YOUR LITTLE creative creature
Playing creative games with your tot helps her mental development. Use these 20 inspiring ideas for super fun.
1
Make a blanket fort. Simply throw a blanket or two over a couple of chairs or tables. Your child will love her “house”. 2
Fill a bucket with water and add bubble bath and plastic toys. Just add your toddler – but it’s a good idea to dress him in his swimming costume because he’ll be soaked by the time he’s done. Never leave your child near water unattended as this is a drowning risk. 3 Punch or cut differently-sized holes in an old shoe box. Now let your little one throw or squeeze a variety of small objects through the holes. 4 Make a collage for your child’s playroom. Use different textures such as sandpaper, rice kernels, sponges, smooth paper, sweet wrappers and crinkle paper. Your child can even help in the construction of the texture board by sticking bits on, painting some parts, ripping paper and passing items to you.
5 Let your toddler help you with chores – invest in a child-sized broom and let her help you sweep. 6 Children love plastic containers. Give her bowls and lids of different sizes to investigate and test out.
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Fill a muffin pan with items such as dry pasta, unpopped popcorn kernels, and flour, and watch her experiment with textures, feelings and transferring bits in and out of containers.
8 Let your little one dig in the garden with a small spade. 9
Cover a child-size plastic table in newspaper. Squirt a small ball of shaving foam directly onto the surface and use your fingers to draw pictures, or simply squelch, smell and smoosh it up.
10 Instead of throwing away bottle tops, collect them and let your little one play with them in a bowl – making sure all the while that she doesn’t put one in her mouth, as this is a choking hazard. 11
Take a sheet of contact paper (such as you would use for covering school books) and attach it to a wall, sticky side out. Let your child stick all sorts of things onto the sticky surface, experimenting with different textures. Soon she’ll have made her own piece of wall art! 12
On a hot day, turn the sprinkler on in your garden and watch with joy as your toddler crows with delight. Remember the sunscreen!
13
Instead of finger painting, you could try foot painting. Take sheets of blank printing paper onto your patio. On the one side, place a shallow bowl of prepared watercolour paint – perhaps with a large bath sponge in the centre as a non-slip stepping surface. On the other side of the paper, place a shallow plastic bowl of lukewarm soapy water to wash feet with at the end. Let your kiddie enjoy walking across the paper and making footprints. 14 Slightly open your garden hose and let your child help you water the plants. 15
Crank up some of your favourite tunes and dance to the beat together! You could even dress up.
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Widen her horizons: give your child the biggest paintbrush you’ve got and a bucket of water and allow her to go wild on the patio or an outside wall. The sun will soon dry off the evidence ... 17 Loosely wrap some of her toys in gift wrap and allow her to unwrap them. Bonus: she’ll rediscover some old toys and treat them as new.
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Older toddlers can start to enjoy playing dress-up – but keep it simple. A blouse or two, perhaps an old hat and a pair of grown-up shoes will be perfect. 19
If you keep a bottle filled with coins, let your curious little explorer have a good look and shake (make sure it’s tightly closed). She might like the look of the light reflecting off the currency, or the sound of the “music” she can make with it. 20
Make a texture book. Use substances that look and feel different, such as cotton wool balls, loose pieces of velvet, foil, sandpaper and dry leaves. Allow your tot to pick up the things that catch her eye in the home or garden and incorporate them into your book. To the extent that it’s safe to do so, let her explore everything by touch, smell, and taste. When you’ve completed the book, keep it on the shelf and take it down regularly to read – and add pages to!