Toddler Play?

HulaLove

Elyse is like a little sponge lately.  If I do something, like touch my nose, she'll touch her nose.  She's also really liking playing games like hide and seek.

I'm not feeling very creative lately, can you guys tell me some games or interactive play activities you do with your toddlers? 

I was thinking about buying her some crayons, but I'm not sure if that would be fun for her yet?

MauiWedding08

Isn't it so fun to see them learn so quickly?!

Jack is not quite there yet but we do some of these, and others are what I have observed the children doing at his daycare since he's now in the 12-24mo room.

sorting shapes, grouping like colors/shapes/objects (still requires quite a bit of teaching help)

songs like "head shoulders knees and toes..." Jack has the head and shoulders part down.  Other mimicking songs that have motions - they make plenty of toddler tunes type CDs. 

I would absolutely recommend crayons or other crafts.  Jack loves our chalkboard wall (has to be well supervised and the chalk goes away if he starts to try to eat it).  He just draws lines but he has already learned that you need to hold the chalk a certain way to make a mark.  He also enjoys copying me when I wipe it off.

Like NJSwimmer I have started saying some of the phrases from his favorite books and then he picks out the book it's from.  

I really like toys that have to be put together a certain way (like nesting blocks or stacking cups).

MrsNJSwimmer

songs are great - I didn't know any really until I went to swim class with him last year - he started doing the motions for wheels on the bus the other day! 

I gave him crayons and he kind of touches them to the paper, but the marks are really light, and I'm not even sure he can tell what he's doing!  that's a great idea about a chalk wall - I'll have to look into that

DS has started "helping" me swiffer the floor after meal time too!  Any of those things that she can do to "help" are good too. 

Married2MrWright

Yes! I am loving this stage with Libby too...she amazes me each day. Today? She said "owl...whoo whoo!" and "cow...moo, moo!" So funny! We've been working a lot on colors and alphabet and shapes (she has several books with each in them and loves to read them over and over) so now, when we play, I try to incorporate these concepts into our "games."

For example, I will give her three balls...red, yellow, blue...and then ask her to hand me the "red one" or "blue one." Or I'll toss them down the hall and say, "bring me the blue one!" And when she brings it back I'll say, "Hooray! You did it! B-b-b-blue!" We've been emphasizing word-sounds (phonics) when we read to her and have started doing it when we're naming objects. We're staying away from saying "good job" for everything but offer her lots of encouragement and support. For more information on this approach, here's a good article to start with:

https://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

We're participating in Parents as Teachers and at 12 months they recommended that we introduce crayons and paper, so we try to do that 5-7 minutes/day. Again, I'll incorporate color recognition into it. For example, I'll offer her two crayons and ask, "do you want the red one or the purple one?" Then I just let her scribble scrabble.

Back to balls (we got several as part of a "ball hut" that she got for Christmas), we sort them by color and place them in and out of an empty, clean Oatmeal container. We also stack blocks...naming the colors and counting them.

We have several Kindermusik CDs and a few Fisher-Price ones. Libby's really into the "isty bitsy spider" and "pat-a-cake" right now. She also likes songs that lots of repetition like "Wheels on the Bus." She got this Parum Pum Pum Drum set for Christmas and we'll each take an instrument or two and shake them along to the songs on the CDs. You can make you own "drums" using wooden spoons and tupperware or pots. You can make your own shaker with some rice or beans in a small container that has a screw top (like a clean, empty 4 oz. baby bottle). Or we'll dance.

She also loves to play "peek-a-boo" or "where is baby's...eyes, ears, toes, nose..." and she points to whatever body part we ask for. She's into helping mommy so ask her to put dirty clothes in the hamper or let her "fold" clean laundry (it's so cute to see her try to do it). She also is interested in dressing herself so we'll play with trying to put on socks and shoes (she cannot do it, but she likes to try) or her jacket (she'll help by putting her arms through the sleeves and pulling up the zipper once we've gotten it connected/started).

Here are some more activities for toddlers aged 12-24.

myday1708

Right now, Alexa's favorite thing to do is sit in my lap and have me read book after book after book... Books with pictures of DOGS are the best. She also likes word books with pictures. I'll open a page and ask her to show me things that I know she can say, like Hat, Dog, Cat, Nose, Hand, Apple, etc.

Like Libby, she's also into telling me what things say, so we play that a lot. I'll read her a book with animals in it and stop to ask her what each animal says! Cow? "Boo!" Sheep?  "Baa! Baa!" Cat? "Eeeeow!" Train? "Chooo! Chooo!" 

She still enjoys hide and seek and peek a boo... We just got her a nylon crawl-thru tube and we'll play hide and seek with that, or I'll throw a ball in it and she'll crawl through and get it.

Also, she has a kitchen and has started to copy me... I'll take a pot and a spoon and stir it up and she'll then do the same. She'll put her little oven mitt on one hand and carry the pot and wooden spoon around stirring it.

Or, she'll push her buggy around with her baby dolls. And I'll ask her, can I hold your baby? She'll throw one at me, and I'll rock the baby and pat its back. Then she'll take it back and copy me. And I'll say, "Do you want to give baby a bottle?" And she'll get her play bottle and hold it up to their lips. It's so cute!

Puzzles are supposed to be good as well, but she's not really into them yet. She does like her stacking blocks and will play with her Little People doll house for a while, putting the people in and out and opening and closing the doors.

Hope that helps! Have fun and invent games! Oh, and crayons are a good idea. Or my MIL suggested getting a brown cardboard box and letting them use a wet paint brush to "paint" it. The water will show up dark on the box, which is facinating to them, but it's harmless because no mess! 

HulaLove

SUCH good ideas!! 

I'm so excited to try these new ideas out with Elyse! 

I'm specially excited about the cardboard box with wet paint brush! 

mrspresley

it's amazing to watch them learn isn't it?  I, too, love the "painting" the cardboard box idea - so cool!

Miss A loves books so that's what we spend a lot of her play time doing.  we read them, then we'll go through them and just ID things, go over letters, colors, shapes, animal sounds, etc.

she loves music/songs too.  she loves "head shoulders knees and toes" and while she can ID each body part when i ask her, i can't get to do the motions when i sing it (yet!).  she does the hand motions for "twinkle twinkle little star" though and it's adorable!  even when we aren't singing i will ask her "where's __(body part)___?" and have her show me.  i'll ask her to show me where mine is, where hers is, and i'll then take a stuffed animal and ask her where it is on the stuffed animal too.

she loves to pull things out and put them back.  she'll do this in a drawer, her storage containers, her noah's ark toy etc.  we have stacking blocks but she hasn't learned how to stack yet.  i keep trying to show her but she thinks it's great fun to knock them down after i've stacked them

we've started using the play kitchen and we'll pretend to cook on the stove, or wash our hands in the sink but she mostly just loves opening/closing the cupboard doors/drawers the most right now! 

she doesn't play hide and seek per se but she loves to hide in the corner behind our rocker and i'll say "where's annalise?!" and she'll pop her head out and i'll say "there she is!" and she giggles

oh and i thought she'd be too young for it but one of her favorite things to do (since it's a book) is the "I Spy" series...we've been doing that w/her for a few months now and it's amazing how she find things.  we have both the regular ones and an "easy" toddler edition.

i am not sure about in canada, but here at the dollar store they have flash cards and I'll go through those with her while she's on the potty. (they have them at bookstores too but they're a little bit more expensive there.)

now that the weather is warmer she loves going outside to play.  she'll run around and just look at everything and i'll just try to point out different things to her.  i wish we had a yard for her to play in but we're in a townhome so she just runs up and down the alley where we're at (very little car traffic through there)

we are working on #s but it seems like she has certain favorites that she will say and she can't/won't say others.  i think it's really cute if you can teach them to answer "how old are you?" - she will both say it now and hold up one finger.

oh and i almost forgot - her new favorite game is fetch LOL she'll bring me a ball and i'll throw it and she'll run and get it and giggle the whole way back as she runs back to me! so cute!

just remember that you don't have to be that creative - they'll love pretty much anything you do with them

myday1708

mrspresley:

oh and i thought she'd be too young for it but one of her favorite things to do (since it's a book) is the "I Spy" series...we've been doing that w/her for a few months now and it's amazing how she find things.  we have both the regular ones and an "easy" toddler edition.

we are working on #s but it seems like she has certain favorites that she will say and she can't/won't say others.  i think it's really cute if you can teach them to answer "how old are you?" - she will both say it now and hold up one finger.

oh and i almost forgot - her new favorite game is fetch LOL she'll bring me a ball and i'll throw it and she'll run and get it and giggle the whole way back as she runs back to me! so cute!

Some great ideas! Alexa loves "finding" things in books, like a little mouse on each page. I bet she'd love the iSpy series!

Also... that is super cute that she holds up one finger when you ask her how old. I'm so teaching that to Alexa!

Finally... Fetch! Fun! We haven't really played that yet... But I bet she'd love it!