Nowadays, it is demanding to find the activity that you will do for your toddler and will enjoy. Constant technology expansion influenced even the youngest population. Therefore there are noticeable screen addictions with babies. Some children develop cognitive and motoric functions later due to screen overdose. How? Screen exposure gives them a passive state that limits their movements and attention. Therefore, children learn to walk later and do not register the world around them. Additionally, it is not a rare case that children start speaking a foreign language due to language exposure and lack of communication in the native language. In order to have these changed, it is important to talk to your child and to teach them activities that would be a base for their efficient progress in the following period. Here are some suggestions on how to spend effective and creative playtime with your child.
Lego
There are numerous benefits of playing with Lego. Besides, it triggers creativity and problem-solving, this toy helps build social and communicative skills. It is not a point if the child is playing on their own, then the playtime is nothing but a distraction. Play with your child and enjoy your time. You can also roleplay and act as the architect and your child as a builder, combine colors and teach some basic shapes. However, if you cannot manage to play with your child, you can give them tasks to do and therefore trigger their problem solving and test their skills. Lego helps children develop their mathematical skills by understanding patterns, creating combinations, symmetry, and quantity. Lego can have positive effects on spatial orientation or intelligence.
Personalized Name Puzzles
Whether you buy it as a gift for someone’s child or order for your own child, these puzzles are amazing creative toys for children that will help them learn the shapes of letters and how to put puzzle pieces together. These puzzles will help your child recognize their name, learn the shape and sound of the letters, help them develop perceptuomotor and spatial rotation skills, and start recognizing and learning colors. These puzzles can be made in various colors and shapes and even be made as different shapes so that they can start recognizing and learning new shapes. These toys are perfect for 2-year-olds since it is the period when cognitive functions begin developing. These little successes will help them build self-confidence, and it is important to give them appraisals whenever they finish the task positively.
Movement and Dance
These activities are the closest to the natural habitat of children. Children naturally are prone to intensive activity and like to dance and play games. You can turn movement and dance to be your means in developing their motor skills, and in helping them express themselves. You should put some music that will inspire your child to dance or even put a video of their favorite cartoon characters dancing. This will make them imitate them and move according to the rhythm. You can put on different music styles every day, even music from some different cultures, and show them some traditional movements. These activities will help you stay in shape and have your child engaged in productive physical activity. It is scientifically proven that increased physical activity triggers better brain functioning and facilitates learning. If you want to make dancing even more interesting you can do some figures like crawling, jumping, clapping, rolling, skipping, and spinning around and slowly let your child take the lead. You can spice up things by adding some items like ribbons, balls, balloons, spoons for clapping, toy instruments, etc.
Arts and Crafts
Drawing and making figures of plasticine were the video games before a great expansion of technology. Drawing has always been one of the best ways to develop, increase, and facilitate a child’s creativity. You can use everyday objects and some recycled materials for art and craft. For instance, you can use old socks and make some stuffed toys, plushies, or even puppets, creating a small performance with the toys you made. Also, you can do roleplay and give your child a role they should play.
You can also take your child for a walk and collect some things from nature like fallen leaves, colorful stones. You can use these for unique artworks like paintings and drawings with the leaves used, you can also drip them into paint and make the stamps with them. During the summer season, you can collect shells at the beach and make paintings with them. For example, you can fill a glass bottle with a small amount of sand, colorful stones, and tiny seashells and create your own version of snowball.
Use your creativity and make a blanket house or cave, you can also find a huge card box and let your child decorate it the way they want with crayons, paints, ribbons, and some additional decorations. You can make it into a house, boat, cave, car, etc. You can help your child cut out windows and doors and prevent injuries.
You can also organize a masquerade with your children. You do not need to wait for Halloween to be the character you want to be.
Coloring books
Coloring books are very good for your children. They are an effective way for your children to learn colors and how to match objects with their colors. It is not just they will learn colors, they will also learn the characters and help them increase their precision when painting and coloring. Coloring books have positive mental effects and will help your children build their focus and attention. The coloring goes beyond every activity. This has both brain hemispheres engaged and generates creativity processes. It is a good idea to give your child a coloring book before sleep. It is a relaxing and electronic light-free activity that will calm down your child and help them fall asleep easier.
There are multiple activities you can use for your child to learn a number of different things and to facilitate learning. You can also use some things from everyday use and raise awareness of objects for regular usage.
