Entertaining a toddler can be challenging, as you probably read from my "body painting" post he isn't always as excited about the activities I set up for him as I am! However it is still fun to try out new things for him to explore and to give him new learning opportunities and chances to develop new skills. Even if he only engages with the activity for a few minutes I still think it is worth the effort of setting it up for the sake of giving him learning opportunities.
Obviously at his age we aren't talking counting of writing, when I say learning opportunities I am talking about helping him to find out things about the world. For example when water is in a cup it is contained, when it is poured on a flat surface the water spreads, when it is poured onto an absorbent surface it disappears! So the toddler is learning about the qualities of liquid, the effects of gravity and the reactions between materials.
This week I thought we would have a go at playing with flour
I got the idea to get some flour out for him to play with because I was just beginning to make a loaf of bread and Boris wanted to look in the bowl and see what I was doing, he dipped his fingers into the flour and was intrigued by the texture, I didn't really want him messing about with my bread flour that I was about to use to got some other cheap flour I had out and I just piled it on the mat to let him poke it, he wasn't all that interested and didn't seem to know what to do so I went back and got a bowl to put it in because that was the way it had been when he had first been interested.
This got him more intrigued and with the help of a wooden spoon and some stacking cups he was soon transferring flour from one pot to another, stirring it and scooping it up and putting it back into the bowl.
He then decided to sprinkle water from his beaker onto the flour which changed everything! He also tried to shake flour through the little holes in the stacking cups and pressed the cups into the flour to create shapes and patterns.
It was a fun activity which I will definitely do again with him as I feel there is scope for more exploration as he gets older.
Please share what activities you do with your toddler, I am always looking for ways to keep him entertained.
