Fun Activities For Toddlers

Our Weekly Rhythm: Planned Possibilities

Weekly Rhythm: Planned Possibilities is a new weekly post that is a review of our weekly activities. You will find lots of fun ideas for toddlers that you can do at home. We have characterised each day by something that happens on that day, this gives a predictable pattern for our week.

I posted have previously posted our weekly rhythm. The idea of having a rhythm comes from the works of Rudolf Steiner (a philosophy I loosely follow in my day-to-day life). The purpose of having a rhythm is to develop a sense of regularity to the day-to-day life of your child. Having a rhythm assists the development of confidence because your child 'knows' what's coming next.

I find that life is so much easier when Chook knows what's happening next. It is easier to talk with him about events because you only need to say "We go to the library after morning tea" or "After your bath, we get into our PJs and then it's time for Story Candle". This really helps his understanding that there is a process, that things don't just happen when you want them to happen. It is a good life lesson. The twins will naturally also benefit from having this in place.

Fun Activities for Toddlers

Monday is Story Day

Our theme this week is Transport. Instead of stories about transport we sung as many transport songs as we could.

• The Wheels on the Bus. Absolute favourite of Chook's. We also changed it to the Wheels on the Car as we got out-and-about during the week.
• Zoom. "Up in the air I fly. Zoom, zoom, a zoom, zoom, zoom...". While you run around with your arms out wide, like an aeroplane.
• And of course Train songs. Train Is A-Coming & She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain.

Wednesday is Play Day

Using sidewalk chalk we drew a huge track on the patio floor for the Cosy Coupes to drive along. Chook joined in the drawing and helped create the track and helped shade some flowers in one of the 'islands' along the track.

This week Creative With Kids posted Big Art as a tip for creating with kids. So this is our big art creation with a toddler. This was a completely new experience with Chook and he was very tentative at first. With me sitting down with him talking about what we could draw he made his first attempts of line marks. Over the next few days he has gained confidence and is not just making random marks everywhere but is drawing more deliberate marks in one area.

I added a set of traffic lights to our play that had been made from a large covered box. Traffic lights is not something that Chook is familiar with as our town does not possess a single set! However, I talked about green for go and red for stop. We made it into The Traffic Light Game.

Friday is Discovery Day

I saw this idea over at Smiling Like Sunshine. I set out some paint pads, a container of vehicles and covered a table with paper. I showed Chook how to roll the car over the pad and then drive the car over the paper leaving track marks. He immediately exclaimed "My turn!". We soon moved on from rolling to just pressing the vehicle down and cars gave way to helicopters and planes. They took off and flew around and landed over and over onto the paper. He had lots of fun with this. Definitely on the list of fun activities for toddlers!

The twins were having their nap during this activity. It was immediately apparent that the twins would not be able to participate in this activity in this form! 

Saturday is Game Day

Lots of play along the patio track! The Traffic Light Game: So basic. When they get to the lights you call out "Green - Go!" or "Red - Stop!". If red they wait until you say "Green - Go!" What they don't know is you are actually teaching them to follow instructions, listening skills are developing and meanings of symbols. For a basic game that some awesome learning! Another one for the list of fun activities for toddlers!

Sunday is Family Day

We loaded the bike up and headed down to the foreshore. Our first stop was the Tanker Jetty. 

Then we continued along the foreshore to Adventure Land Park. The enclosed play area is right beside a pond. I wanted a photo of Chook with the ducks but he wanted to chase the gulls! Still, great photo.

Strawberry has always loved the swing. Today she was leaning right back and absolutely revealing in the feeling of flying through the air. (Can you remember that feeling? Wasn't it a fantastic free and happy feeling?) Ooffa has slowly been getting used to it. I would say that today he enjoyed the swing!

My favourite photo!

Getting out, riding a bike, chasing seagulls, playing at the park and using the play equipment are all fun activities for toddlers!

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