Activities for 1yr - 18 mo. olds??

Question

I am a stay at home mom to my 13 month old son. Sometimes I worry I am not doing enough learning activities with him. I hear other moms talk about all the structure and activities their kids do in daycare and I am concerned I may not be doing enough for my son at home. Any other stay at home moms have some advice here? THANKS!

I should add, my son is fully walking now and can speak a few basic words. (Mom, dad, dog, done)

Answer 1

I just put myself on the level of a toddler and did the things I enjoyed doing as a kid...

If you let YOUR inner child out, you'll come up with all kinds of fun stuff. At that age, the most fun activities are also the most messy. Lay out a tarp and fingerpaint each others faces, teach them how to blow bubbles (this will help with speech development for the little one too!), get the pots, pans and wooden spoons out and encourage dancing or just go outside and play in the mud.

I get so discouraged when I see that parents feel they HAVE to invest all kinds of money in expensive educational programs when children learn better by hands-on activities that might seem to just be playing to some. Reading books is hard for the younger ones because they want to yank at the pages but the older ones always enjoy it. My kids (and I did too!) loved Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton is priceless for reading to kids.

Just know that whatever you do as long as you're spending time with them that their development will benefit immensely from your positive presence and love alone.

All of that structure and organization and learning is a concept just recently introduced to brow beat children into a society that wants them to be calm.

Children love messy mayhem and learn more from that than most people think.

Answer 2

Books, books, books!!! They are great and help your baby learn to identify animals, objects, etc. W/ the animal books, they can also learn the sounds that each animal makes. Also, acting out the story will help him feel involved and will help him to learn to pay attention. Try doing simple activities too, like praising them when they put their diaper in the trash or get the bread out for you. It'll help train them early to be independent and you won't have a problem getting them to clean until their teenagers! LOL Both of my kids could clean their rooms by the time they were 2! Now they know my standards, so I just have a small problem w/ my son getting motivated, but once he gets going, he's great! You can cut out shapes and have your baby stick them onto different paper or paper plates (you would put the glue on for him). That's a big activity that my son does at daycare. Put on some music and dance together. That'll expose him to the arts and he'll learn to appreciate the different types of music. I've found that Dora the Explorer on Nickolodeon is great to teach them Spanish.

Answer 3

The most important thing is to encourage your child's natural curiosity by constantly exposing him to new things. Reading is very important so your son begins to understand language and begins to realize that objects have certain names etc...but kids that age learn the most simply from "playing" so don't feel pressured into thinking your son needs to be in any structured programs which in my opinion are more to satisy a parents need to feel like they are good parents rather than for the benefit of the child. My suggestion is to make sure that whatever activities your child is doing at home whether it's playing with blocks, going for a walk outside, etc....the absolute most important thing is to show your child that you are interested in what he is doing by giving him as much attention as possible, constantly talk to him and explain his surroundings, encourage him to try new things, and abolutely always, always, always praise him when he achieves even the smallest of tasks....your son will soon enough be in the structued world when he goes to school so don't rush into making this time in his life too structured.....just have fun with him, do crazy silly things and give him lots and lots of attention.

Answer 4

I'm not a mom, yet. But, children love to learn.

You could read to him, play with blocks, anything to stimulate their minds.

Keep in mind that he is still an infant, and infants aren't going to college anytime soon so you don't need to over-do any of these "structures and activities" the other mom's may be doing.

It's also important to TALK to your child. They need to hear your voice, it helps with bonding.

He's just a BABY! :)

Answer 5

i have an 18 month old and here is a list of fun developmental activities we do. but before i list them, you should look into Parents As Teachers, you can have a home visitor come once a month for FREE and they give you tons of ideas on developmental things to do. its an awesome program. just go to www.parentsasteachers.com and you can get into the program. i highly recommend it. but anyways, here is some fun things to do:
color, use finger paints, play with play dough (very supervised of course), make towers out of blocks (they have some big legos at wal mart, my daughter loves them), go for walks and talk throughout the whole walk, let him touch things like tree bark or pinecones, grass, etc and explain the texture (ie. rough bark, soft grass), get some very simple puzzles and do them with him, of course he probably wont get the concept for a while, but its good to introduce it, play in some sand or even a water table if possible, play some childrens music and dance with him (thats a blast) and of course, read tons of books with him.

Answer 6

My daughter is 18 months old now. I read to her a lot. She tells me what the pictures are and shes starting to learn colors. Shes also learned a lot of animal sounds (she can tell me what a kitty says, dog, cow, lion, duck, etc) I also play building blocks with her (thats how she learned her colors). Whenever we watch TV I tell her whats going on. For example, when we watch Blue's Clues I tell her its a doggy and she tells me what he says. I also ask what color sweater Joe is wearing and other things like that. Shes pretty smart for her age. I think the main reason shes so smart is because I talk to her a lot and read to her a lot. She also likes to dance. Ill put on some music and start dancing with her. She loves it.

Answer 7

I had read a huge article in a magazine once about how important it is to let toddles do a lot of hands on activities.
It was about letting them squish play-do and get there hands full of paint. The more mess the better. They had stated that to watch them carefully and that these types of activities when very brain stimulating. It lets them discover and have fun. It will keep them busy for hours.

Answer 8

Sign language is an awesome learning activity for small children. I took a class called teaching hearing children to sign and it was just amazing how much children can learn before they learn to talk! Also it is now considered a foreign language and it's easier for children to learn when they are young. Teach them early and you never know when it could come in handy!

Answer 9

All infants consume crayons faster or later. they are non poisonous. basically be warned that it will look nasty in his diaper. and because it fairly is crimson it make look a splash like blood. i would be unable to belive you're stunned.