Activities for One Year Olds

[playfelt]

Personally I let one year olds just be one year olds. They get enough sensory, tactile, etc from interacting with the environment and do not yet have a creative side so to speak. Being creative is based on knowledge and experience. Do not be in a hurry to rush one year olds to do organized activities. Keep everything very open ended. The fact they are eating the crayons tells you that they have not reached the maturity required for the activity. This is especially true if you have them in their high chairs. An orange crayon looks like a carrot stick. How are they to know the difference.

[BrightEyes]

Personally I let one year olds just be one year olds. They get enough sensory, tactile, etc from interacting with the environment and do not yet have a creative side so to speak. Being creative is based on knowledge and experience. Do not be in a hurry to rush one year olds to do organized activities. Keep everything very open ended. The fact they are eating the crayons tells you that they have not reached the maturity required for the activity. This is especially true if you have them in their high chairs. An orange crayon looks like a carrot stick. How are they to know the difference.

I have to say, I agree that one year olds get sensory/tactile experience from interacting with the environment as well as they may get confused doing art in their highchair.

However, I totally disagree when it comes to them "getting enough from interacting with the environment" and not having a creative side so to speak. Place a one year old at a small children's size table, give them red and blue paint on paper and just watch the excitement in their eyes and how "amazed" they are when they push the paint a certain way with their fingers that it bulges into one area or smooths out into a thin layer. The feeling they get from exploring the paint in their hands, on their fingers and when the two paints mix together and make purple, an entirely different colour than the two they were given!