Francine 03:35 PM 07-21-2011
What do you do with you little ones between 15 and 18 months of age? What kind of activities? Do you do arts and crafts with them? Do you paint with them? Do you let them play with Play Doh? Do you alllow them to just play all day? The reason that I am asking is because I have a Mom of an 18 month old that thinks he needs preschool. "He's not getting enough out of daycare" Part of the issue is that she just had a new baby and is feeling guilty about having to share her time, so she's making it my fault. So anyway, what do you do with your 18 month olds?
Meeko 04:16 PM 07-21-2011
At 18 mths, his job is to PLAY. Period.
meganlavonnesmommy 04:16 PM 07-21-2011
My younger kids do everything that the older ones do, just with assistance. I generally take ages 2 and up, but have had kids younger, 9 months and 18 months. They sit at the table with us, and participate with everything from painting, playdoh, crafts, everything. The only thing they arent allowed to do is small legos and small beads. I save those for the older kids to do during naptime.
I just sit next to them and help when needed. I hold their hand over the paintbrush to show them what to do, then let them do it. Or stop them from eating the playdoh. :-)
Their attention span is usually shorter than the older kids, so they are "over it" a lot quicker, and then I just let them down to free play until we are done. But most of the time they are happy to be at the table with the big kids. They just sit and watch.
SimpleMom 05:28 PM 07-21-2011
My younger ones do all that the older kids do--just age appropriated. (i.e. large legos vs. small ones, painting/coloring in a general way on the same type of project the others do on their own, play-dough IF they are not into eating it (If they like to eat it I give them edible playdough and yogurt for sensory play), climbers, blocks, ball, stuff like that.
DaisyMamma 06:31 PM 07-21-2011
Try to work with her. Explain preschool is for 3 and 4 year olds, but Ask her what she wants to see him doing. Explain you can do preschool things when the time comes but in the meantime ask what can you do.
Francine 06:57 PM 07-21-2011
Originally Posted by lymemomma:
Try to work with her. Explain preschool is for 3 and 4 year olds, but Ask her what she wants to see him doing. Explain you can do preschool things when the time comes but in the meantime ask what can you do.
I know what she wants, she wants to see art work and projects everyday. Which she said she does with him at home, BUT what she doesn't understand is that here he has all of his friends to play with and NONE of them want to sit and do crafts. All of my kids are 2 and under, they want to run around and play. We play music, we sing and dance, we sing about the ABC's and 123's, I read to them while they play etc. etc. but unless they are eating they are not sitting. She is one of those parents that is just very hard to please. Thanks for your thoughts!
itcgnyc 05:46 AM 07-22-2011
Toddlers this age enjoy and learn through their senses, and are acquiring language (vocabulary) rapidly. The types of activities you should provide should be all about senses. Providing children opportunities to play with sand, dry rice or beans (I go down the dry bean aisle and grab a variety of dry beans), colored water (you can color the water with watercolor paint purchased from Discount School Supply online) and in the sensory table add cups and sieves and shovels (safe ones) and you can hide non chokeable dinosaurs and different animals that they like to "hide" in the sand, etc.
Children also love to read books; it's imperative you read lots of books to them to help them build their vocabulary and a love for reading. Children love to "be the teacher" and read back to you. Ask them lost of questions during the time you are reading them a story; things like "what are they doing"?, "where's the duck?", "what's going to happen next", etc.
Children at this age also love dramatic play (AKA pretend play), and providing them with many different items to pretend with. A small table with fabric pieces (that they, if they want, can pretent to be a tablecloth or a cape!), pretend food (be sure it's not chokeable), calculators, cash registers, menus so they can pretend to do carryout, phones, old keyboards from computers, dress up clothes, babydolls and clothes, hats, pots and pans, empty cereal boxes and food boxes, etc.
Lastly, children need BLOCKS...lots of BLOCKS! It's amazing what they do and learn through blocks. They should have a couple choices of blocks - they make foam blocks that are great for this age. If you go online to Kaplan Early Learning, they have a tremendous selection of blocks. Add to the blocks things to extend their play like fabric pieces (they often pretend the fabric is water or grass), large plastic animals, pretend people, pretend trees....you can find all these things at the Kaplan website. Discount School Supply online also has a great selection of items to put in the block area.
I hope this helps!
Remember, this age needs to get messy and choose what THEY want to do...not what YOU want them to do!
Good Luck
Cindy
JaydensMommy 08:51 AM 07-22-2011
I had an 18 month old and when we did crafts or any activities I let him do all of them in the high chair. I had to assist him with glue and stuff but he was still able to participate. He also LOVED to paint, yes it was very messy but he loved it and with him in the high chair I could contain the mess.
CheekyChick 08:58 AM 07-22-2011
At that age, it's LOTS of play, story time, circle time, music, arts and crafts (nothing they can choke or eat), baby sign, etc.