Toddler Activities: 22 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Shapes Jump: This is similar to the Letter Jump we've done indoors in the past. But now that it's officially summer, we get to play outside! I drew a circle, square, triangle, heart, hexagon, oval, rectangle, and plus sign on our driveway in chalk. I talked to Emma about each shape as I was drawing it. When I was finished, I had her stand in the middle and as I called out a shape, Emma went and jumped onto the shape. Bonus Points: Draw your shapes with a variety of colored chalk. Then, in addition to shapes, you can jump on all the colors. "Run to the shape that is BLUE!"

Homemade Playdough: Emma loves to help me in the kitchen, and playing with playdough is a great way for her to play pretend with her cookie cutters when we're not making a real meal, as well as a great motor development activity. Here is our recipe for Homemade Playdough. Whip up a batch and let the imagining and sculptures begin!

Homemade Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 tsp. cream of tarter

1/3 cup salt

1 TBS vegetable oil

1-2 drops food coloring

1-2 drops essential oils or vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix together all the ingredients, except the food coloring, in a medium saucepan.

2. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to thicken, add the food coloring and essential oils.

3. Continue stirring until the mixture is much thicker and begins to gather around the spoon.

4. Once the dough is not wet, remove and put onto wax paper or a plate to cool.

5. After cooling (30 minutes) knead playdough for a few seconds.

6. PLAY!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma's current favorites are:

• But not the hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton
• What the ladybug heard by Julia Donaldson
• Little Quack loves colors by Lauren Thompson

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Although sleeping has been a challenge, nursing is going great!
2. We have 3 brown, mushy bananas on the counter, which means... BANANA BREAD!
3. Bryson has been doing some great tummy time!