Archive for April, 2010
Your child is between the age of 1 and 3 and will learn by playing. All play is learning for toddlers and young children and you will have many teaching opportunities as you interact with your children each day.
Children will be working on their walking, wobbly at first, and beginning to use words. By three years old your children will most likely able to balance briefly on one foot and speak in short sentences.
It is during these fun years that your toddler will enjoy playing simple games with their parents, grandparents and their brothers and sisters. They will also begin to enjoy group games with other young children – although they will need assistance from others.
Although group games offer your children a chance for socialization, toddlers will more often play alongside their friends rather than with them. They do enjoy being around other kids, but will focus more on the leader or parent.
Playing quietly by himself is also important and having many safe wood toys such as push pull wood toys will give him opportunity to play using his imagination and give you time to sit and read a book nearby.
Big wood wheels help children to easily push and pull this toy dog.
All I Can Imagine has a cute selection of three push pull wood toys for kids 18 months and up. See their yellow duck, blue dog, and green Hybrid car.
Flexible wooden clutching toy. Bend and twist as you wish.
As you are holding your newborn baby he reaches to your finger and tightly clutches it. He clutches so tightly you may not even be able to release his grasp.
You are holding your baby daughter and she is the most beautiful baby in the world and if you are the dad you know you will work to give her whatever she wants and needs. No boy will ever be good enough for her. You will love her mother so much that your baby girl will see how a man should love a woman.
If you are holding your son and he has hold of your finger you know that none of your buddies will ever have such a smart son! Your son will be the next president or famous brain surgeon. You probably have already bought him his first baseball and glove, or perhaps his first fishing pole.
With just one clutch you are hooked; but why do babies clutch? Babies are born with the grasping reflex — touch your baby’s palm and he’ll curl his tiny fingers around yours. Your baby’s hands will mostly be clenched in a fist, but soon he will begin grasping objects such as wooden baby toys.
When your baby is about three months old he won’t be able to grab onto what he wants but he will be able to bat at his baby toys. He will also be developing hand-eye coordination and begin to take notice of items he wants to grasp.
At four to eight months your baby will be able to pick up larger object like blocks, wooden baby rattles and other clutching toys. Even before he gets his first tooth (usually between three and twelve months) your baby will be picking up and putting whatever he can into his mouth. He will begin moving objects from one hand to another and this is a good time to begin getting valuables and unsafe objects out of his reach.
As soon as possible, after your baby is born, you will begin researching and purchasing safe wooden baby toys for your son or daughter.
And for clutching you will love our eco-adorable wooden toys. Flexible, cute worms made from plantation grown Rubberwood (an earth friendly hardwood). These cute baby toys encourage grasping and will help your baby increase his hand strength.
Once he grips these wooden baby toys he will be hooked, just as you were when you first held you new baby!
Celebrate the season with a decorative collage pot full of vibrant spring flowers! When you have to stay in because of the spring rains that will surely come a bright, new craft idea will help entertain your kids age 5 – 8 years old.
This activity is appropriate for:
kindergarten – 3rd grade / 5 – 8 years
You will need:
- Collage Pots – Set of 15
- Lakeshore Fully Washable Liquid Tempera – Pints
- Collage Buttons
- Lakeshore Heavy-Duty Brushes
- Best-Buy School Glue
- Art Tissue Paper
- Pipe Stems
- Construction Paper – 9″ x 12″
- Safety Scissors
- Super-Safe Craft Tape Center – 1″
- Yarn Laces with Tips
I found this craft idea at: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/projects/springFlowers.jsp?f=featured. Go here for the directions to make this pretty pot of flowers.
Our six dogs are each a separate wood toy.
In the market for a new 3d wooden puzzle? See our six piece cat family puzzle or our six piece dog family puzzle. Both are popular wood puzzles for kids 3 and up. Painted with non-toxic paints. Each puzzle piece is its own cat or dog toy.
Besides an hour of unstructured play each day toddlers need at least one half hour each day of structured physical activity. Taking time off from your household chores will benefit both you and your toddler.
Playing with your child helps you to get to know one another and you can watch how your child is developing. Playing open-ended games and make up activities so that you will not have to discipline your child for a while and just have some fun together.
Plan to do several activities each day and to stretch each activity to 10 minutes or longer if your toddler’s attention span will allow. Play in a safe area away from furniture with sharp corners.
One idea you may have fun with is setting up an obstacle course. Use pillows to climb over, then a cardboard box to crawl through. Set up an object such as a foot stool to circle around and then you could dash through a doorway and slid into or jump onto an old mattress.
You could use crepe paper on the doorway to create a “finish line” that they have to break through if there are several kids and a race is in process.
Obstacle courses can also be set up with building block toys such as ImagiBRICKS giant toy blocks. These are crush-proof and come in three different sizes. Each sized block is a different color and they are lightweight so that young children can lift and carry them. Let them make their own obstacle course to run through.
For their unstructured playtime they will love building structures and knocking them down. These building block toys are coated with a drool-proof coating so they can easily be kept clean and sanitized.
Large red cardboard building blocks are fun to stack.
You will provide your children a world of fun learning and creative building opportunities when you give them giant toy blocks. Children learn through play and blocks are one of the best toddler learning toys on the market.
When children reach for, pick up, stack, or fit blocks together, they build strength in their fingers and hands, and increase eye-hand coordination. Around two, children begin to figure out which shapes will fit where, and get a head start on understanding different perspectives — skills that will help them to read maps and follow directions later on.
Cardboard building blocks help kindergarten and primary grade children develop skills in design, representation, balance and stability.
ImagiBRICKS™ are the award winning cardboard building blocks your parents used to play with and are available in various quantities.
You can get a set as small as 16 pieces in all red, 40 pieces in three colors and sizes all the way up to bulk quantity blocks. See all our other sets at All I Can Imagine.
Our toddler learning toys come with a drool-proof coating and are crush-proof.
One thing toddlers love to do is jump. To keep them off the furniture you could place large pillows on your floor; or, if you have an old mattress that is even better.
Go for walks on different types of surfaces. Walking on grass, gravel, or sand and uneven surfaces will not only challenge their balance it will help muscles develop.
If you have stairs let them practice climbing up and down when you are watching and standing close by. If you do not have stairs it is a good idea to have a set of giant cardboard building blocks called ImagiBRICKS.
These toy blocks can be stood on without crushing. You can place them around the room in a maze like formation and have your children walk around them as well as step up on top of them. They will learn to balance, step up and down and use a variety of muscles while having a great time playing.
Of course, as with any set of building blocks they will stack them up and knock them down. They will carry them around and put them in wagons. All this play is open-ended and will allow for many hours of creative play to help build confidence and self-esteem.
You will be providing your toddlers and young children with one of the best toddler learning toys on the market when you provide them with a set of ImagiBRICKS.