Do you have a toddler who seems to get into everything? Her busy little hands can seem to find their way into all kinds of places they shouldn't be, such as your makeup bag, sugar dish and office supplies. Toddlers learn in different ways, and you might just have a toddler on your hands who learns kinesthetically. A kinesthetic learner works best when she has a lot of hands-on, interactive activities. If you have a kinesthetic learner, try to provide her with enough hands-on learning opportunities to satisfy her curious mind and active hands.
Kinesthetic learners love to touch everything, which can sometimes make it difficult to display valuable items in your home. You can create a space for your toddler to touch anything she wants by setting up a sensory table. Use a low table that your toddler can easily reach, and cover it with items that offer some type of sensory stimulation. For example, some of the items you can add to the sensory table include starfish, seashells, wooden figures, woolen knit animals and pine cones.
Water activities offer a lot of kinesthetic stimulation for toddlers and young children. For example, you can set up a water activity outdoors with buckets of differently colored water and a few plastic cups. Your active toddler can scoop and pour the water to her heart's content, watching it turn different colors as she does so. Other water activities include setting up a bubble station with trays of bubble solution and wands, or even simply watering the garden with the hose.
Baking and Cooking
Both baking and cooking offer a lot of kinesthetic stimulation. From rolling out dough to scooping granular sugar and salt, you can create a sensory-rich experience with your toddler by whipping up a batch of delicious cookies or making homemade pizza together for lunch. The best part about baking and cooking with your active toddler is sharing in the all of the eating after you and our child have finished.
If your kinesthetic toddler enjoys playing with blocks, take this activity a step further by providing her with a set of pattern blocks. With pattern blocks, your child has a tray on which she can place blocks organized by color and shape. Your toddler can arrange these blocks to create different designs, shapes, patterns and even pictures as she gets a little bit older. You can even discuss the blocks as she builds a pattern to teach her about different color or shape names.
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