What At-Home Activities Are Best for Toddler Development?

The toddler years are crucial for your little one’s development. These youngsters soak up everything around them like sponges and learn quickly. According to NorthShore, five main areas of development are crucial to nurture: physical, cognitive, emotional and social, language, and sensory and motor skills. Ensuring your child is engaged in appropriate activities for toddlers will keep them on track!

The world is full of senses and sounds that can help your child learn through nature and their bodies. By engaging with various toys outside, like drawing with chalk, jumping rope, and kicking a soccer ball, they can better develop fine and gross motor skills. Coordination will also improve as they ride a bike and run across the lawn playing with siblings and other little ones in your neighborhood.

Art is a beautiful way for little ones to enjoy sensory play, develop creativity, express themselves and develop fine motor skills. Additionally, exposure to art encourages cognitive development. Different types of paint can be messy, but investing in a drop cloth will help contain the mess while maintaining a fun and stimulating atmosphere. Playing with play dough or air dry clay can help your toddler learn the early art of sculpture.

Children learn the basic principles of engineering and balance as they explore hands-on with different types of blocks. You can also incorporate recycled materials such as boxes and paper rolls make the building experience even more fun! Such toys help lay the foundation children need to enjoy and engage in STEM concepts as they grow older. Magnetic tiles are another great building toys that children enjoy!

Toddlers often imitate their world through imaginative play. A toy kitchen with all the accessories provides ample time for your little one to role play and pretend. Dramatic toys offer children the opportunity to create, image and imitate roles. Parents can also join in the fun by role playing and holding dialogues that will help their little one acquire new vocabulary. You can simply pick up a stick and claim it’s a magic wand. Then, watch the story unfold as your living room transforms into a magic kingdom!

Engaging in age-appropriate activities for toddlers ensures emotional, social, and cognitive growth and development. Here at Key Point Academy Aventura, we understand the importance of playing outdoors, engaging in open-ended art, building with toys, and encouraging imaginative play. Contact our Aventura preschool today to learn more about what we can offer your little one!