Teaching Stop and Go

Project Type: Learning Activity
Age Range: 18 months or older

I decided that it would be a good thing to teach Bro-Bro and Ya-Ya the meaning of stop and go.  My parents house has stairs that are not easily baby proofed.  I needed to teach them not to go up the stairs unless they were told by an adult that they could do so.  It is not easy to teach a 1 1/2 year old that they are allowed to so something sometimes but not at other times.  I knew I needed to use some creativity!

First I made a stop sign out of a cereal box, construction paper and some tape.  On the opposite side I made a go sign.

At breakfast I demonstrated to Bro-Bro and Ya-Ya the meaning of stop and go.  I said "GO" while holding up the sign and walked around the table in front of them and dance, then I said "STOP" turning the sign so it said stop and stood still.  I did this several times, they seemed rather amused by my spectacular demonstration.  One thing I love about being a mom...I am the coolest person on the planet to my children.  The goofier I am, the more they love it!

Freeze Dance!
Then we played a game I call "Freeze Dance!"  I played some fun toddler music and said "GO" holding up the go sign and encouraged Bro-Bro and Ya-Ya to dance while I danced around the room with them.  Then I paused the music and yelled "STOP" and then froze.  Bro-Bro and Ya-Ya starred at me...most of the time they stopped moving too.  We did this several times until it seemed like they were not interested any more.

Then I hung the stop sign on the stairs and showed them.  I told them that they were not allowed to go up the stairs when they see the stop sign hanging.  

Later on, when I allowed them to go up the stairs, I changed the sign to "go" and moved it over to the side. 

Now, instead of Bro-Bro and Ya-Ya always attempting to go up the stairs and having to say "NO.  Then, seeing their confused looks because sometimes they are allowed to crawl up, but other times they are not, now they have a constant reminder that lets them know.

Coloring Activity
That afternoon we did a coloring activity of a red stop sign (download by clicking here ).  We are continuing to work on learning our colors.  I have realized that it is much harder for my two to learn colors than it has been for words, body parts, and animal sounds.  The main thing I try to do is talk in colors, for instance I might say...look at the red ball, you are wearing a blue shirt today, or here is a green leaf.

Stroller Ride
The next day on our stroller ride I pointed out all the stop signs.  I explained the purpose of stop signs and how we need to stop and look both ways before we cross the street.  I played stop and go with them through out the walk, I gave the command "STOP" at different points and stopped the stroller, then I would say "GO" and we would continue on our walk.

I plan on continuing to play "Freeze Dance!" and play games to reinforce the meanings of stop and go.  It's been fun and I hope sharing these ideas can help you too!