Engage your toddlers indoor

Keeping a toddler busy indoors can be difficult, as they are at an age where they would like to run, explore and be free! Even after spending a fair share of time in the park, kids persist to spend more and more time outside. While parents try their best to entertain them, at times it gets challenging for them to engage their toddlers at home.

Here are some innovative tips from young parents and paediatricians on how to engage your toddlers indoors:

Sonal Sneha, mother of a super active three year-old girl said: "Managing work and household work alongside my daughter was getting a bit tedious as I was not able to play with her all the time. It's when my husband and I decided to bring a pup, Maggie, into her life.

“Now, all my daughter wants is Maggie's company, where she spends most of the day laying around with our pup on the floor playing all sorts of games with her. As both of them spend so much time on the floor, we make sure that it is cleaned with a herbal product like ITC's Nimyle."

Dr Kalaiarasi K, a paediatrician says balancing games can be great for younger kids and toddlers and helps them improve motor skills and their balance. "Young parents can stick different coloured tapes on the floor, where the child has to balance himself/herself and walk only on the tape. If he falls off the tape, he'll be out of the game.

“You can have different rules to walk on to make it more fun and interesting. For example, you can ask the kid to walk on one leg on the red coloured tape and walk fast on the green. Parents and caretakers can also encourage children to help them in watering indoor plants as well as helping in small household chores such as bringing the clothespin while drying the clothes on a line."

Alka Srivastava, mother of two said: "My younger one is 9 months old and at this stage, kids learn to recognise themselves in pictures or mirrors. Securely set up a mirror on the floor and let your child explore his or her face. Ask 'Where're your eyes?' or 'Can you lift your arm?' or 'Crawl towards the mirror to touch your reflection' etc. My elder one turned four, so we have to play a little more challenging game with him.

"So, whenever I am on a video call with a relative or friend, I introduce him and later show him different pictures, videos and ask him to identify them and different questions like 'what is your relation with him/her', 'Find grandma in the album', or 'when did you last meet them'. I also encourage my kids to play together, where I just place some jigsaw puzzles on the floor or create easy huddles on the living room floor for them to cross together. These games also help in creating a bond between them."

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)