Active play
10 articles
Singing and Dancing as Active Play for Babies and Toddlers
Most adults sing and dance with babies and toddlers instinctively -- the bouncing, the "Wheels on the Bus", the impromptu kitchen dance party. What fe...
Singing and Dancing as Active Play
A parent who can hold a tune is no advantage over a parent who can't, when the audience is a 14-month-old. The thing that holds babies' attention isn'...
Rough-and-Tumble Play: Benefits and Safety
When children chase, wrestle, and roughhouse, many parents worry it's too aggressive or dangerous. However, rough-and-tumble play is a normal, healthy...
How Physical Play Supports Brain Development
"Get them outside" is sometimes treated as folk wisdom — pleasant but optional. The neuroscience and child-development literature of the last 30 years...
Outdoor Games for Toddlers
A two-year-old in a garden invents twenty things to do in twenty minutes if you let them. The trick is mostly what you don't do — don't over-direct, d...
Using Movement to Release Tension
The 4-year-old running laps of the kitchen at 5pm on a wet Tuesday is not being annoying. They are doing roughly the right thing for their body. After...
Gross Motor Activities for Indoor Spaces
British weather makes outdoor play unreliable for stretches of the year, and toddlers don't politely save their movement for the dry days. The good ne...
Active Outdoor Games Without Equipment
A garden, a park, or any open outdoor space is a complete play environment for young children. The equipment marketed for outdoor play — climbing fram...
Play Ideas for Children Aged 12–18 Months Through Movement
The first steps — typically taken between 9 and 15 months — transform the child's relationship to their environment. The walking toddler is newly inde...
Outdoor Games for Toddlers: Active Play Ideas Without Equipment
A toddler outside is a different person from a toddler indoors. They run faster than they will indoors, shout louder, take more physical risks, and la...