WILD CHILD: Mittens Part 1 - Make it fun
Let’s talk mittens. Those essential, keep your fingers warm, pieces of clothing toddlers love to pull off in winter. If you have a child between 0 and 3 chances are this battle is very real right now. Join us this week as we discuss some strategies to help your little person embrace their mitts and keep their hands warm. We will break our strategies into 3 parts: playing to get used to the mitts, setting limits, and tools to keep those mitts on.
Let them play
Mitts are puffy and make the tricky task of picking things up and exploring the world even harder. Mittens feel strange and that can be unsettling. The result is frustrated toddlers. But you can help. Mitts don’t just have to be an outside adventure. Make mitts part of every day play.
Grab your toddlers mitts (especially if you have a few different pairs), grab your way too big for them mitts, grab your oven mitts, gardening gloves and any other similar hand covering and create a mitten play space inside. Add some toys, and play and laugh together. Your goal is to make putting mitts on funny and fun.
Can you pick up the things with the silly mitts?
Look how silly you look with your mitts?
Can you do normal things with mittens? Eat? Colour? Get dressed.
Look at mom/dad/grandma being silly wearing mitts (model the fun and figuring out new ways to use mittens)
The more silly you are, the more your laugh and use mittens throughout your day the more they become part of the fun.
If at all possible leave your mitt space accessible for your child to come back to throughout the day this week. It may be a little extra work to gather your mittens before heading out of the house, but include your child: “We mustn’t forget out mittens!” By giving them a chance to explore the feeling of those puffy pieces of clothing, and a chance to get used to using their mittens on their terms you will get rid of one source of toddler frustration when you head outside this week.
Stay tuned for our next edition of Mittens for more tips.