October 2019 – Continually Learning Academy | Professional Learning for Schools

Toddlers and young children have a lot of energy and love to explore and learn new things. Children at this young age learn so much, so quickly. Boost your child’s learning by fostering their curiosity through these different learning experiences for free! Having new and different activities for your toddler to do should not be expensive. Don’t spend a lot of money on experiences right now, wait until they are a little older. Right now, focus on fun and free activities to foster learning! My daughter loves to go to new places. She likes to explore and watch people. This is a great way for her to learn new things. My daughter also likes to read. Reading to your child is so beneficial! I recently wrote an article about reading to a toddler, all the benefits, and some of my favorite books. Check it out here. Keeping up with all the busyness of young children can be exhausting. I also want to make sure I am giving my child the best learning experiences everyday. In this post, I combined a list of programs or activities that I love to do with my toddler. This list includes events/programs out in the community and reading programs! The best part is, these are all FREE! 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten This is a great program to start at any age. Reading to children is so important and this is an easy way to encourage your child to read. Basically, every time you read a book to your child, write it down. The goal of this program is to reach 1,000 books by kindergarten age. This program is currently offered at my local library. I signed my child up and received a reading journal book to write all the books we read in it. At my library, after every 50 books read, children get a little prize and after every 100, they get a sticker to celebrate the accomplishment. Check your local library to see if they do this program. You can also check out the official website for this program here. There is also a search on the website to see if your local library has the program. This is a great program to take advantage of! Read to your child everyday, don’t miss out on this great learning experience and bonding time. 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Activity Journal to record books read. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Another great reading program is the Dolly Parton’s imagination library. This program is completely free and offers children from birth to age 5 a free book to keep every month! This is so great to introduce your child to a new book every month. This is not available everywhere. Check out the website here and see if you are eligible in your area. Again, your local library may be able to let you know if your area participates and sign your child up! Story Time at the Library Most libraries offer a story time. My local library offers story time every week for different age children. There are story times for babies, toddlers, and preschool. During story time, the librarian will read books, sing songs, and introduce children to different learning activities. Children will learn to love books! This is a great activity to do with your child that lets them learn but also socialize with other children. At the end of story time, I let my toddler play with other kids there which is another great learning experience. My daughter loves going to the library every week. This is also a great time to check out books to read for the next week. Story time at the library. On this day, after reading, toddlers played with bubbles! Toddler Time at the Mall At my local mall, they offer a Toddler Tuesday time every week. They will host a variety of different activities for toddler age children. Many times, they will have different businesses sponsor the events. Everything is free at these events. Children will get opportunities to play games or make art. It is a lot of fun and usually stuff my child wouldn’t normally get to do. Check out your local mall to see if they have any events for children! Local Facebook Events A great way to stay up to date with local events is through Facebook. You can see exactly what is happening around your city. A lot of these events are free and fun for kids of all ages. During the different seasons of the year, there will be fun events. Make sure to keep an eye out for different things you can do with your child. Farmers Markets or Farms Another great learning experience for your child is farmers markets or farms. At a lot of these places, they will have activities for kids. I just like to let my daughter explore the different fruit or vegetables available. Sometimes, they will have family fun events that are great for little ones. I recently took my daughter to a local farm. She enjoyed seeing the pumpkins, animals, and even played on their playground! Exploring a pumpkin patch. Some farms have animals out for kids to see. I hope this list helps you find fun events to do with your toddler! These are all great learning experiences that don’t cost you anything! Remember to check out my post on toddler read alouds here! Thank you for Continually Learning with us! Kyle and Sarah