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!
Thats AWESOME I have a very soon to be 4 year old and a 2 year old Great God bless You
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing! I definitely look forward to your Teeny Tot series as keeping my 2 year old busy while I school my older two is one of my biggest challenges!
Thanks for sharing! I am thinking about setting up a shelf or work boxes for my 27 month old and these are all great manipulative ideas for her 🙂
I LOvE this!! Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Ha ha, when I read that you were going to do a Tiny Tot Tuesday, I said “God Bless You!” right out loud! I’m not the only one who needs some ideas it seems. My tiny tot is only 15 months, so I have to modify a lot of things due to choking hazards (though she is good about not putting things in her mouth most of the time), but because of your ideas I am able to keep my eyes open when I go shopping for supplies that I might not have thought of (like the toaster tongs). Next year I will have a 2yo and a 1yo dynamic duo to contend with, so I have to be ready or my older two won’t stand a chance! Your ideas have been measureless in value to me and I pass your link on to anyone I can think of. You have serious skills and I’m so glad I found you! BTW, I looked back at your tiny tot entries from last year when she was 1.5 and got some real encouragement from your ability to see the humour in her antics and how you kept calm and carried on. Way to go, and thank you for your ministry to all of us moms.
LOL! That’s great, I guess I’ll keep it up then! :o)
My youngest just graduated from (home school) high school in May… but I like to visit blogs of young moms who are homeschooling! What great ideas you have here! Keep up the good work!!!
Yes, please, please, keep doing these posts…they are so helpful and terrific. I’ll beg if needed!
Thanks Erica. I really can’t tell you how helpful your posts are. And now I’m off to check out the police officer unit…what a great idea!
BLessings,
Ruth
I have a friend who has tots that need to be kept busy while the older ones do school. I’ll forward this to her. You have such creative ideas!
Thankyou, Erica, for putting these ideas together in one concise place!!! I’ve been trying to come up with something like this. I’m homeschooling my 4 year old, and have a very busy 18 mo. old, as well as a 3 month old. I’m going to make a box for my 18 month old filled with these activities that she can work on while I’m working with my 4 year old. Maybe it will eliminate torn papers and flying crayons! 🙂 Thanks again!
Ardelle
Found your website and LOVE It! I’m thinking of summer homeschooling this year and getting such great ideas. This sounds like a silly question, but where did you get your metal trays?