I received product and compensation from Mead Johnson Nutrition to create this post written by me. All experiences and opinions expressed in this post are my own and not those of Mead Johnson Nutrition. You can contact Mead Johnson Nutrition with product related questions or comments toll free at 1-800-BABY-123 (1-800-222-9123).
When I found out I was pregnant with Levi, I did everything that I could to learn about the pregnancy and infant stages. The one stage I didn’t prepare for that I should have was the toddler stage. The past three or four months, Levi has been super involved in everything that I do, and he is really soaking in everything that he can. Now that he is more active and curious, it can make the days seem longer and I have noticed that he tends to get bored easily. With this transition, I have had to shift our daily routine a bit and include even more interactive activities and learning opportunities for him to support his physical and mental growth.
With 85% of brain growth happening in the first three years of life, brain building activities are very important to us. Today, I’m sharing a few of our favorite brain building activities to do together. As a bonus, they are easy, and it is likely you have the supplies in your home already!
Letters and Numbers Learning Activity – Levi loves playing with play dough. He calls it “dough dough” and asks for it almost daily. I recently purchased a set of small cookie cutters that are letters and numbers. He uses them as ‘stamps’ in the play dough and we talk about what letter or number he has molded into the dough. This is a great brain building activity for toddlers since it helps with letter and number recognition, but also helps to keep their attention for longer than a few minutes!
Painting with Water – These painting with water books were very popular years ago, and even though they can be somewhat difficult to find now, I buy all of them when I see them. Painting with water is a great activity for toddlers that creates little to no mess. In addition to encouraging creativity, we also talk about what activity the character is doing in the picture and form a story around it. If he isn’t interested in painting on paper, I will also gather his smaller metal cars and throw them all in a bowl of water. He takes his paint brush and ‘washes’ them. Even though these activities aren’t necessarily traditional brain building activities, they do help encourage brain development by teaching creativity, patience and interaction.
Road Trip Activities – Even though we don’t take a ton of road trips, we are in the car at least a few times a week going to the grocery store or running other errands. I have found that some of the best opportunities for learning happen during these times. We play a game where I point to a certain car and ask Levi what color it is, and he tells me. We also talk about what sounds certain animals make or what number comes after another number (i.e. what comes after 1, etc.). These activities not only help to keep him occupied when we are in the car, they also are great opportunities for having his undivided attention and working on brain building activities that are important for his development.
In addition to these fun brain building activities, I also work to ensure he has a proper and balanced diet. We all know how difficult that can be with toddlers. Levi tends to be a pretty picky eater, so we use Enfagrow® Toddler Next Step™ to complement his diet and to help ensure he receives important DHA to help support his brain development. Enfagrow Toddler also helps support his immune system. It has prebiotics as recommended by experts.
This stage is such a fun stage full of learning and discovery for our little guy. I am thankful that we have Enfagrow Toddler in our corner to help support our little guy’s development and growth! You can request your own free sample here.
This is sponsored by Enfagrow® Toddler Next Step™.
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