Having Fun With Toddlers
By June in 
Watching your children develop and learn is so exciting but can be a bit of a shock to the system when you realize their energy levels! I have three active, both in body and mind, children Jason is 6 years old the Sarah 4 years old and Michael who is 2. In my short 6 years of experience my husband Dylan and I have bought a few items that I believe have proven extremely valuable in creating workstations for these busy bodies.
Jason’s first birthday gift was a red plastic table with two chairs. Even at 1, he learnt to sit at the little table and do activities and the others have followed suit. We invested in the more expensive plastic chairs and so it can take the weight of an adult which worked out great when I was trying to teach them something like building a simple wooden puzzle, playing with playdough or learning to color and draw pictures and painting. The table is easy to clean and they enjoy sitting together.
The second valuable item was a large outdoor trampoline which we dug into the ground. Jumping is soooo good for them and they work on their large muscle tone development and have endless fun with each other and friends who visit. If your home is small or you are in a flat, then those smaller exercise trampolines are perfect. I really HIGHLY recommend this, even in winter when the rain breaks for a while I send them for a jump or if the noise level gets too much for my ears they are sent for a jump!
I mentioned earlier about playdough, I make a lot of playdough, it’s so good for their fine motor skill development and experiencing different textures. DON”T be scared to use this recipe it really is sooooo easy , if I can get it right you all can too!
Playdough:
Put all of the following ingredients into a medium sized pot:
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup plain flour
½ cup salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water 2 teaspoons food colouring
Put your pot on the stove on a medium to high heat and stir ingredients together so it all mixes, you will notice it starting to pull away from the sides, keep mixing it and until it forms together in a ball, take it out the pot and kneed it once it cools down a little. Voila! Your own playdough, I promise it takes less than 5 minutes. Keep it in a plastic packet in a sealed container and it will last quite some time.
Please remember as with EVERYTHING that you do with your child, you will have to invest time in the beginning to teach your toddler how to play with the dough or build a puzzle, but you will see that your little effort will reap rewards when you need to make a phone call or to quickly finish supper and you are teaching your child how to play on his own for short periods of time. I hope this will help a little, these have been lifesavers for me!