The Everything Toddler Activities Book (4 page)

Children usually enjoy water play. Here is a way to make bath time a fun time.

Simply add the toy fish to the bath water for your toddler to catch with the net. If you don’t have toy fish, you can cut out some simple creatures from craft foam, or even a kitchen sponge!

Your toddler needs his rest. It is recommended that your toddler get twelve to fourteen hours of sleep in a twenty-four-hour period. It is often very difficult for young children to shift gears. They are unable to go from being active and wound-up to calm and restful without a transitional time. In other words, it is unrealistic to expect that your toddler will be able to go directly from chasing butterflies to a long and peaceful nap. Try to have a set routine with calming activities in place to assist your child in unwinding and preparing to rest.

Try this to help calm your child before bedtime.
You can also massage your child’s hands and feet this way.

1. Ask your child to lie still on his stomach. Direct him to pay attention to what he feels.
   
2. Use your finger to draw on your child’s back. For younger children, make shapes and spirals. For the older child, you can draw specific shapes, letters, or numbers and ask him to guess what they are. Use lotion for a variation.
   

Tucking in your child at bedtime can be part of a soothing ritual.

1. Spread the blanket out on top of your child’s made bed.
   
2. Have your child lie on top of the blanket on one side of the bed.
   
3. Tuck the near side of the blanket over him and gently roll him across the bed until he is wrapped up in the blanket roll. Unroll your child before you leave him to go to sleep.
   

Help your child use his imagination to conquer his fears and get a good night’s rest.

1. Have your toddler decorate the bottle.
   
2. Tell the child that this is now a bottle of monster repellent. Let him spray wherever he thinks there could be monsters lurking!
   

Counting sheep is a well-known way to cure insomnia. Try this cute game to help lull your toddler to sleep. Supervision is needed if your child is still prone to putting things in his mouth.

1. Tell your child that the cotton balls are little sheep. Show him how he can herd them all on the pillow one by one. Perhaps they can hide under the covers, too!
   
2. Be sure to remind him that sheep are timid and that if he gets up or makes noise, the sheep will be frightened. If you are ambitious, you can use craft pompoms and draw on eyes for more realistic sheep.
   

Mealtimes can be a great way to interact with your toddler and make her feel involved. When you include your child in mealtime activities and preparation, she is more likely to eat the food that you are serving. Additionally, cooking activities will help her learn about nutrition, as well as science and math concepts such as fractions, measurement, evaporation, and more.

Your child will enjoy creating her own placemat that she can use at every mealtime.
She may want to make one for each person in your family.

1. Have your child decorate both sides of the poster board with crayons and markers.
   
2. Use clear contact paper to laminate her creation.
   

This activity is a lot easier than you would imagine.
While making butter, your child is developing large motor skills and observing scientific changes as well.

1. Put the heavy cream in the jar with a marble. Cover jar with lid.
   
2. Have your child shake the jar vigorously until butter forms. Enjoy your fresh butter on some hot rolls!
   

Your toddler will enjoy decorating her toast with many colors.
This is fun to make and fun to eat!

1. Divide the milk into 4 or more portions in small containers. An empty Styrofoam egg carton works well.
   
2. Help your child place a few drops of food coloring in each milk portion to create the colors she desires.
   
3. Have child use the cotton swabs as paintbrushes to paint colorful milk designs on the bread. Be sure they don’t get too soggy.
   
4. Toast the bread under a broiler.
   

Pizza may very well be the most popular food among children.
Here is a way to involve your child in mealtimes and spark her creativity, too.

1. Help your toddler pat the biscuit dough out into a circle, then help her spread on the sauce and cheese.
   
2. Let your child choose and arrange the toppings for her pizza. One idea is to use to pepperoni slices and a green pepper slice to make a smiley face.
   
3. Bake the pizza in a toaster oven or under the broiler until the cheese melts.
   

A typical day involves more than waking, eating, dressing, bathing, and playing.
A chunk of the day is also taken up by transition times, going from one routine to another. These simple activities will help you keep your child on task and motivated. Cleanup and chore times will also go more smoothly with these ideas.

Here is a cute way to get your toddler up and moving in the morning.

Teach your child this simple rhyme and the motions that correspond with it.

Bend and stretch
Reach for the sky
Stand on tippy toes
Oh so high

Bend and stretch
Reach for the stars
Wave your arms
Both near and so far

Cleanup time does not have to be a battle. Simply make cleaning up a game!

1. Explain to your child that all of his toys have homes, or special places where they belong. Then explain that he needs to make sure none of his toys get lost and must help each one find its home again. (It is helpful to have special places designated for your child’s belongings. You may want to label shelves and cubbies with pictures to help your child match what belongs there.)
   
2. Guide your child by having him pick up items by category. For example, you might say, “Let’s pick up all the red things first.” Alternately, set a timer and have him try to speed-clean to beat the clock.
   

Just about any activity or routine is more fun when you are singing.

Make up different verses to the tune of “Pop! Goes the Weasel.” Here’s an example:

This is the way we put on our shoes
Put on our shoes, put on our shoes
This is the way we put on our shoes,
So early in the morning.

Other potential verses might involve how to wash our face, wait for the bus, climb into bed, and so on. You can change the time of day as appropriate—to “late in the evening,” for example.

The toddler years are an in-between time in terms of development. Your child is no longer a baby, but she is not yet fully a big child, either. You will see your child’s interest in, and possibly her insistence on, becoming a big girl. “Me do” or “Let me” may be a common request from her. You can give your toddler a chance to feel competent by enlisting her help with your activities. Toddlers love to imitate, and yours can learn new skills while bonding with you.

Laundry time can be a fun time to interact with your young child
while teaching her sorting and classification skills.

Show your toddler how to sort socks. You can have her put socks in piles according to color, style, or size. See if your toddler is able to match up sock pairs.

Most toddlers enjoy water play, so they will truly love feeling
as if they are helping you with this fun activity.

1. The next time you are washing dishes or other items, set up a bin with some soapy water.
   
2. Give your toddler a sponge, and let her wash her toys. Alternatively, let your child join you in hosing off the patio or even washing the car!
   

Give your toddler a chance to feel like a big kid. Your child’s interest in imitation and interaction
with you is all the motivation she needs to help out with the chores.

Buy your child a little whisk broom to help with sweeping. She may be able to help push the vacuum cleaner, but many toddlers are frightened by the sound. Additionally, you can give your child a damp rag and let her help you with the dusting.

There may be many times throughout the day when you’ll need or want to keep your toddler busy with an activity. Perhaps he has grown tired of his new toy, or maybe you just want him to stay off the kitchen floor that you just finished cleaning. Whether you have five minutes or an entire afternoon, the activities in this section will fill the bill.

You will be surprised to see how much young children like to fill and dump containers.
An added plus is that this activity helps them learn about cause and effect.

1. Seat your toddler on a blanket or rug.
   
2. Give him the containers and the little toys. Demonstrate the game by putting a few items into a container and then dumping them out.
   
3. Give your toddler the containers and let him fill and dump them on his own.
   

You can set this game up in a snap. Not only is it a lot of fun,
it will also help your child with problem-solving skills.

1. Divide all the pairs, placing one mate in the box and one in plain view somewhere else in the room.
   
2. Remove an item from the box. Show it to your toddler and ask him to find its mate and make a pair.
   

This is a great outdoor activity. It is up to you to “sell” this activity, and once you do,
your toddler’s imagination will take over and make this a lot of fun.

1. Take your child outside, or seat him in the bathtub.
   
2. Tell him that the water is imagination paint and he can paint whatever he wants.
   
3. As he paints, ask him to describe what colors and patterns he is making.