Taking Walks With Your Toddler
When my husband and I first moved in together, we started taking walks around our apartment. We would venture further and further away, sometimes walking as far as the (relatively) nearby shopping center. Sometimes we’d even grab dinner and a drink or two before walking home (or grabbing an Uber if we got really crazy).
When we moved into our house a few years ago, we kept up our tradition of walking. We would walk around the neighborhood and admire all the other houses. We’d talk about things we liked, things we didn’t like, and things we planned to do to our own house one day. We continued walking through my pregnancy, and even when Jack was a newborn. Unfortunately, as Jack got older and we developed a schedule, going on family walks became hard. Jack generally goes to bed by 7pm, which is about the time we’d used to take walks.
That being said, both my husband and I still like taking walks, and I am happy to say that it seems we have instilled that habit in Jack as well. We go on family walks on weekends, and I even take breaks when I work from home to take walks around the neighborhood with Jack. We often take quick walks when I get home from daycare with Jack, mostly because as soon as I take him out of the car he starts asking, “Walk? Take walk?” Who can say no to a kid wanting to take a walk?!
So, why am I talking about walks? Well, not only is it a great physical activity to do with your child, it is also a great learning experience. From the start we would talk to Jack about everything; the trees, the breeze, the cars going by. As Jack has gotten older, we continue to talk to him about everything we see. We talk about the flowers, the airplanes we hear flying overhead, the kids we see riding bikes, and the dogs barking in yards. We talk about the colors of the different cars we see and the colors of the flowers. We stop at each corner and look together to see if any cars are coming, and why sometimes when you see a car it’s still ok to cross because they have a stop sign. Along with talking about everything, we take time to jump in puddles and collect sticks. We say hello to our neighbors and their doggies. Jack has gotten to the “What’s that?” stage of toddlerhood, so we talk about literally every single thing we see.
While taking a walk may seem like a simple thing, it is a great way to connect with your toddler, to teach them new things, and to reinforce ideas and concepts they have already learned. If you are not taking regular walks with your toddler, or regular walks as a family, I highly recommend you schedule them into your routine, it’s an easy adventure to add to your day!
