Toddler Activities to Get Out and Explore!
Looking for creative toddler activities that encourage their curiosity and engage their little minds and hands in fun but meaningful ways? Read on for a wonderful new resource that helps parents and teachers go on everyday adventures with their little ones in ways that everyone can enjoy!
Toddler Activities to Get Out and Explore!
Toddlers love to explore, and as parents and teachers we often struggle to encourage this curiosity in manageable ways. As much as we might want to go on adventures with our toddlers, it can be overwhelming to try to think ahead about how to create a safe learning environment at, for instance, a national park. More fundamentally, many of us need to shift our perspective to see even everyday outings like going to the post office as the adventures that they represent for our little ones.
That is why I am so excited to share with you a new resource for toddler activities that helps parents and teachers take advantage of everyday opportunities for learning as well as try new adventures with their toddlers!
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Little Walks, Big Adventures for review purposes; however, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
Little Walks, Big Adventures: 50+ Ideas for Exploring With Toddlers
Moreover, it provides considerations for each (such as the best times of day to visit, how to accommodate children with special needs, and how to scout out appropriate locations ahead of time) so that your adventure is enjoyable for everyone. The author has extensive experience as a parent as well as a caregiver, so she has practical suggestions for going on adventures with your own children or at a care center, including thinking of allergies and when to ask for permission from parents ahead of time.
I also love that it includes locations I wouldn’t have thought of. For example, I love taking my animal-loving girl to the zoo, but it hadn’t occurred to me to take her to the pet store!
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The adventures are broken up by general interests into four groups – home and community, vehicles, animals, and our world. And for each adventure – whether it is a trip to a farm or a train ride – there are suggestions for toddler activities to do while you’re there as well as once you’re home, along with suggestions of how to adapt them for older or younger toddlers.
We recently went to a local bakery we hadn’t tried before – an adventure for all of us, including my toddler! Following the book’s
Once we were home, I did one of the extension activities suggested in the book: making cupcakes out of play dough! Again, the emphasis is on following the child’s interests and focusing on the process, rather than the product. In other words, if their “cupcakes” aren’t perfect, who cares? Or if they decide they’d rather make little animals or just feel the lovely squishiness of the play dough in their fingers, that’s fine.
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My older kids loved it, too! In fact, I foresee that we as a family will be enjoying many of these adventures together, because they speak to the wonder and curiosity all of us still have, though sometimes we have to be reminded of it!
As a homeschooler, I treasure Little Walks, Big Adventures
Whether you are a parent or a caregiver, Little Walks, Big Adventures
