Where to find info about toddler development and play time ideas

[JustAboutGettingBy]

Are there any good books or sites? I want to ensure my DS 15mo is supported as well as ideas for play time

For play time ideas, I'd start with "entertaining and educating your preschooler" (I think that's what its called, it's an Osborne book with a picture like a kids drawing of a stick person on the front). It has lots of general and practical ideas for doing things cheaply. You can get it on amazon second hand for about £1.50.

Good websites for milestones/general parenting stuff include:
babycentre
mumsnet! (don't just look at chat, there are other articles too)
raising children network (a little American for my taste).
Parents magazine

There are loads of others depending on exactly what you are interested in, any more detail as to what you want? Are you looking for ideas for high activity, messy play....?

Good books I've enjoyed have mostly been to do with emotional development, as this is something I feel less secure on. I've enjoyed:
The whole brain child
The happiest toddler on the block
(Both have similar ideas, I'd recommend the second one more highly).

Generally a good way to get ideas for playtime is to go to Stay and Play sessions - they often have a different layout each week and put out different toys, and you'll see kids of different ages using them differently, so that can be useful. If you have a local Sure Start Centre they will probably have one every week and be able to give you a timetable for other reasonably close centres. The sessions are free, and my DD really enjoyed them from about 14 months onward. Great opportunity for them to learn basic social skills as well, as they start to mimic what the older toddlers do.

If you give some specific areas you're interested in I can probably give more suggestions, I'm afraid I frequently google during naptime so have quite a good knowledge of websites

Thanks for responding ☺ I think I am looking for games and ideas of how to do things cheaply as opposed to buying more plastic toys. So I have a discovery box for DS which he likes with spatulas etc but I am running out of ideas of what else I can do. He likes filling and emptying stuff or lining things up. And pretending to wipe things with paper. So ordinary things from around the house that he will enjoy (I have no imagination....) I see things on Pinterest sometimes and think its genius but can't think beyond that
If left with his real toys he lasts about 5.mins and then proceeds to trying to get in cupboards or break things....

I am definately interested in milestones too.

The educating and entertaining your preschooler might be right up your alley in that case. It has milestones and lots of cheap activities with household stuff.

At that age I had a fabric box for my DD (just random offcuts and stuff like scarves). She used to like packing and unpacking that and I’d group them by colour, hide things under them, arrange them and use prepositions (“where is the green scarf? Point to the one next to the green scarf” etc), talking about spots and stripes, show me the one that has the same pattern as this (I’d drawn the spotty pattern on some paper). We did some basic counting as well, and we danced around with them to music. We also wiped various different body parts with them, or asked her to “wash” mummy’s hand, foot, hair etc.

If there’s something that he’s got that is simple and he really likes you can do soooooo much with it. My DD is now older (2 and 4 months), and her current obsession is an easel with a whiteboard (her obsessions normally last about a month). So I try and do lots of different things with that. So I got pens with screw on lids to make her practice a turning motion with her wrist (something they are supposed to learn between age of 2 & 3), if she wants to have another pen she has to say whether she wants a big one or a small one, what colour etc, she has to ask in a proper sentence and say please and thank you (if she doesn’t do it properly I look sad and say that I don’t understand, “do you mean, mummy can I have the blue pen please”? And then get her to say it back to me). Sometimes I draw something and encourage her to name and trace over the shape (circles, straight lines, she can’t do much else yet), or I draw words and ask her to point out the letters and what sounds they make.

I think the big trick is not to buy anything new at all, but just find one thing your kid likes and really go to town on it with them. You can do so much with one simple thing, and they learn loads more than with having lots of different toys. Plus, so much less tidying up for you!

Thats brilliant thank you. I have ordered the book . I also found some interesting shaped boxes from Christmas gifts that I have put aside for our day at home tomorrow as well as some empty pots (had moisturiser in), old cups and plastic plates etc so will have a go at opening/closing/filling/emptying with some other bits and bobs.

Thanks again

Pinterest has loads of good ideas, but from memory at that age my kids liked;

Old school nursery rhymes and songs (ones with actions)
Me narrating everything - counting carrots, matching up socks, emptying the dishwasher...
Plastic boxes, the Tupperware type with lids, with random stuff in them
Clothes pegs
Messy play; bit of washing up liquid whizzed up in the mixer makes awesome foam and you can add food colour/paint (just be careful what you add, I made my kids foam last summer and added blue food colouring, and they turned into Smurfs 😬). Ice is interesting, especially if you freeze stuff in it.
Washing dollies