Customer Reviews

Things to Do With Toddlers and Twos

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this gem at the library, now I'm going to buy a copy for myself! There are so many great ideas in here! I've read other books on the subject but haven't been very impressed. These ideas are practical, inexpensive, and clever. It includes recipes for things like playdough, and instructions for making your own affordable alternatives. Karen Miller had spent over twenty years in the business when this was written and it really shows in this wonderful, thoughtful book.

This book and its sequel "More Things to do with Toddler and Twos" are full of great ideas for playing with and teaching young children (18 mos-3yrs). Most ideas are inexpensive and can be practiced with items around the house.

I wish I could give this book six stars instead of five! I have a 22-month-old daughter and wanted to find new, creative ways to interact with her while also teaching her important skills. I discovered this book while browsing on Amazon one day and was thrilled at the various, numerous ideas it offers! Best of all, you don't have to buy special materials to do most of these activities; they require simple objects you probably already have in your home. For instance, Miller provides recipes for homemade fingerpaint, shares instructions on how to make shape-matching games, and tells how to create a picture file to expand a child's understanding of categories. This book is a must-read for parents who want to stimulate their toddler's mind!

If you are one of those parents (like me) who is tired of buying expensive plastic toys that require batteries and teach a single "skill", this book is for you. The author has a lot of excellent ideas of how to promote creativity and learning in your toddler with activities that employ simple, household items (like paper towel rolls) and inexpensive, basic toys (like balls and sand pails). Studies have shown that children learn better from these types of activities (where they are active) than the flashing, beeping toys (where they mostly watch and press buttons) and I love the idea of using simple items that are not bad for the environment as toys. We have had a lot of fun trying these out with our toddler, although, of course, not all of the activities are appropriate for all ages. On that note-- my only warning is that some of the activities use small pieces or items dangerous to a very young toddler, so parents will have to use common sense.

Really great ideas in this book for fun creative play. Some of the supplies mentioned are a little dated, but just reading it helps spark new ideas for things to do! I like that it helps me find ways to recycle things around the house--constant supply of new and interesting free toys!

We purchased this book to get ideas for fun and educational things to do with our 2 year old twins. In addition to finding a number of activities to engage our children, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the first few chapters of the book covered developmental and behavioral issues. The book is well organized into categories of play that reflect the natural interests of a toddler. The author is educated in child development and seems to have deep experience with the ins and outs of toddler play. Great book.

I have read dozens of books on playing with your toddler, toddler activities, the development of your toddler, etc. While many, many books offer a specific activity (e.g, making a puppet or doing a fingerplay) this book explains how the child's stage of development compels them to play in certain ways (i.e., putting small objects through holes, imitating housework, etc),and provides instructions for easy to create "toys" that help foster their development at this stage. The ideas/toys/games are open-ended, not formulaic. It is simply the best book on the topic and I am puzzled and dismayed that it has not been republished as it is so superior to more recent books attempting to address the same topic.

OK I am not the most intuitive parent; I needed ideas for rainy days, for sunny days, for hours when we exhausted all of our usual activities with my two year old. Enter this book; it's awesome! It has a million little ideas from sniffing through your spice cabinet (became an instant success) to doing your finger painting outside (no worrying about dripped paint). It's choke full of great activities, and also has some explanations about what they do and how and why; for example, why they don't care about drawing any particular thing: they just love the cause and effect of leaving a mark! All in all, it isn't a flashy, colorful publication, but it's still worth its weight in gold. It was written by someone who has clearly spent decades with this age group and knows her stuff. I should also add that most of the suggested materials are household items or can be scavenged; very few need to be purchased and nothing is expensive. Another big plus.