Babysitting Toddler Tips.

Babysitting a toddler is different from taking care of children of other ages. Be ready to have fun and take care of his or her every need.

1. Don't leave them alone. Be alert. Keep an eye on them all the time; you never know what one may try to do, open up, dig out,... fall off or pull down.

2. Be kind; don't say harsh, sarcastic things, or get angry. Do show hurt feelings from a child's actions or words. Realize that though they may say anything, yet they usually don't mean it, and they usually get over it very quickly. Just pretend shock, giggle and chuckle at their smarting off or their cute actions, they should cooperate (better than if you were to have a war of wills and serious words).

• It is okay to "pretend anger, playfully," as if insulted or pretending amusement, etc. Be a clever actor, but not too silly, be kind of serious, and use the pretending to teach.
• Happily explain what you really mean, in a gentle way, but don't be surprised that they make a game of touching things and looking at you to see how you react, just say "no-no". Try to give an alternative activity.   

3. Make a list of activities: Keep them occupied. Kids love to play. Make sure you have loads of toys, building blocks, bring crafts it depends on age, rattles, books, and even spoons. Be creative!

    

• Take them for a walk, in a stroller.
• Color with crayons.
• Give the child the building bricks/blocks. Help them learn to build different kinds of towers and knock them down, or he or she may act upset if it falls down, but just help them, a little, to build it again.
• Be prepared to change games multiple times. Kids at that age have a very short attention span.
• Present the toys one at a time, when playing with toys. This helps because if there are many toys to choose from at once, they'll only play with the pile for a few moments and get bored and the house will be messy.
• If there is only one, they'll stick with it until they get bored, and you can hand them another one, but later offer 2 or 3 related toys because sometimes they tend to play with more than one toy at a time.

4. Sit on the floor or couch with a book, blanket and a stuffed animal, and read with them. Put the toddler on your lap to read the story. They love cuddles!

• Sing a song.
• Show pictures in a book that has pictures of farm or zoo animals.
  • Make animal sounds or noises.
• Describe an animal and ask what sound it makes. Examples could be cows, horses, and pigs. Start being a little bit silly.
• Sing Old MacDonald when all the noises are tried and learned.

5. Give them a drink of juice, water, or milk. Give them animal crackers and fruit snacks. Watch them when they eat. Learn how to get things out of little children's mouths if they are choking.

6. Teach sorting of toys by kind, size or what it does. Sort again by a different rule.

7. Count toys up to 5 or 6 if they seem interested in numbers. Encourage them to count even it it is mixed up. Don't make a fuss about mistakes.

8. Teach them colors. If there or solid color shapes or toys, when the child picks up one of them say the color excitedly like it's a game: "Red!",... "Blue!",... "Green!"

• Say, "Let's sort all the toys of each color into separate groups."
• Call-out the color when you put one in a group and when the child puts one in, or takes one, or works with them or messes up a pile.

9. Do not try to tire them out by making them run around excitedly, if you have to put them to bed. That will only make them hyper.

10. Check the diaper regularly: Change it promptly, if it needs it. The smell is usually a strong indicator. If the child is recently toilet trained, ask regularly whether he or she needs to use the bathroom and watch for signs of needing to go.

11. DO NOT FEED ANYTHING to the child if you think they are allergic to something. Their

parents should tell you before hand.

12. Get your own first aid kit, and cover it with stickers and supply it with colorful band-aids. If you can't get those, offer to color on the band-aids when a kid gets hurt. Make sure you have all the important stuff. Call this box the Boo-boo Box.

(http://www.wikihow.com/Babysit-a-Toddler)