Activities For Your Toddler

Hi everyone! I’ve gotten so many requests for fun educational activities for toddlers that I’m going to try and do a regular series on the Teeny Tot. Maybe we’ll call it Teeny Tot Tuesdays!

 

What’s in the Box for the Teeny Tot this week?

• Unifix Sudoku and Unifix Cubes (Instead of actually playing the Sudoku game, she just matched up the colors on the cards.)
• Magnetic Color Cubes
• Attribute Lacing Buttons by Learning Resources
• Silicone Heart Ice Cube Tray  & Bamboo Toaster Tongs (Bed, Bath & Beyond), small pom-poms (Wal-mart)
• Geoboard and rubber bands
• Pattern Blocks and activity cards

This year, I’ve been giving the Teeny Tot about 6 activities in her workboxes. Some days she’ll go for the activities, some days she could care less! Some days she steals her sister’s math worksheet and scribbles all over it claiming she’s doing math. We’re just kind of going with the flow this year as far as Tot School goes. But I do what I can to help myself out and have some prepared activities for her to do in the event she’s showing interest.

She really got into this Unifix Sudoku game. Obviously she’s too young to understand the Sudoku game itself, but she sure could match up the color blocks!

 

Of course one of her favorite activities is transferring objects. Over the years I’ve gathered cute ice cube trays just for this purpose. Keep your eyes open, you’ll find them at garage sales, the Target $1 bins, Bed, Bath & Beyond and places like that! Items used here: Silicone Heart Ice Cube Tray  & Bamboo Toaster Tongs (Bed, Bath & Beyond), small pom-poms (Wal-mart)

 

iPad/iPhone ShapeBuilder App: this is by far one of her favorites! It’s a great puzzle app for toddlers. With several different puzzles to work on, they drag each piece to it’s proper location in the puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, the app shows your child the real image including sounds before giving them another one to work on.

 

This one is a great “go to” classic in our house. It’s the Fraction Action set from Guidecraft. It’s a great activity for toddlers, we used it like mini-puzzles for her.  (I also used it with our older kids to get the fraction concept down as well!)

 

Geoboard and rubber bands are also a lot of fun! Great for dexterity, the Teeny Tot practiced putting them on in a row. Just watch out for flying rubber bands! This activity takes a little practice, so don’t get discouraged if your toddler is frustrated and can’t get the rubber bands on the little pegs. Another variation is the Homemade Geoboard by Mama Jenn! The pegs stick up a little farther so it’s great for toddlers!

 

Magnetic Color Cubes are great for color matching, one-to-one correspondence and dexterity! I made these cute cards to go with our Orb Factory Magnetic Color Cubes. Simply put it ontop of anything magnetic and let your toddler create a fun design with the cubes! (My blue magnetic cookie tray was purchased as a sentence building kit from a used curriculum fair, total bargain!)

 

Our Pattern Blocks and activity cards are pulled out at least once a week. She didn’t like the original card I had pulled out for her, so we changed it to the puppy. This activity is great for working on logical thinking, matching, colors, and shapes.

 

Those are some of the activities she’s been up to, some other things she loves are coloring pages, math worksheets, and anything having to do with do-a-dot markers.

Note: If you notice her clothes in these pics, she didn’t do all of the activities in one day. They’re spread out over the week, and I really just let her pick and choose what and when she does her activities. No pressure at age 2.5, school’s just fun right now.

I hope that helps you out with some great ideas to engage your toddler! If you have anything you’d like to add to the list, leave a comment, I’m always looking for fresh ideas!