Continue to ask your child what other names or labels they have. Think of names or nicknames for each other and other things around them.

Water Play
Try some water play in the kitchen sink. Make sure they are closely supervised. Playing with water is fun and easy to manipulate and will allow you to create lots of effects.

Fill your sink with water. Ask "I wonder what will happen if we pull out the plug?" Have your child pull the plug and watch the water as it goes down the drain. Reinforce this effect by saying "If you pull out the plug, the water goes down the drain."

Refill the sink with water. Let your child add some dish soap to the water. Ask "I wonder what will happen if you stir the water?" Have them stir it with a spoon, a whisk or their hands to froth up the bubbles. If by this point your child hasn’t already said it, reinforce saying "If you stir the water, then it gets all bubbly!"

Give them toys to play with in the water like a plastic cup, a sieve, a rock or a small watering can. Allow them to play in the water and watch them use their imagination and creativity to come up with lot of things to try. Keep pointing out the cause and the effect of what they are doing in a safe environment.

Charades
Try the game of "charades" with your child. Think of a message you want to give your child. The message should include an action, such as "Let’s go for a walk" or "Let’s read a book."

Now, play "charades." Convey the message without talking. Use body movements, facial expressions, etc. If this doesn’t work, try pointing at things or picking them up.

See if your child can show that they understand your message. How effective was your message? What could you have done to communicate more clearly?

A Walk in the Woods
It is a sunny fall day and between dishes and loads of laundry you decide to take your child for a walk in the nearby park. When you are walking outdoors, think of all the sounds that you and your child are hearing. Your child hears a dog bark and is excited. She makes a sound each time the barks. You repeatedly say, "Yes, that is a dog. The dog is barking. It sounds like ‘woof, woof.’" Of course, a dog doesn’t really say "woof, woof," but that’s close enough and you’re modeling vowel and consonant sounds and providing a context for your child to say a word.

Walk through the dried leaves and hear the sounds they make. You listen closely to the sound and decide to listen for other sounds of bird, the wind, nearby traffic, the trees creaking… You are teaching your child the beginnings of active listening – that is, being aware or sounds and sound patterns.

Interactions
Pick a day when your child will be with you all day. Put a sheet of paper on the fridge. Each time you interact with your children, note the time and the activity. By the end of the day, you’ll realize how much you are socializing with him or her.

Bath Time
Bath time is a perfect opportunity for exploration. If you have a child who loves the bath, great! If not, maybe this will make baths more fun for both of you. Let your child pick things he would like to explore while taking a bath.

Make sure they’re tub-friendly. If he or she wants to put a cookie in the tub to see what happens, it’s up to you! Include things that squirt, soak up, pour, float, sink, make noise (music, slide or stick when wet, etc. You can also use bubble bath, soap crayons, putty soap and other tub art materials.

Talk with your child about what might happen when he or she puts each object in the water and how he or she might use each object. Model exploration by touching, squeezing, looking, listening, asking questions and thinking out loud. Push a rubber duck under the water and say, " I wonder what will happen if I let go of this duck?" Let go of it and find out.

Try adapting this activity for different times and place, like the sandbox or the crib. Using the same objects several times helps your childe to explore possibilities and develop prior knowledge.

The Sandbox
The next time you’re in the sandbox, watch your child playing. Let her direct the play, but join in as much as you can.

Playing with sand is a good way of making connections and creating new ideas. It can be used as a construction site, kitchen, town or city, science lab or artists studio. Children use sand to make connections about shape, measurement, size, volume, proportion, texture, weight, colour etc. Trying the same toy in different ways helps to build connections. A bucket can be used to carry or mould sand; it can be the base of a castle, a swimming pool in the castle courtyard or the drum played by the guard at the gate of the castle.

The sandbox is an empty canvas for you and your child to work with. You can use your imagination to come up with different ways to play with each toy and with the sand itself. The sand and toys can be whatever you want them to be.