Senses: Touch

This is the second part of our senses series, touch. If you missed Sound, you can go here!  Below are activities, printables, and book suggestions all about the sense of touch. Activities involving touch Take different types of fruit/vegetables, close your eyes.  Feel them with your fingers.  Do they feel soft or hard?  What shape are they?  Is the surface smooth or bumpy? Is it large … Continue reading Senses: Touch

Toddler Activities and Crafts

Mirror Image Activity Have your child stand facing another person, as if they were looking in the mirror. Choose which person will be the leader and which one will be the follower.  As the leader moves the follower imitates the movement. Make sure to switch roles, so that both children can be the leader and the follower. Crown thee King or Queen: Cut construction paper to … Continue reading Toddler Activities and Crafts

Senses: Sound

There is so much that you can do with the 5 senses and teaching them.  This week we are going to start with Sound.  Below are activities, printables, and book suggestions all about sound. Activities involving Sound: Go on a sound walk: Listen for all the different sounds.  Can you pick out any one in particular? Guess what it is: Play different sounds and have … Continue reading Senses: Sound

Gross Motor Activities

Crayon Rubbings: Explore with different textures by placing a piece of paper over it and rubbing the crayon on the paper. Sand Painting: Spread glue on a piece of paper.  Drop the sand onto the glue, shake off extra sand. Large Block building:  See how tall your child can get the blocks to go before they tip over. Bean bag toss:  Throw the bean bags … Continue reading Gross Motor Activities

Clothespins and the Basket

This is a great activity for a toddler who loves to sort and pick things up and put them in a container.  It will help your child with gross motor skills, following directions, fine motor skills and the concept of “in” and “out”. You can color the clothespins with markers, or paint.  Then use different color buckets for your child to match the colors.  Don’t … Continue reading Clothespins and the Basket

Inter-generational Activities

My children are blessed to have 5 great- grandparents, 8 grandparents, and Aunt and Uncles, and this doesn’t include the suto-Aunts and Uncles.  But sometimes the generation gap can cause families to not spend time with each other out of having nothing in common.  Below are some classic activities that know no age and everyone can enjoy. Reading and telling stories:  Let your older generation … Continue reading Inter-generational Activities

Repurpose Children’s Artwork

I can only imagine how many different pieces of artwork each child does in their life time.  For me, I think where am I going to store it all?  Here are some ideas to repurpose them without throwing them away! Use it for wrapping paper. Frame it- You can even change the picture from time to time. Turn them into greeting cards. Turn them all … Continue reading Repurpose Children’s Artwork

Tips on Preparing a Stimulating Activity

Infants, toddlers, and children learn using all 5 senses.  They have a very short attention span, so when preparing an activity it needs to be stimulating. They love to use more than one sense, so create an activity that will use 2-3 senses. Children love to get involved and interact, make sure it is something that they can participate in. Create it based off of your child’s … Continue reading Tips on Preparing a Stimulating Activity

Brain Games for Toddlers

Saying Names:  To help your toddler learn that people and objects have different names, touch an object and say the name.  Then take your toddler’s hand and touch the object and say the name again.  Now say “(your toddlers name) is touching the (object)”.  This can be done with all different objects and people. Early Block Fun:  Make disposable blocks out of small milk cartons.  … Continue reading Brain Games for Toddlers

Ways to Include your Toddler in the Kitchen

Toddlers can take an active role in preparing foods.  Based on your childs abilities you can get them involved by pouring, slicing, whisking, squeezing, and garnishing.  Here are some ideas: Preparing finger foods by stacking foods.  ex: stacking cheese on top of crackers, or cucumbers on top of toast Using a spatula to spread fruit or butter on crackers, toast or bread Stirring together ingredients … Continue reading Ways to Include your Toddler in the Kitchen