It’s Thursday! It looks like the weather will be cool and wet this morning, a great day for boots and raincoats. Here are a few invitations we hope will inspire your toddler today.
Small Motor/Cognitive Invitation: Muffin tin sorting
Young children are natural explorers, from a young age they are drawn to sorting and classifying as they work to make sense of the world. Toddlers in particular like to sort things. A muffin tin and a collection of small (but too big to be choking hazards) objects becomes an open-ended puzzle. You can offer clean bottle tops, small blocks, tiny animals, etc.
This invitation was inspired by one of our favorite books, Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play with Infants and Toddlers by Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky.
Art Invitation: Play dough and sticks
Play dough and clay are wonderful materials for young children. They can be used as tools for exploration and creative expression. Today we suggest having your child collect some sticks, or pulling out some craft sticks (coffee stir sticks or straws also work) and set them out with a ball of play dough, or clay if you have it. Your child might poke all the sticks into the dough like a porcupine, use them to create holes and tunnels, or something else entirely!
Outdoor/Sensory Invitation: Mashing mud
With the wet weather expected today, there may be mud available near you. You can put some in a bucket or bowl and invite your child to explore the mud with a potato masher or similar tool. You can also use child-safe potting soil and have your child mix it with water in a tub.
This sensory invitation encourages children to explore the many properties of and possibilities in soil mixed with water. They can test theories, investigate texture, and build motor skills.
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