Toddler Activities to do at home to help their daily development in their Arc Assistant Learning Towers.
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1. Colouring in.
Include them at the bench so that they can colour in, while you're doing the dishes. The benefit to you is, they're not under your feet and benefit to them is they get more face to face time with you. The more face to face time during their first 1000 days, the better their outcomes later in life. We learnt this from Nathan Wallis, Neuroscience Educator.
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2. Have them 'help' to make dinner.
Connecting with your child in The Arc Assistant Learning Tower while you're in the kitchen preparing meals everyday adds up to hours and hours and hours of extra time with you where they are learning. Times where they would otherwise be left out.
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3. Bubble play.
Sometimes it's the simple things in life which cause the most joy and development. Take a look at the two below. We are not sure who is having more fun, father or son... Either way, this added connected time is helping his brain development and all it took was boosting him to stand up at the kitchen bench in his Arc Assistant and filling the sink with warm water, dish washing liquid and some safe kitchen utensils to play together with.
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4. Play with Kinaesthetic Toys.
Kinaesthetic learning activities at then bench help to develop their hand-eye coordination. Take a look below at this little one being included with his big brother and mum in the kitchen, all the while, learning too.
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5. Counting fruit or kitchen items.
There is a very simple way to get your child to eat more fruit and vegetables without complaint and that is through including them in the preparation of their meals and snacks. The reason behind this is simple, the child feels empowered because they helped and therefore eat the food they took part in getting ready. Whether it be a salad sandwich or carrots, their inclusion makes them positively predisposed to enjoying the food they had a part in creating.
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6. Make crepes.
Make crepes, pikelets or pancakes with them. Crepes are our personal favourite as they are so easy to make and most people already have the three simple ingredients already in the cupboards.
How to make the perfect crepes?
Homemade basic crepes are ridiculously easy to make, and difficult to mess up. The main ingredients for French crepes are flour, eggs and milk. We always use 4 eggs, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk and mix together.
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7. Finger Paint.
Finger painting up at the bench is not only the easiest area in the house to clean up after the fun is finished, It improves fine motor developmental skills. Toddlers also learn how colours work, especially mixing primary colours. This added connected time with you in their Arc Assistant Learning Tower supports them to grow into confident young children.
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8. Make Homemade bread.
Hand made bread is delicious and, thankfully, it's much easer to buy it than it used to be, but making this at home with your toddler helps them learn valuable skills, not to mention having fun with you at the same time.
One of the most important developmental steps for humans is learning to "self soothe". Teaching your child how to knead dough for 10 minutes helps provide perspective and enables them to engage with you and themselves in a repetitive soothing manner.
As bread requires a few rounds of kneading this simple baking activity also teaches your child that continued positive actions and hard work can produce great, and in this case delicious, mouth watering results.
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9. Play with building blocks.
Playing with blocks help children develop their vocabularies, improves math skills, and even teaches them about gravity, balance, and geometry.
Building is all about size, shape, weight, leverage, and balance, and as your child works this out, their building and block play will become more and more complex.
This also is great activity to have them do at the kitchen bench beside you as it is easy for your to cook dinner at the same time as engaging with your little one and helping them learn new skills.
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10. Reading at the bench.
Reading and sharing stories can: help your child get to know sounds, words and language, and develop early literacy skills, spark your child's imagination and stimulate curiosity.
Help your child's brain, social skills and communication skills develop through sneaking in that extra book each day with them in their Arc Assistant Learning Tower, while you work in the kitchen.
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11. Counting.
Using counting to combine and separate groups of foods (like fruits and vegetables or even delicious spreads, like Pic's Peanut Butter) helps develop children's understanding of the operations of addition and subtraction.
Children come to understand that when groups are combined the count gets bigger, and when groups are separated the count gets smaller. This is an easy activity that you can easily be doing with your child everyday, simply by using the items you're already needing to get out to make the meal.
