Raising Toddlers: A guide to raising curious and creative children in the 21st century

By Sidiqa Sohail

"This book will help you give your child the best possible foundation in life by helping you make them well-rounded individuals who are creative, curious, responsible, and conscientious.
Inside you’ll find guidance, practical tips, and lists on how to raise a toddler who enjoys household chores, art, books, nature and is insatiably curious. With inspiration drawn from Montessori and Waldorf educational philosophies, this book promises to be a companion on your journey of parenting a small human."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sail Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9789948869252

Book preview

Dedication

To my parents, who showed me what unconditional love is,

And to my children, who are the constant inspiration behind everything.

Introduction

It’s an average day at home with your almost-two-year-old son. It’s only 10 a.m. but you’ve said ‘no’ to him more times than you can count. He’s already tried to open the drain cover in the kitchen and lick it. He’s thrown toys down the stairs, over the safety gate. He’s opened a kitchen drawer and taken everything out. He’s run a dinner knife along your leather ottoman in a slicing motion. He’s jumped on the couch and almost fallen off too.

All this is enough to exasperate any parent. You feel like you’re constantly on the watch, trying to save him from harm. Why can’t he just sit nicely and play with his toys? He already owns so many! Maybe you should turn on the TV for an hour or two, just to catch a breather.

Sometimes you might wish for him to grow up faster.

I can understand. I’ve been there. I used to expect my toddlers to sit and play nicely but eventually realized that my approach wasn’t working. I started reading more and more about the toddler years, and what I came across ended up transforming my view of toddlerhood entirely.

When I revised my view of toddlerhood based on my reading, I saw the behaviors listed at the beginning here in a completely different light. I saw my toddler as someone who has an insatiable appetite for learning, and an uncontrollable need to move. Movement in toddlers is just as important as sleep and food. If you think about it, they’re so new to moving, so their bodies need PLENTY of opportunities to solidify these gross motor skills. My toddler throwing toys down the stairs was now a scientist learning about physics and shapes. I saw him notice how the round objects would bounce all the way down and how the cubed shapes objects didn’t. I saw his slicing motion with the knife simply as an imitation of what he’d seen me do every day in the kitchen- chop!

The toddler years have a bad reputation of ‘naughtiness’ and ‘terrible twos’ but frankly, the truth can’t be further from that. Children are exploring everything for the first time, they are learning what this whole big and amazing world is about, and they have a thirst for knowledge that can’t be quenched. They need to move their bodies, explore what they’re capable of, and they’re navigating big emotions like excitement, jealousy, and fear, which to them can be overwhelming. All of this, coupled with their relatively limited ability at communicating their feelings and thoughts, can result in a challenge for parents and guardians who do not understand the toddler years properly. What I learnt helped my parenting evolve, and in this book, I hope to do the same for you.

The toddler years are, simply put, a joy. These are the years when a child’s personality is formed, when you can see the little person that she is developing into. One of the most poignant quotes about child development is this one by Maria Montessori, about a child’s early years:

‘The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.’

This is a quote that really stuck with me; if I expose my children to beautiful art, home-baked treats, good music, and rich literature, then those are the very things that will form their core.

However, the toddler years can also be challenging.

A lot of people wonder if there is any universally agreed upon time frame that defines toddlerhood. Every source varies, but it is generally agreed that toddlerhood begins around a child’s first birthday, when they begin to ‘toddle’ and are no longer an infant. The end date for toddlerhood is a little more ambiguous; some people say toddlerhood ends when your child turns four. Others extend toddlerhood to the early kindergarten years. In general, this book provides guidance for children in the one-five age range, but it can definitely be applied to older children too.

If you want to truly