
Flash Cards - Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes, Dinosaurs (DS' favorite), Sight Words
Books - our favorites right now are Strega Nona, Stone Soup and Tiki Tiki Tembo
Find and Seek Books (hidden pictures)
Magnets on the Refridgerator

Imagination:
Dress Up
Action Figures (Toy Story 3 figures & Imaginext sets are DS' fav's)
Lego's / Trio
Barn w/ Animals
Musical Instruments
Doctor's Kit / Barber (he plays both with the set, I get a LOT of haircuts every week, LOL)
Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars and sets
Power Tools - he fixes our 'broken' house a lot also

Outside Play Places & Parks (weather permitting), Pool in the summer

He takes swimming lessons 1x per week.

He doesn't always nap anymore but he does have to relax for 2 hours every afternoon. If he won't nap, he will lay in my bed and watch a movie for that time period.




I hope that helps for some ideas

Re: stay at home moms...tell me what you do with your 3 year old

All great ideas listed above and I just started letting DS play around on his own on playhousedisney.com and it occupies him for a while. Dont feel like a bad mom, things get boring after a while, its totally normal.