Nix9to5

WAHM Tip #4: Keep the Little Ones Entertained

// August 3rd, 2010 // Children and Babies, Time Management, Work at Home

The Bear has moved to a big boy bed, which means that when he wakes up from his nap, he just gets out of bed and comes to find me.  Before he figured out how to climb out of the crib, he would wake up from a nap and just play, buying me an extra 15 minutes or so to work.  Also, in the crib, he would wake up, realize he couldn’t go anywhere, and fall back asleep.  Now, the minute he wakes up, he’s ready to “Get down play!”  Unfortunately, this occurs before Mommy thinks it should.  Naps have gone from two or two and a half hours to an hour and a half–if I’m lucky.  That makes it much harder for me to accomplish all of my work at home tasks.

I’ve been wondering how I can keep the Bear entertained while I work, and my fantastic sister sent me a couple of links that might help.  KneeBouncers and Minimops are two learning games sites for little bitty kids.  Minimops requires the ability to use a mouse, and I don’t think the Bear is there yet, but if your child is old enough to use a mouse, you might check it out.  KneeBouncers is specially designed for young toddlers.  The don’t have to be able to do anything but press any key on the keyboard to make things work.  Bear really likes the Music-Maker game.  The only drawback is that he has tried to play it on a laptop, and the touchpad mouse sometimes gets in his way.  My plan is to get a new monitor for our old (read:  ancient) desktop computer.  Then I can sit at my desk and work while Bear sits beside me, pounding away on the keys of the old computer, playing games on KneeBouncers.

I really like the story behind KneeBouncers.  Click here to find out how and why KneeBouncers was created.  Can’t you relate?

One other cool think about KneeBouncers is that it allows you to embed games in your own site.  I’ve included the Music-Maker game Bear likes.  Change the song by clicking an icon on the left; change the instrument by clicking one on the right. Check it out, and if you like it, too, head on over to KneeBouncers for the full size version and the rest of the fun.  Let me know what you think!