Exploring Your Backyard with Your Toddler

Better than Wonderland

Exploring Your Backyard with Your Toddler

WRITTEN BY SARA SILVA, CHILD CARE CONNECTIONS STARS COACH

Engaging busy toddlers can sometimes feel like an impossibly overwhelming task. Their little bodies dart this way and that, up and down, creating all manner of messes, increasing our frustration and exasperation as they go. The secret for parents is to find activities that keep busy fingers and growing minds engaged so that we can take a breath and enjoy a bit of fun with our tiny tots. Here are a few ideas to keep your tot busy in your own backyard.

Small Wonders

There are two things that seem to captivate a toddler’s attentions: BIG things and little, tiny things. We can captivate this interest by going on a backyard safari and discovering all the little bugs that share our green spaces. If bugs give your toddler the heebie-jeebies, look for pretty pebbles instead, go for a pinecone hunt, or simply follow your toddler’s own exploratory urges, wondering at all the things they find to be so fascinating. Just watch out for those “chocolate chips” left behind by Mountain Cottontail bunnies!

While exploring the “wilds” of our backyard and neighborhood, guide your tot to explore with all his senses: What does it sound like? What does it smell like? How does it feel? Enrich her language development by talking about what she sees, discovers and all the wonderful things she does. Enrich budding math skills by talking about size and amounts. Count the pinecones or the pebbles that you find as you put them in a bowl…and pour them back out to experience the fun all over again. Toddlers are busy scientists who love to explore the world around them and there is nothing better than sharing their explorations with a loved family member.

Busy Bees

Toddlers not only have fast-growing minds but fast-developing bodies too. Busy bodies need to climb, jump, run, tiptoe, push, pull, pour, hang, rock and splash to finetune all the amazing things their bodies can do. Help your toddler explore how to move their whole body by taking a walk around the block. Watch what catches your toddler’s attention and help them safely explore how their bodies work. Maybe a low cement border catches their attention as they practice balancing, or cracks in the sidewalk draw them to practice hopping. Join in or hold a hand to ensure safe exploration. The goal of the walk is to see what interests your toddler and to safely support their practice of new motor skills. Maybe the walk only goes as far as the next door, maybe you make it all the way around the block. It’s not the destination that matters but the journey itself.

Once you are back home there is nothing like water play to help toddlers develop their hand muscles (which they will use for writing later). Bring out a basin with a couple inches of water and plastic cups, a funnel, sponges, spoons – whatever comes to hand in the kitchen that your toddler might enjoy exploring. Your toddler will spend a lot of time trying to fill and empty containers and be fascinated by how water moves and reacts (science and math). Stay close by to be sure that play stays safe for your little one. If your toddler does not like to get wet, then try bringing out a tub of sand instead (or all those gathered pinecones).

Another fun activity is to paint sidewalks and walls with water. All it takes is a little container of water and a brush (you can even make your own brushes with a pinecone, a stick and some grass, or a feather). Your toddler will happily paint along with you and the best part is that clean-up is a breeze: the water dries right up in the warm sun. Another fun activity is to try making your own bubbles (use this recipe from The Artful Parent: artfulparent.com/how-to-make-homemade-bubbles/). Not only are bubbles fun to make but they are even more fun to chase. Trying to blow the bubbles also strengthens their lungs and develops the breath control that comes in very handy when speaking.

The Biggest Wonder of All

The biggest wonder of all in your backyard for your toddler is YOU. Being with their loved ones is the very best way for a kiddo to spend the day. And the best play equipment is climbing all over mommy and daddy, getting tickles and having raspberries blown on their bellies. When the world gets too big and overwhelming, your arms are the perfect spot, and you are the best emotional safekeeper to identify their feelings and provide reassuring comfort. Then after a long, busy, day your cuddle is the best place for their bodies to calm and get ready for sleep. Even better with a cuddly item, your voice softly reading a bedtime story or recounting the day’s adventures and all the adventures they will have tomorrow.