Teaching Your Toddler to Play Independently

Toddlers often get into the habit of requiring Mom or Dad to supply constant entertainment. This is a frustrating situation for you as a parent because you feel like you can't ever do anyone - and it's not good for your microscopic ones, either. It's useful for children to learn to play on their own.

Toddlers need a lot of management and safety is all the time the first concern. As you conclude to start teaching your child to play independently, put some notion into where they'll play. You may want to teach your child to play for a period of time near you. This is natural and children have been doing it straight through the ages.

Provide your child with simple toys and you'll find he or she will often be happy imitating you. You'll consideration your child pretending to talk on the phone, stir things and "cook," fold laundry, wipe up spills, etc. Toddlers simply love to imitate.

Another choice is to have your child play in a child-safe area. With a young toddler I recommend a playpen or their crib. You'll be putting a few toys in there, and it's a safe, obtain area for them. We have a playpen that only gets used once a day on the weekdays - our toddler uses it for a thirty-minute playtime so I know he's safe.

You can set up a child safe room for an older toddler or a preschooler. Keep a baby monitor in the room if it's covering your line of vision, and duplicate check each time you're ready for your child to play to make sure all baby-proofing and child-proofing measures are still sound.

I recommend for a small toddler that you choose a few baby toys they're fond of. Keep these put away except for their independent play time. For an older toddler or preschooler you can pick one, more complex, toy (such as toy cars, a doll playset, or Duplo blocks). Have a choice of distinct toys and give them a distinct toy each day. One idea is to offer the same toy every weekday - so on Mondays your child plays with Duplo blocks, on Tuesdays dinosaurs, on Wednesdays play food and plates, etc.

When you first have your child start playing independently show how excited you are that they get to have "alone time."

Some very clingy toddlers won't like this at all. Others will be delighted with the new toys. Remember to keep toys put away and every now and add again you can add new toys. This a great use for excess holiday and birthday gifts you may be flooded with.

If your child is one who is clingy I recommend you start small. Set a timer for five minutes and assure them you'll be right back. When the timer goes off, help them clean up and come back in the room. Be cheerful and tell them what a big boy or girl they are. When they're tolerating the five minutes well, work up to ten minutes and so forth.

Thirty minutes is a cheap independent playtime for the young child. If you're having your child play on their own in the playpen or child-proof room, keep it at thirty minutes maximum. If your child is playing near you as you work, however, you can let them keep playing as long as they're content. If you see your child start to get frustrated it may be a sign that a convert in operation is a good idea - but once they get used to playing independently near you, many children are happy to do so for long periods of time.

Teaching Your Toddler to Play Independently

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