toddler activities - home on a hot day

Before it was a billion degrees (and don't even make me go to the heat index), I got the great idea to scrub the walls of my screened-in porch. This wasn't totally crazy. They do get pretty dirty with wind and rain coming through.

The job took a while, but to my delight that Genghis was incredibly helpful. He industriously used the squirt bottle to wet the walls and even tried his hand and wiping them down. In fact, he stayed out cleaning the walls for about 30 minutes after I had finished. Although evidence suggests that a good portion of that time he was squirting the water directly into his mouth. (We'll stick with water or water/vinegar cleaners for now).

Playing with the water bottle is on my checklist for hot afternoons at home.

Another idea for hot days inside? Flashlights in the closet. If you have a walk-in closet, laundry room, or dark room, take the kids in and turn on some flashlights. Genghis was really pleased that we had a regular flashlight that gave off yellow-orange light and an LED-light that was more blue. A twist on this would be to rubber band a piece of tissue paper over the light for different colors.

We also like ending every day with Otter Pops (pre-bath).