The Everything Toddler Activities Book (12 page)

This exercise activity will also help your child learn to follow directions. If your child is learning how to count, you can ask her to hop a specific number of times toward the home base.

1. Define a home base area. You can use an area rug or draw a square on the sidewalk with chalk. Also define a starting place for your child.
   
2. Your child must ask permission to hop to the home base. Each time, she gets to hop or jump once.
   

These tried-and-true games have been modified for even the youngest of athletes.

1. Add challenge to running races by adding hurdles. For the very young, use flat markers instead of raised obstacles to jump over. A carpet square remnant or even a paper bag can be used for this purpose.
   
2. Masking tape or chalk lines can be made to indicate a long or broad jump challenge.
   
3. Be creative. An old Frisbee can become a discus, and a beanbag makes a great shot put.
   

Toddlers love to imitate. Here is a chance for them to pretend to be bodybuilders.

1. Cut small holes in the center of each of the paper plates. Fit the plates on the ends of the paper tubes to make barbells.
   
2. Let your child decorate her barbells.
   
3. Show your child how to imitate some bodybuilding poses as she lifts her “weights.”
   

Who says you need music to get children moving and grooving? Creative movement activities help your child develop motor skills as well as balance and coordination.

This silly activity encourages cooperation and helps develop motor skills.

1. Have the children all bounce around in a defined area.
   
2. When 2 children meet, they stick together and bounce together.
   
3. Continue until all the children are stuck in 1 large ball.
   

Children of all ages will want to try this activity. What other surfaces can you think of to include?

1. Tape a strip of clear contact paper onto the floor, sticky side up.
   
2. Stick a path of bubble-wrap packing material onto the contact paper.
   
3. Have your child remove his shoes and socks before stepping on the bubble-wrap path. You may need to hold his hand to help him with balance.
   

This activity is meant to help children with separation issues.
You can dream up many potential variations. For example, you can be the moon and your
child can be a spaceship. Or perhaps you are a gas station and your child is a car.

You are the flower, so you sit or stand in one place. Your child is the bee who can buzz all around you and return for pollen!

This activity is best when your child has lots of room to move.

Chant the following rhyme, and teach your toddler the movements to go along with the words:

The airplane has great big wings
(arms outstretched)

Its propeller spins around and sings
(spin arms)

The airplane goes up
(arms up)

The airplane goes down
(arms down)

The airplane goes through clouds all over town.
(“fly” around)

Try this monkey-see-monkey-do activity the next time you have a bunch of young,
restless children to entertain.

1. Have children form a circle. Ask one child to stand in the center as the leader, Punchinello.
   
2. The children in the circle sing the following song:
   

   What can you do, Punchinello, funny fellow, funny fellow?
   What can you do, Punchinello, funny fellow, funny you?
   

3. The child in the center makes a movement. All the others imitate him while they sing:
   

   We can do it too Punchinello, funny fellow, funny fellow.
   We can do it too, funny fellow, funny you.
   

4. The child in the middle picks a new Punchinello. Continue until everyone has had a turn.
   

When you add props to movement and dance activities, you enrich the activity and add interest. Also, by using props, you give your toddler further opportunities to develop fine motor skills as well.

No need to have a favorite sports team to cheer on—your child can be a cheerleader at any time.

1. First, create the pompoms. Roll a section of newspaper into a tube shape. Tape the bottom securely and then cut the top half into strips.
   
2. You may wish to teach your child a simple cheer, such as “Go, team!” or “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?” Or you can just play marching music and let him swish and swirl the pompoms.
   

Watch your child’s imagination take off when you help him make and then ride this easy stick horse.

1. Cut the poster board into 2 horse-head shapes.
   
2. Have your child decorate or draw a face on each piece of paper. Then let him glue on some yarn for the mane.
   
3. Using tape, attach the 3 towel rolls together to create the body. Put the 2 heads together back to back and attach them to the “body.” Let your child finishing decorating his horse, and he is ready to gallop away.
   

A piece of rope is all that is needed to help your child practice balance and coordination.

1. Stretch the rope out straight on the ground. Have your child practice walking along it like a tightrope walker. If you wish, you can have him use a balance bar.
   
2. Hold one end of the rope. Keeping the rope on the ground, wiggle it around and encourage your child to jump over it. If you don’t think it will frighten your child, you can pretend that the rope is a snake.
   

It will be a few years before your toddler can use a hula hoop the way it was intended.
However, there are many fun movement activities you can still do with this toy.

1. Lay the hula hoop on the ground. Show your child how to walk around the circle with one foot in and one foot out of the hoop.
   
2. Hold the hoop vertically and help your child crawl through it back and forth.
   
3. Join your child, or get a group of children in a bunch inside of a hula hoop. Work together to walk and change directions.
   

Parachute activities are a great way to promote social interaction and cooperation. Children and adults can easily play together in these fun games. You can use a large sheet or light blanket if you do not have a parachute!

This activity requires children to cooperate to get the ball to do what they want.

1. Have the children hold onto the edge of the parachute.
   
2. Drop one or more balls into the center of the parachute.
   
3. Have children work together to get the ball(s) to move. Can they make the ball roll back and forth or around the edge? What do they need to do to get the balls to pop up in the air?
   

Your child will be developing large motor skills as he works together with the rest of the group.

1. Have the children hold onto the edge of the parachute.
   
2. Instruct them to work together to pump the parachute up and down and to create a billowing cloud.
   
3. Have them release the parachute when it is fully extended to see which way it will float.
   
4. Alternatively, after the parachute makes a bubble, have the children squat or sit and tuck the parachute under their bottoms to create a mushroom.
   

CHAPTER 8

Let’s Pretend

As children enter school and mature, their interest in daydreaming and imagination is often discouraged. We often put the focus on academic skills much too early. Yet current studies are finding that imagination and creativity help children excel at school and help adults fare better on the job. Pretend play is a relaxing and valuable activity for your toddler. Be sure to allow her to plan and play activities of her choice.

You will observe some common themes in your child’s imaginative play. You can enrich these themes and extend his play by adding props and setting up a scenario for him to explore.

Young children love to pretend to cook and eat food.
As a bonus, you can reinforce manners and social skills while your child is playing.

1. Let your child help set up the restaurant. Show him how to set the table.
   
2. Let your child create a menu on the poster board. You can have him color pictures of the food he wishes to serves. Alternatively, he can paste on magazine pictures.
   
3. Sit at the table and let your child take your order. Supply him with a small notebook so that he can pretend to write down your order.
   
4. If desired, let him serve you real or pretend food.
   

Why not consider expanding this theme with your child? It can be a fun family activity to camp out in the living room for the night. You could even make S’mores in the microwave for a bedtime snack

1. Set up the tent. If you don’t have one, drape a large sheet over a table.
   
2. Create a fake campfire. Arrange the sticks in a teepee shape. Cut out 2 flame shapes from the construction paper and prop them up among the stick structure.
   
3. Arrange sleeping bags under the tent or around the campfire.
   
4. Sit around the campfire and sing songs and tell stories. If your child will not be frightened, turn off the lights and use flashlights.
   

Many young children are concerned and often fascinated about injury and illness. The subject of doctors and hospitals is something that your child may wish to explore. You can easily change this into a veterinarian theme; simply add a few stuffed animals and a pet carrier.

1. Fit the hat onto your child. Make a lab coat by drawing a pocket and adding a name to the shirt.
   
2. Let your child put Band-Aids on her dolls and pretend to give them shots to make them feel better.