Activity Ideas for the Kids! Thanks Mamma’s and Munchkins!

We all want our toddlers to start learning, growing and understanding things in life.  I once tried to “officially” teach the kids and it turned into a disaster.  I realise now that trying to “teach” a 1 and 2 year old about life is not going to happen through me telling them things.  They need to learn it through playing – which they obviously LOVE to do!  But what?  What the heck can I teach a child through play?  I have absolutely no idea!

Thank goodness for this month’s Mamma’s and Munchkins group topic of Creative Play Ideas and thank goodness for Renee for coming to share with us.  There are so many good ideas that she shared with us that involved learning through play, some of my favourites that really grabbed me were:

* Having their feet grounded when sitting at a table makes them sit properly which makes them do whatever it is that you are trying to make them do properly.  Phew, long sentence, badly written – I must have been swinging my feet…  Having swinging feet certainly doesn’t help them to concentrate so the knock on effect is that everything is slightly out of kilter.

* Making sure they use their “pinchy fingers” (the thumb, index and middle finger).  This helps them to write properly later on in life.  Getting them pinching could be a toy in the bath that they squeeze or if they are like my kids, a piece of paper or something to tear up!  Endless fun!!

* I can’t remember the right term for this, it could be Object Permanence or it could be Visual Sequential Memory – nevertheless, the basics of it is that you do things from left to right, which I think we tend to do anyway, but make a point of it as it is the way we read.  So basically try and make patterns and then let them copy it below – matching what you do.  Maybe even change up the pattern and see if they notice the difference.

* We are pretty easy going with our thick paper books, but for others who would prefer for their books not to get ruined you can make your own books.  The kids can fill it with whatever you want: colours, things your kids love, things that they collected at the park, things to do, thins to see – pretty much whatever you want.  Then they can pay with until it falls apart at no extra cost to you!

Here are quite a few piccies of the day…