Monday, February 23, 2015

Busy Books and Young Toddlers

Busy books tend to be something I would normally associate more with an older toddler or preschooler, however I recently took a chance with my daughter and decided to try one with her. We were in the bookstore and Pumpkin saw a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse busybook with all her favorite characters as suction cup characters. The book was an instant hit with her as she carried it with her through the store. Even though the book was for ages 3+, I saw the pieces weren't that small so I asked her if she wanted to take that book home. She stood up, picked up her book, and started carrying it where I directed her. She was so excited!



Naturally, when we got the book home I pulled out all the pieces to see what she would do with them. I started taking them out and placing them all in the book with the auction cups to show her how to play with the new book. Pumpkin promptly took all the pieces off and scattered them across the floor, but she had a blast doing it.  After we had played for a bit I carefully packed all the pieces back up-I figured I would just save it till she got a little older (I definitely see some educational value in the busy book we got so I didn't want to lose any pieces).

Pumpkin had other ideas. She quickly learned where I was keeping the book in her room and started to ask for it when we were upstairs. So everytime she asks, I pull out the book and we play with the characters together, with me periodically putting the pieces in the book. Surprisingly, after we played with the pieces 4 or 5 times, something awesome happened-Pumpkin started to play with the pieces by putting them into the scenes of the book. Mind you, she isn't positioning the characters to act out scenes or doing the activities, just properly putting the characters in the book with the suction cups. Then she would turn the page and put the pieces back on. Then the car came out and she started to play pretend with the pieces and make the car "drive" around.



So my 15 month old definitely isn't doing activities on par with a 3 year old, and this definitely is not a toy I would leave her alone with to keep her "busy," but at her current developmental stage, I have found this kind of busy book to be a great tool for imaginative play and fine motor skill practice. The best part is that this is exactly the type of toy my daughter can grow into.  I'm glad that I took the chance and bought this book for my daughter.