Help with a 18 month old!!

[lyndsaymcfee]

Hi all

I'm a new childminder and while waiting for my spaces to fill up I currently just have 1 wee boy on my books. He is 18 month, however I'm struggling to know what to do with him outside toddler groups and park visits. He isn't speaking at all yet and just grunts and if he doesn't get his own way its a tantrum. I try and make games with little balls, or building towers but he has no interest and won't sit for a story. I'm just wondering if anyone can share some advice or similar experience???

Thanks in advance.

[FloraDora]

Just play with him...I find that if I play with cars for instance, running them up and down my 17 month joins me....my youngster loves a set of small cardboard drawers I have and he fills them with things from the small world cupboard, anything with slots are great fun to post things. He spent a good half an hour just running his fingers through paint on a plastic tile today...then his cars...loving the sensory mess..... Role play with cups and spoons, pans and plates, pretend food, again I role model or the other children do...or he fills all the jugs and beakers with cutlery.
This week he has shown a big interest in tray jigsaws.
His favourite activity is to walk around with something in each hand, negotiating different surfaces, through all our rooms, stopping to sit on chairs, look at the world around him...then off he goes again, taking everything in.

We have some picture word books and he likes to point to the pictures as I say them and copies the sounds after me.
Music and dancing, instruments and singing....lots of giggles and laughter with these activities.
In the garden he pushes anything, fills the wheelbarrow and pushes it around....fills containers with sand....yesterday he helped to fill the bird feeders with seed and stirred it in his wheel barrow.....banged the outdoor music things...pushed cars and balls down the ramps and tubes...he loves water and will play for a long time with the water wall, or at a water table. Large different brushes and a tub of water is good to, he draws on all the slabs....
But really he does everything the others do...just playing at his level.

[loocyloo]

I have 2 18 mth olds ... inside and out, they both love filling little pots/baskets with STUFF ( conkers/stones/shells ... whatever else they can find ) and carrying them around, to empty out elsewhere, and fill with something else. they put dolls and books in the buggies and push them around. they love splashing/pouring/mixing water in/from the water tray/sand tray.
we spend a lot of our time just pottering around the garden, they are always busy and I talk with them about what they are doing, or what I/we can see. lots of singing and dancing and instruments too.

today we have been to the zoo, and we sat by the fence just watching the giraffes for about 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes watching the penguins.
last week we spent time in the woods just 'being' and observing.