Working with children takes a lot of imagination and energy. But, in real life, once you discover how your children function, the job becomes a routine. Basically, you don’t need to discover anything special. All the lessons are written. Parents just need to follow the trail, and to apply already acquired knowledge.
I consider a toddler every child of the age of one to three. It’s a period from the moment they start walking until they’re able to learn and apply what they’ve learned to other situations. Believe or not, all toddlers are born ready to learn. Their paths of knowledge are incredible. Activities that are perfect for toddlers depend on their age. The first rule is to allow your toddler to explore whatever that you give her.
Most experts recommend a timetable for games, which affects the development of your child. Following a structured routine is very important and will ensure that your toddler knows what to expect and how to behave each day. And remember! Every game in that age is not just a game. It is an opportunity for learning too.
In the beginning, you can make an easier lesson plan for your toddlers’ learning activities until they establish some sort of routine. The daily timetable should include Music, Art, PE classes, learning numbers and language. All experts agree that it’s excellent to make combinations of activities during the day.
Start a day with music. It’s a natural part of life for all of us, especially for kids. They might sing to their stuffed animals, with their cartoon heroes, or just enjoy the sound of their parents singing to them. But, this early introduction to music can’t be only entertainment for toddlers. They should start learning and make music as an important clue in their daily routine.
Every day you can choose to sing different child songs such as ‘Itsy bitsy Spider’, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’ or ‘Drive, drive, drive your car’. There are songs for dancing like ‘Monkey dance’ too. Let your child opportunity to rock, roll, tap, clap, and move to the beat as often as possible. Just turn on some music and dance together.
Once a week your child can make music by herself. You can buy bells, cymbals, and drums, or use spoons, pots, and pans from your kitchen. It’s enough for ‘a little drummer’ game. Let her makes music using those ‘instruments’. You will make an extraordinary experience to your child giving her lessons about coordination, listening skills, and musical exploration.
Keep in mind that music is the way for learning. Sing popular song ‘The alphabet song’ with your child and she will learn all letters. With ‘Days of the week’, she will remember names of days. While singing ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ will make the learning of body parts much easier. ‘Colors song’ is an irreplaceable way for your toddler to learn colors. You can walk in the park, through the house or anywhere else and connect the rhyme with the colors around.
One day you can use animal toys and sing with your child ‘Old MacDonald farm’. Through playing and singing, she will develop a love for animals, learn their names and characteristics. Show her different animal’s voice and teach her to connect an animal with an appropriate voice. Go to the Zoo and introduce your child to all those different species.
The other important activity is art. Before the child’s second birthday, you should try with simpler activities such as flowers painting. Collect different flowers in the garden, or in the park, and use them as a brush. Your child will learn to recognize types of flowers and to have an art activity and outdoor exercise at once.
Reserve days for painting balloons or for face painting. Your child will be happy and will go around and brag to everyone with her new look. Also, you should try to make the dough and sprinkles with your child, and let her make cool shapes and sizes. It is an example of a great sensory play.
Older toddlers enjoy in art even more. It is your possibility to develop their imagination in the best possible way with a game ‘draw our favorite song’. It will help for expressing her talents, including drawing and storytelling. Just sing her favorite song and draw a simple picture which described what is happening in the lyrics. You can expect your child to ask the paper and a crayon and start to draw something else mentioned in the song. Don’t be surprised if your kid asks for this game over and over again. On that way, you can compare drawings during her growing up! The same thing you can try with your kid’s favorite story the other day during the week.
Games are the excellent way to get the kids excited about healthy snacking. You just need different fun fruit, and veggie and the game can start. You can make a robot or the house using tomato, carrot or apples, for example. Possibilities are endless. Go and experiment! Older children can even make some structures from food.
Older children can make fantastic building structures from wood too. The construction process itself is incredible. You only need wooden cubes. Creating wood buildings is a great design project for toddlers. It provides many opportunities, and it’s a fantastic way to introduce your child to architecture at the same time.
Make learning the language and social development interesting. For the start, you can ‘cook together’. It’s an easy way for your kid to learn different veggies and fruits. Use that time to help your children to learn different colors too. Play ‘let dress-up’ to develop her creativity, imagination, and language skills in the easiest possible way. Haul out a pile of old clothes and let her play this game. You can pretend that you are in the theatre and dress up like knights or princesses, for example.
For a game ‘make a telephone call’ you need only the old phones or plastic toy-phones. Everything is very easy but extremely fun. Give one phone to your child and keep the other one for yourself. Start pretending to make a call to their grandparents and let her imitate you. Laugh a lot and use funny voices while talking. Through this interesting game, your kid will learn the language skills and social behavior.
All children like Lego cubes, but they are crucial for older toddlers. Using them, children develop intelligence and improve their motor skills. Use them as much as possible. Also, pick out days for naming flowers, puzzles, cards or anything countable. It is an easy way for your child to learn so many different skills in one simple and fun way for a short time.
Play ‘making the house’. It is pretty easy even for parents who do not make sense for art. Just cut a triangle of red cardboard and a square of white cardboard and put them together to make a house. For windows and doors, you can use lids from packs for wet wipes. It will be a hit because your child will be able to open and close windows and the door infinitely many times. Your child will never get tired of doing that! Plus, it will help the child to learn to distinguish colors.
Creativity, listening, problem-solving, social skills, memory, and language skills were at the top of my list of priorities. I played with my daughter games for developing those skills very often. An excellent one is ‘hide-and-seek a toy’. Just hide a toy somewhere in the house and ask her to find it. While she explores all the rooms, you should repeat words ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ to guide her until she found the toy. It’s an easy way for learning coordination and directions.
I believe that counting is an important skill and children should learn it as soon as possible. You can start with counting their fingers and toes. Show your little one how to touch each finger only once as you count out loudly. In the beginning, there is a possibility that your kid will count out of order. Don’t worry about that. The crucial thing is that you give her new words.
During the time you can count stairs in front of the house, trees in the park or bubbles during bathing. They will eventually learn the concepts of numbers. With older toddlers, you can make numbers and paint them in different colors too. It will be a nice combination of art and math. Try it!
I highly recommend a game ‘in the mountains’. In the beginning, you should describe a child how huge mountains are, and use your arms to show her that large expanse. Speak with deep and thunderous voice during the game. After that, let her climb over furniture or use Styrofoam cubes for that purpose.
It is a game which keeps child attention for the long period. She will climb on the cubes, crawl under the table and chair, and bypass armchairs without the rest. It is a way for her to develop physical motoring without any stress or effort. The similar game is ‘craw through tunnel’ for older toddlers. This game requires physical activities, and the child learns many other skills at the same time.
For one-year-olds, ’go-get game‘ is both very important and extremely fun. Send a child to solve different tasks around the house. Ask her to get shoes, bring the ball, or find her socks, for example. Besides letting her practice receptive language skills by following directions, she will show how much she accomplishes by herself.
You can add any silly task which comes to your mind. Ask her to put the sock on her head or to bring you TV. Encourage a sense of humor and laugh all the time. While your child has a great time with you, you will not even notice that she has learned very important things such as understanding directions and memory skills.
Older toddies like a game ‘choose a carpet square’. Scatter carpet squares around the playing area and turn on the music with lots of drums. Let your child begin running around and explore the entire area. Stop the music and say the color. She has to jump to the matching carpet squares and freeze on it. Repeat this, using different directions and increasing or decreasing the tempo of the drum beat. The similar game is one with Hula Hoops. Using it, she will learn colors in a fun way and get PE classes as well.
Try to go outdoors with your child as soon as possible. During winter you can make a snowman, during the fall you can collect leaves, during the summer you can play in the sand, and in the springtime, you can walk and collect early flowers. There are many possibilities to turn everyday walk with your child into a real adventure. Just enjoy spending time together.
Strike a ball with your toddy! It’s one of the activities children of all ages adore. You only need to buy a ball which is not too big or too heavy for your child and you can spend hours playing with it. You can kick it, throw it, or add it to each other. It all depends on you.
One of the important things you must learn your kid is to respect the traffic lights. While you walk around the city, play ‘stop and go’ game. Start with a walk when the green light turned on and stopped at the red light. Your child will learn to use the traffic lights and develop self-control at the same time. It’s a great game, and I highly recommend it.
Go to the playground and give your kid an opportunity to learn something new and to be fit and healthy. Also, she can play with peers and explore all those interesting seesaw, merry-go-round, swing set, slide, jungle gym, sandbox, and playhouses. You deserve exciting and wonderful days!
Try to spend as much time with your child as possible, because your interaction is essential to her development. It is important to stimulate your child. Interact with her, teach her new things, and expose her to age-appropriate challenges. Discover what both of you like, add what you invent yourselves, and throw away what is not interesting for her. Every child is different. It is true that all of them react to the same stimulus. But, every child is an individual with her own imagination and inclinations.
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