Fueled by Sammy’s Milk goat milk formula, your year old child has an incredible capacity to learn. A child’s brain develops at a faster rate between birth and three years old than at any other phase in their life. Studies show a toddler’s brain forms 1 million neural connections per second, twice as many as in adult brains. That makes it a great time for some toddler’s fun learning activities. No high tech toys needed.
When you consider your twelve month old learns from every sound, color, movement and image, you have lots of options for teaching your child. Even when you don’t try to teach them, children at this age constantly learn. They watch everything we do and say and are picking it up fast. In a way, that means you’re always teaching your child during all the time you spend with them. But some activities and games make learning even more fun.
The Name Game
One of the fun learning activities for your toddler is the name game. It works on everything. Of course your child should respond to their own name. So start the game by helping them practice the sounds of their name. Start with the first sound of the name and work through it. When they get it right, don’t forget to reward them.
Body Part Names
Toddlers are fascinated with their own bodies. You can use body parts like eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, hands feet etch to teach them part names. You can also use a doll’s body and your own to start. Then during the day, ask them where’s your nose? Where are your eyes? Pay attention to when they begin joining in by asking the same questions to you, so you can join the game.
Animal Sounds and Names
Another of the toddler’s fun learning activities is the animal name game. Kids love making animal sounds even before they can say the animal’s name. Use a trip to the zoo, or farm, or pictures in a book to show them when you tell them both the name and the sound.
There are lots more word games you can play all around your home. Use foods at dinner, utensils, vehicles and colors. Each name game teaches them to recognize the item being named too. Repetition is so important for one-year-olds. It is how they pick up new words and phrases. Try to be consistent in the words you use to refer to everything.
Reading Books
Toddlers seem to love the worlds opened with age appropriate books. The best loved books are lift-the-flaps books and books short on words, but big on colorful pictures. You could let YouTube read the book to your child, but then you’d miss cuddling with your toddler as you read. If your child doesn’t want you to read the entire book, don’t worry. Just go with it. Start pointing to things in the pictures and name them. Have your child repeat the name back to you to help their language skills. Either way they learn and you get some quiet time.
Pretend Play – Toddler’s Fun Learning Activities
Pretending, like cooking in a play kitchen, feeding baby dolls, driving toy cars, or toy mowing the lawn open imaginations. Toddlers learn how to imitate what they see in the real world. Pretend play allows toddlers to participate in your activities making them feel part of everything. It is another one of the toddler’s fun learning activities.
Puzzles
Puzzles develop so many skills! They develop eye-hand coordination each time they flip and turn pieces to fit them into their slots. Fine motor skills grow as little hands grasp and manipulate the pieces or wooden pegs. As their physical skills grow, they develop problem solving skills as their brains logic through the best ways to fit the pieces into the spaces. What seems like play to you and your toddler, are actually learning opportunities. So have fun and enjoy seeing your toddler develop before your eyes.