Kim proudly helps Daddy put groceries away and at the same time explores concepts of size, shape, weight, and temperature. Is this can bigger than that one? Is it heavier? Lighter? Holding an orange in one’s hands is a way to experience the meaning of “round.” 

 

Very young children build concepts about the world bit by bit over time, and often they do so as they participate in real-life activities with the people who care for them. Invite your child to join you as you work around your home. You’ll be helping your child feel like a competent person, someone who is capable of learning new skills.

 

Toddlers find satisfaction and add to their understanding of the world by participating in such everyday experiences as:

• putting canned goods on a low shelf when you unload groceries,
• joining you in folding clean towels as you put laundry away,
• pouring water from a small pitcher into a pet’s bowl,
• holding the dustpan as you sweep,
• sponging off a cabinet door in the kitchen,
• vacuuming right alongside you with a push toy.

Household chores and time spent with your child needn’t be two entirely different activities. Combine them. The learning and the lifelong habits and attitudes your son or daughter will gain from working with you are worth any number of unevenly folded towels and water spills.

In the winter it may be dark and cold when you and your toddler get up in the morning, and even darker and colder before bedtime. Summer picnics and evenings at the park with your kids are months away, but it’s still possible for your family to have fun indoors on long winter evenings. Try some of the following ideas. Be sure to ask other parents for their favorite activity ideas, too.

 

• Spread some towels on the floor and blow bubbles indoors. If it’s an especially cold night, blow a few out the back door just to see if they’ll freeze.
• Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate together.
• Announce a toy-organizing evening. Sort through the doll clothes, line up the cars and trucks, separate the Legos from the puzzle pieces, and throw out the broken crayons or set them aside for special projects. Your children will have fun discovering playthings they’d forgotten, and organized toys are more inviting when it’s time to play.
• Show your child some indoor games that generations of children have enjoyed. Try playing London Bridge is Falling Down, Simon Says, The Farmer in the Dell, Ring Around the Rosy, or Hide-and-Seek.
• Cut an orange in half.  Eat the fruit with your child, and then fill the empty halves with toast crumbs or dry cereal. In the morning, set them outside as a winter treat for the birds.

• Visit the library and pick up a stack of read-aloud books to enjoy with your child. Be sure to include some wintry books such as The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats or The First Snowfall by Anne and Harlow Rockwell. Ask your librarian for other suggestions.
• Make cookies, and invite the neighbors over for dessert.
• Pile up fresh snow in the kitchen sink. Have your children pull up chairs to stand on. Then supply some spoons and plastic bowls, and let them explore.
• On another evening, read “Splish Splash Wash” in this issue of BABYBUG, and then give your child plastic dishes, forks, and spoons to wash in a sink full of warm, soapy water.
• Draw or scribble to music together.
• Have a family photo album or video night, looking at pictures taken when your children (or you) were younger.
• Let your child have an extra-long playtime in the bathtub. Add bubbles or a few drops of food coloring to the water just for fun.
• With older children, play an ongoing board game. Leave it set up and play it for a few minutes every evening.
• Paint snow pictures by dabbing non-toxic white shoe polish on dark paper.
• Fix a snack with your child. Even cutting up bananas is fun when you take your time and do it together.
• Spend an evening drawing a picture or making a special card for your child to give to a grandparent or neighbor the next morning.
• When it’s bedtime, read “Winter Snuggles” to give a cozy sense of closure to a busy day.

 

Winter lasts for about 90 days. Don’t let one go by without delivering this important message to your child: “I love you.”