Care Courses Blog

Today’s blog will dis­cuss a few fun activ­i­ties you can plan for toddlers. 

At Care Cours­es we have many cours­es specif­i­cal­ly about car­ing for tod­dlers and the var­i­ous activ­i­ties to cater to their spe­cif­ic devel­op­men­tal needs. Today we are going to focus on some ideas from our course, Days with Tod­dlers: Cur­ricu­lum Plan­ning for Ages 12–36 Months.

Play dough

Play dough is a won­der­ful teach­ing tool for tod­dlers. Chil­dren start by pok­ing and pinch­ing the clay­like sub­stance and even­tu­al­ly start to try and mold it into var­i­ous shapes. For an even more excit­ing and hands-on les­son, you can make your own home­made play dough with the fol­low­ing recipe:

You will need

• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup salt
• 2 tea­spoons cream of tartar
• 1 table­spoon veg­etable oil
• 1 cup water
• Food col­or­ing or dry tem­pera (option­al)

Steps

1. Mix ingre­di­ents together
2. Cook for three min­utes stir­ring con­stant­ly in a non­stick saucepan
3. Oil your hands and knead until smooth
4. Store the play dough in a zip-lock plas­tic bag in the refrig­er­a­tor – the dough will keep indefinitely

Movement activities

Tod­dlers also need a vari­ety of move­ment activ­i­ties to devel­op large motor con­trol, mus­cle strength, motor plan­ning, and coor­di­na­tion. Talk to tod­dlers as they prac­tice the fol­low­ing motor activities:

• Crawl­ing
• Cruis­ing and walking
• Rid­ing
• Danc­ing
• Rock­ing
• Climb­ing
• Jump­ing
• Rolling, throw­ing, and kicking

Want to learn about even more fun activ­i­ties for tod­dlers? Enroll in our course, Days with Tod­dlers: Cur­ricu­lum Plan­ning for Ages 12–36 Months! After tak­ing this course, you will learn about the nature of a devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate cur­ricu­lum for tod­dlers, your role in tod­dlers’ learn­ing, and the impor­tance of the indoor and out­door learn­ing space in a tod­dler cur­ricu­lum. This course is offered in both our course­book (with online com­po­nent) and our ful­ly online for­mat. Click here to learn more about Care Cours­es’ train­ing for­mats.

Topics covered in Days with Toddlers:

• The nature and pur­pose of a devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate tod­dler curriculum
• Tod­dlers’ mile­stones of phys­i­cal, cog­ni­tive, lan­guage, and social–emotional development
• Your role in tod­dlers’ learning
• The role of indoor and out­door learn­ing space in a tod­dler curriculum
• Cur­ricu­lum strate­gies for sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of tod­dlers’ gross and fine motor, cog­ni­tive, lan­guage, and social-emo­tion­al skills
• Strate­gies to pre­vent and respond to biting
• How to sup­port tod­dlers through transitions
• Devel­op­ing a tod­dler cur­ricu­lum that strength­ens tod­dlers’ self-care skills

Thank you for read­ing. Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!