Finding things for your toddler to do that encourages their cognitive and language development is extremely important for future success in life. We have six activities for your toddler to improve development. Take a look below! With these activities, suggested by the experts, learning and fun are meshed into one.
1. Let’s Label
Pick just one or two items to label in your house, or go wild and label everything. Make sure to write where a toddler can understand and use fun and different label colors.
According to Childcarelounge.com, labeling allows children to know that everything has a set of common symbols to be written down and identified. If children are old enough to recognize letters, play the name game…T is for “television.” If they aren’t quite there yet, point out the different letters and explain. Daily reinforcement will turn into your child independently identifying words, putting them on the path to becoming strong readers.
2. Scavenger Hunts can be fun anywhere
Whether it is at the grocery store, outdoors, or in the mall, scavenger hunts can be a fun way to have the little ones explore, of course with your help. You can have them look for specific objects, or “find the red circle” or whatever you creatively come up with. These mini-missions will definitely have your child engaged and learning.
3. Sing-a-longs
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “The Alphabet Song,” “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” are just a few of the catchy sing-a-long songs that parents can sing with their children that will help them learn the alphabet, body parts, and more.
“During the pre-reader years, children learn an average of nine new words a day,” said children’s book author Eugie Foster in iYour Child’s Writing Life/i by Pam Allyn in an interview with Parents.com. “Parents have a better chance of making this happen if they create worlds for kids that are like dream catchers’ nets, capturing beautiful words and the sounds of them,” said Allyn, who is also the Executive Director and founder of LitWorld.
4. Weather Wall
Have your children set up a weather wall and allow them to play meteorologist. This will help teach them about what is going on outside. This is a great way to work on descriptions with them as they describe what the weather looks like today!
5. Let’s organize
Teach the kids to organize and put their things where they belong. This will help reinforce responsibility, helping others, and being a part of a family. And of course, there is a song for that. It will make cleaning and organizing just that much more fun.
“Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere; clean up clean up, everybody do your share!”
6. Texture fun
Toddlers are sensory learners, so let them touch. You can get a touch book, such as the one above, or find some common household textured items such as sandpaper, beans, cotton balls, pastas, or pipe cleaners and let them touch away to learn and distinguish sensations.
Want more activities for your toddler? Click here and let the fun continue!
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