We’re mid-way through our special series on activities for toddlers. If you’ve been following along with us you’ll have already seen our ideas for sensory play, arts and craft and math games. Today we’re all about imaginary play, with ideas for setting up a shop, going camping in your playroom, and hosting a posh tea party. We also have ideas for children who love dinosaurs, pirates and dens.
When Father Christmas brought L a longed for Zhu Zhu pet, big sister B decided he needed to be more upwardly mobile with his very own customised vehicle, so here’s her tutorial on how to make a Zhu Zhu pet car.
Made using just the materials we had in our making box, it’s also a great illustration of how junk modelling is a wonderful way for children to set themselves a challenge and problem-solve their way until they achieve what they set out to make.
We had fun this week roller-painting with cars. We started off with paint on some plates and we dipped the cars’ wheels in before we took them for a drive on the paper. Then B decided we should put some splodges of paint directly on the paper and let the cars roll through.
The children loved the process and there was lots of chat about traffic jams and short cuts – and the finished result was beautiful too.
With sunny weather forecast for the coming week I’m thinking this would be a great activity for outside messy play. How about a long roll of paper laid down the slide or a ramp, with the cars rolling down?
Have you ever tried painting with cars with your children?
Why not? …. add some bubbles to your water play today and set up a carwash in the garden?
Include some washing up sponges and scrubbers and get your trikes sparkly and clean.
And how about giving the children a purse with some coins so they can count out and pay for their carwash?
More fun doing maths this way than with a worksheet!
The highlight of Little’s week was a ride on a double decker bus. We had to sit on top and right at the front of course- something I remember always wanting to do when I was a child. When we got home she wanted to make a double decker of her own.
We used a shoe box for the bus and found two biscuit containers which we stuck in place with sticky tape to make the decks. I used a craft knife to make the bus open-top and to add in some windows.
It’s always good to add in some letters and numbers, so we made a sign for our bus too.
This kind of small world play lets children try out situations they come across in real life. By testing out scenarios they can gain confidence for their own encounters in the big world. It also lets them use lots of language and if you play along with them you can add in some new vocabulary. There’s usually a song you include too – The Wheels on the Bus would be perfect here.
We have more transport theme activities you might like too.
And you can find lots more play ideas at the Childhood 101 We Play link up
We’ve been playing I-spy Letters today as we were out and about in the neighbourhood. We were hunting for the lettert ‘R’, which happens to be the initial of Little’s best friend, but of course you can choose whichever letter you like: think about what stage your child is at with letter recognition and play the game accordingly.
Young children might just be able to spot the first letter of their name. Older children can be set the challenge of spotting each letter in alphabetical order. If you have more than one child you can even make this a competition to see who can find all the letters of their name first. Aside from helping children to actually recognise letters, this game helps them to sort through an assortment of information to home in on what they’re searching for. It shows them that letters have a real purpose, as you can talk about what all the writing is telling passers-by. It’s also good for them to see words written all sorts of different fonts and in both upper and lower case.
Somedays the school run can be fun, other days it can be a chore, so it’s handy to have a few games ready to use if the kids need to be chivvied on a little. What games do you play?
Do you have a young child who is learning their ABCs and 123s, and do you want to make their learning fun? Our ABCs and 123s resource of mulitsensory, play-based letter and math activities is just what you need. See more here.