How To Creatively Engage Your Toddler During Christmas
How To Creatively Engage Your Toddler During Christmas
As Christmas is approaching, there will be fields of snow.
Even with sun gone, every heart will be filled with warmth ad every face will glow.
Twinkling lights in every home, decorated trees with stockings hung.
The holiday spirit is all around, as carols are being sung.
Christmas is around the corner folks and so are its preparations all around the world. From decorating Christmas tree to preparing delicious food and desserts, everything is in full swing. Have a toddler at home and want to creatively engage the toddler during Christmas? Here are some I used when my babies were young and now apply to my niece;
* I involved them in Christmas baking– Now you should know they will be messy but you can make some for the guests separately and the ones they create will be just to engage them. They love this activity!!
*You can also use Christmas as a great occasion to enhance their learning skills. I found an amazing educational Youtube channel called “Tina’s Toy Time” and the creator, Tina, has used the Christmas spirit in her latest videos. Tina is a certified Canadian teacher herself and has employed her experience with making these videos. I trust the channel’s content because of the educational nature, and I love how it uses whatever holiday is relevant at the time to provide valuable teaching moments. Her latest Christmas videos teach how to count and even introduces letters and spelling! Tina is a certified Canadian teacher herself has employed her experience and gainful techniques while making these videos.
This is one of the videos that has “the alphabet train” where the train hides letters that ultimately spell a word. In this case, it’s “Santa.” The letters are put under the magician hat, and Santa appears. A surprise is then featured at the end of the video.
I have been using these with my 2-year-old niece and she loves them.
And this one teaches counting 1-10 with real-life Christmas objects. The snowman, Santa, music box, candies all captivate my niece’s attention.
Apart from being a visual aid, Tina’s videos also give parents ideas on how to use the same objects to teach children different skills. A block train can be used for teaching them letters and then again to teach them counting. After observing my niece, I feel it’s a great aid to all parents with little kids for keeping them creatively busy.
My other favourite on her channel is how to teach colours to kids.
I always emphasise on kids learning from play and sometimes indulging them in visual aids which catch their full attention may work better. Little ones get bored so at times these work better than anything else.
*Tell them stories around Christmas. These stories of kindness will subconsciously form their moral base. I mean Santa who wants to help others and the concept of good and bad deeds can all be seeded in their young minds in a fun way.
Involve them in creating handmade gifts. They don’t have to be masterpieces, even finger painted cards from your little ones will draw an “aww!!” from the receiver.
Christmas is all about reviving the family traditions and spending time with them. I hope you will employ the above techniques to connect your little ones with Christmas. Have a wonderful Christmas!! Ho!Ho!Ho!
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Thank you for sharing your tips. Another way is to bring out the nativity scene at home and to decorate the Christmas tree, while telling your children Christmas stories. You can also ask them to write letters (or at least pretend to if they can’t write yet) to Santa!
That’s a sweet idea. We have actually done it but when my kids could write :). Maybe tougher for toddlers.
Good tips here. We usually engage in baking some heavenly dishes, reading our Christmas stories and decorating our house and Christmas trees.
While involving kids in baking is interesting and I’m sure the children will have a blast, but so will my kitchen, Haha. I guess I’ll go for the second option and try enhancing there skills by keeping them engaged in these videos. Thanks for the suggestion!
Christmas stories are the big winner in our home. Christmas cake mixing and Christmas tree decorations are also great but with a toddler it’s a struggle between fun and mess!
Hey !! These are so great tips to keep them engage as that’s the biggest task during the festive break. Thanks for sharing this!!
Making DIY Christmas craft and storytelling I always do with my daughter. These are fun, fast prep and engaging, plus they keep kids occupied for hours perfect for
great ideas, I am also busy in Christmas diys for my daughter. these ideas will really help me to make Christmas interesting for my babies.
Even I am in favor of creatively engaging kids especially toddlers and these are some great ways that you have suggested during the winter/Christmas season break. I usually try and make him participate in making Christmas decorations.
Hi Judy,
That’s wonderful to know.
Christmas is our favorite festival of the year. We always look forward to it. I loved the ideas shared by you. I shall definitely try these.
Thanks Preetjyot, it’s our favourite season too.