Activities for 1 Year Olds September 11, 2011 By Rachel

Our tots love to explore their surroundings. Through our weekly play activities link-party, It’s Playtime, and from roving the internet we have found lots of activities to help stimulate and engage our toddlers. If you have any suggested activities, please feel free to submit them in the weekly link-up or leave a link in the comments.

Here are our favorite toddler activities:

• Sensory Activities
• Discovery Toys
• Baby Toys
• Craft Ideas for Toddlers

Sensory Activities:

A lump of clay and household items or toys can keep a toddler entertained for hours! You and your tot can go on a texture hunt, make a book of different textures to explore (via Bloesum Kids), use the lid to a box to create a sensory version of hide-n-seek with family photos (via Inspiration Surrounds), enjoy a washrag maze (via Lilla A), or match textures as you feel them inside balloons (via Tutus and Turtles).

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Discovery Toys:

Toys don’t have to be fancy for kids to enjoy them! Some of my infants favorites are created with items found around the house. We made I-Spy shaking bottles, Imagination Tree added glitter to her oil and water bottles, over at Pre-school Play they have a smorgesboard of bottle ideas including one where they added marbles to shampoo, Southern Thomas added colorful items to plain water to create a collection of visual effects and Cluck, Cluck Sew made a bottle-free discovery bag for her kids to play with.

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Baby Toys:

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One of our most popular DIY creations is our toddler clipping toy – sure to entertain! But there are other ways you can create toys from everyday objects! Counting Coconuts made blocks from tree branches, mix pipe-cleaners and a sifter and you have toddler poking fun (via The Imagination Tree), an old cereal tub or a large tin can when decorated becomes a drum (via No Time for Flashcards) and help your tot practice fine motor skills with pom-poms and a tupperware tub (via Engaging Toddler Activities).

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Craft Ideas for Toddlers:

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Finger paint with edible paints. A Bunch of Keys made finger paint from condensed milk and The Imagination Tree made paint from flour and food coloring. Don’t want to risk the mess? Angelyn’s Life has a great solution. Put the paper and the paint in a bag. Tape it shut and watch your tots squish to their hearts content. Have dried out markers and maybe a tot like mine who likes to color on herself? This blogger made watercolors out of her old markers.

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Do you have any ideas for baby’s, toddlers, preschoolers, or elementary aged kids? Favorite family crafts or activities? I’d love to feature them – link up to It’s Playtime. I bookmark my favorites for days like today!
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Temper Tantrums: What Your Toddler is Trying to Tell You (and How You Can Help) By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

When your toddler is melting down, it's easy to chalk the tantrum up to anger or frustration (and to get angry and frustrated yourself). But a new study that analyzed the sounds that tots make when their pitching a fit shows that there may be more to a tantrum than just a lot of screaming -- and may offer parents a way to cope.

In the study, which was published in the journal "Emotion," scientists recorded the sounds toddlers make during tantrums and discovered that not only does each type of sound (screaming, yelling, crying, whining, and fussing) have its own "distinct acoustic features," there's a definite pattern to the vocalizations as well.

"Screaming and yelling and kicking often go together," study co-author Michael Potegal, an associate professor of pediatric clinical neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, told NPR. "Throwing things and pulling and pushing things tend to go together. Combinations of crying, whining, falling to the floor and seeking comfort -- and these also hang together."

So, what's really going on when a toddler is having a meltdown? "Frustration certainly is a trigger," James A. Green, head of the department of psychology at the University of Connecticut and a co-author of the study, told Yahoo! Shine. "Blocked goals can results in frustration, which leads to anger. Same is true of adults, actually."

But the scientists also discovered that, contrary to popular belief, toddlers aren't just melting down out of anger, they're also feeling sadness at the same time.

"The impression that tantrums have two stages is incorrect," Potegal said. "In fact, the anger and the sadness are more or less simultaneous."

Certain conditions can make it more likely that a toddler will melt down, Green points out. "Fatigue or illness can lower the tolerance for frustration," he points out. "Toddlers, or so the conventional wisdom goes, simply do not have as many cognitive 'tricks' up their sleeves to deal with these situations." (Older kids, however, should be better able to deal with such situations, which is why their angry outbursts are called rages, not tantrums.)

1. Wait it out. If your toddler is having a tantrum, there's little you can do other than wait it out, experts say. "My colleague and collaborator, Mike Potegal, talks about 'standing back' during the periods of most intense anger, and I think he means both physically and emotionally," Green says. "Trying to give more information to a child who has already lost control may not be very helpful."

"Best to scoop up your tyke and take her to a place where she can calm down without being disruptive to others," suggests Michelle Nicholasen, a mother of five and the author of "I Break for Meltdowns: How to Handle the Most Exasperating Behavior of Your 2- to 5-Year-Old." "Is it a drag for the parent? Oh, yes, and tiring, too. But wait out the storm and it will pass."

2. Don't threaten, cajole, or bribe. You might not be able to control the tantrum itself, but you can control how you react to it, Nicholasen points out. "Parents can make tantrums much worse by yelling at their child to stop, or by threatening them," she says.

Instead of asking questions or trying to reason with a 2- or 3-year-old, simply acknowledge that they're upset. "Toddlers who are in the middle of a meltdown are incapable of hearing our message (reasons, reassurance or warnings) until they're sure we understand and respect their message," says Dr. Harvey Karp, author of "The Happiest Toddler on the Block."

3. Offer comfort. Once children have gotten past what Potegal calls "the peaks of anger," they're more willing to be comforted.

4. Find the humor in the situation. Many parents end up just as frustrated and angry as the child during a tantrum, but as Green points out, tantrums are completely normal -- up to a point. "This too shall pass," he says. "Tantrums are normative events in development and usually decline after age 4."

While you're waiting for your tot to get over his or her anger, having a sense of humor can help. "Imagine a grown-up acting like your child, and you will soon have to stifle a smile," Nicholasen says.

5. Don't take it as a personal failure. "As parents, we are much more self-conscious about being judged when our child is misbehaving in public. The things that go through our minds are: Am I raising my child to be a wild animal? Have I not taught him enough manners? My child is acting like a little brat; what am I doing wrong? But even when you do your best, sometimes a collapse will still happen."

Why are quality toys and quality play so important?

Research tells us that young children need to be actively
engaged in play in order to develop basic learning
skills. This is how they learn about themselves and their
world. We know that quality play promotes close relationships,
language, creativity, physical development,
thinking skills and social skills. This type of creative
play is often challenged in our media centered world, as
children spend more and more time in front of a television
or computer screen.

Many times toys marketed as “educational” offer
little evidence to back their claims. Recently, as a result
of a ruling by the Federal Trade Commission, Disney
agreed to refund consumers for a limited time on the
purchase of their popular baby DVDs . The claim made
for the educational value of the product was determined
to be false advertising. Research done at the University
of Washington found that for every hour spent watching
baby DVDs, infants learned six to eight fewer new
words than babies that never watched. High tech toys
and DVDs can keep young children from interacting
with parents and engaging in creative play—two activities
that promote learning. The American Academy of
Pediatrics recommends no electronic media before age
two. Television and an increasing number of electronic
toys advertised as “interactive” may in fact, be passive
toys, only requiring children to push a button.

Consider the following criteria when choosing quality
toys.
· Is it safe?
· Does it suit the child’s age level and interest?
· Does it allow the child to participate?
· Will it challenge without frustrating?
· Does it have more than one use?
· Is it well-made?
· Will it have long-term interest so that the child can
play with it over a period of years?
· Does it perpetuate sexist or ethnic stereotypes?
· Does it stimulate aggression and violence?

Toys have limited play value when they…
· Can only be used in one way encouraging all children
to play the same way.
· Look exciting but quickly become boring because
they only require children to push a button and
watch what happens.
· Do the play “for” children, instead of encouraging
exploration and mastery.

What's wrong with toys that have a limited play value?
· Lead children to spend more time with TV or other
media, and letting the screen take control of their
play.
· Lure children into watching the TV program or
other media linked to the toy.
· Promote violence and sexualized behavior, which
can lead to aggressive and disrespectful play.
· Separate girls and boys with highly gender-divided
toys.
· Introduce academic concepts at too early an age,
leaving less time for creative play that best prepares
children for academic learning.

Adapted from TRUCE “Play Recommendations” and
“What types of toys support healthy play?”
www.truceteachers.org

More Christmas Poems and Songs for Young Children

Christmas poems and songs for young children, part 2

Quality Toys for Young Children

Toys for 1-year-olds

· Board books with simple illustrations or photographs
of real objects
· Recordings with songs, rhymes, simple stories, and
pictures
· Things to create with—wide non-toxic, washable
markers, crayons, and large paper
· Things to pretend with—toy phones, dolls and
doll beds, baby carriages and strollers, dress-up
accessories (scarves, purses), puppets, stuffed toys,
plastic animals, and plastic and wood “realistic”
vehicles
· Things to build with—cardboard and wood blocks
· Things for using small and large muscles—
puzzles, large pegboards, toys with parts that do
things (dials, switches, knobs, lids), and large and
small balls

Toys for 2-year olds

· Things for solving problems—wood puzzles
(with 4-12 pieces), blocks that snap together, objects
to sort (by size, shape, color, smell), and
things with hooks, buttons, buckles, and snaps
· Things for pretending and building—blocks,
smaller (and sturdy) transportation toys, clothes,
dolls with accessories, puppets, and sand and water
play toys
· Things to create with—large non-toxic, washable
crayons and markers, large paintbrushes and finger
paint, large paper for drawing and painting, colored
construction paper, toddler-sized scissors with
blunt tips, chalkboard and large chalk, and rhythm
instruments
· Picture books with more details than books for
younger children
· Things for using large and small muscles—large
and small balls for kicking and throwing, ride-on
equipment (but probably not tricycles until children
are 3), tunnels, low climbers with soft material underneath,
and pounding and hammering toys

Toys for 3 to 6-year-olds

· Things for solving problems—puzzles (with 12-
20+ pieces), blocks that snap together, collections
and other smaller objects to sort by length, width,
height, shape, color, smell, quantity, and other features,
collections of plastic bottle caps, plastic
bowls and lids, keys, shells, counting bears, small
colored blocks
· Things for pretending and building—many blocks for
building complex structures, transportation toys, construction
sets, child-sized furniture (“apartment” sets,
play food), dress-up clothes, dolls with accessories, puppets
and simple puppet theaters, and sand and water play
toys
· Things to create with—large and small crayons and
markers, large and small paintbrushes and finger paint,
large and small paper for drawing and painting, colored
modeling clay and playdough, modeling tools, paste,
paper and cloth scraps for collage and instruments –
rhythm instruments and keyboards, xylophones, maracas,
and tambourines
· Picture books with even more words and more detailed
pictures than toddler books
· Things for using their large and small muscles—large
and small balls for kicking and throwing/catching, rideon
equipment including tricycles, tunnels, taller climbers
with soft material underneath, wagons and wheelbarrows,
plastic bats and balls, plastic bowling pins, targets
and things to throw at them, and a workbench with a
vise, hammer, nails and saws.

Taken from NAEYC publication “Good Toys for Young
Children”, www.naeyc.org/journal/goodtoys.asp

Musik-Go-Round

Mrs. Vaughan suggests the gift of music for
Christmas. New studio classes begin in
February. For more information see www.musikgo-
round.

Christmas Poems and Songs for Young Children

Christmas poems and songs for young children

Dyslexia

I read a great article in the December 2011 addition of Parents Magazine discussing the early signs of dyslexia. For one, toddlers usually enjoy the repetition of sounds in most nursery rhymes and try to mimic the cadence of the poems, but children with early signs of dyslexia "may not perceive the sound patterns at all."

By five, children use the rhythm and repetition of nursery rhymes to begin reading basic words. (This is why it is so important to expose children to rhyming at an early age.) However, a child with dyslexia "will struggle with associating letters to sounds and especially blending sounds together to make words."

Finally, scientists have determined dyslexia is a brain disorder due to the help from MRIs. Areas of the brain that light up on the scanning device for regular readers are mostly dark for dyslexic readers. But these same readers with dyslexia show activity in other areas of the brain while reading. Meaning dyslexics use different methods in order to read which may make them great problem solvers. Famous dyslexics you might recognize...Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Schwab, and Tom Cruise (not mentioned in the article).

Other important facts:

~Dyslexia runs in the family. "Up to 1/2 of children with a parent or sibling with dyslexia also have it."
~If you are worried your young child might have dyslexia, contact your neighborhood public school. Public schools are required by law to evaluate all children for disabilities!
~If your child is labeled dyslexic, get them in an appropriate education program right away! The sooner the better.