Keeping a three year old busy while having a newborn at home

I have a very active three year old, so being home with a newborn all day is not an option. So I am trying to find at least one new thing a week to try to do, because we already go to the park, and splash pads religiously.

Swimming lessons are once week in the evening with dad because I watch the newborn. But I go to all his lessons with the newborn in tow to cheer him on. Plus when he is having a bad day, mom needs to do some smooth talking to get him in the water and listen to his teacher. But this is an activity that needs a parent to participate in still, so the tricky thing is, finding something that he could do on his own, or we could do while I was pushing a stroller was the challenge.

We tried the gymnastics summer camp once, to see if he was comfortable being there, before we signed it up for once a week lessons in the fall. Of course he loved the large space to run, he thinks he is a gymnastics superstar now, and tries to do summersalts everywhere. This is one of the few sports that he can start at the age of three without me participating, so it is perfect.

Together we visited the Muskoka wildlife centre, and it was rather perfect, a little rough terrain for the stroller but very doable, and perfect trails for my three year old superhero to run around. Also he got to touch a few of the animals like snakes which made a rather unforgettable moment for him. He loved this place, and asked to me to come back next year already.

But of course all of these activities cost money so we can not do them all the time. So we had to come up with a few of our own homemade items:

Homemade paper rockets: just some paint, toilet paper rolls, or plastic bottles, paper, and tape and blast off. Of course these make shift rockets don't last too long in the hands of my toddler, but it made a day of fun...until he ripped it to shreds.

Playing superhero: we used one of those thin baby blankets as a cape and some sunglasses and a superhero was born in his eyes. This is great for me to help him work on learning what "pretend" means, as he has to understand pretend fighting doesn't actually mean physical contact. My son may kill me later for this, but he didn't know what the word "pretend" meant (well this what I am hoping was his reason for doing this) when his four year old friend told him to "pretend" to eat some wood chips around the park, and his friend looked like he was having fun, so what did my kid do...ate some wood chips, all the while laughing alongside his friend; not one of his finest moments.

I don't consider myself one of those uber creative or crafty moms, but I have had to come up with some games, to keep the three year old active all the while watching that three year old. I even came up with one weird game, that has no name but he loved it. I hid three different coloured papers in different rooms of the house, not only did he have to find them, but he had to leave them in the rooms. So he had  to use his memory to remember what room had which coloured paper and we worked on his colours, repeating the colour name in english and spanish (my background is spanish)

So I am really flexing that creative side of my brain this summer, so now let the fall games begin...leaves can be fun right? :)

New mom again