Keeping Little Ones Busy

How do you keep your little ones busy when you're trying to get work done? I'm always trying to find ways other than TV to keep Annabelle busy. This can be difficult with her because she wants help with everything. She gets frustrated when she can't color in the lines of her coloring book and when she can't draw a picture exactly how she likes it, so she tries to get me to color and draw for her.

I'm keeping a few journals for her to play/color/draw/whatever with and it's working pretty well so far. Sometimes I'll draw a little something for her, like a circle and tell her make a design with it. This seems to work better than just handing her a piece of paper and crayons and telling her to draw something. Annabelle can get overwhelmed with too many choices and is easily overstimulated so I've learned to just keep it simple.

So far we've just used stamps and a couple ink pads, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, stickers, etc and I only give her one type of supply at a time so she's not overwhelmed by too many selections.

Buttons have also been super entertaining. Really any small objects that she can sort through and line up are great for her.  Puzzles are good, but I have to catch her in the right mood or else I'll be stuck putting them together for her. I'm thinking of getting her some of these too. The big mixed-in bucketful and some empty containers for sorting will keep her busy for days, I'm sure! 

How do you keep your little ones entertained? 

Lacey