Toddler Tuesdays - Week 5 of the 12 Weeks of Winter

We are loving all of the positive feedback we have been receiving, thankyou!  Welcome to week 5 of ‘Toddler Tuesdays’.  You can find more of our ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ activities here.  This week’s activity is ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.  With inspiration taken direction from the ever popular children book by the same name.  If it’s not one you’re familiar with please check it out from the library, it’s loved by many.

You will need -

1. A container with a small amount of water.  You may like to use a sink if your child has safe step access.  This will be your river.
2. A blanket to lay on the floor, this will be your mud.
3. A dark wardrobe or walk in robe would be perfect, this will be your forest.
4. A small table, coffee table, toddler table or even a kitchen chair would work well.
5. A further blanket to cover the table and make your cave.
6. A stuffed toy who will play the part of the bear.
7. Optional - A copy of the book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.

Instructions -

Before you introduce your child to the activity prepare each of the zones, river, mud, forest and cave complete with bear.  If you have a copy of the book you may even like to read it to your child.  Choose a part of your home as the starting place, maybe the front door or your child’s bedroom.  Get them excited, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt!  We’re going to catch a big one!’  Then lead them to the first zone.  ‘Uh-oh, a river.  We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we’ll have to go through it!’  ‘Splash, splash, splash!’  Encourage your child to have a little paddle in the water you’ve provided.  Continue on with each of the zones, mud, squelch, squelch, take your shoes off and be really dramatic pulling up your pants and squelching across the blanket.  Next you’ll move on the the forest and stumble, stumble your way through.  Now you find the cave, tiptoe tiptoe, ‘What’s that?’  Build some suspense as you describe the bear (stuffed toy) to your child.  Then shout ‘Quick! Back through the forest, back through the mud, back through the river.’  All the while you are moving quickly back through the zones to your starting place.  Once back to the start have a hug and a laugh.  Your child might like to repeat this activity again, immediately.  Encourage them to take a favorite teddy with them.  Encourage use of the appropriate language along the way, even if they are only saying some of the key words.  Do not leave your child unsupervised with the water you have set up for the river.

Focus -

As this activity is based off a book it has a beginning, middle and end, excellent for encouraging children to create their own narrative about an event.  Many children will already be familiar with the storyline and by acting it out you are encouraging their imagination and creative play.  There is a lot of rhyme and repetition in the story which helps to build language.  Your child is also practicing their gross motor skills as they walk, tiptoe or crawl through each of the zones.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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Toddler Tuesdays - Week 4 of the 12 weeks of winter

Welcome to week 4 of ‘Toddler Tuesdays’.  You can find more of our ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ activities here, we hope you are enjoying them.  This week’s activity is introducing playdough mats.

You will need -

1. A print out of our playdough mats which can be found here, or your own selection of playdough mats.
2. Page protectors to put your printed playdough mats into, or you may choose to laminate them.
3. Playdough.  Our favorite home made playdough recipe can be found here.

Instructions -

Have everything prepared at the kitchen table or a toddler table before introducing the activity to your child.  Using playdough assist your child to make food for the plate, add features to the face, candles to the cake and plants or vegetables to the garden.  Use key phrases like, ‘roll it’ and ‘squash it’ as appropriate.  If you have more than one colour playdough available you may like to comment on colour, eg ‘green peas’, ‘pink candles’.  If your child plays with playdough often they may want to do their own thing, sculpting, cutting etc.  We would encourage you to sit with your child and model the use of the mats so they get the idea.

Focus -

Throughout the activity there are key phrases that you can use to encourage language development.  If your child is already speaking this activity is a great opportunity to expand on that, eg ‘My face needs a?’  ‘What fruit would you like on your plate?’  ‘Can you help me count the candles?’  ‘Let’s sing Happy Birthday.‘  Even if your child is not engaging in this discussion answer your own questions modeling and imprinting the correct language and grammar.

Using playdough helps to strengthen all of the muscles in the hands and fingers which will help to refine fine motor skills.  Rolling and positioning small pieces of dough helps to practice these skills.  Building hand strength and co-ordination is essential when moving into the preschool years as it will assist with pencil grip and make writing easier.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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Toddler Tuesdays - Week 3 of the 12 Weeks of Winter

Welcome to week 3 of ‘Toddler Tuesdays’.  You can find more of our ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ activities here, we hope you are enjoying them and would love to receive your feedback.  This week’s activity is ‘Mummy Says’.

You will need -

1. Some common unbreakable household items from around the house that your child can easily recognise eg : spoon, doll, plastic container, cup, blanket, cushion, ball

Instructions -

Set out the items on the floor in an area of your home, family room, bedroom, lounge, where ever suits you.  This game is similar to ‘Simon Says’ but a slightly extended version.  You might start your toddler with simple instructions like, ‘Mummy says clap your hands’, and progress through to more complex instructions with the items you have gathered eg ‘Mummy says cuddle teddy.’  ‘Mummy says put the doll under the blanket.’  How complex you get with your instructions will depend on the age and ability of your child.  There are an almost limitless number of instructions that you can come up with for the particular items that you have gathered.  If your child is not yet at the stage of interacting appropriately with the gathered objects stick with the simple body instructions like, clap your hands, pat your head, tickle your toes, cuddle your Mummy etc.  This game should be fun and interactive.  Assist your child if they are struggling with the instruction given and be sure to offer lots of praise, clapping hands, smiles etc along the way.  Again depending on the age and ability of your child they may be able to offer you instructions to follow also.

Focus -

This activity is awesome for developing good listening skills and attention.  As you are able to revisit this game you can make it more complex as the weeks and months pass and also extend the time that you engage with your child.  If they are able to offer you instructions to follow it also promotes good turn taking.  Depending on the items and instructions you give both fine and gross motor skills may be practiced.  Understanding positional words like on, under, next to etc are very important for language developmental.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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Toddler Tuesdays - Week 2 of the 12 weeks of Winter

We hope you enjoyed our first ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ activity last week, if you missed it you can find it here.  This week we are having fun with the nursery rhyme Jack & Jill.

If you are not familiar with this nursery rhyme the words are -

Jack and Jill went up the hill,

to fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down,

and broke his crown,

and Jill came tumbling after.

You will need -

1. Couch cushions or pillows from around your house to make a hill.
2. Optional - a blanket to cover your cushion hill.
3. 2 dolls, teddies or other soft toys to use as Jack & Jill.
4. A small plastic bucket, container, or tub to use as Jacks pail.

Instructions -

Gather items from around your home so that you are ready to start.  Sing the nursery rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’ with or too your child a few times.  Encourage them to help you build a hill for Jack to climb, then encourage them to help you act out the rhyme.  Encourage your child to show empathy to Jack when he hurts his head, ‘poor Jack’, ‘sore head’.  Once your child has the hang of the rhyme mix it up a bit, perhaps Sam & Sally went up the hill, or Jill fell down instead of Jack.  Make it fun and encourage them to correct you, “Oops!  Silly Mummy.  Jill didn’t fall down, it was Jack.”

Focus -

Nursery rhymes like Jack & Jill are great for learning sequencing as they have a clear beginning, middle and end.  Sequencing is one of the key steps to storytelling.  Physically acting out the scene can help children to retain the information better and is engaging their gross motor skills.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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Toddler Tuesdays - Week 1 of the 12 weeks of Winter

Throughout the winter months we plan to bring you ‘Toddler Tuesdays’.  Each week we will post an indoor, rainy day activity you can do with your toddler.  Many of us have experienced how busy ex-NICU toddlers can be and we thought you might appreciate some activity suggestions.  This weeks activity is garden art.

You will need -

1. A print out of our free garden clip art which can be found here (you’ll need to cut out the pictures or an older child may do this for themselves), or pictures of trees, flowers, insects, birds, grass etc cut from magazines or drawn.
2. A large sheet of paper, A3, scrapbook page or newspaper.
3. Gluestick - if your child has an aversion to glue you may find more success with double sided tape or ‘blue glue’.
4. Optional - crayons or coloured pencils.

Instructions -

Set out the things you will need at the kitchen table or toddler table so that everything is ready for your child.  Encourage them to stick the larger items first and work their way down to the smaller items.  They may not want to stick all of the items which is fine.  You might need to hand the cut outs, out individually rather than letting the child pic for themselves, that will come down to your comfort level and the particular child.  Encourage the child to use the gluestick to glue the pieces on for themselves if age/ability appropriate.  Once all of the sticking is completed the child might like to use the crayons or coloured pencils to add grass to the bottom of the picture, the sun, clouds or rain to the sky etc.

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Focus -

This activity promotes fine motor skills and is a great opportunity for language development.  You may use key phrases like, ‘stick it’, ‘turn over’, ‘more?‘  Also name the items that they are sticking, ‘tree’, ‘leaf’, flower‘ etc.  Remember that even when your child isn’t responding to your comments you are imprinting that language and correct grammar on their brain for retrieval when they developmentally get to that stage.  If your child is already using some of those key words themselves add an additional word to your phrase like, ‘big tree’, ‘green leaf’ etc.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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