Creative Things to Do With Infants & Toddlers

Arts and Crafts

• Doing arts and crafts with your toddler or infant is a great way to encourage their creativity, drawing skills and knowledge of colors, says Nursery Manager Janice Kopeland. A popular arts and crafts activity is using your hands to make models out of play dough. Show your child how to roll it flat, cut out shapes with cookie cutters and make shapes like circles and squares, says Baby Zone. The more colors of play dough you can offer him, the more stimulating the activity will be. Another creative arts and crafts activity you could do with your toddler or baby is floor art. Put a large sheet of paper on a surface that can be easily cleaned afterwards, and using child-friendly paints, help him to create a piece of his own artwork on the paper.

Food and Kitchen Fun

• Making food fun and interesting is a creative way of introducing your child to solids and encouraging her to try different foods and learn about healthy eating. If you are in the process of weaning your infant onto solid foods, try playing "feed me," an interactive activity you can do together. Chop up some finger foods and encourage your baby to put the food in your mouth, says Family Education. Eat each bite enthusiastically and then feed your baby in the same way, continuing to take turns to share the food with each other. Toddlers will love the spaghetti pick-up game, too, which encourages them to be creative with their food. Using cooked spaghetti, let your toddler eat the spaghetti with his hands, encouraging him to make a shape with it before he puts it in his mouth. Join in the game, showing him how he can make a smiley face or a circle.

Movement and Coordination

• Get creative with your infant or toddler with an activity that will help to build his movement and coordination skills. To entertain younger infants, you could sing nursery rhymes to him, encouraging him to move and clap with you to the sound of the music, says Kopeland. Passing an object like a brightly colored ball is also a great way to stimulate your infant's hand-eye coordination, adds Kopeland. For older toddlers, a game of musical statues is guaranteed to please. You will need a group of toddlers, at least two to play, and some music that you can stop and start. Let the children dance and run around as the music plays and then encourage them to stand like a statue each time you stop the music. You could reward the best "statue" at the end of the game with a small treat.

Communication

• Improving your toddler's listening and speaking skills doesn't have to be tedious if you engage in some creative communication activities with him. Family Education recommends that if your baby is under 18 months and not yet really speaking, you can encourage her to listen and watch how you speak. "Pointing Power" is a game whereby you teach your infant to point at objects that you then tell her the name of. As she gets older and begins to speak, you can reverse the game by pointing and asking "what's that?" She will begin to learn the names of things and enjoy showing you how many words she knows as she improves.