As a toddler, life is one big game and toddler activities really are just games disguised as learning opportunities.
You want to touch,change, taste and feel everything in the world around you.
Games are how you learn and no game is more exciting than when Mom or Dad sit down on the floor to play along.
Here are the Top 5 toddler activities for you to play with your toddler without costing you a small fortune.
1 - Edible play-dough for tea parties Mix the following ingredients in a bowl and knead: 1 cup corn syrup, 1 cup peanut butter, 1.
5 cups powdered milk, 1,5 cups powdered sugar.
You can roll the dough out and use cookie cutters to make your own cookie shapes.
Allow your child to help with pouring and kneading and then have a tea-party with child-sized cups, saucers and plates.
Make sure to invite all the dolls and bears to the tea-party.
If you want to change the event into a play-acting birthday party, you can place birthday candles on top of the 'cookies'.
These type of toddler activities will teach you and your child how valuable role-playing can be to express herself.
2 - Exclusive and private child room Use sticks of bamboo or other wood to create a teepee structure.
Drape a sheet around it to make the walls and you have an instant child-sized playroom.
On the inside, decorate with cushions for sitting and lying on, blankets as carpets and create imaginary Television Sets and telephones out of shoe-boxes.
Your child will play for hours inside 'his' house.
Use your imagination to dress up the house more like a real house with another cloth for a door, a cardboard-box cut-out for a window or even a chimney attached to the side of the poles.
3 - Race Games Make sure each game has a start and ending point.
You can make rules about how each race will be run: roll on your side to the finish-line, crawl, hop, skip or gallop.
Vary the race by adding tasks: putting a bean bag on your head which must stay on, putting on a dressing-up outfit and only then starting to run, or pulling another child sitting on a towel towards the finish line.
Alternatively, make the race about getting to the other side, completing a task and then racing back as fast as possible.
One such task would be to collect an egg and running back without dropping it from the spoon that holds it.
Toddler activities like these will help their sense of balance.
4 - Water fun Let your toddler sit in a wading pool and try to throw floating balls into a laundry basket a short distance away from the wading pool.
Alternatively, make the pool the target and let your child see how far back she can stand and still get the balls into the pool.
Another fun game is to fill water balloons with the water from the pool and throwing them as hard as possible at the ground to see them pop.
Remember to pick up the pieces of plastic after the game is over.
5 - Wriggly slide Cut and tape together plastic garbage bags to make a long plastic sheet at least 13 feet long.
Drape it on your lawn and place your garden hose pipe and sprinkler nearby so it wets the slide thoroughly.
Small children can crawl on it to enjoy a slippery crawl sensation while older children would probably want to run and slide on the plastic.
There are thousands of toddler activities which do not have to cost money and where you can use household items, just use your creativity and have fun.
You want to touch,change, taste and feel everything in the world around you.
Games are how you learn and no game is more exciting than when Mom or Dad sit down on the floor to play along.
Here are the Top 5 toddler activities for you to play with your toddler without costing you a small fortune.
1 - Edible play-dough for tea parties Mix the following ingredients in a bowl and knead: 1 cup corn syrup, 1 cup peanut butter, 1.
5 cups powdered milk, 1,5 cups powdered sugar.
You can roll the dough out and use cookie cutters to make your own cookie shapes.
Allow your child to help with pouring and kneading and then have a tea-party with child-sized cups, saucers and plates.
Make sure to invite all the dolls and bears to the tea-party.
If you want to change the event into a play-acting birthday party, you can place birthday candles on top of the 'cookies'.
These type of toddler activities will teach you and your child how valuable role-playing can be to express herself.
2 - Exclusive and private child room Use sticks of bamboo or other wood to create a teepee structure.
Drape a sheet around it to make the walls and you have an instant child-sized playroom.
On the inside, decorate with cushions for sitting and lying on, blankets as carpets and create imaginary Television Sets and telephones out of shoe-boxes.
Your child will play for hours inside 'his' house.
Use your imagination to dress up the house more like a real house with another cloth for a door, a cardboard-box cut-out for a window or even a chimney attached to the side of the poles.
3 - Race Games Make sure each game has a start and ending point.
You can make rules about how each race will be run: roll on your side to the finish-line, crawl, hop, skip or gallop.
Vary the race by adding tasks: putting a bean bag on your head which must stay on, putting on a dressing-up outfit and only then starting to run, or pulling another child sitting on a towel towards the finish line.
Alternatively, make the race about getting to the other side, completing a task and then racing back as fast as possible.
One such task would be to collect an egg and running back without dropping it from the spoon that holds it.
Toddler activities like these will help their sense of balance.
4 - Water fun Let your toddler sit in a wading pool and try to throw floating balls into a laundry basket a short distance away from the wading pool.
Alternatively, make the pool the target and let your child see how far back she can stand and still get the balls into the pool.
Another fun game is to fill water balloons with the water from the pool and throwing them as hard as possible at the ground to see them pop.
Remember to pick up the pieces of plastic after the game is over.
5 - Wriggly slide Cut and tape together plastic garbage bags to make a long plastic sheet at least 13 feet long.
Drape it on your lawn and place your garden hose pipe and sprinkler nearby so it wets the slide thoroughly.
Small children can crawl on it to enjoy a slippery crawl sensation while older children would probably want to run and slide on the plastic.
There are thousands of toddler activities which do not have to cost money and where you can use household items, just use your creativity and have fun.