How I’m Keeping My Kids Busy While Caring for a Newborn

One of the biggest questions I’ve gotten since bringing home Eleanor is, “What are you doing with the big girls all day?” While a newborn doesn’t need much beyond eating, sleeping, and lots of snuggles, keeping a 3 and 5 year old entertained while caring for a newborn is a whole different story!!

I’ve been trying to stock our house with activities the girls can do independently (or with very little help from me or Chris) while I’m feeding baby girl, putting her down for a nap, or just soaking up those newborn snuggles. Some of these are things we’ve loved for years, while others are newer finds that have quickly become favorites.

I’ll continue adding to this post as we discover more activities that work for our family, but these are the ones getting us through the newborn days right now!

We have had this for quite a few years now and it has held up SO well (even though we keep it outside and it’s exposed to the elements!). It’s not too heavy (I can actually move it myself), and it provides a ton of entertainment for the girls – they mainly like to go down the slide over and over, but there’s also a telescope, climber, slide, crawling tunnel, basketball hoop, and steering wheel. If it’s really hot outside, we turn it into a water activity – the girls like to take turns watering down the slide with the garden hose while the other goes down.

This is the most aesthetic water table on the market so it actually looks cute in our backyard! Even my five-year-old will play with this for hours – and it’s nice because the girls don’t get totally soaked playing in it (nor do I have to wash out chlorine if they do get a little wet!).

This Surprise Summer Craft kit has been a HUGE hit with my kids! I let them each pick out a craft, but it’s concealed in a bag so they can’t see what’s inside. Part of the fun is opening the bag to see which summer craft they’ve received! Most of them are easy enough for the girls to do completely by themselves.

If I need a good indoor activity for the girls, this is it! We keep a stash of these in the closet next to our living room – I can’t tell you how many we’ve been through in the past couple of years! We’ve taken them on airplane rides, road trips, out to restaurants, and now… we are using them a lot at home! It’s a really fun activity for the girls because they have to use the stickers to “dress” the dolls, even adding their shoes and purses. It’s easy enough for them to do by themselves, I just have to pull out the corresponding sticker page from the back of the book. 

I can’t even tell you how many hours this Dinosaur Egg kit has bought me – lol! Each egg takes the girls about 30 minutes to “excavate.” The girls LOVE these – they get a few digging tools each and then have to chip away at the egg until they reveal a dinosaur inside. It is quite a messy activity, though, so we usually do this in the driveway!

Someone gifted the girls these Big Sister Coloring Books at my Baby Sprinkle and they have been a HIT with the girls! The illustrations inside are seriously cute, featuring big sisters with their baby siblings, as well as some family pages and even a pregnant mommy with her toddler. The girls love coloring pictures of their baby sister and themselves!

The girls are SO much help with the new baby, that I actually consider this to be an activity in itself! I will ask them to grab a fresh diaper or burp cloths, or even help me change her into a new outfit. They both compete to see who can be the most helpful to me. They also love to hold her feet and hands and sing to her, which is the sweetest thing in the world!

I think that’s about all I can think of for now! If you’re in the newborn season too, I hope this gives you a few ideas to help keep your older kids entertained while you care for your newest little one. I’ll continue updating this post with more of our favorite activities and toys as we find them, so be sure to check back!