Top 10 Activities for Toddlers
Toddlers are innately busy little people that thrive on learning through play. Here are some fun ideas to do with your little ones that are super cheap but also are fantastic for their development.
1.Construction – Collect anything you think would be useful such as cereal boxes, paper towel rolls and nappy boxes. Get creative with your child and see what you can create together. A rocket ship? A robot? A princess?
2.Puppets – We all have a basket full of odd socks, why not sew on some buttons and loose thread to create some sock puppets. Involve your child in making them, this is half the fun!
3.Sensory – pop your child into some old clothes and let them get messy! You can use mud, shaving cream, add water to corn flour, play dough, rice. Nearly anything!
4.Posting – children love putting things inside other things and taking them out again. Over and over and over. This is called posting. You can cut a hole in a box for milk lids to go into, or scarves inside an old formula tin, or golf ball into a cup.
5.Cleaning – yep, you read that correctly. Take a bucket of soapy water outside or on the deck with some hard plastic toys and see just how much fun your child has. Add a whisk to make it extra bubbly can be fun too!
6.Music – in our house we are forever dancing up a storm in the kitchen! You could use rice in plastic bottles or metal saucepans with wooden spoons to make your own musical instruments too.
7.What’s missing – object permanence is the understanding that things continue to exist even if you can’t see them anymore. You can support this skill through playing games with your children where you line some toys up, take one away when your child has their eyes closed then encourage your child to identify the missing item.
8.Craft – get out the paints, plenty of paper and encourage your child to get creative. Add resources like pencils or textas. Even putting paint onto make up pads and encouraging your child to hit it with a hammer is lots of messy fun!
9.Gardening – plant trees together, have them help you weed the garden, pick flowers and deliver them to neighbours.
10.Read – reading with your child every day has a significant affect on their cognitive skills and ability to read in later life. Snuggle up with a book, use your sock puppets, put on funny voices and share your enjoyment of reading with your child.