Turning the "Terrible Twos" Into a Time for Fun Activities

TERRIBLE TWOS
Dillon turned two in July and it seems like every other word out of my mouth is "NO!".  After nearly four months of saying the same word over and over, I am ready to turn over a new leaf and find some new phrases.  I have decided that the best way to achieve peace in our lives is to begin occupying his time with different, age appropriate activities. 

ACTIVITIES FOR A TWO-YEAR-OLD
Art:  Two-year-olds love to scribble with crayons or chalk.  They love to color pictures, paint, play with play doh, or glue objects to paper creating their own art.

Music:  Two-year-old favorites include playing pat-a-cake, singing simple songs, dancing/acting out movements to music, and banging on the drums or shaking a tambourine. 

Quiet Time Activities:  Your toddler would enjoy sitting down to read and talk about a book, match like objects, put together puzzles, stack/unstack objects, and putting objects together like pop beads or Legos. 

Imaginary Play:  Toddlers should be encouraged to mimic housekeeping activities, dress-up, talk on toy telephones, and/or play with dolls.

Active:  Jumping, running, climbing, crawling, ball throwing/kicking and anything to do with moving are toddler favorites and a fair amount of active play should be encouraged each and every day!  If you live in a cold weather climate, build things with pillows, blankets, boxes, etc for your toddler to climb on, in, or through inside to get rid of some of your two-year-old's excess energy. 

One Other Idea
Changing your two-year-olds scenery and changing out toys every week or two can really help keep your toddler entertained longer.  Having two or three separate bins for toys and only bringing them out one at a time can create the illusion of having NEW toys.  Moving from the toy room to their bedroom for hours will give them a "new and different" place to play.  Each of these things can ease their boredom.

Wonderful Toddler Years
Keeping your two-year-old busy with age appropriate activities for the right amount of time should really help turn things around for you and give you the freedom to teach them positive two to three word phrases.  Won't "Great Job." and "You are such a BIG BOY." be better phrases than "NO!" 24/7.  I am looking forward to hearing my son start repeating all of the positive things that I say!