Activities for Young Toddlers?
 

What activities do you recommend for an 18 month old and a 23 month old? I'm trying to plan more activities to reduce the amount of unstructured time that I have, but everything I look up online seems to be a choking hazard! What are some activities you plan for younger toddlers?

Here are some threads regarding activities for toddlers: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...s+-+2+year+old

Kids this age are at a critical stage for developing fine motor control. It's not appropriate to withhold all small objects from them out of fear they'll choke. You need to have enough control over the activity to prevent them from putting the objects into their mouths.

First, place the activity at a designated place, like a table or tray or mat.

Next, sit down at the child's level and slowly demonstrate the activity.

Finally, put all the pieces back and allow the child to try the activity. If they pop a piece into their mouth, say "Uh-oh!" and remove the mouthed toy and the entire activity.

Here's a video that shows this kind of supervision of a child this age with an activity that uses small objects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5coj1dsJ-l8