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Ideas to help your toddler’s development

Ten Toddler Development

I’m working with Crayola for today’s sponsored post to share fun ideas and games to play with your toddler.

As a play therapist, I work with children ages 0-3 and I am able to see how they grow and develop on a weekly and daily basis.  Children develop at such various speeds and in stages during their toddlerhood, regardless of their age.

It is important to find the right tools and play the right games to help your child develop and to give you creative time together with your child.   Time together is so important. Your child will grow by leaps and bounds when spending time learning and creating with you.

Creative time at a young age really fosters and empowers imagination and critical thinking.   That’s just one of the reasons that I love My First Crayola products – they really meet the creative needs of these early stages of a child’s creative development.   

The amazing thing about children is how quickly their minds grow and pick up new things.  They learn skills and they grow and learn at such an amazing pace. When given the right tools and opportunities, they can do amazing things.  Our children can learn to use art tools, regardless of how old they are. It’s important to give our children the right tools to match their readiness and My First Crayola products do just that.

Here are 10 ideas to help your toddler’s development:


1). Sing a song.
Your child will love singing with you! Sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and pretend that the spider is climbing up their leg or up their arm (tickle them for “wash the spider out”).  


2). Color.
A little girl sitting at a table coloring.

Coloring not only lets your child get creative, but it is great for hand-eye coordination as well as color awareness.   I love how the My First Crayola products come in stages. For example, the Stage 1 products, like the egg-shaped crayons, are ergonomically designed palm crayons.  They are great for coloring.
A small child sitting on a table coloring with egg shaped crayons.

Once your child masters the Stage 1 products, they will naturally migrate to Stage 2, like the triangular crayons.

A little girl sitting at a table coloring with crayons.

3).  Hide and Seek.
Not only is this game fun for them, but it teaches them to count to ten! Make it easy by staying in one room. Teach them how to count with their eyes closed while you hide.


4).  Let them experiment with a variety of textures.
I love My First Crayola Touch Lights because it’s a mess-free way to let them play and explore.  You can take it in a car or to a restaurant because this gel-surface doodle board is portable.  It lights up with 12 colors & even plays 6 songs.

 

A little boy sitting on the floor playing with a Mess Free Touch Light board on his lap.

5).   Sing songs!  
Sing songs and do fingerplays (songs that have movements).  Use every minute a learning moment by talking, demonstrating and showing modeling for your child.

6). Draw a picture and teach them how to make a face.
Our two year old helped me to “Draw Daddy” yesterday and he did great. First, we made a circle.  I drew it on my paper and he drew it on his paper. We made eyes, a nose, and a mouth. We added ears and hair. (Ask your child “What are these?” and “What else is on my face?”  and point to your eyes or ears.) You are teaching body parts, shapes, 
helping their speech and working on fine motor skills.     Let them color & create whenever possible!

A little girl coloring at the table.7). This next tip comes from my great friend and college room-mate, Julia.
She has letters and sight words taped to her daughter’s closet door. She takes a flashlight and shines them on one letter or one word at a time and says
“Flashlight, shining bright, which letter does Brynn see tonight?”   They talk about the letter or word and move onto another one.  How cute is that?!

8). Bowling with cups.   
Line up plastic cups in a triangle shape and roll a ball into them, just like bowling.  (the free plastic kid cups from restaurants are great to save for this activity)

9). Go on a letter, shape or color hunt.
Pick a letter, shape or color and go on a hunt. Look for that certain shape, color, or letter in every room. A clock is a circle. An Elmo toy starts with an E.

We sing the song “I’m going on a bear hunt” (you can look it up if you don’t know it- its cute!), but replace “bear” with what we are looking for.

Example: “I’m going on a circle hunt… to see what we can find.  Round ones, circle ones. Lots of different kinds!” (Just make up words, like I do!)

10). Find products that are age-appropriate to help your child learn, grow and be creative.   
Find time that helps your child to learn, grow and be creative, as well. It’s the creative time at this young age that really helps them to bloom through creativity and imagination.

 A little girl sitting on the floor with a variety of coloring books and supplies.
These specially designed creative tools and content provide Moms and Dads with great creative together time… and time together is always a wonderful thing.

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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2 Comments

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