It is hard to entertain your children indoor during cold days. Except for the running, tussles and making mess, you want to teach them something, to train and develop both their brains and motion skills.
These are exercises for balance. It is all up to you to make them fun, so to catch your little ones’ attention.
What you need: a cylinder box with a cover. You can use your imagination here. I myself use the empty box from the powder milk. You may put on the box different stickers together with your toddler to make it more interesting and favorite activity. Here is the moment to combine the physical exercise with the educational one. For example every time we pick a theme – vegetables, fruits, zoo animals, body parts. You can learn the directions – direct you toddler where to put the next sticker – top, bottom, back, front. You can even make a face with the different body parts – eyes, nose, and ears, etc. Now you are ready to begin.
Sit on the floor and hide the box behind your back – provoke your toddler to guess what you hide there. Give your little ones different tips. Then roll the box to your children. Put the stickers. Decorate one for you too.
Put your both hands on the box and roll back and fort
Put one of your feet on the box and roll it back and fort
Grab the box with your both hands and “rub” it with your palms tight
Put your legs together and roll the box with your hands over your legs and body from the chest down to the toes and back
Fill the box with noisy materials, if you want to stick to the days’ theme – put for example little plastic fruits. Skate it with one hand up and down in the air.
Make the toddler to build a tower from all the boxes and them make him bring it down.
Teething can be very tiring both for the parents and for the baby. Here are some remedies that do not guarantee effect at any cost, but worth to try. Each organism reacts differently, so let your baby lead you in your experiments. The one thing that can make happy is that the teething pain is a sign that the bone structure of your little one is developing properly.
1. Nelsons Teetha – that is homeopathic remedy specially designed to relieve the painful teething in babies. It is either in gel or sugar free powder. I am using the sachets and the each 300mg sachet contains 6c homeopathic potency of chamomilla. Also contains lactose, xylitol and starch. As far as I know it is distributed in UK, but it is easy to order online. Just to give you a tip what to look for: 2. Baltic amber teeth necklace - Amber is a natural analgesic and when worn on the skin, it releases healing oils that helps babies and young children to stay calm and more relaxed thoughout teething. I had ordered it online, google it.
3. There are of course all the teething rings, water filled and chilled rubber teething. You can try also putting in the fridge wet cloth to freeze and give it to your baby to play with. You can put in clean baby sock a piece of frozen carrot, apple or other fruit to chew.
4. Just recently my acupuncture therapist suggests cutting a clove of garlic and putting it just for a moment on the painful teething spot and them massaging and spreading it for 5 minutes with your clean finger.
5. Massaging the teeth with sugared honey for some minutes.
6. Natura Sound Therapy – a program with different sound settings. One of the combinations is called Pain Relief; we play it when the baby is asleep to help ease the pain.
7. Pure homeopathic chamomilla. We have it here on granules and dissolve 5 of them in water. Of course you have to coordinate the right proportion of the homeopathic medicine with your pediatrics.
The most wanted this Christmas is Elmo. Fisher Price official release date is 1st of November 2008. You can celebrate Christmas with the dancing Elmo. He does a lot more - sits down, speaks just like its original, jokes, crosses legs, gives hugs. Your children will adore the almost LIVE Elmo.
I have tries to find out simple rules and requirements when buying my toddler shoes. It is a responsible task for every parent because the lack of awareness of proper foot care goes before serious foot problem.
I. The best time to go shopping for child’s shoes is at the end of an ordinary day – after the regular indoor and outdoor activities, when the feet are swollen and at its largest size. That will ensure that you will get the best fitted shoes.
II. Get the child with you while shopping shoes for him/her. The rule is that they outgrow 2 sizes per year since 5 years old. Have in mind that they are born only with 22-26 bones in their feet and they develop and grow. As far as I know feet grow on stages, not constantly. Choosing the right size is critical to the good foot “health”, so do not rely on “last month” measurements for instance.
III. The shoes are not proper if:
- the child has red marks, because of tighten shoes
- the child wants to take off the shoes all the time or cries
IV. Bring the old shoes with you – by examining how they are worn, the specialist can make the proper suggestion.
V. Wear the pair of the shoe and let the child walk around the store
VI. The sizing rule: the toe room should be equal to the width of the child’s thumb – between the child’s longest toe and the end of the shoe while they are standing.
NB: remember that the longest toe is not always the big toe.
VII. Mistakes: 1. having to break-in a pear; 2. Buying 2 size larger shoes and let the child grows in it, that can cause falls and slips; 3. Even if the shoe is the same size, the different models are specific and size do not speak it all.
It is hard to entertain indoor your child during cold, winter days. Here are some interesting ideas for educational but fun activities that you can do with your little one at home. They are suitable either for group or only the two of you. The hardest thing with the 2 years old toddlers is to capture their attention, to try make them concentrating on the learning process without killing the fun. Of course when you read them you may think it is too early for your toddler to know doing this, but you have to be patient, and to understand that he will develop the certain skills with reiteration. I explain the game, using pictures, but you can use animal figures, plastic fruits, etc., what you have in hand, the most important rule though is that in helping the development of your toddler you have to stay calm and have fun, exploring together.
I. My first suggestion for development fun game for 2 -3 years old toddlers is called “Time to bed”.
The educational target of the game: is to practice the toddlers’ knowledge of animals (birds). To learn what the different animals prefer to eat.
What you need: Pictures of different foodstuffs, put in front of the animals “lodges” (you can define them in a different way – with hoop, tent etc., disc with a song, which your toddler like to listen before sleep and connects with going to bed. Cut pictures of the different animals (we will use them as labels on the children).
The rules of the game: The toddler has to pick what animal he want to be; the toddler has to find the lodge of that certain animal, using as an landmark the picture of the foodstuffs in front of every lodge; the toddler has to go to sleep in his “lodge” when he hears the “going to bed” song.
Preliminary preparation: look around every lodge with your toddler and find out which one is his, explaining which animal eats the food picture in front of every one.
Your part in the game: Cut pictures of different animals, put them into a bowl, let the toddler pick his favorite and put it on his chest. In this way it is easier for toddlers to assume the role of that certain animal. That helps their motivation to find their own “lodge”. For example: you say: Now you are a bunny, you have to jump like bunnies. I will play some music and let us jump around. When I play our “going to bed” song you have to find your “lodge” and sleep. You can use variants on this game – changing the places of the lodges, mixing the foodstuffs pictures, etc.
II. The second game for entertaining and learning with your 2 years old toddler is called “What does the bunny have?”
The educational target of the game: is to introduce to toddlers the different parts from the body of the bunny; to learn the different parts of the body.
What you need: Picture of a bunny (for you); picture of different parts of the bunny and the thing the bunny likes to eat (for your toddler)
The rules of the game: together with your toddler you have to look the different parts of the bunny, learning him to show on the picture the part you ask for; if he can – to name the part you show.
Preliminary preparation: to find in the bowl in front of the toddler and name the part of the bunny you ask for
Your part in the game: Put in a bowl in front of your toddler pictures of different parts of the bunny – ears, eyes, tail, etc.; In your picture show a certain part of the bunny and say “What does the bunny have?”. Your toddler has to find that same part in his bowl and name it.
Second variant: it is called “The bunny does not have … What?” The differences here are in: What you need: several pictures of a bunny, one without ears, one without carrot in its hand, tail, etc. Your part in the game: Show the picture of a bunny without the ears, and ask: The bunny does not have … What? Your toddler has to find the part in his bowl and put it in the right place on your picture.
III. The third game with which you can introduce the world around us to your 2 years old toddler is called “Sparrows”
The educational target of the game: is to introduce to toddlers sparrows and its character as a bird.
What you need: You need to tell a story with main character – the little sparrow bird, so to fascinate your toddler and capture his attention.
The rules of the game: to teach him to listen with patience; to imitate the movement of the sparrow bird and trying to pronounce them.
Preliminary preparation: when you ask a question, the toddler has to show what the sparrow bird do and try to pronounce it.
Your part in the game: Tell the story for the little sparrow bird and try the toddler to guess what the animal you are talking about is. At first he will not be familiar with, but later he will remember that this story if fir that certain animal. Then the toddler “become” the little bird and has to sing, dance, fly, eat, and drink, etc. like it. You will say: How does the little sparrow fly with its wings? And you both start to fly around. It is a lot a fun. If your toddler can speak already, you can “sound track” the certain animal activity with the proper noise.
IV. This game is called “What does he want to eat?” and it is a good for teaching and amusing your 2 years old toddler for animal, their food.
The educational target of the game: to teach the toddler the different animals and bird, what they eat, and to try to show him that people need to care for them, that they are our friends, with which we can play and with which we have to be careful.
What you need: picture of animals and what they eat; riddle for every animal.
The rules of the game: trying to organize the different pictures – each animal with its food, reading the riddles
Preliminary preparation: when the toddler hears the riddle to find the picture of the animal. And to “give” the animal the certain food.
Your part in the game: For example: you say a riddle for the squirrel. The toddler has to find the picture of it and the then thing it eats – walnut, hazelnut, mushroom, etc.
