How To Keep An Active Toddler Busy

Taking care of toddlers is notoriously difficult. They’re called the “terrible twos” for a reason, right?

Between the ages of 1-3, children can be difficult, especially since they are still learning to speak and communicating with them effectively can prove to be a bit of a challenge. Kids are constantly on the move, and their overactive minds are alight with questions and general inquisitiveness that keeps their hands roaming, their feet moving, and their energy levels at full capacity. As a parent, it’s important that you encourage their inquisitive nature while also keeping them in line, making sure that they stay safe and that they are also preoccupied so you can get what you need done, too. Here are some ways you can keep active toddler’s busy when you cannot focus 100% of your attention on them.

Kinesthetic Activities

The more stimulation you can provide for your child, the better. Try giving them colored blocks, playdough and other similar items to keep them occupied but learning, too. Color matching games are great for teaching children colors, which seems obvious, but it can also teach them basic organizational and special skills as well. Same goes for shape matching games as well. Playdough is a unique substance, and similar goos and slimes can work just as well, but the texture and appearance of these types of toys can introduce kids to their innate sense of creativity while also providing them with a highly stimulating activity.

Finger-painting

Finger-painting seems like a cliché toddler activity but it is a great way to encourage kids to be creative and explore their own modes of expression and exploration. There are plenty of mess-proof finger-painting kits out there, too, and you can even make your own. Place different colored paints into freezer bags and lock them up tight while eliminating most of the air from the bag. Place them on a window or a white surface so kids can play around with the paint, creating images with the negative space without making a mess!

Puzzles

Puzzles provide great exercises in logic, allowing kids to solve problems while actively using their visual imagination at the same time. Personalized puzzles is an added benefit because not only will the puzzle itself provide many benefits to your child but they will also learn their letters and spelling of their name. You can find personalized puzzles for kids on our website. You can also create puzzles of your own by printing out pictures from movies or shows that your child loves, or even make a copy of a piece of work that your child has created themselves, and cut it into sections for them to rearrange and place back together.

Get Creative

When you’re out of toys, games, and are wary of turning to television or mobile games, there are plenty of DIY solutions that you can whip up within minutes to help keep your toddlers occupied and actively using their brains. Doing a search on Google on Toddler Activities can return a plethora of blog sites with creative and unique suggestions that can easily be implemented at home.

Playtime is Crucial for Growth Development

We don’t see a messy room we see growth development!

As a child, playtime is sacred. In early grades, it is one of the more cherished parts of the school day and sometimes kids would rather play than go to sleep or do their homework. Playtime may seem like downtime, but it can actually play an important role in a child’s early development. From the time that they are infants and toddlers and up and onward, allowing kids with ample time to play can help bolster their imagination, their creativity and even their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Babies learn by interacting with the physical world around them. They touch, feel and explore objects. At this age, children play with items and the space around them in order to understand it, so you can see why playtime is so vital at this stage. This is why many toys are geared towards introducing kids to colors, shapes and numbers. Since children cannot yet communicate through language, they learn by seeing, feeling, interacting and even tasting – hence the desire to drool and gnaw on everything they get their little hands on!

Older children can benefit greatly from playtime as well, but it helps to make distinctions between types of play. Media can be informative and imaginative, but parents should still try to limit screen time so children can exercise their own personal modes of creativity and ingenuity. Whether children are reading a physical book, playing pretend, or reenacting a story with dolls and action figures, they are fueling their activities with ideas that are their own. This sort of playtime can allow children to explore their interests and even learn more about themselves. It is also not uncommon for favorite playtime activities to become lifelong hobbies and passions for music, art, creative writing, or acting.

Legos provide hours of spatial reasoning

Encouraging kids to play allows them to learn things naturally and organically. Playing with blocks allows kids to develop spatial reasoning and an understanding of engineering and physics. Writing or reading stories helps critical thinking skills and abstract concept understanding. Acting can help with communication and expression, and sports or other activities can help kids excel in other physical arenas. There are so many possibilities for education and personal development when it comes to playtime. Encourage your children to play, to invent, to play pretend, and to help them learn more about themselves and inspire a curiosity in the world around them, that will live on in their imagination well after they’ve “grown up”.

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