Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Toddler Ideas Tuesday: March 25th, 2014

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Toddler Ideas Tuesday: March 25th, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! I am so sorry for the lack of a post last week. Between having co-op a day early and then being sick I ended up having to play catch up with a lot of things. I just decided it didn't make sense to post Toddler Idea Tuesdays later in the week. Unless things like that come up, Toddler Idea Tuesday will be a weekly party! So, have you been busy with your young children?

This week I would like to share what I think is a neat gross-motor activity. I did not come up with this idea, but I saw the potential as the children were playing. Teaching a toddler to catch a ball will take some work and they need to be physically ready to do so. Think about it, they can throw a ball, but to have to catch the ball there are so many thing they need to do at once. They need to be able to judge when to grasp the ball as it comes to them, they need to physically be able to grab the ball as it flies at them and they have to keep a hold of the ball.

This neat activity was started by Amelia and Harold, but of course Tabitha wanted to join in to help her brother learn to catch a ball. The older girls would roll the ball across the table for Harold to catch. Then he would toss it back to them. This was a great opportunity for the older girls to work on their aim and to try to figure out how much "oomph" to put behind their roll. If they didn't roll it fast enough it would roll off the side of the table, but if they pushed it too hard it would be too difficult for Harold to catch.

He loved being able to catch it and toss it back to them.

This worked best for "catching" practice if he was standing away from the table. If he was too close he would just grab it as it came close to him while it was still on the table. However, if he was a couple of steps away from the table it had to start falling off the table and he had to actually catch it.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

1. Steffany from Spit and Sparkles shared a great idea for Mess-Free Toddler Art. Little ones love creating works of art, but mommies don't always have time for the clean up that will take place afterwards. Yes, there are times for children to get their hands dirty, but if you would like to give your toddler a fun painting activity that can be used for different topics or holidays you will want to check out Steffany's wonderful idea.

2. Lisa from Our Country Road shared her Montessori Preschool Frog Theme. Even if you don't really follow a Montessori philosophy, your children can enjoy learning with these great hands on, skill-building activities. We just finished our frog unit a few weeks ago and I wish I had seen some of these ideas first. The activity pictured above is a color matching activity. There are also counting and hand-eye coordination activities, with links where you will be able to find the activities.

3. Rebecca from Raventhreads shared a yummy Bible-based activity with her Tower of Babel Snack Stacks. Children of all ages will love to make there own snacks and the younger ones will be working on their fine-motor skills. We will be learning about the tower of Babel later this year with our My Father's World 1st grade curriculum and I will definitely be having the children make these!

4. Monique from Living Life and Learning shared her Fine Motor Activity With Straws post. This is a fun fine-motor skills idea along with some ways to extend the activity.

What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.