I’m sure you know the scenario.. you are trying to clean the dishes or organize the kitchen cabinets and your toddler wants nothing more than to help you.  Madelyn is a pro at trying to help me but it never fails that I don’t even finish the job when she ‘helps’. We end up in a different room doing something totally unrelated to what I wanted to do.  I decided that I had to come up with something for Madelyn to do on her own while I was cleaning.

During the warmer months we had a wide, short storage bin full of play sand on our front deck that Madelyn loved to play in.  While I was cleaning the kitchen a few days ago it occurred to me that she might be able to entertain herself for longer than two minutes if I put some warm water in the bin.  Knowing that there was a huge potential for water making its way out of the bin, I put an old bath mat on the floor first and a towel around the perimeter of the bin.  Needless to say, by the time all was said and done there was about a 3 foot area of water around the bin, she had painted the refrigerator with water, and she had generously ‘shared’ some water with her doll that isn’t supposed to get wet.  Oh well, I finished the kitchen and Madelyn had a good time playing by herself for a few minutes.