Shaving Cream Creations

Just before bathtime, put your child in their high chair (you’ll probably want to have them only in their diaper so it is easier to clean them off). Put some shaving cream on their tray and show them how they can manipulate it. Squeeze it, use a finger to draw a picture or write a name. Let them play and encourage them to be creative in what they do. Talk to them about what they are making or doing.

This activity is beneficial in many ways. It is tactile stimulation, which is very good if you have a child like mine who has a hard time dealing with weird textures or doesn’t like getting things on their hands. Eventually the fun of playing with the shaving cream overcame the initial discomfort. This also encourages conversation and creative play. During creative play a child learns to distinguish between reality and imagination. They learn that they can make something look like something else, for example they can draw a picture of a flower in the shaving cream but the shaving cream is still shaving cream.

As an added bonus shaving cream is a great cleaner, so when you wipe off their tray it has been sanitized and cleaned

Water Wonder

Get a small clean sponge, put a small amount of water in a plastic bowl and give them to your child. They will have fun watching the water move up the sponge. Show them how to squeeze out the sponge and soak up the water again. A little water will probably get on the counter and your child’s clothes, but the activity is sure to keep them entertained for a while. It is a perfect thing to have your child do in their high chair while you do something that you can only do when they aren’t around such as cleaning or cooking.

Playing with water like this has many benefits. To adults it may seem like your child is just making a mess, but playing with water stimulates the senses and helps develop motors skills.This particular activity helps them learn how to squeeze. It also helps a child understand spatial concepts. A bowl filled with water helps them understand volume. Water drips and splashes help a child make connections about natural laws like gravity

You can do a variation of this activity by offering small plastic items such as a tupperware lid or a spoon and showing your child how to clean them. Put them someplace where they can watch you wash dishes as well. This is imitative play; all children love imitative play especially at this age. They learn what is considered good and bad and how to act through imitation of those they see everyday (usually you, the parent). Give your child a dry towel and show them how to dry off the items they have “washed”.

Summer Outing Ideas

Every Toddler loves being outside, and any parent will enjoy watching them discover the world around them. So summer outings are a great idea. Here is a list to get your creativity going and get you thinking of fun outdoor activities to do with your toddler at the park.

The Park

The park is an all-time favorite for any outdoor toddler outing. There is lots of room to run around, you can play on the equipment and it’s free!

*Peek-a-boo: while playing around the equipment, hide behind things and pop out and say peek-a-boo. They’ll catch on quickly and want to take turns being the one who hides.

*Catch: Many toddlers won’t have the coordination to catch a ball quite yet, but they’ll love throwing it!

*Parachute: Take a large blanket with you to the park, put a couple of soft items in it. Show your toddler how to hold the corners, then you hold the other end and pop the items off the blanket.

*Search and find: Take a basket or a bag and help your toddler look for sticks, leaves, flowers and other interesting items to collect. When you are all done looking take them out one by one and look at them and talk about them.

Friday Fun with Nursery Rhymes

This Friday’s rhyme is:

There Was a Crooked Man

There was a crooked man, and (stoop over)

He walked a crooked mile (walk in zig zags)

He found a crooked sixpence (pretend to pick something up off the ground)

Beside a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat, which (act like you are holding and stroking a cat)

Caught a crooked mouse (pretend to catch a mouse)

And they all lived together

In a little crooked house. (put your arms in a trianlge to form a house)

Friday Fun with Nursery Rhymes

Toddlers enjoy anything that has a beat and is repeated often enough for them to know what is coming next. This is why nursery rhymes are always popular. Add another layer of fun, by adding actions. Our first nursery rhyme is:

Two Little Blackbirds

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill, (have your toddler sit with you)

One named Jack and one named Jill. (point to your child when you say one name and yourself when you say the next name)

Fly away Jack, fly away Jill, (show your child how to flap their arms like they are flying, and move to opposite ends of the room)

Come again Jack, come again Jill. (walk back toward each other and give your toddler a hug)

Basket Toss and Empty

At around fifteen months, most toddlers become extremely fascinated with filling and emptying containers. This is a fine motor skill that will lead to other developments such as learning to put shapes in a shape box and stacking blocks. Even toddler much older than 15 months still love doing this, and this activity is usually a big hit.

You will need an empty laundry basket and some socks folded together and rolled into a ball. Show your toddler how to throw them into the basket and then when all of them are in the basket, how to turn the basket over and dump them out.

This activity also helps a toddler gain better arm movement skills. Usually between 15 months and 2 years old toddler have much better leg coordination than hand and arm coordination and it is often frustrating for them.

Additional Activities

If your toddler is anything like mine, after throwing the socks in the basket and dumping them out for about 20 minutes, he realized that he could put himself in the basket. He put all the socks in the basket then sat in the basket and threw the socks out of the basket.

Push the basket

Show your toddler that they can put items in the basket and push it around. You can set up a game where you place similar items in different rooms, such as a stuffed animal. Then tell your child to find them all and put them in the basket. It may be a bit frustrating for them at first but with your help they’ll quickly catch on and enjoy playing this kind of “hide and seek” game.

Food Strings

This fun activity teaches dexterity and is just plain fun for most toddlers because it also involves foods they love. Tape a piece of yarn or a shoelace to your child’s high chair, then give them items to string on. If you have a younger toddler it is probably best to start with something like pretzels which have a larger hole to put the string through. As they get older or more experienced you can try things like fruit loops, cheerios, and other similar items.

Fun in a Box

A cardboard box presents a whole world of opportunities. If you don’t have any large boxes, ask around at a few local businesses, many are more than willing to get rid of a couple, and you’ll have an activity that will keep your toddler busy for hours.

Here are a few different ways a box can be turned into fun:

Tunnel

Leave both ends open and let your little one crawl through it.

Fort/house

Cut a door in one side and a window. My son had fun for hours open and closing the door and looking out the window. With a box house you can also teach your child some etiquette. I taught my son that when a door is shut it is polite to knock and ask to come in. He enjoyed taking turns being outside the house and knocking and then being inside the house and answering the door. We also worked on saying hello (he has goodbye down).

Puppet Show Stage

Cut the box along one corner and open it up so that it stays up on end. Cut a large whole in the center for the puppets. Aiden (my son) enjoyed using different items as puppets. If your toddler is younger, they may not be able to set up a story with the puppets, but they will enjoy turning on music and making the puppets dance. You can also do favorite nursery rhymes with the puppets and games like peek-a-boo.

Art Easel

Cut the box along one corner and then fold it over another side so that it looks like a triangle. Set the box on the floor, poke a whole in each of the top corners of the box and slip yarn through and tie the ends so that the yarn doesn’t fall through the holes in the box. Use clothespins, paper clips or file clips to hold up a piece of paper. Let your toddler draw. You will need to watch them closely because art products may be non-toxic, but it still isn’t a good idea to let them chew on them.

Pillow Playground

Toddlers love to climb, jump and roll around. They have just learned many of these skills and it is great fun to be able to try them out. If its cold outside or rainy and you can’t let them run around outside or go to the park for an outlet, toddlers will often climb on furniture and can end up getting hurt.

Instead, put a bunch of pillows on the floor and let them crawl over them and play in them. It kept my son happy at play for nearly an hour and a half and that’s a long time for a 19 month old.

Variations:

Spread pillows out and help your toddler step over them.

Ocean in a Bag

Toddlers love tactile stimulation. That’s why sandboxes, bathtime and squishing their food is so much fun. So why not let them squish something besides their peas? Get a ziploc bag and put in some blue hair gel, add some glitter and a very small amount of water. Cover the top with some packing tape so that they don’t get it open. My son plays with his ocean in a bag in his high chair while I get dinner ready. It seems that there is no end to his delight at watching it squish back and forth.

Variation:

Put a few small round beads in the bag. Then they will have something to watch move around as they squeeze the “water”.