Your beautiful baby has now entered the toddler stage. Your child is fully mobile and you're constantly finding yourself having to stop what you're doing to redirect them, to have them not getting the wrong things, to keep them occupied and keep them safe.
I’ve been there and today, I'm going to show you the best toddler activities that you can have on your tool box, to keep your children occupied and have them learn through play.
ForNature Art Activities for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, you can click on this video.
On this blog, we are going to start with art and sensory activities. If you want your child to be immersed in play for hours, these activities are the best and they don't always need to be messy, I'm going to show you how.
Think about when you're at the beach and you are putting your feet in the sand, or you are dipping your toes in the water, there is a reason why you get more relation, than when you are just laying in your sofa or bed. We as humans are designed to enjoy and learn more, when we involve all our senses.
Additionally, the reason why the followingactivities workgreat for toddlers is because they are tailored to Children's schemas. Schemas are patterns of repetition that children use to understand the world around them. For example, when a child is staring at the washing machine going around and around or maybe they are transporting their toys from one place to another instead of playing with them, that doesn't mean the child doesn't know how to play with their toys, they're just showing signs of the particular schemas.
Activity #1 Toy Printing:
For this activity you're going to need cars, trucks, or anything that goes that you might already have in your playroom. You're also going to need blocks or Legos, a container with paint and a tray with paper. What you're going to do is let your child dip their car into the paint and let them just play with it. What's great about these activities is that they're recognizing a material and they're learning how to use it in a different way. Additionally, they're learning hand coordination and skills that are going to later help them develop handwriting skills. For the lego or blocks variation, you can start doing print with the Lego and then you can start talking about what shape you are doing? What color is that shape? and how many shapes have we done. If you have a round shape, then you can start talking about okay which ones are squares and which ones are circles? So you see that you're learning a lot more than just just art, your child is learning through play.
Activity #2 Dry Pouring:
For this activity you're going to need a tray with two containers, preferably stainless steel or clear, because when they are clear containers the child is able to see what's happening inside the container; but if they are stainless steel, they hear the sound every time they pour the material back and forth. I have here pasta, but you can use beans you can use rice any ingredient that you already have in your kitchen that you feel comfortable giving to your child and you're just going to demonstrate the activity first and then let them pour.
If you want your child to learn how to pour without dealing with messes, dry pouring is the best way to go and when your child is a toddler is the best time to introduce the activity. As your child gets older, you can substitute the containers for two bowls and introduce the twisters. You're just going to let your child have fun transfering the material back and forth and again they are working on their hand coordination, fine motor skills that are going to later help them develop handwriting skill.
Another variation of this activity you may introduce a spoon and you can let your child just transfer the material with a spoon back and forth.
Activity #3 water play
The top activity that I would recommend to any parent of a toddler is water play, because they are getting immersed into the activity with all their senses. They can understand what wet vrs. being dry feels like. They start feeling the water on their hands, they also hear the water when they run it back and forth and they can see what the water you know where the water goes and how liquid moves versus solid they're learning so much and they're just having fun. For this activity all you're going to need is a deep tray with water, some fruit and veggies that you already have in your kitchen and then any scrubbers and smaller containers that the child can use to spread water into the vegetables. If you don't want these to get too messy I would recommend just adding a little bit of water in there, just so that the child can feel the water in their hands especially the younger they are the more mesmerized they get with this activity.
I can tell you this is a favorite in our studio and I always always when there's classes with toddlers, I always have a station with water. I would also suggest keeping a rag because not only it's going to help you keep the mess contain, but also toddlers love just feeling Empowered that they're doing something on their own and they can then learn how to just clean their own mess and what does it feel like when they're utilizing the rag to clean the water. In fact you're going to see a lot of toddlers love just then deeping the rag into the container and if that's the case, just let them, because they are learning through that experience.
If you're a little hesitant about introducing paint or any other sensory activity with your say water is the best way to go and it is important for them to learn the difference between wet and dry before you even start Patty training so just use the tray and you're going to be good to go.
Activity number 4: books
This is so important from the early stages of your child's age, not only to increase the probability that they're going to like reading at a later age, but also you're creating this bonding with them when you read together and you're improving language skills. Remember that repetition is key.
What you want to do is place the books at their reach, because even if the child doesn't know how to read they are learning so much feeling the different textures of the book depending on what book it is and just looking at the pictures and immersing in such a big imagination, especially if it is a book that you have read several times together; your child is not only going to make the connection to the story, but it's also going to make the connection to you.
Activity number five: scarves and music.
I believe the most underrated toy for children is scarves because they don't only get to use them to learn language and learned coordination pulling them up and down or throwing them, but also they use them to put them inside a container and get them out so it's just this schemas that they're constantly working on. The best that you can do is when you're together when you on the time that you designed to be together, you play with them singing songs, you move the scarfs, you practice the language skills and then, when you have stuff to do, your kiddos are going to be more likely to grab those scarves and play by themselves, turn the music on because you've done it with them.
Activity number 6: Nature
By far, the most important thing you can do to keep your little ones occupied and learning is by spending time in nature. There are times where you can go outside and bond as a family, connect while you talk about the things that you see, the smells, how much you love it and there are other times where you can just give them some water, a few shovels, trucks and they will play for hours. It's good for them, it's good for you.
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