Grab Bag:Put several interesting, quiet items in a fabric bag. You might put in a squishy ball, small book, or small Legos. Let the child explore the items while sitting on the cot. Change the items often so it is always an interesting treat.

Word Play:Put Scrabble tiles in a fabric bag. Encourage the child to spell friend’s names on the mat. If the tiles are too loud, look for inexpensive letter patches at the craft store.

Silent I Spy:Hide several objects at different heights around the room.

Give the child a crayon and a piece of paper with pictures of each item. Encourage the child to circle each item he or she can find in the room…but the child must stay on the cot!

Felt Puppets:If you have felt board characters that match stories or rhymes the child knows, let the child play with these story props on the cot. Or place the child’s cot near a bookcase and cover the back of it in black felt so the child can play with his or her own felt board.

Feely Book:Before nap time, work with the child to create interesting books for nap time. Fill zipper-style plastic sandwich bags with themed items: leaves, photos of objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Hide special objects in each page. Bind the bags together and encourage the child to find the special objects.

Sock Sort:Encourage sorting and color matching. Provide the child with a bag of clean, colorful socks. Encourage the child to find mates for all the socks, make patterns with the socks, or simply enjoy the textures.

Texture Writing:Fill a gallon-size storage bag with colorful sand. Push all the air out, but leave some room in the bag. Double bag it and seal with packing tape. Encourage the child to write letters with her or his fingers on the textured bag.

Star Search:Place glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling or a surface near the child’s cot. Encourage her to find shapes or patterns in the stars.

Family Story Time:If you have safe headphones and a voice recorder with playback, ask the child’s parents to record messages or stories for the child to listen to during nap time.

Cot Creations:Give the child a ring- bound set of cards that show people in a variety of stretches (consider looking at yoga books). Encourage the child to try these stretches on his or her cot.