How To Keep Your Toddler Amused For Free
Keeping Toddlers Busy Is The Key To Their Happiness!
Sep 12, 2008
During their second year, children begin to appreciate the world around them. They have keen, inquiring minds and are eager to experience life to the full.
Here are some ideas to keep them smiling throughout the week.
Get Arty with Your Toddler:
This is the age for getting them to produce their first art – a welcome addition to the baby book and grandma’s fridge door!
- Initially use big crayons, which are easy for them to hold and make their mark without too much pressure. Experiment with dotting, scribbling and holding their hand, drawing first shapes together.
- Another favorite is painted hand and foot prints. Kids love experimenting with color and design and these make cheerful pictures for the wall. Older kids love to look back at their tiny hand and foot prints so be sure to put some of these aside in a safe place.
- Paint some large, smooth pebbles together. You can varnish these later and use them around the house and garden as a cheerful accessory.
- Put their pictures up in their room and around the house. Give them a big response and let them bask in that feeling of pride.
Learning with Your Toddler is Fun:
- There are many computer games designed for this age. They include songs, sounds and images which are triggered by the use of the mouse. These activities are a fun introduction to the computer and help your toddler learn the basics of mouse control.
- Even babies appreciate being read to, but at this age, toddlers can become more involved. Buy books with lots of repetition, rhyme, sounds and first words. Stop reading at a pertinent point for them to make the appropriate noise or say the next word. Get them used to turning the pages themselves and interacting with their book.
- Reading is a lovely activity that brings you physically close together and enables you to build the foundations for your child to develop an interest in reading and an enjoyment of books.
- Blast out some music and have fun singing along, doing the actions and dancing about. Clap out rhythms and encourage your toddler to express themselves in their own unique way. There are plenty of educational tapes with songs about letters and numbers. Experiment with different types of music and different speeds and rhythms.
- Have a musical instrument session. Buy a small drum, xylophone, bells, tambourine or any other instruments which you think your child will like. Sit down together and have fun banging and shaking.
Get Out and About with Your Toddler
The local park is a great place to hang out, with more to do than play on the swings and slide. Think of all those different smells, sounds, textures and colors – there is something to please all the senses.
- Depending on the season there are a range of things to do. Get a selection of leaves and petals and examine their feel, shape and smell together. Bring them home to make a picture with later.
- In the Autumn, crunch through the leaves and throw them up in the air, watching them float back down.
- Let them do all those things which you may not encourage when out on the street; splashing in puddles, walking on the walls, etc. Let them experience physical freedom and enjoy the space around them.
- Make a little tick box list with a photo of several animals on it. Look for squirrels, birds, cats, dogs etc. and tick them off together as you see them.
- Pack a picnic; kids love to eat outside and having a snack out somehow transforms your trip to the park into a proper outing.
- To finish off the day, why not take a tube of bubbles with you and have your toddler chase them – a surefire way to raise a smile and get some exercise at the same time.
Get wet! If hot out, use a paddling pool, if too cold, the bath tub will have to do.
- Put in some of your kitchen equipment; cups, the colander, jugs, a funnel etc. and have fun playing with the water.
- Bring a few items that float too, perhaps a small, light ball, and push it along to each other.
- Another favorite is using a drinking straw to blow bubbles in the water or to shoot it out (this one’s best for outside!)
Toddlers are hard work but, at the same time, such a lot of fun. Keep yours amused with these simple, free but enjoyable activities. Build some lovely memories together and enjoy this fleeting part of their lives, which many parents look back on as a special age.
The copyright of the article How To Keep Your Toddler Amused For Free in Infant/Toddler Play is owned by Sharona Benjamin. Permission to republish How To Keep Your Toddler Amused For Free in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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