Inside Days – Toddler Tales Day 9

We have been locked up almost a month inside our houses and the happiness meter is definitely looking for new measures. Now tired of everything it’s time for introspection and looking inside for all of us. Here is how toddlers and kids can also do this activity

Make a toddler happiness meter

Let your kids express themselves and show you how they are feeling at any point of time during the day. It’s is very important to be with your toddler at this time because they are new to this concept of emotions and feelings inside their brains. A wonderful movie inside out came in 2015. That is a very insightful interpretation of what goes inside a toddlers mind.

Our kids are pure hearts it’s easiest to see what they feel if we just pay a little attention. Helping them by explaining each feeling after every event or incident will help them quickly grasp its true meaning.

Use flash cards or pictures for feeling and emotions inside me

Example – when eating favourite foods show them happy and excited, when they are crying show them sad or upset.

Play a game of make a funny face. It will teach them to identify when baby laughs, cries, feels surprised, tries etc. Show them the flash cards or chart for reference

Here is free printable for inside me emotions and feelings flash cards and emotions chart. Download and practice everyday. Please don’t force your child to go through the entire set if he or she is not interested. It took me more than 6 months to make my 2 year old understand happy, sad, scared, excited, laughing are all different types of emotions we have. Every child learns at a different pace. Practice makes a man perfect so just be happy and keep trying.

Let’s not get too serious and get to have some fun. Let’s jump to see what’s INSIDE our bodies

Inside my body

Good luck to explaining what and how of the body structure inside us. Well, I haven’t started yet. So I thought of making the introduction a bit intriguing by doing some magic tricks out of the old school art and craft.

Here is quick activity of body x-ray. Some additional activities we did along with it is a super fast fish x-ray and counting jelly fish in ocean.

What you will need – white sheet, wax crayons, white crayon or white kajal, black or blue water color, brush, heart stickers

Steps for x-ray activity

1. Make an outline of little boy or girl or fish using crayons. Mark a rectangle for x-ray or just leave it blank. Do not draw anything inside the x-ray box. Use the below pictures for reference
2. Make bones and x-ray using white crayons only. Keep the crayon layer thick.
3. Take black or blue water color make it runny with a little extra water. Dip the brush and paint the x-ray box.
4. The body or fish x-ray will be visible
5. Jelly fish variation – To make jelly fish counting activity. Make some jelly fish with blue or florescent color and make a few with white crayon. Ask your child to count and then make him or her do magical painting using any water color and now let them count again. The number of jelly fish will increase.

What is INSIDE ?

Well, there is no end to what we feel but INSIDE is a huge topic for kids. Understanding what is the meaning of inside and realising they have to always follow certain rules and respect or be inside their limits always. It is too much to ask. So what is it that we can start to tell them before they learn about this society, life and philosophy. Let’s teach the meaning of INSIDE

Inside the box activity

• Cut a few squares or circles of length 3 or 4 cm from cardboard or any thick sheet
• Take an empty tin or any cardboard box. Make a rectangular slit of 5 cms by 1 cm on the lid of the box
• let the kids put these squares or circles INSIDE THE BOX
• It is important to repeat the phrase inside the box so that children can grasp and relate their action to this new word INSIDE
• Variation : check out pom pom and animal activity in this post for 50+ play ideas and diy on my page

Learn Coloring inside the line

• Draw a basic shape like circle, triangle, star, rectangle on a sheet of paper
• Ask your child to STAY INSIDE the lines and color the drawing. Learn colors here
• Sing if you have to and color with your child. Example – draw a circle and sing- Up and down, round and round INSIDE THE CIRCLE.
• Follow the song and show them to stay inside the lines. It will take months to get the understanding and control over the pen or crayon but once they understand INSIDE it is going to stay with them forever
• Here is my inspiration to this activity by Jady alvarez

INSIDE or OUTSIDE

• Draw a circle on floor or use a washi tape to make a circle or square. You can even play it outdoors
• Now you have to shout one of the two INSIDE or OUTSIDE
• Then children will hop, jump, run and take a place according to the call. It’s simple just follow the call
• I usually use one or two tiles for this game as they give enough space to jump and already have a border that we can follow.
• For outdoor you can make more than one circle or any shape of your choice

Twinkle light lamp

What you need – empty glass or plastic bottle, series light or dairy light or led lights string

Sit with your toddler and open the string of led lights. Now let your little one put the lights INSIDE THE BOTTLE slowly one by one and keep repeating Inside The Bottle. Have patience it will take 30 mins or so. Now it’s Done. Plug the led light and enjoy.

Read more about my toddler tales here

Stay happy, think positive and be cheerful in this period.