Blog: Toddlers

Welcome to the final week of the Lakewood at Home blog. This week we are going to revisit some of our favorite invitations from the past four months, adding some ways to extend the invitations or modifying them for different age groups. Enjoy!

Outdoor Invitation:  Neighborhood Walk

Take a walk anywhere around your home! You can do this with your child riding in a wagon or stroller, or go at your toddler’s walking pace. During a nature walk take time to notice the world with your child: the sky, the trees, and ground. What are the signs of Spring you can see in your neighborhood?

Intent: Sometimes the walk is more important than the destination because it is where we observe the most.

Sensory Invitation:  Sand (pouring, scooping)

Sand is such a wonderful material for young children to explore. An empty dish tub or storage bin makes a perfect sensory bin. For easier clean-up, place the bin on a shower curtain liner, old sheet, or table cloth. A measuring spoon, tablespoon and a container are plenty of tools for scooping and dumping, filling and pouring.

Fine Motor Invitation: Investigating string, yarn or ribbon

Invite your child to play with string, yarn, or ribbon. Ask your child what can you create? What does the string remind you of? What can we do with it?

The intent for this invitation is to have the child create something by weaving, tying or anything else they can imagine. This way they are finding ways to use the item creatively, problem solving all while giving those fine motor muscles a work out! For young toddlers, cut pieces of string/ribbon/yarn 6″ or shorter. Use as many different textures as you can find.

Happy Friday! We made it through another week! Here are three invitations for toddlers for today.

Dramatic Play/Sensory Invitation: Coffee shop water play

This invitation would work well outside or in the bathtub. You will need some water, cups, something to serve as a coffee pot, spoons, and possibly a coffee filter or two and sand or soil if you are outside. We know it has been a long time since families could hang out in  beloved Durham coffee shops like Cocoa Cinnamon and Nolia. Today we wonder what your child will do with materials similar to those they might find in a coffee shop or that they might see when someone at home makes a cup of coffee. What steps do they investigate doing on their own?

Art Invitation: Finger paint

As a final art invitation this week, we would like to suggest finger paint followed by water play to wash off. You can use many kinds of washable paint as finger paint, but it may not have the alluring, silky texture of finger paint. We definitely recommend using cardboard or thicker paper for this invitation, or embracing the holes that often happen when children work with paint and their fingers. What are they exploring as they make the holes and enlarge them?

Building Invitation: Block building with vehicles

As a block building invitation this week, we wonder how your child will engage with blocks and vehicles. These could be trucks and interlocking blocks, strollers and unit blocks, or wagons and alphabet blocks. Your child might engage in transporting, filling and dumping, exploring ramps or something else entirely.

Good morning! It’s going to be another warm day. Here are three invitations for you and your toddler today.

Cooking Invitation: Making frozen fruit pops

We often make frozen fruit pops in the summer. You can do something as simple as freezing orange or apple juice in molds (or paper cups covered with foil and a clean craft stick stuck through the foil). Jessica Gavin also has some interesting sounding recipes, or you and your child can make up your own using what you have in the fridge/pantry and your imaginations! Remember it will take several hours for the pops to freeze, so make them in the morning for a late afternoon snack, or plan to enjoy them the next day. This project engages multiple senses and creativity in the kitchen.

 

Art Invitation: Big paper drawing

During a recent webinar we were inspired by the Seneca Lab School’s practice of creating large spaces for exploring paint or drawing. They cover the floor and wall (to child height) with large pieces of paper and allow children to explore freely. You might have space for this in your home, or in a nearby outdoor space. You can use the back of wrapping paper, flattened cardboard, or easel paper to create the drawing/painting space. We wonder how your child will interact with the space and materials when their canvas is really large.

 

Language/Literacy Invitation: Books

The toddlers at Lakewood love books and have opportunities to engage with them on their own, in small groups with the teachers, and occasionally as a whole group. We have baskets of books outside, and baskets in the classroom. Today we are wondering how your child would like to engage with books. Would they like to read with an adult, to share a story with a friend or relative virtually, or to sit in a quiet and cozy space with some of their favorite reads?

Good morning! It is Wednesday again and the heat and humidity continue. Below you will find three simple invitations for toddlers today.

Sensory Invitation: Sensory bin with vehicles

Pull out your trusty sensory bin/box and add some vehicles. This could be the form of a car wash, or making roads in kinetic sand, or anything else. This is an opportunity for children to use their imaginations, build sensory schema, and use fine motor skills.

Art Invitation: Paint and string

This art invitation is interesting and can be quite messy. It might be a good idea to plan to follow it with water play. You will need a shallow tray (like a pie tin), some string cut into around 6” pieces, 2-3 colors of paint and paper. Invite your child to explore making tracks and prints with the string and paint.

Fine Motor Invitation: Building with interlocking blocks

At Lakewood we offer several types of blocks in both our indoor and outdoor environments. Outside we have the very large Quattro-type blocks and each classroom inside has an appropriately sized option. This type of block offers opportunities for building in different ways from unit blocks or hollow blocks and builds fine motor skills as well.