Keeping A One Year Old Occupied – The ‘Pottering’ Drawer

Pottering Drawer

At 17 months, Sasha is a proper little fidget-fingers, more so than Freddie ever was at this age. Since Freddie is now at preschool 3 mornings a week, I sometimes need, and use this time, to catch up on some housework/cooking/paperwork, so it’s great is Sasha can keep herself occupied for a short amount of time. Now my children have LOADS of toys between them, but Sasha is really into other ‘stuff’ right now- in fact, anything that she shouldn’t really play with, she is fascinated by.

Enter, the toddler ‘Exploratory Drawer’.

I did a bit of re-jigging in our kitchen, and cleared one of our bottom drawers.

In it, I put a variation of the following, and change this on a regular basis:

  • Old weaning spoons
  • Pegs
  • Rubber ice cube trays
  • Old toddler shoes
  • An old remote control (minus battery)
  • An old mobile phone (again, minus battery)
  • Value baby wipes to pull apart
  • Large alphabet magnets that she can’t swallow
  • Some rubber cake cases
  • Small weaning pots

I swear she will play with this drawer ALL MORNING if we are in the kitchen! It’s great, as it allows me to get on with a few jobs, I can still interact with her, and she is kept so happy just walking around with, and sorting, her ‘stuff’. It’s the first place she heads to in the morning when she comes into the kitchen for her drink.

Different textures and shapes also make this a great sensory activity for tiny ones.

Just make sure there is nothing in your drawer that they can easily swallow/has sharp edges- a toddler with a knife is most definitely frowned upon these days 😉

Enjoy your peace and quiet!

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2 Comments

  1. June 12, 2014 / 4:44 pm

    Great idea will be clearing a draw tomorrow!!!! (Ps sorry for the million blog comments haha I’m loving your blog!!!)

    • June 13, 2014 / 11:33 am

      Haha, no need to apologise, I love it if people have found something that they like here! The pottering drawer saved my sanity when both were younger toddlers. x

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