If you made it through the baby stage, congratulations. That was no small thing. But now your sweet little baby has become a tiny person with very big opinions, very loud feelings, and very little interest in cooperating.

Welcome to the toddler years.

Children between 12 and 36 months are developing at a remarkable rate. They’re learning to walk, talk, and explore everything around them with enthusiastic curiosity. An important parenting shift needs to take place as you enter this stage – and understanding what that shift looks like can make all the difference.

The patterns you establish now – how you give instructions, how you handle resistance, how you connect after a hard moment – are forming relational habits that will shape your child’s heart for years. You’re in the right place.

However, you’ll want to keep in mind their tender hearts and be sure your parenting approach is saturated with gentleness, love, and grace. While you may have allowed your schedule and many family dynamics to be determined by your baby up until now, you’ll need to bring more structure into your toddler’s life at some point. You need to set boundaries on a mobile child and require that your toddler respond to your leadership more than you have in the past.

Toddlers on the Move is a book we’ve written to help parents understand how to work with toddlers using a heart-based approach to parenting. We’ll help you establish your leadership while maintaining your awe of this budding personality. By starting to develop good patterns early, you’ll be able to maximize your parenting over the years.

A toddler likes to explore and test out new things. You’ll want to contribute to those God-given desires by providing a lot of new opportunities for stimulation while still protecting your child from danger.

Parents have differing approaches to the toddler challenges, but focusing on the heart and character development at this age is important for building good patterns. We have an MP3 set called Parenting Toddlers that you will find helpful in addressing subjects such as sleeping, eating, potty training, and discipline. This MP3 set was created before a live audience of parents of toddlers so you’ll appreciate the answers tailored to their specific questions.

As you think about discipline and the relationship you’re building with your toddler, the book Parenting is Heart Work is a game-changer. It gives you a strategy that goes far beyond simple behavior management, one that addresses why your child does what they do and helps you parent in a way that builds lasting change from the inside out. Want to go deeper? The Parenting is Heart Work online course takes the book’s concepts and walks you through them in a practical video format – ideal if you want structured, step-by-step guidance. 

We have another resource just for you. It’s called the Toddler Parenting Toolkit. It contains three posters with growth milestones, one for infants, one for toddlers, and the third for toddlers. These posters provide several developmental milestones including suggestions for spiritual training. In addition it contains some ways to start working with very young children to teach them about God. You’ll also receive a booklet we’ve written called Toddlers on the Move. It’s a portion of the full book featured below.

We are eager to help you as you continue to raise your child. Be sure to pray often for and with your child and teach him or her about the Bible. Spiritual development is so important at any age. So practice now and grow into good habits of spiritual growth in your family.