I get it, it is so frustrating when a toddler throws everything. From food to toys to anything they can get a hold of.
There are 10 activities you can try at home to help toddlers that throw everything.
- Blow bubbles
- Make ramps for cars
- Use a balance beam
- Create a water sensory bins
- Create scooping station
- Play with soft bean bags
- Play with balloons
- Play sports
- Use hammer and nails
- Paint with marbles
I will explain to you exactly what is happening developmentally and why a child has the urge to throw things and we will go over each of the activities above to address the throwing desire and give you back some sanity.
Why does my child throw everything
If your little one is into throwing things, it is most likely he/she is exploring the trajectory schemas. Schemas are different stages of play and understanding these can help you set up play activities to help your child explore the stage they are going through.
The trajectory schema is all about exploring movement. They want to explore how they move in space and how things move as well. Often seen as throwing their cup on the floor or grabbing toys and just exploring how they sound and what they do as they throw it as hard as they can across the room.I
If you want to learn more about the Trajectory schema, here is a YouTube video that takes a deep look into this schema.
Why toddler from throwing things
One other pretty simple case could be that the toddler is throwing toys because he’s angry and is trying to get his frustration out. Just like adults, kids can also get upset. However, their criteria won’t be that serious and things like not being fed on time could be the reason.
Toddlers cannot regulate their emotions as adults do. It is important that at this age you help them learn how to identify their emotions and provide tools to manage each one.
- Use calming bottles as a tool also known as sensory bottles
- create a calming corner
The Time-In ToolKit is a guided resource that nurtures social and emotional skills by engaging both adult and child in mindful, affirming conversation, and play around the many feelings we all experience. Children can be taught social and emotional skills in much the same way we teach them to read and write. LEARN MORE >>
How can i stop my child from throwing things
The short answer is you can’t and you shouldn’t. What you can do is redirect the behavior with safer alternatives to explore this play schema.
Here are a few ideas of activities you can present to your child to calm the urge to throw things, to explore how things move and to do them safely.
Activity ideas to reduce the urge of throwing
Here is a selection of 10 ideas for kids that like to throw things and are exploring how things move.
blow Bubbles
As simple as it sounds blowing bubbles addresses the desire to understand how things move. You can make your own bubble solution or you can purchase store bought.
Allowing your child to control a battery operated machine that blows the bubbles or practicing how to blow a bubble using soft blows is a great idea to explore the trajectory schema.
Chasing or dancing along bubbles is also a great way to get some exercise and explore.
Here is a super cool experiment you can do with toddlers that already know how to blow out air.
Add some dish soap to a shallow dish, some food coloring and some water. Then give a straw to your child and let them blow bubbles. It’s is a lot of fun!
create a car Ramp
Ramps work on exploring how things move. It works on the desire to learn how things move in space and what happens when you place the car at the top and let it go.
This can be a simple cardboard box flatten and add some toy cars, balls and anything that slides.
You can get fancy like the small things blog and you can DIY one like this to be used over and over again.
Balance beams
Using tape to make a straight line or even going to the park to walk in a narrow path are all great gross motor activities that will also address the urge of learning how things move in space.
We often walk across some aligned rocks that our neighbor has on the patio and sing “one in front of the other, one in front of the other” as he moves along the path and keeps his balance.
Create a water Sensory Bin
This is one of my favorite bins because it is so easy to set up. All you need is a bin full of water, some spoons, and measuring cups.
Working on pouring skills is super important during the early years. It helps with coordination, controlling of the hand muscles for small movements and learning how to pour. Al that learning in this one simple activity.
Create a scooping station
Scooping is another skill to be learned along with pouring. There is just something about understanding what happens when you pour and scoop materials that keeps them engage for a long time. Grab a bin and ands some cereal to it, then provide some bowls, cups and recycled materials to create a scooping station.
For kids that are in the stage of throwing try adding toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes to create some critical thinking opportunities for exploration. What happens when I pour the cereal on this tube? Where does it end up?
If they decide to pour all the content of the sensory bin out then try adding different buckets and bowls they can transfer the cereal back and forth. If they continue to throw the cereal and not engage i. The activity, take it away and try something else.
Play with bean Bags
Bean bags or any other soft balls you definitely want to keep around. Put away all those hard toys that could break something our could hurt someone. Don’t worry! Just replace them temporarily with soft balls, bean bags or even that dart toy from Ikea! (Which has been one of my best $15 purchases!)
Play with ballons
Balloons can be a great source entertainment for kids of all ages, but for a kid that throws everything is a great way to work through that urge safely. Blow up balloons of different colors and sizes, and even add different ingredients like sand or rice inside to make them bouncy funny and create different weights for each one. They can throw them up in the air, make them bounce and my favorite – tie them to a rope or piece of yarn and run holding them like a kite! They absolutely love it and is totally safe!
Play Sports
Sports that involve balls are great for kids that like to throw things. Using a kid’s basketball hoop or a T-ball set allows your child to control the ball movement while directing the throwing behavior to something positive. Practicing to kick a ball is also a great idea, it allowed for the urge to move a ball and to see how kicking it affects the ball in space as well as being a great eye-foot coordination exercise and gross motor activity.
use hammer and nails
A great idea to calm the urge of throwing is to use hammer and nails toys or DIY activities to do this action. All activities that show that cause and effect and they can visibility see the result of the action are great for calming this urge.
paint with marbles
Who doesn’t like a good art project! This marble tutorial looks a lot of fun! Grab a box and tape a paper on the inside bottom side. Then. Add a few splats is paint and add some marbles to the box. Let your toddler move the box around and see how the paint gets distributed all over the paper using the marbles.
Final thoughts
Although it can be a very frustration time when your toddler throws everything, this is just part of their development. This urge cannot be stopped but it can be redirected to safe activities to explore this urge and make those connections in the brain that are important when growing up. Never stop the urge but always redirect.
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