Creative play with your toddler

By Maria Muennich

One of the great joys of life with a toddler can be making things together; and as you make, mould, colour, stick and discuss, you'll be encouraging his mental and physical development in many different, and often subtle, ways. What's more, as most of these ideas only require you to recycle materials, adapt objects you're likely to have already or dig into the supplies of your kitchen cupboards, it's all at only the cost of a bit of cleaning up afterwards. So the next time it's grey, cold and rainy out why not spend some time trying out one of these creative play ideas together.

Play-dough
You may remember play-dough and plasticine fondly from your own childhood. While plasticine is only suitable for older children, play-dough is great stuff for toddlers to model simple shapes with, and even younger toddlers can enjoy squishing it between their fingers and flattening it on the table, or banging it with a spoon. Play dough is great for developing your toddler's fine motor skills, strengthening his hand muscles, improving his coordination and stimulating his imagination.

Dough play at fifteen months
Before your toddler is about two you will probably need to sit with him to play with the dough, as he's unlikely to be able to make shapes himself yet, nor particularly interested in doing so (most commercially available doughs advise that they are suitable for ages 2+). At this stage there's probably not much point in having more than one colour of dough. Try rolling dough into a ball for him and encouraging him to squish it in his hands, or rolls some dough out and let him make finger holes and hand prints in it. You can make simple animal shapes - like snakes and snails - , bridges, plates and so on, and let him enjoy mashing them all up again. There's still a likelihood that your toddler may try and eat some of the dough so you'll need to discourage this.
When your toddler is able to enjoy playing with the dough more independently this can be a great activity to keep him busy when you need do household chores like cleaning the kitchen, making dinner or doing the ironing. You can set your toddler up in his chair at the table with the dough and then stay near enough to watch, talk to him and show an interest in what he's making, but also get your jobs done. By the time your toddler is about two to two and a half he'll probably enjoy playing with different colours or dough and might like to use biscuit cutters or molds to make shapes with.
There are several brands of non-toxic play-dough available in plenty of colours or you can make your own simply and cheaply and colour it with food colourings.
Making biscuits
Toddlers love to copy you and to pretend to cook and bake things, stirring their bowl or pan with a spoon. So, if you 're prepared to clean up the mess afterwards, why not really bake together once in a while? Making biscuits is great for this, as your toddler can help you sift, stir and knead the mixture before rolling it out and cutting out shapes to bake. And of course, a few oddly shaped cookies will go down a treat as a gift for granny. You can make one biscuit mix together or let him have his own bowl of ingredients to mix - just don't expect it to stay in the bowl, or be edible!
A wet cookie mix that you need to spoon out will probably be a bit too messy and not much fun for your toddler, but if you use a firm dough recipe then you have the advantage that you can both play with it as play-dough before you cut it into cookies or bake the shapes you make. You do need to make sure that you're following a recipe that's safe to be eaten raw (so avoid things like eggs) as at least some of it will find it's way into your toddler's mouth before it finds its way into the oven.
Making a collage
Collages are a great way of combining your toddler's creative talents with exposure to different textures, textiles and objects from nature. Every toddler develops differently, but she may be able to enjoy making very simple, unstructured collages sometime between 18 and 24 months.
You can use foodstuffs like dried pasta, rice and lentils to make collages or go for a walk together and gather interesting leaves, petals, sticks and so on to glue onto paper later for a seasonal artwork. Rather than using transparent glue you can colour it with paints (both are available in toddler-friendly versions).
And of course, don't forget scribbling, drawing and painting as great toddler past-times.
Get out the building blocks
They might seem a little dull to you compared to all the fancy toys there are on the market, but good old-fashioned building blocks are a fantastic creative learning tool which your toddler will use for years. Younger toddlers will be more interested in knocking things down than building them up, but at about age one he may start to stack a couple of bricks on top of one another. By the time of his second birthday he might be able to stack as many as six or seven blocks in a tower and will probably have started building more complex designs, using blocks to count, lining blocks up, filling a container to move blocks around and using blocks for pretend play. Your toddler will learn a lot from playing with blocks on his own, but it can also be great fun to set about building something together, which requires communication and cooperation - let him take the lead by asking him what he feels like building together or making a few suggestions frm which he can choose.
Look for building blocks that are well-made with smooth and even surfaces. Soft blocks are good for babies but your toddler will probably get on better with wooden blocks which are also heavier, more easy to balance and more durable than the plastic ones available.
Make a music shaker
We all know that one of the things that many toddlers most like making is a noise, so what better than to engage their creativity in making their own musical instrument? One of the easiest to do is a shaker, which they should be able to manage as soon as they are scribbling or finger painting nicely. Find a smallish container with a securely fitting lid, you want something that is a good size to be held in the hand, and let your toddler draw or crayon on it or decorate it in some other way. Then fill it a quarter of the way with a loose dry mixture like beans, rice or tiny pasta pieces, put on the lid and seal it securely with a tape your toddler won't be able to pull off. Then have fun making music or shaking along to songs together - chuck in an upturned pot and wooden spoon and you have half a band already...
Turn a cardboard box into....
Don't have a smart toy garage or playhouse? Who needs one when you can let your imaginations and decorating skills run riot on a simple, sturdy cardboard box or two. Even younger toddlers can have fun playing with an upturned cardboard box, tell him it's a car, boat or a train and push him around the room, cut windows in the side and invite him into your house or turn the box on its side and get out the toy cars for a garage or his soft toys for a farmyard barn. As he gets a little older (sometime around the age of two but really whenever you see he's ready to take part and enjoy it) you can make your efforts a little more sophisticated and get him to help you make and decorate doors, windows, chimneys, ramps, stalls or whatever other details you think up together (obviously you'll need to do any cutting yourself and keep him well away from the scissors).

Of course, the only limit to this kind of creative play is your toddler's current developmental stage and your own imagination - so if you've got tried-and-tested ideas of your own to add then we'd love you to share them with other TB mums on the forum thread below.

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Maria

Posted: 24/10/07 12:53:21 21

We're sure you've got a zillion great creative ideas between you, so let's have them!


Home » News > Baby development	Friday 25 July 2008 \| Help \| Glossary