Ordinary Days

Ordinary days are often the best ones when you’re very young: The sun wakes you up, you have toast and jam for breakfast, and then you head outdoors. Behind you, you hear the familiar clink of dishes being washed in the sink. You and your big brother read and run and play together.  It’s ordinary. And it’s good.

This issue of Babybug shows toddlers thriving on everyday routines and simple activities. Just as very young children grow all the time, they learn all the time.  They learn while they’re getting dressed to go outdoors. They learn while they’re eating, talking, playing, and getting up from a nap. They learn from familiar, and some would say, unremarkable experiences.

But to a baby or toddler, it’s all remarkable. Putting a shirt on frontwards, navigating a flight of stairs, watching a chipmunk, or being bounced on someone’s knees are all real-life experiences that help children find answers to important questions. In all they do, they’re wondering: What do you think of me? What do I think of me? What’s the world like? And most importantly, Will you be someone who helps me figure it out?

Very young children don’t need toys that blink and move and talk in order to learn. They don’t require videos and computer games or trips to amusement parks. But they do need loving adults who are willing to slow down and join them in savoring the ordinary events of ordinary days.

Play Together

Stores aren’t the only places to find novel and worthwhile playthings. There’s plenty for your child to play with right at home and outdoors. Here are just a few ideas to start with:

•    Give your child a small amount of soapy water and a quick lesson in how to wring out a sponge. What can he scrub? The woodwork, the doors on the kitchen cabinets, chairs, or toys. Water is always soothing. And also soothing to a child is the feeling of competence that comes with doing grown-up work.
•    On a warm fall day, get up extra early and take your breakfast outside, picnic-style.
•    What can your child use an autumn leaf for? A hat? A pretend dish? A dress for a doll? A boat?
•    Roll down a grassy slope together. When you reach the bottom, lie there for a moment and watch the clouds.
•    Save socks that have no mates. They have lots of uses--sock puppets; filling and emptying in the sandbox; balls (roll one up inside the other).
•    After a rain shower, draw on the sidewalk with chalk. The colors will seem brighter on wet pavement.
•    Take time to notice patterns together throughout the day. Look at the repeating pictures on your child’s pajamas. Point out wallpaper and tile patterns.

Read Together

•    Children love to imitate the sounds that animals make. As you read “I Say Good Morning,” encourage your child to join in with a hearty cock-a-doodle-do or a moo, moo, moo.
•    As in “Just Like Big Brother," actions are fun to imitate, too. Your toddler might have fun crawling and running, just like the two brothers in the story are doing.
•    “Baby’s Ride” is a fresh variation on a gentle bouncing game beloved by generations of babies.  Play it with your child.  It’s sure to bring a chuckle of delight!