Activities for a Toddler's Family

Arts and Crafts

• There are various arts-and-crafts activities that families can do together involving drawing, coloring or painting. Try simple tracing games, such as having your toddler trace his hand and having everyone in the family do the same. Hang the final product on the refrigerator or make a collage to be framed. Color in and decorate the tracings with crayons or washable paints. Or help your toddler create a footprint or handprint T-shirt using fabric paint. Press your toddler's foot or hand into a tray of paint, then onto a white T-shirt. The shirt could be for your toddler or for another family member as a gift from your child.

Outdoor Activities

• Take advantage of the outdoors with your toddler on a sunny day. Use chalk to trace your child's shadow on the sidewalk. Have her change positions and trace her shadow again, or have the child trace your shadow. Make several tracings and spend time together coloring the drawings in with different-colored chalk. If you have a sandbox, create a treasure-hunt game by hiding small objects in the sandbox and using toy shovels to dig with your child. Instead of flying kites, which can be difficult for young children to get the hang of, tie kite string to helium balloons for your toddler to fly on a breezy day. Tie the string around your child's wrist as she runs with the balloon.

Rainy Day Activities

• On those days when your child would really like to be outside but can't, try playing these family-fun games with him. Use an empty gift-wrap roll and a balloon for a bat and ball in a safe, indoor baseball game. Everyone in the family can take turns hitting, throwing and running bases. Or simulate indoor bowling with empty plastic soda bottles or unopened paper-towel rolls. Set the cans or rolls up as pins and use a large rubber ball as a bowling ball. Show your toddler how to roll the ball to knock over the "pins," and take turns playing. Before you know it, your toddler will forget he is inside.

Learning Games

• Make playing together educational with toddler learning games. Help your child learn to differentiate between sizes by playing a game with various-sized objects. Use five to six pairs of objects that are similar, except for their size. For example, use child- and adult-sized socks, long and short pencils, or different-sized shoes and hold the pairs up to your toddler. Have her show you which is larger or smaller. Everyone can enjoy a game of "I Spy" together. Have your family members sit in a circle with your toddler and spy a different color. Your child will try to name all the objects in the room that are that color until she guesses the correct one. Toddlers will be able to learn and understand the names of colors in the process.