what to do with toddlers?

[happycc]

What do you put in your toddler box?

[hsbaby]

Last year, for my 3 year old, we did sequencing cards, matching games, some of the "Preschool Activities in a Bag" stuff, art supplies, simple puzzles, beads for stringing, white erase board/chalk board, preschool workbooks so she could feel like she's "doing school", books on tape with headphones.....hmmmmm...so much stuff. All of which kept her busy for a whole five minutes:lol:

[mamachanse]

Here is a recent post with some great ideas: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276793

[Tawlas]

I adore this website. Really the point of her toddler ideas is to sit with your toddler and pay attention to him/her (which could possibly by you some alone time later maybe?) but there are a lot of ideas for constructive, independent play too.

 

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/TotSchool.html

[PeterPan]

Strap him down and start funneling him toys and activities, one at a time. When those stop working, feed.

 

As far as what toys and activities, well I just keep raiding Goodwill, looking at Timberdoodle, etc. I got a couple really marvelous things from Timberdoodle this year, both with magnets on a stylus. The one is a turtle where you move the balls, and the other lets you form letters with the balls popping into place. He enjoys both. I got some felt books I cut out and haven't glued together yet. He does lots and lots of cutting. He has bins of books to look at. He has sign language videos to watch (Signing Time). Anything Melissa and Doug is good. Now one problem we have is we need to save things to be special for working on speech. But if you don't have that constraint, you can have even more fun. He adores Playmobil (the farm, motorhome, etc.), but we save them for our speech time. Anything Melissa and Doug will be great. I just got the pizza kit (at goodwill, $5!), and he ADORES it. He likes the peg stackers and colored ring sorters. The little Kumon cutting books are cute, though he's just as happy cutting plain paper. Homemade playdough is big here, very big.

 

But the main thing is to strap him in. ;)

[blondeviolin]

Food and water...and your toddler of course! :lol:

[happycc]

http://www.supersimplelearning.com/shop/

 

they have great videos on you tube too.

[Aubrey]

Y'all don't put your toddlers in the toddler box? :confused:

[happycc]

not really for tots but for preschoolers...

 

http://www.montessori-home-schooling.com/

 

 

worth it?

[Ellie]

Y'all don't put your toddlers in the toddler box? :confused:

:lol::lol::lol:

[jenbrdsly]

What do you put in your toddler box?

 

It's fun reading everybod's suggestions!

 

My daughter is 23 months old now, and in the past four months I've taught her all of her upper case letters and sounds. We write a Morning Message each day, make home-made books together, and do a lot of hands on games. I also had her watch "Rusty and Rosie Letter Sounds and Such", as well as "Leap Frog Talking Letters Factory quite a bit.

I did all of these methods with my older son, and he was sounding out words on his own by two, and reading simple books by three.

I blog about all of my methods at: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com

If you click on "Just Starting Out", it will link you to all of the activities geared for toddlers.

[twoxcell]

Hmm, I just might need to get myself a toddler box this coming year. My 1.5 year old is pretty small so it shouldn't take up too much space.:lol:

Ok so for my toddlers I have a bunch of things, lacing cards, puzzles, blocks, counting bears, some Melissa and Doug toys, word whammer, fridge phonics, C-rods, geo board, coloring stuff, bean bags, fake fruit/veggies, lincoln logs, tinker toys, homemade playdoh, and some times I just bring out a bucket of toys from their room. I find things at thrift stores, garage sales, and ROSS mainly.

[5LittleMonkeys]

My toddler box has a pair of ear plugs, a huge box of chocolates and a bottle of Long Island Rum Tea......oh, wait your talking about things for the toddler to do. Nevermind.:tongue_smilie:

[Ruthie in MS]

Loving all the suggestions. I have dd7, dd4 and dd-1-month-old and terrified at the thought of a mobile (crawling/walking) toddler AND homeschooling her older sisters. But a toddler box sounds like a doable idea. Thanks for the ideas, ladies.

[PeterPan]

My toddler box has a pair of ear plugs, a huge box of chocolates and a bottle of Long Island Rum Tea......oh, wait your talking about things for the toddler to do. Nevermind.:tongue_smilie:

 

:lol:

 

Seriously, lol. That's really cool that the other poster has her 2 year old reading. In our house I'm just trying to get him to be able to SAY the letters, mercy. There's always more we could be doing. It's been interesting to me to read the posts from some people who say they knocked themselves out with their first, did nothing (comparatively) with the next, and found them both at about the same place 10 years later. Guess I'm gonna have to bank on that with this one. I do try to give him individual attention, time for reading, etc., but I can't do as much as when I just had an only. Today were learning about Cnidaria for pity's sake (for dd's life science). Just can't do it all. He's not likely to learn to sound out words anyway. I've done some whole word stuff with him and want to do more. If I had an ipad or itouch, that would be amazing. Then I could put the things on there and let him flip through. Guess kids just hit different things at different ages. Dd didn't start reading till she was almost 6 (late in K5), and she now tests 30+ in comprehension (that's years).

 

Now how I got on that, I don't know, lol. Guess I just wish I could do it all and can't. :)

[La Condessa]

My toddler loves her box.

 

Besides messy art projects and sensory play (like these peas) in her box, we also enjoy Before Five in a Row, cutting and pasting, lacing cards, button sorting, Starfall.com, simple sorting and matching games, lots of ideas from 1plus1plus1equals1.com, wooden stacker toys (like Melissa and Doug makes), playing with nuts, bolts and washers, banging on the piano, and anything else I come up with.

 

I have found that if I give her some time every day with a stimulating activity and my undivided attention, she is far easier to manage for the rest of the day.

Edited June 9, 2011 by mmconde

[happycc]

i am still trying to get my 23 months old child to speak at all....

 

we are in the process of getting him early intervention...or maybe he is delayed. he says ball, mom, uh oh, vroom, ca eye for kitty, eye.

He has just recently been able to sit still and look at pictures of a book.

[La Condessa]

i am still trying to get my 23 months old child to speak at all....

 

 

Hey, don't worry. My daughter wasn't speaking much yet at 23 months, either. I was starting to get worried about her, when suddenly, the week before her birthday, she started speaking in full sentences. I can see huge differences in her development in all areas in the past four months.

 

ETA: The reason I do all of that is because she was also a screaming little whirlwind. I was searching for anything that would help when I read a post where a mom said she had to give her kid a ton of mental stimulation to keep her behavior manageable.

Edited June 9, 2011 by mmconde

[mom2hancjhe]

Great thread! I have two little ones...16 mos and 3 on Sat....I will need to plan a bit more for next year when the 16mo old is only taking one nap. I do have lacing cards, playdough, beads and a string.

 

I did a really cool thing recently and am waiting on the items to come. We did a "busy bag" swap. There were 25 of us and we all made one type of bag and mailed them to a person and will get 25 different bags back. I made a sensory/tactile matching game. Others made A B C match, counting games, etc. Hoping this helps some next year as well.

[ColoNative]

I got a great laugh at some of your posts! And I know the feeling. My 3 boy year old (who just started talking at 2 1/2) is the proverbial "bull in a china closet". Most of the "preschool bags" I've made have been rearranged beyond repair. I know this was mentioned earlier, but Timberdoodle has awesome, hands-on activities for all ages so I'll be getting those very soon - especially before #5 arrives in the fall! I did get one of those backpacks with a strap on it so I can at least keep him in the same vicinity as the older two....And every day I remind myself that this stage isn't going to last forever (well, for me it's going to last for at least two more kids after this one...:) ) and I will miss this stage terribly. I also have my oldest son (10yo) help him with coloring, reading books to him and sorting....blessings to you in your endeavor to contain your toddler!!

 

Melody

[happycc]

Can I join or is there anyone else there who would like to form one with me?

 

I do have Montessori training too...

[mom2hancjhe]

We already had one but I might be interested in doing another one. Here are some ideas. The top tells about it and the bottom has links on the different ones she has made.

 

http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/2010/06/toddler-busy-bag.html

[PeterPan]

i am still trying to get my 23 months old child to speak at all....

 

we are in the process of getting him early intervention...or maybe he is delayed. he says ball, mom, uh oh, vroom, ca eye for kitty, eye.

He has just recently been able to sit still and look at pictures of a book.

 

Well I've heard different numbers, but basically you're looking for 50 words at age 2. (Our EI said 20.) But the thing is, an animal sound is a word. All those things you just listed are words. My dc had, at his age 2 evaluation, 2 sounds (/m/ and /a/) and the word mama. That was IT. No imitation, no words. If you called to him, you heard NOTHING. We had panicky situations where we would totally lose him, because he couldn't call to you in answer. He made no sounds when he played with cars. If he played, it was totally silent. If he said a word once or twice, you could never get it out of him again, no matter how you tried.

 

So while you might not be getting all the words you want, you do have quite a few there. Just add them up. Can he imitate you if you make an animal sound or letter sound?

[PeterPan]

My toddler loves her box.

 

 

Love it!!! I have the perfect box for this! :)

[happycc]

Very rarely does he imitate my words. I may hear it later somehow but when I ask him to say something forget it. He looks at me like I am nuts.

[happycc]

How did you pay for prompt.

[happycc]

and knock things down than talk.

 

He does scream and makes some noises while playing. HIs favorite world is ball and he is very focused on balls.

 

He loves to nurse it is like crack for him. Weaning has been awful.

[happycc]

how on earth do they get the kids to cooperate.

there is no way my son wouldn;t have a melt down during a session if he couldnt get what he wanted immediately

i don;t see how they get the kids to sit still and make eye contact...

or have them imitate the sounds they make.

[PeterPan]

Well read about apraxia and decide for yourself. There's verbal and oral. Oral apraxia has very specific symptoms that you can check for (things he does with his tongue, with blowing, etc.). You'll find symptom lists for verbal apraxia just by googling. The first SLP we visited was going to do nothing, just call him developmentally delayed, recommend therapy 3+ days a week (at $100 a pop!!!), and said they'd work on "communication." Well not to be mean, but we could already communicate. What I needed was for him to TALK. The VERY FIRST SESSION of the PROMPT therapy she had him talking. I kid you not. If it's motor control that's the problem, PROMPT can help them talk. So at that point we knew we were on the right track. He stopped the hitting within a couple weeks and slowed down with his extreme preoccupation with all things fine motor.

 

As far as paying, well we have a health savings account with a high deductible. I pay for the therapy using our health savings account money. Nobody gets in the way, and nobody tells me what therapist I can use. (May it stay that way.) PROMPT is the same price as regular speech therapy ($100 an hour), but you only need to do it once a week. Some people will do intensive therapy, learn techniques, and then carry it over at home if they have a long drive. It just depends on your situation and what you need to work out to make it happen.

 

BTW, did you know there's a 45 minute video on PROMPT on youtube? Google Deborah Hayden PROMPT and you'll find it.

[PeterPan]

how on earth do they get the kids to cooperate.

there is no way my son wouldn;t have a melt down during a session if he couldnt get what he wanted immediately

i don;t see how they get the kids to sit still and make eye contact...

or have them imitate the sounds they make.

 

Deep breath here. One, you may or may not be looking at PROMPT. PROMPT is very hands-on. They either strap the dc in a seat or put the dc on the therapist's lap. Yes, the therapist puts her hands on the dc's face. But you have to remember, this is a therapist who has worked with a lot of spectrum and hard-to-teach kids. They know how to work up to it and get the dc to accept it. And as weird as it sounds, the kids actually sort of warm up and get used to it, even if they reject other forms of touch. (BTW, if your dc is rejecting other forms of touch or has other symptoms, you need to be looking into more than just speech.)

 

So no, don't fret that. The PROMPT therapist can make it work. Now what happened with us was that for the first how many months he was fine. Lately he started resisting, and she said it's a stage all the kids come to, where they have what *they* want and they just don't want anymore. Thing is, they aren't qualified to make that decision. So we had to go through a whole discipline/compliance thing. Now you can shake your head at me, but we had let that go. It's sort of easy to have happen when the dc can't talk to you to respond with a yes maam, kwim? So anyways, we did have to finally lay down the law and talk about obedience. But in our case it wasn't just in speech but was everything, all day long. (Yes, I see you shaking your head. Just conclude he's a perfect angel and never needed it, if you want.)

 

Take it one step at a time. You'll know if the therapist is up to working with him or not. Ours is very perceptive and very good at drawing him in, pulling back when he's hesitant, etc. It's their job to read the dc. It will be fine.

[PeterPan]

how on earth do they get the kids to cooperate.

there is no way my son wouldn;t have a melt down during a session if he couldnt get what he wanted immediately

i don;t see how they get the kids to sit still and make eye contact...

or have them imitate the sounds they make.

 

Another thing, PROMPT is not imitation. That's regular speech therapy. With PROMPT they play (seriously, the whole hour is play!), get the dc wanting to say the target word or sound, and then they apply the PROMPT (a touch to the spots on the articulators) to help make the sensory-motor connections so he can say it. It's very different from regular speech therapy. No flashcards, nothing mean. (Mercy, I'm not trying to say regular SLP's are mean, lol. You know what I mean.) The therapist will try to pull things from him, and if something is too hard they see that and back off. They start very simply, with things the dc can do, and they build on them. They build through the levels of motor control, not necessarily word complexity like you would tend to think. And PROMPT is unique in that they try, very quickly, to get the sounds into useable words.

 

Does that make any sense? No, if your dc can't imitate, it's not a problem. The therapist will be putting in, with touch, the information that tells the brain what to move, and it will start to connect. See the difference between apraxia and a developmental delay, is that in apraxia the dc HAS IT ALL INSIDE and wants it to come out. They call that "communicative intent." In other words, he wants to talk and is trying but CAN'T. That's totally different from a developmental delay. When you have a huge gap between receptive language (what he understands) and expressive, that's a big red flag for apraxia. So when all that is inside, trying to come out, they apply the PROMPT with the motor control information and the signals connect.

 

Oh, the SLP will tell you this, but there's quite a bit you can do nutritionally to help. Various oils to improve dha levels, a nutrient shake called nutriveyda. Yllek (who hangs out a lot on the special needs board) has been researching some things with choline and neurotransmitters, and it turns out eggs and soy help with those. Sometimes, when you work on those things you'll get surges. It won't replace therapy, but it can make a dramatic difference in him being ABLE to do the things the therapist is trying to help him do and ABLE to make those connections. The oils and whatnot make a HUGE difference for my ds. Doesn't replace therapy, but it helps him be able to do the things the therapy is working on.

[happycc]

we are with kaiser...basically an hmo.

Our only hope would be regional center i guess.

Even then I don;t know if we would get good services i have been told.

 

we are low income...can;t afford anything out of pocket. Lucky we can pay rent and have food at the moment.

 

I try to make eye contact with him. He doesn;t like it when we try to look at him. He doesn't like to get strapped in anything...took months for him to stop screaming in his car seat.

[LittleIzumi]

and knock things down than talk.

 

He does scream and makes some noises while playing. HIs favorite world is ball and he is very focused on balls.

 

He loves to nurse it is like crack for him. Weaning has been awful.

 

Sounds a lot like dd. A LOT. (Esp with your other posts.) She had sensory & hearing issues. You can call Early Intervention to do an evaluation for free generally. I know the details vary by state but here it was sliding scale & we either paid nothing or $10/month for therapy based on our income/bill level. Dd was in therapy for 1.5 years & is a completely different child now.

 

ETA: I saw that you are trying to get into Early Intervention. Totally do it. Ours was fabulous. A toddler box would have been pointless for dd since at that point, she didn't play. At all. Therapy helped a lot.

Edited June 10, 2011 by LittleIzumi

[happycc]

My son had his early intervention evaluation in early July during the whole fiasco of losing our house and me losing my mind but anyways he has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS through Regional Center. He is supposed to start ABA therapy in a two weeks-I believe it is Pivotol Response Therapy. The company is called Behavior Support Partnership and I believe they cover a lot of California--norther and southern. Five days a week for five hours a week. He also will be starting speech as well. I don;t know if it is PROMPT but I will find out tomorrow when the speech person arrives. So basically i get all these services for free and they come to my house.

Instant child care for my toddler while I homeschool apparently. Meanwhile I have been called by Early Start who said we are qualified as well for their services for floor time or something or other.

 

DUring this horrible wait for services, I have to say my son is developing. He is talking a whole lot more- I am finally hearing phrases and sentences. It isn;t consistent but they pop up here and there. Behavior is still not good. He is still pretty aggressive and has recently started biting. He gets really angry and frustrated when he cant express himself or when I cant understand him. I pulled out some Duplos that I had been hiding in the garage---toy rotation---and he actually sat and played with them today. I couldn;t believe it. He wasn;t throwing them or just get up and walk around terrorizing us during homeschool time. He does have great pretend play so I just don;t understand the PDD-NOS diagnosis.