You should consider giving him his own "tupperware drawer" to go through, with a cloth basket and some Gladware, that is safely out of the way of dangerous corners/rooms. Kids his age are most entertained by these little mundane things and if he feels like he's getting into something new and unexplored, he'll probably love it even more.

I would also suggest making little things that he can put into little bowls, like rolled up socks while you're doing laundry, etc.

10 months it is tricky age and tough if you are stuck at home a lot

Install a doorway bouncer or swing; collapsible tunnel; collapsible ball pit (research: many have nasty chemicals); crawling mountain with pillows, painting with purees or pudding

toilet paper roll; tampon box; tissue box; wipes; wallet; purse; play in the bath

stacking cups, both the cheapo ones from Ikea and http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/forbaby/toysforbabiesandtoddlers/bathandwater/nestingstackerfromspielstabil these German-made ones that won't break
soft balls

My little one started walking during the winter as well and we were stuck inside some days (some weeks) and she with nothing but energy and a new skill. I felt the same way you describe. She had a walker which she cruised around the house in. Also I would give her laundry to "play" with. Washcloths and socks. I would put toys inside of tupperware and let her try to figure out how to get them open. Of course if she couldn't open it, she moved on after a while, but she would eventually come back to it. Good Luck!

My ten month old really loved playing hide and seek..it is pretty amazing how quickly they figure out were that special toy was hiding at this young age. Singing instead of reading stories (with hand motions) and teaching animal noises were always a hit too.

Thanks for the shout out! My son has always been really really active and a challenge to be entertained. One of the best things that I did around that age was to make a "mystery basket" containing all kinds of items of different textures, sounds, colors, etc and let him take each one out and explore it. Some favorites included: a pine cone, a plastic salt shaker with coffee beans inside (smell), a lemon, and a strip of velvet ribbon. Basically just plunder your house and mix it up each time!

And try to get out as much as you can. Bundle up really well and go for short walks. Also, if you have a local pool nearby, swimming will give him some physical play, as well as if you have any community centers and indoor age appropriate play grounds close by, it will give him a chance to play in a novel but safe (and warm!) environment to burn off some steam. Good luck!

I just tried to involve my little one (safely) in whatever I was doing - if I was cleaning, he got to play with the vacuum cleaner and attachments (unplugged) or got a clean sponge of his own to help Mommy clean. If it is laundry time, it was a ride in the laundry basket or a pile of clean clothes to play in before they were folded. They are so interested in what big people do at that age that trying to include them amuses them and allows them to learn about what people do. Now my guy is 2 1/2 and could seriously vacuum the whole house by himself if I would let him and trots around after me with my bucket of bathroom cleaning stuff. He helps measure ingredients for recipes and knows how to do every little thing in the house. He even shows his grandma where stuff is and how to do things when she watches him.

My son loved playing with the tupperware and pulling board books off the shelf at this age. It kept him happy and was developmentally appropriate. We also started baths as entertainment at this age (he can go for an hour, I get to sit next to the tub and read).
Expose him to a variety of objects and keep adding more of the ones he is drawn to. Kitchen implements, jars, bottles, etc are far more interesting to my son (even at two) than most commercial toys.
We also got a lot of mileage out of winter walks, grocery shopping in a comfortable stroller etc. It was nice for both of us to take a break and watch rather than do.

KkatMpls just described my 2 year old perfectly! I also put some wooden magnets on the fridge, and those keep him busy for a few minutes while I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. You might also try to find a push toy that he can walk around with.

Fill and dump activities are a big hit with kids this age...you can find toys with shape sorters or soft fill and dump type things, or make your own with cars in a bucket, socks in a basket, etc. I found the trick was making my little one feel like he was doing something he wasn't really supposed to be doing and that kept him occupied for a good long time. Push toys are also fun for this age, noisy ball popper, etc. Good luck and think Spring!!

What would keep my then ten-month old baby busy forever (and her two year old sis), is a collection of caps (the bigger, no choking hazard) from juice bottles, detergent, ketchup, spices etc that were kept inside a mixing bowl in a low kitchen cabinet. It would literally entertain them both on a daily basis. They used spoons, pots, etc and had so much fun.

You can also put scrap pieces of fabric in an empty tissue box and have them take them all out and back in etc.

Anothe favorite is playing with all my different shaped and sized magnets on the fridge while I cook etc.

Good luck, it's not such an easy age!

Kendall, Thank-you so much for sending in this question! Our son is also ten months, and we are running into the same problem. I'm so thankful for all of the ideas from other parents!

One of our son's favorite activities is to throw/roll a large bouncy ball back and forth to us. He loves to crawl after it, jump on top of it, and toss it to us. The ball is as wide as his shoulders, so playing with it is great exercise! And, we found it at our local 'discount store' for $1. It's been a month so far, and he still loves to play every day!

A favorite activity of our son at this age was to take all of the clothes out of a basket of laundry one at a time -- I periodically snuck some items back in so it took a very long time for him to empty it completely! In addition to plundering your house for lots of interesting objects to explore, you might also visit the kitchen section of ikea for bowls, spatulas, etc. One final idea -- smelling time! with the spices in your spice cabinet.

When I was washing dishes I would add extra detergent and let the suds get big then skim them off the top (the suds alone are not too wet) and put them in into a bucket on the floor for my son to play with. He would "wash" plastic things of his own or just play with the bubbles. I agree that small children are really not that interested in toys, they are interested in what you are doing and if you can find a way to include them in the job you are doing then you will both be happy! Good luck

My daughter was fond of water. It was warm then; but I would fill my biggest pot with water and give her ladles, cups, spoons and set her down and she'd go town--this was on our deck and supervised. Water might be a little messy inside; but you might try a bin of rice or dried beans or corn meal instead. If you got one of those lidded containers you can just keep it on a shelf for your child, you can bury things in the beans--like spools, little cars (things big enough not to choke on). Putting things in things in thing: simple as small tupperware into bigger tupperware, cars into a basket, balls into a bowl was also a hit. And I agree about a push toy with a basket. At that age, my daughter again would pull up and "walk with the aid of her cart" She'd stop and put things like wash clothes or a shoe in the cart and push it around.

I've personally never done this with my little ones, but at some point I read about a mom who would go thru the house drawer by drawer with their tot (not all in one day, but maybe 1-2/day), letting their curiosity roam, touch things, pull things out, show them what things are etc and throw things out/spring clean in the process. Sounded like a good way to get organized to me!

Oh my goodness, great question! My son is 5 months old and gets super bored and frustrated because he can't go where he wants to. Great idea to dedicate a "safe" draw full of tupperware for your little one! I will try to manage rearranging my kitchen drawers tomorrow, if he lets me out of his sight! ;)

I also have a ten-months old son. I'm staying at home, so I have to get creative to entertain him as well.

So far, I have discovered that not giving him too many toys is a good idea. He focuses on one, instead of going from one to the next. I also change location a lot: his bedroom, the living room, the home office. He has different toys everywhere.

Ikea wooden blocks, and colorful blocks in general are a huge hit. It can occupy him for easily 30 minutes, which is a long time at that age.

My son loved to pull the tissues out of a Kleenex box, one at a time. If I really needed him to be entertained for a while, I would give him a box a let him go to town.

A dishpan with sudsy water and a bunch of toys or tupperware to "wash" was always fun, too.

Our day care center had the kids "fingerpaint" with tinted oatmeal. Put a little food coloring in warm oatmeal and let him smear it all over the high chair tray (and himself).

Of course, some of these things teach lessons you don't really want them to learn, but when you're desperate, you're desperate!

I concur with the theme of all of these responses, which is they love to play with 'real things' over toys. It's cliche but my 12mo daughter would much rather play with the box than the toy, so I keep a collection of boxes, caps, wooden spoons etc.. When I'm getting dressed in the morning, she plays in my closet with the lower basket of socks & stockings. I rotate her regular toys on a weekly basis to keep her engaged in them, but inevitably I reach for whether 'real thing' is handy and safe to keep her interested. My own mother always had a drawer in the kitchen that was mine as a toddler (far from the dangerous stuff) and had things like spoons and plastic bowls. My kitchen isn't arranged this way (too small), but I'm clearing out some room on the bottom of the pantry to put a basket of similar things for my daughter to play with.

I was just emailing friends and cruising the internet the past two days for the same issue. My daughter is a little older than your son (1 year) but she just started walking too and am also having trouble entertaining her all day. There are already too many toys in my house sitting there collecting dust.
Yesterday, I was doing laundry and put the dirty clothes next to the basket on the ground and told her to put them in the basket. She was soooo eager to help and actually got them all in the basket, no problems.
Then I took her downstairs, sat her on the dryer and pulled clothes out of the basket, put them in front of her and had her push them into the washer. Again, she loved it. I also let her throw the Downy ball in.
Finally when the clothes were done, I let her stand next to the dryer door and I put the wet clothes on the door and let her push them in.
She really loved helping Mommy and it killed two birds....entertaining her and a load of laundry....DONE!
So now I have been finding lots of little simple chores for her to help with (like throwing stuff in the garbage, wiping her table down with a sponge, etc.)
I think this is the trick. I hope it helps because I feel your pain.

I realize this falls into the category of buying something, but a toy shopping cart will let him use his new walking skill, and he'll have fun filling it up from around the house.

I also say the kleenex box game. My kids loved it. Would take them all out then I would stuff them back in. This game would go on over and over again.

At that age, I found going to a baby gym program like Gymboree twice a week was worth whatever I had to pay for it. Both my kids also enjoyed their indoor ride-on car/trike thing, and would go round and round the house on it. Bath time was usually a big hit, and I would sometimes give them a bath in the middle of the day.

measuring cups or paper cups and plates, placing sofa cushions on the floor for climbing and rolling, hiding objects easy for him to find, and he's not too little for wooden puzzles with simple shapes to take out and put back in. vocabulary flashcards also entertained my little guys on my lap at that age. Also learning to roll a ball back and forth, and a good time to introduce a first riding or push/pull toy of some kind.

I usually would grab something wherever I was and give it to him. There's a new toy of some sort in every room! A brush, wooden spoon, some sticky notes, our bumpy dryer balls, paper towel tube, a cardboard box from the recycle bin. Anything that wasn't a choking hazard was fair game when my son was that age. For whatever reason, he loved the boxes that contained rolls of parchment paper in the kitchen. That, and anything that made an unusual noise. Good luck! It's tough in the winter when they're not very independent yet!

Don't hate me, but Baby Einstein and Classical Baby DVDs were a huge help when I needed 20 min. I limited the time my son watched TV to maybe 1x / day, but he really liked them. One Baby Einstein DVD really did teach him shapes. He also loves kneebouncers.com where there are some hit-any-key games for babies to play. I also created a rice bin in an under the bed storage container. We put it on a sheet and he plays in it like a sandbox. I think at 10 mos, his fave activity though was stacking. Haba Sticky Blocks are perfect for that age.

My 13-month old and I are in the same situation. I got him a bunch of books by Priddy: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=priddy+book&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=2246524331&ref=pd_sl_zny19rtj8_b

- which he sits and reads to me while I'm trying to be productive. He also has several shape sorters and bead roller-coasters (or "fast!" as he likes to call them...) I got him a few dollar store kitchenutensils that he can bang around the house, his favorite being the wire whisk. And if all else fails, 24 minutes of Yo Gabba Gabba holds his attention while I make dinner.

When my daughter started walking I started rotating her toy and book bins to different rooms in the house every couple of days. I'd also put some toys in the closet for a week or two and then bring them back out. She would see her toy bin in a different room of the house along with toys I'd brought back out and she'd go crazy exploring. It really works.

I definitely recommend a sensory box. Check out all you need to know here:

http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2001/01/entertain-your-kids-and-get-stuff-done.html

If he'll stay put in a high chair that's a safe somewhat contained place for water play. Our high chair tray is deep, I dump some water on it and let my 10 month old go to town with a variety of cheerios, puffed rice, banana, baby cereal, anything with texture that will squish and spread. I also put a little water in her kiddie cups and let her dump it on the tray and all over herself, always a hit. And a mess! But fun.

I'm also a huge fan of stainless prep cups like these at C&B. Small enough to handle, no sharp edges, both my kids loved them at this age, they make great music and great teethers/feeding bowls too http://www.crateandbarrel.com/kitchen-and-food/prep-utensils/stainless-steel-large-condiment-prep-cup/s445479