What activities can you do with a 12 - 18 month old?:

• Pretend and imaginative play becomes important. Make sure you have a variety of baby dolls, stuffed toys and dress ups to encourage them to copy real life activities. Toddlers love to put their "baby" to bed and to pretend to feed them. Include toys that imitate real life objects such as phones, cars, keys, pots and pans, play food, plastic plates etc. so your toddler can learn about how the world works through role playing.

• Provide large building blocks either wooden ones that need to be stacked or plastic bricks that can be fitted together like duplo or megabloks - these blocks provide endless play and learning opportunities - they can be stacked, sorted by color, shape or size, dumped, balanced, made into fences, houses, bridges (with your help of course).

• Toddlers enjoy playing with water - Take advantage of bath time and think about the non-bath toys that could actually be used to add variety to bath time - Take a look at our article More than rubber duckies- Bathtime fun for toddlers. Outside water fun allows toddlers to get messy with water - give your toddler a large paint brush and a bucket of water and let them 'paint' the fence or driveway - for more ideas read Water fun for toddlers. Always supervise your toddler when they are around water.

• At this age children become interested in art activities. Provide them with large stubby crayons and non-toxic markers to scribble. Large pieces of paper are best for this age. For some great paint and playdough recipes see 5 Useful paint and playdough recipes.

• Simple puzzles provide your toddler with the opportunity to develop the fine muscles in their fingers and hands, and to use their brains to problem solve. Choose puzzles with large knobs or large raised pieces so that your toddler will be able to take the pieces out by themselves.

• Wagons are often a favorite toy of this age. They can be filled up with blocks or soft toys - toddlers love to push and pull things around and wagons are ideal for this.

• Use stuff around the house. Save some cardboard milk cartons, juice boxes and small boxes. Your toddler will love stacking them and knocking them over.

• Read to your toddler - Vary the way you read - For example, reading time can be a quiet time to snuggle and share a book, or it can be a noisy with lots of sound and actions. For book ideas take a look at Books your 1 year old will love and Books your 2 year old will love. Anne Oxenreider has written a wonderful article with tips for making Reading with toddlers a success.

Other ideas for activities include:
Creating indoor play spaces for toddlers
Creative play with blankets
Creative play with ice
Gardening with toddlers

You may also be interested in...

• Toys for toddlers
• Here is a shapshot of the types of toys your toddler will enjoy.
• more

• Why read to your toddler
• A child can learn and benefit greatly from being read to right from the day they are born.
• more

• Outdoor play learning opportunities for toddlers
• The great outdoors are full of learning opportunities. Take advantage of your backyard and beyond to have fun and learn.
• more

• Nursery rhymes (ages 1-2)
• Forgotten the words to the nursery rhymes you sang as a child? Here are a couple of favorites to share with your little one.
• more