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Did you ever wake up and wonder when your life became a soap opera? A bizzare mixture between 'Dawson's Creek' and 'Days of our Lives'?



I know I've had that feeling - that it's just all too dramatic and ridiculous, and wouldn't it be nice to go and under a nicely-furnished rock for a while? So, whilst I do not promise or claim to be an expert on how teenage boys minds work or how you can uncode your best friend's baffling behaviour, I'll always attempt to empathise and offer some honest words of advice.



I am 21, with a fairly dysfunctional life as a artsy student type. I've recently graduated with a degree in Philosophy, and am spending time working in the law before returning to university for further study. I still don't know what I want to do with my life, but I like where I am at the moment. I like shoes, bad television, chocolate cheescake and pretty things.



I am very busy at the moment, attempting to fund my life as a postgraduate (that's grad school to the Americans). I do still stop by quite a lot to help out with the admin stuff, but my column is pretty lame and inactive. Boo-hiss. I will however still endeavour to answer any questions that are sent my way, so feel free to send questions to my inbox.





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hailebop





Gender: Female
Location: England
Occupation: Student
Age: 21
Member Since: December 30, 2003
Answers: 455
Last Update: June 7, 2009
Visitors: 55187


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16/f

well tomorow me and my sister are going babysitting for about 4 hours and we need some activities to do with the children mainly because i will be very busy with the baby and she doesnt have much expirience on how to occupy them. they are 3.5 and 2 (boy and a girl). we tried searching the internet but we couldnt come up with anything because the younger one isnt quit ready for preschool activities? any ideas the younger ones verbal skills are low so songs and stuff are kind of out of the question and they are not aloud to watch TV or bake or anything!

(easy crafts are good!)


The children are quite young and what they'll enjoy depends quite a bit on how mature they are for their respective ages. It's a good idea to ask their normal carer what their favourite toys and games are before you actually babysit, so you have an idea of anything to bring prepare or bring along with you. If they are coming to yours, ask them to bring one or two of their favourite toys with them so that even if you don't find many new activities they enjoy they'll still have old favourites to fall back on, and if you are at their house you'll know what's best to keep them occupied amongst all of their toys and activities.

Colouring, drawing and other art-related activities are good to keep even very young children occupied. They probably have colouring books of their own if you are at their house, or you could print off some ready to colour drawings from the internet - neopets is a good site for this (see http://www.neopets.com/faerieland/faerie_colour.phtml) , but googling 'childrens colouring' will get you a wide variety of images for all ages. You could also try more ambitious art things, like finger painting or potato printing, although the two year old will need quite a bit of supervision if you are using paints of any sorts and you'll have to set down lots of old newspaper to make sure nothing gets ruined.

I know you've said that the 2 year old doesn't have particularly high verbal skills, but that doesn't mean she won't appreciate being chatted or sung to, so don't dismiss things off hand. If she's still learning to talk you can still play simple games like matching colours and shapes (for example, playing a game where you ask her to find a red thing, or a circle somewhere in her house) - it won't take long to realise what level she's at and can enjoy. The older child might find some games like these slightly babyish, but as there are two of you it should be easy enough to balance keeping both children occupied, especially as the older child will be more independent in his play. All the best.

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well ive babysat before so i know them pretty well. we just need so activities b/c i have to watch their babysister too so free play is kinda hard. and i cant have them color. i take child developement now and we learned coloring like in coloring books is bad because they know they cant stay in the lines and stuff. and i was thinking of more of a singing game over singing to them thats why i mentioned it. and i would love to paint but we have to stay indoors where there is white carpeting and its close to bed time thats the only bad part
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