Wednesday, March 21, 2012

More fun, safe, and affordable activities

For TODDLERS

activities for toddlers


1) Play With Bubbles

Go outside with your little one. Encourage your child to crawl or toddle after the blowing bubbles and reach for them on their own. Bubble games boost eye-hand coordination and gross motor skills, as well as language development ("Wow, that big one is really high up!")

2) Closet Musician

Fill a storage space or cabinet (preferably near the floor) with a variety of "instruments," including pots, metal bowls, wooden spoons, metal lids or other toy musical instruments. Then encourage your child to help herself to what's inside and give impromptu concerts. Clap your hands and dance along as you encourage her to experiment with playing louder and softer or faster and slower. Add actual music to the mix so she can play along. Making music improves coordination, listening skills, and an understanding of rhythm. It also encourages an active curiosity (what else can I bang on?) and sociability as she entertains her audience.

3) Stacking Game

Gather big, lightweight, homemade blocks constructed from paper bags and milk cartons. Start by filling brown grocery bags with crumpled newspaper, then use masking tape to seal the open ends shut. To add some smaller blocks into the mix, collect a few empty milk or orange-juice cartons, open the tops, and cut the corner creases to create flaps. Then tape the flaps down to form a box. Then ask your little one to help you decorate your blocks with markers, stickers, construction or wrapping paper, or crayons. Building and stacking boost both fine and gross motor skills as well as eye-hand coordination. Plus, these activities help a toddler learn about spatial relationships and shapes

4) Building Blocks
 Encourage your child to stack his blocks as high as he can, or place them end to end to form a wall — or even a fort. Show him how to place smaller blocks atop bigger ones, and let him experiment with reversing that order. This activity provides lessons in cause and effect, as well as size and shape discrimination. It also boosts spatial awareness, problem solving, and fine motor skills.
5) Beach Balls     
 Inflate a not-too-big beach ball and begin by sitting on the floor and gently rolling it back and forth between you and your little one. Show your child how to spread his legs so the ball will roll into his legs, and keep the ball slightly underinflated to make it easier for him to "catch." This helps builds eye-hand coordination, gross motor skills, and social skills as your child learns to play with another person in a noncompetitive way. 
toddlers with beach ball 

16 comments:

  1. I always forget how much my boys love doing these types of things. They seem so old to me, especially when I see them playing on the ipod/ipad, reading books, and things like that. But they will sit for HOURS coloring, or playing with legos, or wooden blocks, or a simple rubber bouncy ball... or a card board box. We just forget about these things I guess. We generally aren't brave enough to do the closet concert, but I know my boys would love it, so maybe we should! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems kids really do grow up too fast! Even though Taylor is only 7 months old I cannot believe how quickly she has grown and changed from when we first brought her home. For me this just proves how important it is to take advantage of those moments that you have with them and try to do the things that will benefit their development.

      Delete
  2. These sound like really fun things to do! The bubble one is a favorite of mine. Having girls, they took lots of bubble baths and had fun with the bubbles. They use to put the bubbles on their face like a beard, pile them on their heads like a hat, even made bubble dresses. They loved blowing bubbles outside too and loved chasing them, trying to pop them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is soo funny! Taylor really enjoys her baths so I will have to try those as she gets older.

      Delete
  3. The building block idea using paper grocery bags and milk cartons is great. It sounds fun just to create them and then more fun in playing with them and they are so big. Trying to stack large on small illustrating cause and effect and having the beach ball under inflated- good to know- . Wish I had this info 30 years ago. Great activities and cheap.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think parents should be aware of activities to do for their kids that are going to be affordable. Parents can do these instead of having to spend a lot of money on toys or other games.

      Delete
  4. All great ideas. The other day our family used plastic cups and a (soft) ball to play bowling. My little kids loved it. We also played "guess which cup the little toy is under."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fantastic ideas Jamie. I will have to try these out. I love how easy these activities are... thank you for sharing:)

      Delete
  5. All such fun ideas that keep them away from the TV. I'll have to try these when my little one is older. I know when I worked at a preschool some of the developmental activities we tested on were the following (this was for a three year old):

    Catching a small t-shirt with both hands, and then with one.
    Placing an object beneath, on-top, and beside the cup.
    Having them name objects and things that are basic from a book: horse, flower, truck, etc.
    Matching cards: Circle to a circle, square to a square, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing this Brittnee. I can tell that doing these things can be fun for them and also help or assess their development:)

      Delete
  6. I like the activities listed in the last two postings, as they are simple ways of encouraging activity and stimulating the senses, without the overstimulation of some of the technological/media devices available. It's probably a losing battle, but I think it would be great if more kids, and adults for that matter, could be entertained by the simple pleasures. I spent many a happy hour legos, blocks, empty cardboard boxes, etc. We didn't have video games available until a relatively late age. I hated and resented this at the time, but now feel that it was a good thing in forcing me to develop other strategies for keeping myself entertained. I think of the movie grownups, where they're at a beautiful lake side cabin, and the kids are complaining of nothing to do, wanting to stay in and play video games. That mentality seems all too prevalent in the youth of today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also spent hours as a kid easily entertained with things. My entertainment consisted of playing with my barbies and dolls. I also read A LOT. I read the same books over and over. If it weren't for my parents putting me in sports I probably would have spent all of my time reading. I think it always goes back to moderation in things so I am glad that they put me in sports so I could develop other interests besides reading. The grownups movie is a great example of how some kids these days would rather play video games all day than enjoy nature. Why can't kids realize that playing outside is fun too?

      Delete
  7. Great Ideas Lauren!! It makes me so happy to see other parents excited and engaged. Being a parent is exhausting, but it's worth every exhausting moment. And our children will be better people with every better decision we make. In turn that makes the world a better place, and I appreciate every single parent who puts that effort in. We all know of the reality in this sad world, that a lot of people go through life or their childhood without the proper tools and experiences. Fortunately there are many people putting out great information to help spread better awareness and for that I thank you. Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I will definitely teach my older kids to do these activities with any future kids we have. That way I will be able to watch more tv and play more video games.

    In all seriousness, these sound like good activities to do. Thanks for the tip.

    ReplyDelete