For some olfactory fun today, I presented Veronika with smells from around the house and we had fun naming each item as we smelled it. Unlike when she was little, now she can parrot these words back to me, hold the items herself, make yummy noises of delight, and more.

I wanted to clearly differentiate between edible and non-edible items in the game, so we started with the latter. I laid out a flower, tea bags, spice jars, and three different scents of soap.

One by one, I held them to my nose, then showed her how to do the same. For breakable items, like the spice jars, I waved the item under her nose. But she got the hang of it solo with the soap!

The tea bags were a big hit, so much so that I got out a bag of coffee and let her inhale that one deeply, too.

She looked so pleased when she smelled the cinnamon sticks, but she pulled back quickly from curry and a few other spices.

Next we moved on to items she could smell and eat. I set out a few pungent foods, like cooked vegan sausage and yogurt. Berries would be good, too. Or berry yogurt!

Veronika then found other fun ways to play with the items, and I was more than happy to watch her toddler brain explore. The cinnamon sticks were fun to take in and out of the jar, and the yogurt was fun to spoon through.

Finally, I made her a chart with a smiley face for the scents she had liked and a sad frown for ones she did not. Older toddlers will get a kick out of this part of the lesson, and may want to add to it on occasion.

Have fun continuing this kind of play no matter what room of the house you’re in, whether the bathroom or even outside.

Veronika makes it quite clear when we’re out and about these days that she’s no longer a baby, content to sit and watch the world. She wants to touch and explore! This “touch adventure” game is one you can play anywhere – a restaurant, a waiting room, a playground – and will hopefully help pass the time with a curious toddler. For the sake of photographs, we also played a round at home today!

The idea is just to look around you, select and object, and put your toddler’s hand on it. Describe everything he or she is feeling, and invite them to hold the object. Some children may just want to look at first, which is just fine, but Veronika definitely wanted to hold.

A stuffed animal was soft and fluffy.

A ball was hard and smooth. Duplo blocks were bumpy.

A tea cup was cold and metallic.

Now that she had the idea, we could play out and about! At the library, a pom pom was crinkly and scratchy.

A toy pirate was plastic and hard.

At a restaurant, ravioli was soft, warm and squishy.

You get the idea! You can literally play this game anywhere, so let the touch adventures begin.