what do u do 4 educational play & crafts for a 16.5 month old or around that age?

CantWait2Be

I feel like I need to be teaching dd things, don't know what but I feel like I do.  What kind of educational games or play or crafts could/should I be doing with her at this age?  she's 16.5 months old.  I'm just not creative with coming up with anything and don't know what's appropriate.  what do you do with your kid?  if your dc is in daycare do you still try to do any educational play between when you get home and bedtime or just on weekends or what? tia

AZ_Erica

I am feeling the same way as you right now.  We try to color some, and have done a little painting.  As far as educational things we just count throughout the day...count our blocks as we play with them.  Count the stacking cups as we stack.  We do the same with colors..say the colors as we stack cups or we play with other toys that are colored.  I'm interested to see other responses you get as well for new ideas.

CantWait2Be

dd doesn't like stacking, she'd still much rather knock things down.  what kind of painting is okay for this age?

cornichon

When dd was that age, I tried to describe everything in detail.. look at the big/small red/blue car that is going slow/fast etc. ?I always counted things ( number of apples I was putting in the bag at the grocery store, steps we were going up, flowers in the pot etc) ?We read a lot and I had her show me things on the page ( lion, red flower etc). ?

In terms of crafts, we would do finger painting ( ?I used real finger paints as dd was passed putting things in her mouth but if your dc is still putting everything in her mouth you can colour pudding with food colouring and have her paint with that), I would do collages by cutting things out of a magazine and just getting her to glue them onto paper. ?Glue cotton balls on a sheep that I had drawn. ?I got big crayons and colouring books.

I pretty much always do things that are educational with dd even though they are fun and she really does not know that they are educational. ? ?

www.notimeforflashcards.com has some great ideas.

?

have fun:)?

isabella22

I covered the lower half of the fridge and the floor in front of it with garbage bag, hung paper on it, and gave her paint (nontoxic, washable) and paintbrushes and she made lots of paintings.  She had a blast. 

She also enjoyed painting her toes, which she decided was much more fun after making 10 paintings

kertybird

DD LOVES books, so it is really easy for us to work on letters and numbers.  We probably read about 3-5 books an hour!  She loves animals so we send her to get different stuffed animals and ask her what each animal says.  She loves to color so we are teaching her colors and shapes.  I guess we just figure out what she really likes to do and go over it again and again.   It's all about repetiton and she thinks of everything as a game!  She really isn't into TV or DVD's yet (just one elmo video) so we have a lot of time to kill all day!