Keeping Toddlers Busy

Toddlers love routines! Try to stick to the same schedule every day. From the time the children arrive for nursery school till their parents pick them up try and follow the same schedule every day. You'll find you'll have less discipline problems and more receptive toddlers if you stick to the routine. Toddlers hate to feel insecure and will take fewer tantrums if they know what's happening around them. Toddlers also love repetition. They love to hear the same story and they like to play the same games. Having the children during a Sunday school, nursery program or other 1-2 hours per-week programs, it's ok to have some of the same activities repeat themselves. Here are five easy activities to keep them busy without breaking the bank and they can be collected in a short amount of time. You'll also find five songs and ways to get children moving to them.

Shakers

Take a cardboard toilet paper tube. Using paper and adhesive tape, block off the end of the tube. Fill it up ¼ ways with uncooked rice and then tape the other side shut. Your child will enjoy making sounds with their new shaker. For other varieties, replace the rice with uncooked lentils, kidney beans, noodles, little pebbles and other non-toxic noise making things. Show the toddlers what you are putting inside and explain that they can't be eaten. Watch the child closely.

Match Game

Go around your house and find plastic containers with a lid or ask the toddlers parent to bring in some. Good choices are shampoo bottles and caps, hand-cream tubes and caps, margarine containers and lids, milk jugs and caps,... Make sure the containers are clean and dry. Set them out separately on a table and ask the children to match which lid goes with which container.

Paper Tearing

Sit down with the children and show them how to tear paper. There's a technique to it. They'll most likely crumple it up in the beginning. Have them listen to the sound and make strips all over. Try different papers, such as tissue paper, sand paper and cardboard.

Bean Bag Box

Use two or three supermarket boxes and cut off the tops. Have the children step back about five feet and try to throw (underhand) the beanbags inside the boxes. Use this activity to reinforce words like inside, outside, and beside. They'll be practicing their throwing skills as well. Now ask them what other thing can they do with beanbags. Wear them on their heads, on their shoulders on the top of their feet, hands out and have beanbags resting on their palms. 'Wearing' the bean-bags, make them walk, sit, and crawl.

No Mess Painting

Take a plastic zipper storage bag and place a about two-three tablespoons of thick paint. Close the bag and tape to prevent an accidental opening. Show the children what happens when they push and manipulate the bag. For an added variety, place one color in one corner and another color in the other corner. Watch the children mix the colors.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty, sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Use the plastic eggs that separate, toddlers will have fun just trying to open and close them. Beforehand hide little messages or drawings inside for an added treat.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five

One, two, three, four, five,
I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
then I let him go again.

Why did I let him go?
'Cause he bit my finger so,
Which finger did he bite?
This little one on the right!

Available from the dollar store get plastic fish children can play with, or draw and cut come out of construction paper.

This Little Piggy

This little piggy went to the market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, wee, all the way home.

Get the shoes and socks off. Have the children sit down and count the toes, starting with the big toe and going towards the little toe, when saying the wee, wee, wee, wee, go up to the knee and tickle the child.

I'm Turning

I'm turning, turning, turning.
I'm turning round and round.
I'm turning, turning, turning.
I'm turning round and round.
I turn and turn and turn and then I STOP!

I'm running, running, running.
I'm running all about.
I'm running, running, running.
I'm running all about.
I run and run and run and then I STOP!

I'm tiptoeing, tiptoeing, tiptoeing.
I'm tiptoeing on my toes.
I'm tiptoeing, tiptoeing, tiptoeing.
I'm tiptoeing on my toes.
I tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe and then I STOP!

I'm jumping, jumping, jumping.
I'm jumping up and down.
I'm jumping, jumping, jumping.
I'm jumping up and down.
I jump and jump and jump and then I STOP!

I'm crawling, crawling, crawling.
I'm crawling on the ground.
I'm crawling, crawling, crawling.
I'm crawling on the ground.
I crawl and crawl and crawl and then I STOP!

What other movements can your child think of? (example: hopping, laughing, slithering, dancing, clapping, balancing,..)

The Bee In The Hive

Here in the beehive
Where is the bee?
(Kneel down and hide yourself with a towel)

Hidden away
Where nobody sees.
(Slowly stand up and gently move under the towel)

Soon it will come
out of its' hive.
(Drop towel on the ground)

Here I am - I'm the bee
BBBBBBUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZ
(Go around, flapping your wings, buzzing like a bee).

You can play this game with your friends. Hide under a big towel or bed sheet for many bees in the hive. What other insects or animals can hide? Where do they hide?