Our children are learning every moment of the day, and they learn in many different ways, but a lot of it depends on what we are sharing with them.

All too often as busy parents we can rush through our tasks trying to get them done so that we can spend quality time with our kiddies. However, if we slowed down just a little, we may see many smaller quality moments within our day that we can share with our children giving them a variety of experiences, and maybe even a greater awareness of the world around them.

Young children can learn colors, counting or recognition of fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, matching socks in size and color while you are sorting laundry, sorting smallest to largest while you are putting shoes away, and many more things as you go about your daily activities. And when you go outside there are so many more things to see and experience.

Of course, when you do get to play… our kiddies are having fun and still learning!

I can only speak from my experience so far with active boys who always preferred to be outside, climbing, jumping, and running when they were toddlers, so we played a lot of active games, but the simplest ones always seemed to be loved the best.

Many special moments can be spent together when it is kept simple.

Shape Jumping

You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy this game together. Start by drawing something easy like a square, on the floor with chalk, and then draw a triangle or heart close enough for your kiddies to jump to, then have fun drawing all the other shapes that your little one suggests, just far enough away from each other so that they can jump to them.

Encourage your children to shout out the shape as they land on them.

Shape spotting - It’s quite amazing at how much of the world passes us by until we intentionally look at it. Circles on the doctors office ceiling, squares on the ground, triangles where you least expect them…. Children love finding things and this game can be played anywhere.

Make music outside - There are many wonderful sounds that can be made outside: banging logs with sticks, scrunching leaves, tapping rocks with pebbles. Enjoy the moment and make your own music together.

Lets re-think our daily activities and enjoy these special moments we can share with these young minds. They are all so precious.

We’d love to hear your marvelous Mommy moments…. what household task do you transform into a learning game with your toddler?