Toddlers love to play. They love to explore and they also get bored very easily. It can be quite a challenge to keep a toddler occupied with play for more than a few minutes. Activity boxes for toddlers are a great way to not only occupy your toddler for more than a few minutes, but it can help them develop in multiple ways too.
If you are a parent active in teaching your toddler many skills, you may want to find toys and come up with ideas to help them. While it can be tempting to spend every minute with your toddler, helping them learn and develop, it is neither a feasible option nor is it healthy. This is where activity boxes add value.
In This Article
- What Are Activity Boxes?
- What is the Importance of Activity Boxes?
- What Skills Do Activity Boxes Help to Improve in Toddlers?
- How Can Kids of Different Age Groups Benefit From Activity Boxes?
- FAQ’s
What Are Activity Boxes?
Toddlers have a short attention span and need variety in their activities. An activity box caters to this need and gives your toddler multiple age-appropriate activities to do. They can finish one and move on to the other in no particular order. They can also redo the activities multiple times until they master the new skill.
What is the Importance of Activity Boxes?
Activity boxes contain multiple activities. While different companies offer different numbers of and different combinations of activities, they all have one aim. They aim to help a toddler learn and develop skills that are important for their age.
Due to the variety, toddlers love activity boxes and show interest in the activities. These boxes also help parents learn and understand more about their toddlers’ interests and skills.
What Skills Do Activity Boxes Help to Improve in Toddlers?
Activity boxes are thoughtfully designed to help toddlers not just learn but also cross important milestones by improving the following skills-
1. Motor And Sensory Skills
Toddlers can start bending, and using their fingers effectively only after they are 1-year-old. So, these activities will enable them to use those fingers, hands, and legs, to complete the activity. They also learn through touching various textures and items.
2. Better Learning
They can explore a variety of activities and reuse them as per their choice. Since the learning of these activities is at the toddler’s own pace and interest, the learning will be much faster and deeper.
3. Problem-Solving Skills
Not all activities will be easy in such boxes. According to ResearchGate, Some activities like mystery boxes can be quite challenging and promote problem-solving and reasoning skills in your toddler.
For example – If your toddler’s activity box contains a matching or finding activity, they learn to reason and solve the problem at hand.
[Read : Teaching Your Child Problem Solving Skills]
4. Communication Improves
Activities enable you to teach your toddler, encourage them to express their views, and share their understandings. They express, share, ask, listen, and act on the information they receive. This is very important for essential communication.
5. Learn to Select
These boxes contain multiple activities. So, they will start with the activity they like the most and move on to the rest depending on their interest. Here they are learning to select one activity from the box, finish it, and then go on to select the next.
How Can Kids of Different Age Groups Benefit From Activity Boxes?
When your toddler uses activity boxes made for their age groups, they get to learn new skills and benefit in the following ways-
1-Year-Olds
A typical activity box for a 1-year-old will contain-
- Books or flash cards that introduce them to new words such as family members, animals, body parts, simple objects, etc. They learn to identify and name these pictures and items
- Activities related to colors to help them identify, name, and match the colors
- Activities involving gripping, lifting, and moving things with their hands, to improve gross and fine motor skills
[Read : Baby’s Gross Motor Skill Development]
2-Year-Olds
In a typical activity box for a 2-year-old you can find-
- Materials with letters and simple words to encourage learning phonetics
- Books and cards about everything around them like professions and people around us, to teach them about what each professional does
- Activities to encourage holding a pencil and learning the basics of writing
- Activities to teach essential habits that your toddler should know at this age
[Read : Back To ABC – Teach Your Toddler!]
3-Year-Olds
In an activity box for a 3-year-old, you may find-
- Writing, coloring, and painting activities
- Problem solving activities like jigsaw puzzles or identifying missing parts
- Building, stacking, and arranging activities
Activity boxes are a great way to introduce your toddler to multiple age-appropriate skills. Such boxes can help you avoid investing time in researching and save on money in buying multiple toys. When you choose right, these activity boxes can be cost-effective and entertaining at the same time.
FAQ’s
1. How Do Activity Boxes Help Children With Dyslexia?
Activity boxes aim at the overall development of the child. The makers design the boxes with care and intention to help toddlers achieve important milestones via learning through play. These boxes will include activities which will help dyslexic children learn easily and without any stress.
2. What Age Groups of Kids Can Benefit From Activity Boxes?
You can find various activity boxes for different age groups ranging from 1-year-old to teenagers. Choosing age-appropriate activity boxes can help toddlers and even young children benefit in multiple ways.
Read Also: 5 Educational Fun Activities For Toddlers