As moms, we are always looking for ways to make our lives a little easier. We're excited to share this easy New Year's tradition for kids that can help your toddler with speech therapy. All you need is a few simple items and a little bit of imagination!
In this article we will discuss:
Activities for toddlers establish meaningful traditions. A special way to celebrate the New Year and to keep track of what is happening in your child's life over the coming year, is with a time capsule. Not only is a time capsule great way to later remember what happened in your child's life, it’s a fun project to work on together. And demonstrates how you can practice speech therapy at home with your toddler while creating memories!
Here are some ideas for how to make a time capsule out of items you have lying around the house while targeting your child's speech and language goals.
Make Your Time Capsule
An indoor time capsule can be made out of a box (wood or shoe box), plastic Tupperware container, an old tin cookie container or even a glass mason jar. You can hide all of these in the house (kitchen or your child's room) or someplace where no one will find it like the attic or basement. Write a note for where you put it so that you wont forget at the end of the year!
For an outdoor time capsule, get a weather-proof container such as an old coffee can or plastic container with a sealable lid. You can bury it in the garden or keep it in an outdoor garage.
Learn how to practice speech with kids at home
Next, your child can decorate it with stickers, labels with their name and other things they write or draw. Glue these items on the outside or inside.
Then, along with your child, decide what you will be storing inside. Your child's time capsule can hold personal items such as a photo from the holidays that just ended, homework from the previous semester to remind them of how far they've gotten, goals they write out for the year and wishes written to them from family or friends.
Time capsules can also have a theme such as:
Newspaper articles and items from their birthday
Collections from how their favorite sports team did this year
Arts and crafts projects
Favorite recipes and foods
Speech and language skills to target while working on your New Year's Time Capsule
These types of activities are very flexible, so you can ask your speech language pathologist to modify the activity or suggest how your child's speech goals can be worked into the activity. (If you are not currently enrolled in speech therapy, Better Speech is the #1 Online Speech Therapy service with a proven program customized to your needs. Get in touch with us!)
Here are some suggestions for working speech therapy into your time capsule project:
Talk about the materials you are using to make the time capsule: glass, jar, box, sticker, marker, glitter, paper. It helps to repeat the words and describe how you are using the materials, like "let's put the sticker on the box," "pick out the sticker, let me see the sticker, now let's stick on the sticker."
Describe what you are putting inside or decorating: red paper, blue glitter, big photo, small toy. Again, repeating the words and describing the action helps.
Talk about people in the family if you put photos inside: grandma, uncle, sister, dad.
If the time capsule is for what happened in the past, use past tense verbs: went, swam, walked, played, ate. Depending on what stage your child is at, you can keep things more simple or add complexity, like "Remember when we went swimming? What will we do in the summer, do we go swimming? Who went swimming with us? Who will go swimming with us?"
If the time capsule is about what will happen, talk about goals and planning things out. Use words that describe a sequence like: first, then, next, last.
Take turns putting things in the time capsule for kids that are learning to take conversational turns.
These are just our suggestions but remember that all of these activities can be modified to your child's goals. Our Better Speech SLPs can help you make the modifications needed to help you and your child practice at home.
At Better Speech, we offer online speech therapy services convenient for you and tailored to your child's individual needs. Our services are affordable and effective - get Better Speech now.
About the Author
Cheri Gipson
I am a speech-language pathologist who specializes in language skills and pronunciation. I obtained my Master’s of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Western Illinois University and I have worked in the field of speech pathology for over 20 years. One of the things I enjoy most is helping people learn.
In my spare time, I enjoy writing tips on how to improve online teaching for both the larger language schools and also as a private ESL teacher. Teaching is my passion, and I love seeing students make progress. Every day is a new adventure, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help people learn and grow!
