what activities shall i take my two years old to?
November 22, 2011 7:50 PM Subscribe
What activities shall I take my two years old to? I have been getting great answers here over the years. thanks all!!
my son is about two and half now. my wife stays home, so he is not going to day care.
weekends are all about mall shopping and eating out, and not much else. i have this concern that we may miss out some great activities for a kid at his age.
welcome any suggestions on what we should be doing to give my son a great time....
location: NYC
Museums are a bit pricy, but great places to broaden the mind. Go to the Met! (Malls? Oh dear!)
posted by anadem at 8:16 PM on November 22, 2011
posted by anadem at 8:16 PM on November 22, 2011
There are big ships at South Street Seaport. He may like seeing those. It's getting cold, but for the next couple of weeks you could also take him out in a "Big Boat" and then put a picture of it in his little room to remind him.
posted by devymetal at 8:20 PM on November 22, 2011
posted by devymetal at 8:20 PM on November 22, 2011
We have a 3 month old, so I don't *know* what he'll like, but here are some things I'm looking forward to:
Bronx Zoo, Bronx and Brooklyn botanical gardens, museums (Met, MoMA, Whitney, American History, etc.)
posted by cestmoi15 at 8:21 PM on November 22, 2011
Bronx Zoo, Bronx and Brooklyn botanical gardens, museums (Met, MoMA, Whitney, American History, etc.)
posted by cestmoi15 at 8:21 PM on November 22, 2011
Sweet baby jesus, there is so much to do in NYC beyond malls!
There are carousels at Chelsea Piers, DUMBO, and Prospect Park (not sure about the winter hours).
DUMBO in general is a pretty magical place for little kids: they love the cobblestone streets, ships passing by, the Promenade views, pizza at Grimaldi's (or at Ignazio's, which is better pizza in my opinion, though to most toddlers pizza is pizza is pizza), Jane's carousel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the awesome playgrounds. There will be a tree lighting ceremony in DUMBO on December 6th at 6PM under the Manhattan bridge that is geared toward families. Bring an unwrapped gift for their charity drive too!
The Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn is super fun for both little kids and adults. Finally, a subway car where the kids can swing from the poles and shout at the top of their lungs!
Cafe Moomah in TriBeCa is a neat little cafe with a trippy interactive room in the back where these projections of trees and vines "grow" as the kids touch the walls. It's hard to explain, so just go and find out. They also have cute art projects, but they're pricey and not as fun as the back room.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:23 PM on November 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
There are carousels at Chelsea Piers, DUMBO, and Prospect Park (not sure about the winter hours).
DUMBO in general is a pretty magical place for little kids: they love the cobblestone streets, ships passing by, the Promenade views, pizza at Grimaldi's (or at Ignazio's, which is better pizza in my opinion, though to most toddlers pizza is pizza is pizza), Jane's carousel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the awesome playgrounds. There will be a tree lighting ceremony in DUMBO on December 6th at 6PM under the Manhattan bridge that is geared toward families. Bring an unwrapped gift for their charity drive too!
The Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn is super fun for both little kids and adults. Finally, a subway car where the kids can swing from the poles and shout at the top of their lungs!
Cafe Moomah in TriBeCa is a neat little cafe with a trippy interactive room in the back where these projections of trees and vines "grow" as the kids touch the walls. It's hard to explain, so just go and find out. They also have cute art projects, but they're pricey and not as fun as the back room.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:23 PM on November 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
Take him on the bus! And the subway! And the Staten Island Ferry! Go to Penn Station and watch the big board and all the passengers. Take him to JFK or LaGuardia and watch the workers load and unload and fuel up the planes. Ask your local fire station if there's a good time you could come by and have them show him one of the trucks (offer to bring pizza or donuts). Transportation is awesome.
posted by argonauta at 8:25 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by argonauta at 8:25 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also, the intrepid. Have you checked out NY Time Out's site? NY1 also had a kids report, I would think they still do.
posted by cestmoi15 at 8:32 PM on November 22, 2011
posted by cestmoi15 at 8:32 PM on November 22, 2011
Also check out:
Queens County Farm Museum
Children's Museum of the Arts
Children's Museum in Brooklyn (it has lots of stuff geared towards really little kids)
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Also YES to taking him on the bus and the subway. I'm sorry to have been all "why are you taking him to the mall when you live in NYC," it's just that I am *insanely jealous* of kids who got to grow up in the city, whereas I grew up on a cultureless wasteland where everyone watched TV and ate at Waffle House.
Anyways, so much of the things we take for granted in New York, like window dressing, subway rides, sitting on park benches to watch people, flea markets, street performers, crazy old socialites wearing glittery cocktail jewelry - these things are fascinating and magical for kids. Any time someone laments to me that they feel sorry for kids who grow up here because they don't have backyards and minivans and carpooling, I think of all the times I would have murdered my kindergarten teacher for a chance to ride the subway.
So yeah, just take him out into the city as best you can (I won't tell you it's easy to schlep a toddler around, so take baby steps if you've never, say, ridden with him on the bus). He's got the whole world in his backyard.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:41 PM on November 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
Queens County Farm Museum
Children's Museum of the Arts
Children's Museum in Brooklyn (it has lots of stuff geared towards really little kids)
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Also YES to taking him on the bus and the subway. I'm sorry to have been all "why are you taking him to the mall when you live in NYC," it's just that I am *insanely jealous* of kids who got to grow up in the city, whereas I grew up on a cultureless wasteland where everyone watched TV and ate at Waffle House.
Anyways, so much of the things we take for granted in New York, like window dressing, subway rides, sitting on park benches to watch people, flea markets, street performers, crazy old socialites wearing glittery cocktail jewelry - these things are fascinating and magical for kids. Any time someone laments to me that they feel sorry for kids who grow up here because they don't have backyards and minivans and carpooling, I think of all the times I would have murdered my kindergarten teacher for a chance to ride the subway.
So yeah, just take him out into the city as best you can (I won't tell you it's easy to schlep a toddler around, so take baby steps if you've never, say, ridden with him on the bus). He's got the whole world in his backyard.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:41 PM on November 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
I don't want to be judge-y here, but mall shopping? If your wife isn't working, can't most essential mall trips be completed on the less busy times (like a random Wednesday morning) and weekends be a really nice time for family activities?
Anyway, my kid is just 3-year-old and on weekends we try to structure our day as such:
- Wake up
- Make a nicer breakfast that normal and involve him in the prep (mixing pancake batter or something)
- Play a little bit with toys if we're flexible on time
- Do something fun in the AM -- best for us is to go to a museum (granted, we live in DC where there are dozens of free museums) in colder weather and to a park/botanical gardens/zoo in nicer weather. We usually pack a lunch so that we're not so pressed to come home.
- Come home for nap - obviously.
- Post-nap we usually stay in the house and do puzzles/books/legos/whatever and make dinner
On the other weekend day we often end up going grocery shopping - although with your wife at home this may not be as essential.
The better that you guys get at going out, the easier it will be.
posted by k8t at 8:57 PM on November 22, 2011
Anyway, my kid is just 3-year-old and on weekends we try to structure our day as such:
- Wake up
- Make a nicer breakfast that normal and involve him in the prep (mixing pancake batter or something)
- Play a little bit with toys if we're flexible on time
- Do something fun in the AM -- best for us is to go to a museum (granted, we live in DC where there are dozens of free museums) in colder weather and to a park/botanical gardens/zoo in nicer weather. We usually pack a lunch so that we're not so pressed to come home.
- Come home for nap - obviously.
- Post-nap we usually stay in the house and do puzzles/books/legos/whatever and make dinner
On the other weekend day we often end up going grocery shopping - although with your wife at home this may not be as essential.
The better that you guys get at going out, the easier it will be.
posted by k8t at 8:57 PM on November 22, 2011
Macaroni Kid lists local events for the week. There are several for NYC. I gather the quality varies a bit based on the local list-compiler; they are run by local "contractors." Mine is very good and I find out about a lot of neat stuff. Good for finding one-off events.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:07 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:07 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Brooklyn Bridge Park has an AWESOME playground thats shaped like a pirate ship. Also a merry-go-round on the water front. Great people watching for parents :)
posted by fuzzysoft at 9:11 PM on November 22, 2011
posted by fuzzysoft at 9:11 PM on November 22, 2011
Is your wife taking him out during the week? It may well be that she needs the weekends to get things like shopping done. They may be too difficult on her own and she may need the support and the chance to ask you for feedback.
That being said, you can plan mall shopping around exploring new neighbourhoods. New playgrounds, parks and even toy stores can be amazing for a kid. When we go to Ikea, for example, I plot out educational and active excursions that are nearby, so that we can both complete shopping and have fun family time.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 9:25 PM on November 22, 2011
That being said, you can plan mall shopping around exploring new neighbourhoods. New playgrounds, parks and even toy stores can be amazing for a kid. When we go to Ikea, for example, I plot out educational and active excursions that are nearby, so that we can both complete shopping and have fun family time.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 9:25 PM on November 22, 2011
Two things I LOVED as a kid, even that young:
- The Museum of Natural Science in Houston; I'm sure there are plenty of equivalent and even better museums in NY. IMAX nature and science movies are great even if a child only understands tiny bits. Dinosaur bones are awesome for all ages, always.
- This is cheap and may not seem huge, but bookstores or the library. Before I could even read my mom would take me to look at books and then buy or check some out. We had little money for activities so I rarely got to do anything fancy, but I loved the book stores and libraries SO MUCH. My mom would check out things that seemed a little advanced for me if I was interested in them, and then she would read to me and explain things. By the time I was in first grade I could read very well and find books at the library on my own. You can absolutely start at two years old, you'll just give a lot of assistance at the beginning and they will mostly be attracted to colorful books. Let them ask you questions, and if you don't know an answer, let them see you look it up. Yes, even at two. Just be in the habit and they will absorb it over the years. To this day, reading and research is hugely fun to me; as a kid I felt like there was always something new and exciting in any book, and if I didn't know something, I had a way to find out; a lot of people don't love learning because they never had a model of how to behave when they don't know something, so they feel helpless and like knowledge is some exclusive thing they don't have access to. I suspect this is less prevalent with Google and the internet now, but still.
posted by Nattie at 10:03 PM on November 22, 2011
- The Museum of Natural Science in Houston; I'm sure there are plenty of equivalent and even better museums in NY. IMAX nature and science movies are great even if a child only understands tiny bits. Dinosaur bones are awesome for all ages, always.
- This is cheap and may not seem huge, but bookstores or the library. Before I could even read my mom would take me to look at books and then buy or check some out. We had little money for activities so I rarely got to do anything fancy, but I loved the book stores and libraries SO MUCH. My mom would check out things that seemed a little advanced for me if I was interested in them, and then she would read to me and explain things. By the time I was in first grade I could read very well and find books at the library on my own. You can absolutely start at two years old, you'll just give a lot of assistance at the beginning and they will mostly be attracted to colorful books. Let them ask you questions, and if you don't know an answer, let them see you look it up. Yes, even at two. Just be in the habit and they will absorb it over the years. To this day, reading and research is hugely fun to me; as a kid I felt like there was always something new and exciting in any book, and if I didn't know something, I had a way to find out; a lot of people don't love learning because they never had a model of how to behave when they don't know something, so they feel helpless and like knowledge is some exclusive thing they don't have access to. I suspect this is less prevalent with Google and the internet now, but still.
posted by Nattie at 10:03 PM on November 22, 2011
Museums are a bit pricy, but great places to broaden the mind. Go to the Met!
Many museums in New York (like the Met and the American Museum of Natural History) have a suggested donation. Other museums have free or reduced price on certain days of the week or month.
posted by grouse at 1:12 AM on November 23, 2011
Many museums in New York (like the Met and the American Museum of Natural History) have a suggested donation. Other museums have free or reduced price on certain days of the week or month.
posted by grouse at 1:12 AM on November 23, 2011
The beach! On a sunny fall day the beach is kid paradise. Bring pail and shovel. Chase birds. Check out the waves.
I remember taking my first child out to Jones Beach soon after he turned two. He woke up in the middle of the night mumbling "big water, biiiig water!", and has been an ocean-lover ever since.
posted by mareli at 1:46 AM on November 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
I remember taking my first child out to Jones Beach soon after he turned two. He woke up in the middle of the night mumbling "big water, biiiig water!", and has been an ocean-lover ever since.
posted by mareli at 1:46 AM on November 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Seriously? At age two there's a whole world of things to experience. Most are very simple and cheap.
Go ride escalators in a large building.
Go watch the big machines at a construction site.
Get a couple of sticks (kids love sticks) and go through the city hitting lamp posts, handrails, anything sturdy and metal. Listen to the sounds. Metal structures make cool sounds when you hit them with sticks.
Go watch the pizza guys at a local pizzeria. See if they'll sell you some dough (most around me will just give a kid a lump of dough) to play with. Make dough people.
Get a roll of wide duct tape. Make sticky bracelets for yourselves (sticky side outward) and walk though the park or down the street finding small treasures and sticking them to your bracelets. When they're full you can cut them off and have a cool assemblage of your walk to hang on the frigerator.
Get some food coloring and find a (relatively clear, clean) standing water source like a fountain. Watching drops of food coloring in water is very entertaining for toddlers. And you can disperse the colors with a stick or something very easily.
Give the kid a digital camera and let them take pictures of anything they like.
Chalk graffiti.
Alphabet hunt. Pick a letter. Walk though through the city looking for that letter, things that start with that letter, or things shaped like that letter. (works well when you have a camera to capture your finds)
Make a crude catapult. Take it to the park (need lots of room) and just launch stuff. Pinecones, handfuls of leaves, sticks, anything you can find.
Take his favorite toy (stuffed animal, action figure, etc) out for a photo safari. Take the beloved toy to various vistas and "pose" the toy in front of various landmarks for a photo shoot. I find public art works well for the vistas.
Get a big cardboard box and bust the ends out. Roll the kid down a hill while lying inside the box. Also can use the flattened box as a downhill sled too.
Throw rocks into water. Kids love this without fail.
And yeah, musuems, zoo, all that. But I bet when he's 19 it's the other, simpler, stuff he'll remember. I know it's true for my 19 year old.
posted by cross_impact at 7:11 AM on November 23, 2011 [6 favorites]
Go ride escalators in a large building.
Go watch the big machines at a construction site.
Get a couple of sticks (kids love sticks) and go through the city hitting lamp posts, handrails, anything sturdy and metal. Listen to the sounds. Metal structures make cool sounds when you hit them with sticks.
Go watch the pizza guys at a local pizzeria. See if they'll sell you some dough (most around me will just give a kid a lump of dough) to play with. Make dough people.
Get a roll of wide duct tape. Make sticky bracelets for yourselves (sticky side outward) and walk though the park or down the street finding small treasures and sticking them to your bracelets. When they're full you can cut them off and have a cool assemblage of your walk to hang on the frigerator.
Get some food coloring and find a (relatively clear, clean) standing water source like a fountain. Watching drops of food coloring in water is very entertaining for toddlers. And you can disperse the colors with a stick or something very easily.
Give the kid a digital camera and let them take pictures of anything they like.
Chalk graffiti.
Alphabet hunt. Pick a letter. Walk though through the city looking for that letter, things that start with that letter, or things shaped like that letter. (works well when you have a camera to capture your finds)
Make a crude catapult. Take it to the park (need lots of room) and just launch stuff. Pinecones, handfuls of leaves, sticks, anything you can find.
Take his favorite toy (stuffed animal, action figure, etc) out for a photo safari. Take the beloved toy to various vistas and "pose" the toy in front of various landmarks for a photo shoot. I find public art works well for the vistas.
Get a big cardboard box and bust the ends out. Roll the kid down a hill while lying inside the box. Also can use the flattened box as a downhill sled too.
Throw rocks into water. Kids love this without fail.
And yeah, musuems, zoo, all that. But I bet when he's 19 it's the other, simpler, stuff he'll remember. I know it's true for my 19 year old.
posted by cross_impact at 7:11 AM on November 23, 2011 [6 favorites]
Your job over the next three years is to give your son so many interesting experiences that when his first grade class plans a field trip, your son (like my daughter) will say "Not the Science Museum AGAIN!"
posted by CathyG at 7:20 AM on November 23, 2011
posted by CathyG at 7:20 AM on November 23, 2011
My son loved buses, trucks, trains, etc. So we rode the bus (Wait, we're getting inside the big thing!?!?!?), went and watched construction projects, found a train switching yard and looked at trains.
Went to the fire station, where the fire fighters were really sweet to him.
Do you know people who play instruments? Being able to check out a trombone or flute is way cool.
Concerts of all sorts of music, libraries even if you can afford books.
Check out different playgrounds.
Visit historic sites, and find out interesting stuff.
Have traditions, like the 1st beach visit of the year involves a big picnic, and a stop for ice cream on the way home.
Take your kids grocery shopping without Mom. She gets a break, you get kid time. Check out ethic markets and try interesting foods and spices.
What interests you? Share your hobby with your kids - make stuff together, go to places that interest you and share your passions with your kids.
posted by theora55 at 3:01 PM on November 23, 2011
Went to the fire station, where the fire fighters were really sweet to him.
Do you know people who play instruments? Being able to check out a trombone or flute is way cool.
Concerts of all sorts of music, libraries even if you can afford books.
Check out different playgrounds.
Visit historic sites, and find out interesting stuff.
Have traditions, like the 1st beach visit of the year involves a big picnic, and a stop for ice cream on the way home.
Take your kids grocery shopping without Mom. She gets a break, you get kid time. Check out ethic markets and try interesting foods and spices.
What interests you? Share your hobby with your kids - make stuff together, go to places that interest you and share your passions with your kids.
posted by theora55 at 3:01 PM on November 23, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by gaspode at 8:09 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]