Tot Time: Spending Meaningful Time with my Toddler

Mr. Moose is a fast changing 1yo. He seems to develop both in personality and skill almost every day! One of those recent changes has been a growing social awareness (translation: he wants Mommy's time!) No longer content to throw balls and pull books off the bookcase, he is now insistent that I play with him, read to him and snuggle with him. With such an adorable face, who can resist that small hand motioning for me to join him?

But in seeking to spend more time with my little guy, I quickly ran into a problem: what to do? In his limited life experience, he really didn't offer many suggestions, but seemed to be looking to me to come up with activities. So, I pulled out a book that had been dormant on my bookshelf and one that I would recommend to every parent of little people. Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready by June Oberlander. I first heard about the book while reading The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer 5 years ago, and it proved to be my entrance into the delightful world of purposeful play with my children.

Over the last several weeks, we've played with oatmeal and cups, dropped items into plastic bottles and experimented with putting different items into water to see what they do. As simple as these activities are, Mr. Moose absolutely loves doing them! I guess that's one of the great things about 1yo kids. The world is still so fresh and new to them that they love to explore even the simplest items. A great online resource for planning these types of purposeful play times is Letter of the Week. Look for the nursery curriculum on the sidebar.

What do you do with your young toddlers? I'd love to hear about other ideas and resources!