List of Toddler Activities

Toddler Development, Stimulation and Activities (Mostly suited for 1 – 3 years)

Gross Motor Development

• Play ball games.  Throwing, kicking, bouncing, rolling!
• Toss bean bags
• Dance to music together!
• Climb in, over, under and through things!
• Make an obstacle course using cushions and pillows
• Hold your toddler on a gym ball and do movements
• Play ‘ball’ with a balloon
• Let them balance – walking on a plank, or on big tractor tyres, or along little garden walls (always support them!)
• Give your toddler colourful scrap paper and a small hole puncher.  Show them how to use it.
•  Make tents with furniture and big sheets to climb into
• Make tunnels with chairs for them to climb through
•  Jungle gyms, swings, sandpits 

Fine Motor Development

• Fill a few small containers with different textured things, like popcorn, rice-krispies and raisins.  Let your toddler empty the container, and then pick up the small individual snacks and put them back again.  (Munching along the way!)  This encourages picking small objects up, and can help with sorting too.
•  Stacking rings and cups, or building blocks
•  Jigzaw puzzles, or wooden shape puzzles
• Stringing macaroni onto a string
•  Stick stickers on a paperplate or surface, and let them pick the stickers off
•  Scribble with crayons
•  Tickle with feather dusters
• Play with cellophane
• Put grains of rice inside a deflated balloon
• Bury plastic animals in a bowl of sand, or a bowl of material etc, and let the toddler find the animals
• Give the toddler containers with lids and screw tops and show them how to open and close them
• Play with fridge magnets on the fridge or on a tin tray

Language Skills

• Talk, talk, talk to your toddler.  Tell them what you’re doing.  Tell them what colour things are.  Count things.  Explain shapes.  Use descriptive words, and let them participate / feel / experience:  “feel the cement is hot” “feel the tiles are cold” “feel the rain is wet” “touch the soft blanket” “taste the sweet grapes”
• Copy sounds that your toddler is making, and then encourage them to make sounds that you make
• Using a doll or another person, point out body parts
•  Show pictures of facial expressions and point out happy, sad, etc
• Show them photographs of loved ones and talk about them
•  Let your toddler learn words and say them – don’t let them get used to just pointing out what they want, ask them “what”
• Play word games with your toddler, like pointing at an object, starting to say the word, and letting them complete it
•  Read books!  Read lots!

 Social and Emotional Development

•  Arrange playdates with other toddlers
• Put words to their facial expressions or actions: “oh you got a fright at the loud noise!” “are you upset that you have to put the toys away”, “wow, isn’t that so pretty!”
•  Give them time and space when interacting with other toddlers
•  Teach them to share – when eating finger snacks, ask for a bite, thank them for sharing.  Set an example by sharing with them.
•  Talk about feelings – tell them you love them often, tell them how you feel when you are tired, irritated, happy, excited.
• Massage your toddler
•  Teach your toddler respect for people and animals by setting the best example

Messy Play

• Messy play gives kids lots of opportunities to learn and develop. 
• Painting: finger paints, hand or foot prints, big paintbrushes, using cut up sponges or materials to paint with
• Playdough
•  Maizena mixed with water
•  Custard
•  Jelly
•  Shaving foam
•  Baby powder
• Glitter
• Cooked spaghetti
•  Rice, cereals
• Shredded paper
• Decorate marie biscuits
• Make ‘slime’ (using grated soap and water!)
• Make iced marie biscuits
•  Oats & syrup
•  Smash (instant mashed potato)
•  Sand
• Make fruit kebabs
• Bark chips
• Water bowls with small containers, cups and utensils in to pour water in and out of

Creative Activities

• Do lots of hand print and foot print art!  These are great fun for little ones, and make such great keepsakes!
•  Let your toddler scribble with crayons on paper
• Let your toddler make birthday, Christmas, I-Love-You cards for loved ones
• Play scavenger hunt with your toddler, with themes such as shapes, opposites or textures.
• Let toddlers taste different tastes and explain to them what they are tasting
•  Create a home-made band out of pots and spoons!
• Encourage your toddler to sniff at things, tell them what they are smelling
• Peg-a-box:  Put clothes pegs around an icecream container or similar, and let the toddler remove them.  Show them how to put them back again.
• Have two buckets – put them some distance away from each other.  Fill one bucket with objects, such as socks, and let toddler transfer all of them into the empty bucket.  And back again.
• Play with dried leaves – make piles, jump through them.  Stick them on a paper with a tree drawn on it.
• Bake cookies – involve the toddler in the process and the decorations afterwards
• Play memory games like hide and seek – hiding objects in the same place in a room
•  Dance with scarves or ribbons

Outdoors / Outings

• Go for a walk.  Take a basket or container with, let your toddler collect little items along the way – stones, leaves, sticks.  Talk about them.  Ask questions, “how does it feel”, “what colour is it”
•  Let your toddler do “people-watching”.  Whether it’s people riding bicycles, shopping, exercising, playing games – the movement really stimulates these little brains.
• Blow bubbles – let your toddler catch them, and let your toddler try and blow bubbles by themselves
•  Let them walk in the rain – with raincoats, boots and umbrellas
•  Let them walk on grass and in sand, tell them about the texture
• Point out flowers, trees, birds – make them aware and appreciative of nature
•  Lie on the grass and point out clouds
• Run and chase each other!

Car trips

• Pack a ‘goodie bag’ – a drawstring type bag, filled with small toys like cars, shapes, Purity lids, different textures, ribbons with bells on, etc.  This provides entertainment by unpacking and examining each object.
• Offer snacks that take time to eat – like a container of cheerios, or biltong sticks
• In-car DVD player
• Books
• Nursery rhyme CD’s

Edible Paint and Soap Slime fun!

Mia's on school holiday this week, and we've had a playdate with friends here at home, we've been for icecream at the dairy farm and we've made iced marie biscuits for my grandfather.

Today I didn't have any clients booked, and decided to just do some arts & crafts stuff at home.  I came across a whole lot of ideas, and thought we'd see how far we get with doing as many as possible today.  Ha!  We only did two:

Edible Paint:
 - 2 tablespoons of sugar
 - 1/2 cup of cornflour
 - 3 cups cold water
 - food colouring

Stir sugar and cornflour together, then slowly add water and heat over medium heat until mixture thickens.  It will thicken further when it cools.  Divide into four containers and add food colouring.  Paint with brushes or fingers!

This takes quite long to prepare - it took about 10 minutes to mix and cook, and then about 20 minutes to cool down.  While cooling, we prepped the next activity:

Soap Slime:

 - half a grated Lux soap
 - 3 cups of boiling water
 - food colouring

Mix boiling water and grated soap together to melt it - we used the electric mixer.  Add in food colouring. 

It went all soapy and bubbly - and then it also needed to be left alone to thicken and cool and become slimy.

The girlies enjoyed the painting - however, the "edible" part was actually wasted, as neither of them wanted to eat any of it!  Surprisingly, even Ella didn't like it when I tried to give her a lick.  I'm actually relieved - this means we can start moving on to regular painting with Ella - no need to worry that she'll want to put the paintbrush in her mouth!  However, she did not want to stick to painting only her paper, she painted Mia's paper (much to Mia's horror), she painted the newspaper and the table, and even tried to go outside with her paintbrush...

The soap-slime took quite a while to cool down and become slimy - Mia was super impressed and "dug" right in.  Ella, on the other hand, was not keen on the texture at all and preferred to dig into it with her spade, flinging bits of the slime all over the place!

Both of these activities took quite some time in preparing them - and the painting kept them busy for maybe 10 minutes, and the slime for less than 5...  Felt like so much effort for such a short time of "fun" - but nonetheless, it was an experience for all of us and nice to do something different than the usual daily activities and play.

Another painting activity I found that looks super cool, but didn't have the energy for today, is this salt, glue and watercolour art...  Perhaps tomorrow! ;-)

xx

Rainy weekend play-dough fun

It's been a rainy, overcast and chilly weekend.  Mia's not impressed at having to wear winter clothes again, or at having to be indoors all the time!

We made some play-dough, using a tried-and-tested recipe that I posted about a while ago - it really is a perfect playdough texture - it's a little bit of a schlep to make, but definitely worth it.

The girlies loved it - Ella wasn't too keen on the texture at first, but after a while was happily picking pieces off and presenting them to me. Mia also made me lots of "pasta" and "biscuits".

We played with this both days of the weekend, a fun activity for all - mommy included! ;-)

Mia's science experiment for school

It's the annual Science Expo at Mia's playschool, and we chose an experiment that is easy enough for Mia to demonstrate herself, yet still has a wow- and fun-factor for 5-year old kiddies!

Straw into potato experiment

What you need:

A raw potato

A straw

What to do:

Demonstrate that when you just poke at the potato with the straw, it can’t go into the potato.

However, when you hold the top of the straw closed, with either your thumb or your index finger, and stab at the potato, the straw goes into the potato!

What’s happening:

Air pressure is making the straw much stronger!

Ella graduated from Moms&Babes yesterday!

I started taking Ella to Moms&Babes classes last year, when she was 4.5 months old.  Yesterday we completed the 3 terms - how quickly it went!

These classes are great fun and I really recommend them for all moms & babies to do.  It's once a week, for an hour and a bit, and includes age-appropriate stimulation for babies.  The first term focused on rolling and sitting, the second term on crawling, and the third term on walking.  There are songs to do movement to, fine-motor activities, balancing on exercise balls, free play, outside play, messy play time, and a special cuddle song for mom and baby! Of course, don't forget tea time for the mommies afterwards too.

We went to Tania who is in Centurion. She is such a fabulous, caring, special teacher, we're sure going to miss her.

Have a squiz at their website to find a branch near you!

Here's Ella at the end of our first term, she was 7 months old

 At the end of our second term, cutie-pie was 10 months old

And during our last term, she's 14 months old here

 Graduation day yesterday, well done my big girl! ♥

We made cloud dough!

A couple of times, Mia and I have made "moon sand" - see my post about it here.  Then I recently came across a slightly different version of it, this time called "cloud dough" - mostly the same ingredients as the moon sand, but then I specifically liked this recipe, Calming Lavender Cloud Dough - the idea to add some colour using crushed chalk, and lavender essential oil really appealed to me!

I only made a quarter of the recipe as mentioned, I didn't have enough flour.  Crushing the coloured chalk was quite a mission, I used our pestle & mortar, but was well worth the effort!

This was such an awesome sensory play for both girls - the soft texture, the pretty colour, the divine smell.  Ella did try and have a taste but realised it's not tasty, haha!

Both girls slept really well last night - could it be the lavender? Maybe!

xx

Activities for 10 month old babies

Ella is at such a busy stage now! I have to constantly be hovering around her, because she crawls to all the off-limit places, such as the dog food, cell phone chargers, dustbins and washing baskets!  She also loves to pull herself into standing position against furniture, but doesn't yet know how to get back down, so she just lets go - grey hairs for mommy!

I've spent some time looking up activities for 9 to 12 month old babies, and found lots of ideas.  I decided to put my favourite ideas together into a list for myself, and to print out for the nanny to use for ideas for baby stimulation.

(Obviously all of these need constant adult supervision, and always be mindful of choking hazards.)


Music, Hearing and Movement:

• Sing lots of nursery rhymes, especially with actions such as clapping hands, stomping feet, nodding head etc.  Or make up your own silly songs!
• Play music, any music, and dance with baby, so she can feel the rhythm
• Show baby how you knock on a door, say "Listen! Do you hear knock-knock-knock?" Do the same with different sounds, splashing water, tapping, bells, etc.
• Bang on drums, bang on pots
• Put baby on a blanket and drag the blanket, taking her on a ride!

People, Body Awareness, Object Permanence, Toys

• Play peek-a-boo - use a cloth over baby, over yourself, over baby's toys
• Stand in front of a mirror, talk about what you're looking at. "Look at this baby! Look, it's you! Look, here's your nose, your ears, your hair, your feet!" 
• Page through picture books. Point out people's face expressions
• Copy-cat games: point to your own nose, say this is mommy's nose, point to baby's nose, say this is baby's nose. Ask baby to point out mommy's nose and baby's nose.
• Hand-over-hand games. Show baby how to put her hand on top of your hand, with your next hand over her hand. Will take a while for her to grasp the concept, but repeat often.
• When baby drops a toy, lower her to the ground and let her pick it up herself
• Use double-sided tape and make toys stick to a surface, show baby how to pull the toy off and stick it again
• Show toddler a toy, and hide it behind you, getting her to look for it
• Stacking blocks and cups
• Sorting colours and shapes
• Cut a slit in a tin and show baby how to "post" Purity jar lids

Outdoors and Physical Exercise:

• Go for walks, point out trees, flowers, birds, leaves, grass, sand
• Blow bubbles
• Bury plastic animals in a bowl of sand, or floating in water, and let baby find animals
• Have a tea party!
• Crawl and chase each other!
• Create a little obstacle course for baby. Use pillows, make tunnels with blankets and chairs.
• Use an exercise ball - let baby bounce on it, lie on tummy, lie on back, move backwards and forwards. Very good for strengthening baby's core muscles!
• Play ball games, gently rolling and getting baby to roll it back
• Toss bean bags

Tactile and Sensory:

• When outside, let baby feel grass, tree bark, sand, water. Always explain what it is and how it feels. "Tree bark, feel how rough it is. A green leaf, feel how soft it is."
• Use shaving foam on a tray or a mirror
• Let baby unpack Tupperware cupboard
• Tickle with feather duster
• Let baby play with cellophane
• Create little goody baskets or boxes for baby to unpack. Put similar things together: create a box of wooden goodies, a box of plastic goodies, a box of noisy goodies!

Messy Play ideas:

• Finger painting with homemade edible fingerpaint (Will do a post on this soon, we did this last weekend, so much fun for both Ella and Mia!)
• Jelly
• Custard
• Cooked spaghetti
• Dry cereals
• Shredded paper
• Smash (instant mashed potatoes)
• Water bowls with small containers, cups and utensils
• Do hand- and footprint art - great keepsakes!

Keeping babies busy in the car:

• Listen to sing-along nursery rhymes
• Easy finger foods such as marie-biscuits or biltong sticks
• A few different bags with a few small objects to explore - best to pass these on one by one than overwhelming baby with everything at once: wooden puzzle pieces, Purity jar lids, pieces of ribbon or material, small toys and rattles, big hairclips.

These are three of my favourite blogs for some creative ideas: Kids Activities Blog, The Imagination Tree and Happy Hooligans.

Please share what your babies love to do?
xx