Independent Play

My 17 mo old daughter loves her older brothers hot wheels, taking all the books out of a bookcase, all the clothes out of any open drawer, anything off the coffee table, and stickers. She will play w/ a set of nesting blocks and she has a weebles tree house that has a couple compartments, she likes opening and shutting the doors. And outside she has a little tykes house, and a sand box. She does wander around, and drops kstuff all over the place-what a mess!

I love fisher price "little people". For first Christmas' all the grandkids get a farm or house. Each birthday or holiday we collect another set and ask family to follow suit. It does not matter what she gets into there is a little people to fit. There is a family house, farm and animals, noah's ark, castle with dragons and princesses, construction, trains, cars, and on and on. They are practically indestructible and can be easily carried anywhere. The sound can be turned off so you can use them to keep her busy (I've even taken them to church) and provide hours of fun (even my 8 year old son will play little people with his younger cousins). Have fun and enjoy her discovery.

Hi K.!

I have two daughters... ages 5 and 2. At 16 months, they do not usually spend a real long time on any one activity, but they are playing, exploring, learning in all they do. I have found that some of the toys that have kept my daughters' interest longer than others are Discovery Toys. If you haven't heard of Discovery Toys, they offer fun, SAFE educational/developmental toys, books, games & music for all ages... and the toys come with a LIFETIME guarantee. Discovery Toys:

1. Develop independent play with some limited instruction.
2. Promote sustained engagement.
3. Build skills for cooperative play.
4. Create opportunities for children to talk about their play experience.
5. Reward accomplishment with obvious completion activities.
6. Encourage pretend play.

You can check out my website at:

www.discoverytoyslink.com/julieteutschman

If you have any questions, please let me know! I am not promoting Discovery Toys just because I am a consultant, but because I believe in them. I am a consultant because I saw what they offer my daughters, and I would love to share them with you too!

Enjoy your time with your daughter... they grow up so quickly!!

~J. Teutschman

"Play with your children... it's the BEST investment you'll ever make!!"

Hi K.,
My 18 month old son does play with his toys by himself for a while but I find that he'd more often rather play with clothes, tupperware, pots and pans and me than his toys. What seems to interest your daughter? My son likes music, lights, things he can open and close etc. I do cheat and watch what he's drawn to when he's at other kids' homes. Then I make a note of it and get him something similar if not the same thing. Keep in mind that anything they "play" with is playing. They're discovering as they go along. Is your little girl exposed to other children her age? Interaction with other children is important I think. It teaches them to socialize. Although at this age they don't actually know how to play together with another child they will often play by themselves along side other children - what they call parallel playing. You might look in to momsclub.org. I am also a SAHM and it is an organization which supports SAHM's with mom and kid friendly activities. I've found it invaluable for myself and my son and it's very inexpensive. My chapter charged me $20 for the year. Good luck!

My 14 month old daughter received a kitchen set with accessories for her 1st birthday. It definitely occupies her time independently off and on throughout the day. She also will play with puzzles on her own, even though she can't do them on her own yet. She still needs lots of interactive attention throughout the day though.....I think 16 months is still to young for them to play for long periods of time on their own. What if you set up playdates and she has another playmate to play with?

children are interested in different items/toys at different ages/stages. if she is playing with clothes and towels, perhaps you could foster that interest. is she playing with that because it gets your attention or is she playing with that because she finds it interesting? does she like the soft texture of them? does she have other soft toys? does she like them because that is what she sees mommy doing and she wants to mimic mommy? something as simple as filling a laundry basket with clothes and then dumping it out & filling it up again is the perfect "play" for this age. in my experience in child development, you probably won't see her using her dollhouse (as you would expect it to be used) for some time! remember that it is the simplest of things that sustain children's attention... like a cardboard BOX! have fun.

That sounds about right for her age. Try reading what to expect the toddler years for some info on what they may be doing. Their attention span is very short at that age.

At 16 months old, she is curious about everything, take some safe junk put it in a box for her let her see what it is, a roll of tape, a brush, a mirror, some keys, some toys, just a bunch of junk to you but to her its new adventure, I did this with my daughter she sat for an hour digging in the box. Now about the dollhouse, ( sighs ) you cant have an imagination with the dollhouse if you don't have any dolls ? Hello !!

no time to sit still maybe a nice cartoon tape she would sit and watch, but babies this age are go go go go

Dear K.,
You beautiful daughter is just exploring...and practice walking (not walking around aimlessly). Try some walk along toys...ones you push or pull. My one son loved his popper on a stick and would always get it when I vaccumed. Try propel by the legs little trikes. She still isn't quite old enough for independent play with smaller toys. She should be just about old enough to really become interested in books. Get books that you can point to pictures in and build her vocabulary. "The Best Word Book Ever" by Richard Scary is one, but there are numerous others. Sit her in a high chair. Give her something to put in and take out of a container...a plastic cup and a ball or block. Give her something like cheerios to pick up with a pincher grap. She still needs a lot of parental attention when playing at her age. Roll balls to her talking as you do it. Point to eyes, nose, etc on a doll. Baby instruments... actually anything that is safe for her and makes noise when banged or hit together or shaken should interest her. There are some "Busy Boxes" that have a variety of things to do on them, but after a minute the child of that age looses interest. Fisher Price toys like the farm are good to open and close doors and put "people" and animal into and out of. The attention span of a kindergartener is only suppose to be 5 minutes. So maybe her attention span is a minute at max.

Here is a site that gives you so toys appropriate for 12-18 month olds:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_toys-for-children-12-to-18-mo...

And here is a site that gives you an idea of normal child development:
http://www.ask-nanny.com/child-development.html

Remember this is just to give you an idea of where her development should be. Children are all different. One of my sons was "Mr.Busy Body" always running around and didn't talk until after two....well he only had a 10 word vocab at two and all were single sylables. She sounds like she just needs a litle time. Enjoy each stage of development:)
H.

My son is also 16 months old and very much into clothes and towels when the laundry is being folded. He loves to take the stuff in and out. maybe get her a little laundry basket of her own and some doll clothes (or just pull some of her stuff out of her closet.) My son loves the elmo giggle and sing tool bench (we bought one on ebay and paid way less than retail.) He also likes legos and Mr. Potato Head (right now he makes mutant potatoes but we figure in time he will probably figure out where the arms really go).