Developmentally, toddlers are children from 1 to 4 years of age, after which they are considered preschoolers and might attend preschooling educational institutions. Does this mean that formal learning should start after the age of four? Absolutely not! Toddlers’ brains are incredibly active, curious, and explorative, which is something all parents and other caregivers need to take advantage of so the child can realize their full potential in development. In this article, we’ll help you achieve that by sharing some fun and engaging activities for toddlers!
Of course, these educational activities differ vastly from what you normally see for preschoolers. The reason for this concerns children’s brain development. During their second and third year of life, kids learn to walk, speak, and make sense of their environment thanks to their advancing motor and perceptual skills. Therefore, the activities for toddlers need to strengthen and improve basic sensory and motor skills, something which already comes naturally to preschoolers.
Fortunately, there are a myriad of different fun and engaging activities you can choose from depending on your specific situation. And, since we always aim to be inclusive, we’re sure you’ll find the right ones for your toddler in our comprehensive list featured below, so let’s get started!
The Best 10 Activities for Toddlers
Between one and four years old, toddlers learn to walk, roll a ball or pull and push toys, turn pages of a book, hold a pencil or other tool in their hands, use two/three-word sentences while talking, and point to the things they want or talk about (recognition). Of course, there are many other milestones they’ll reach, and every child follows their own individual path, but knowing these stepping stones in early childhood development helps us create engaging activities for toddlers that promote optimal growth.
Here are some fun toddler learning activities that you can easily do at home!
Color or Shape Sorting Activity
Aim: improving perceptual discrimination
The mind recognizes objects by analyzing their features, including the shape, volume, texture, color, height, weight, and so on. By the time we’re in school, we have already learned how to navigate through the world thanks to this powerful perceptual ability. However, for toddlers learning to differentiate between a circle, a cube, and a rectangle, as well as daily objects in their surroundings beyond toys, is a challenge.
To help them out, train their perception with color or shape sorting activities. How to do this?
Take a relatively big box and carve either different shapes (circle, triangle, rectangle, cube, etc) or larger even shapes on the lid. In the first version, the child will need to sort their toys according to shape so they can drop them in the box. In the second version, color the edges of each hole in a different color. Then, the child will need to sort their toys by color and again drop them in the box through the matching hole.
If you have a box from an old kitchen appliance that will do, but of course, you can always buy specially designed toys for sorting activities such as this wooden cube from Amazon.
Sorting and Playing With Tools for Fine Motor Activity
Aim: improving fine motor activity of the hands
While we’re on the subject of sorting activities and cool Amazon toys for toddlers, here’s one fantastic toy with which you can target two systems at once – the sensory system and the motor system.
First, as the name suggests, the fine motor activity toy helps kids develop a better grip and control their arm and wrist with better precision – one of the critical developmental skills for toddlers.
Second, by creating a fun sorting activity that kids can play with the hand-gripping toys, you can still target their perceptual abilities. Just as we’ve described in the first activity, by identifying and sorting objects of different shapes, sizes, colors, textures, etc, kids will improve their visual recognition skills.
So, once you have the fine motor activity toys, place a couple of bowls in front of the child (one full with different toys and the others empty) and ask them to separate the toys/objects from the bowl with toys to the empty bowls. The sorting can be based on color, shape, size, or function (cars, dolls, drawing tools, etc).
Erasing the Alphabet
Aim: recognizing and discriminating between letters
Experts agree that being familiar with the shapes of the letters even before being able to read helps kids to develop their reading skills much easier later. This is why we think “Erase the Alphabet” is such an amazing, fun, and useful activity for toddlers.
You’ll need a dry-erasable marker, a writing board (a window is also fine), and an eraser. Then, draw the alphabet on the board or window and ask the child to erase it, letter by letter.
What’s the catch? Well, there are different versions you can try.
- Erasing the letter you tell them to erase (example: Erase the letter “L”).
- Writing the alphabet out of order and asking them to erase the letters in order.
- Writing the alphabet out of order and asking them to pronounce each letter as they erase it.
- Writing different versions from the letters (Example: A and a, g and G) and asking them to erase the letters after they’ve found their match.
Hunting Shapes
Aim: sensory stimulation and perceptual discrimination
Yet another activity for sensory stimulation and perceptual discrimination is a fun game called “Hunting Shapes.” There are two versions of it.
To play the first version, fill a bowl with objects that have something similar and something different (for example, circles, triangles, cubes, all in the same color, and/or a lot of circles in different colors). Then, you can ask your child to find you a particular object or take out all the objects that satisfy certain conditions, such as being blue and round. If you want to make the game even more challenging, ask them to search for the items with the fine motor activity tools rather than their hands.
To play the second version, scatter inside the house specific items and ask the child to find objects that satisfy specific conditions, for example, white and small. The conditions can be almost anything, since the goal is for the child to wander around the house, inspecting everything in their surroundings and analyzing the objects they see, looking for the things they need.
Playing With the Play-dough
Aim: improving fine motor skills
Another very satisfying activity for toddlers is playing with a play-dough. Art and crafts with play-dough definitely fall under this category, but if your child is too young for specific assignments, then simply encourage them to shake, stretch, beat, make shapes, and work the dough with their hands. It’s a free exploration activity that allows kids to satisfy their curiosity and work on their fine motor skills.
You can buy play-dough on Amazon for a very good price, or make one yourself. To make a play-dough, you’ll need all-purpose flour, water, salt, cream, vegetable oil, and gel food coloring. If you’re up for the task, follow the Living Well Mom recipe.
Playing Catch and Throw
Aim: improving gross motor skills
If you’re a fan of outdoor activities, this one is right up your alley. By the name, you already know what this game is about, and we’re here to tell you how you can adjust it for toddlers since usually older kids are encouraged to play catch and throw.
The reason why we believe catch and throw is a very useful activity for toddlers is that it promotes gross motor skills. Toddlers are usually unsure in their steps. They’re just learning how to walk and need a lot of practice to learn how to maintain balance and be confident.
They don’t even have to catch the ball in their hands, but simply running or walking toward the ball trying to pick it up and throw it is a wonderful exercise.
Take a relatively small and soft ball, go outside in the backyard (make sure there’s grass, not pavement, as they’ll surely fall once or twice), and show your child how to play with the ball. Make sure you have patience and demonstrate slowly as many times as needed, so they can imitate you.
Don’t expect toddlers to learn how to efficiently play, but rather enjoy the trial and error process because this is where motor learning happens.
Water Race
Aim: improving fine and gross motor skills
Another fun outdoor activity that’s going to bring a lot of laughs to the family is the water race. How to play it?
You’ll need a big container filled with water, two or three other empty containers (depending on how many people will be playing), and a couple of big plastic glasses.
The aim of the game is to sip water from the large container with the glass and take it to the empty container as quickly as possible. The one who fills up their empty containers wins the game.
Balancing water in their hand while walking fast or running is a challenge even for adults. Most of the time toddlers will spill the water, which is amusing and makes for a fun summer game. However, more importantly, since water is a liquid that doesn’t behave like a solid object, kids will need to up their balance, coordination, and grip to control the glass in their hands while rushing.
Dancing Contest
Aim: improving speaking skills and gross motor skills
The name says it all! Turn up the music (make sure you play songs for children that your kid enjoys) and encourage your child to dance to the rhythm of the music. Dancing allows children to develop a larger range of motion, spatial awareness, and kinaesthetic memory, aside from improving physical strength and condition.
But, don’t stop there! Ask your child to enter into the role of the singer and sing the lyrics while dancing. This additionally improves their memory, speaking skills, and pronunciation. More importantly, by singing while dancing, verbal language and movement are entwined, forming stronger connections in the brain.
Naming the Toys
Aim: enriching vocabulary, improving speaking skills and pronunciation
If you want to start developing your toddler’s vocabulary, it is best to start with objects in their immediate surroundings and those they interact with daily, such as their toys. How to achieve this? One way is by naming and describing the toys.
Sit down with your child in their room and ask them to point and name their favorite toys. Alternatively, they can bring all the toys in front of you, and you can ask your child to describe them.
Encourage your child to speak with the following questions:
- What is this?
- What is the name of __? (example: Teddy)
- Why do you like Teddy?
- Can you show me how you play with Teddy?
- What does Teddy like?
- What’s Teddy’s favorite game?
- How is it played?
Hopefully, with the examples above, you get the point and can continue the conversation with other similar questions depending on the particular situation and your child’s answers. Even if your child is struggling to answer, give them time, be patient, and do not give up as they need to practice. We also like this activity because you’ll bond with your child, stimulate their imagination, and work on essential skills.
Playing “Who’s That?”
Aim: setting the base for more complex cognitive and social skills through imitation
Dramatic play is a very distinctive feature in early childhood development. If you’re interested to learn more about the importance of dramatic play, check out the article we’ve linked.
Meanwhile, playing “Who’s That” will set the stage for dramatic play because it is a great way to encourage children to think about characters in a way that they can use that knowledge later for imitation.
To play the game, tell your child to guess which character you’re describing the way they look, by imitating their most characteristic movements, or by saying their most frequent expressions. Once your child guesses the character, ask them to think of a character (or a profession/ person) and try to describe it in a similar manner.
Good guessing characters are those from their favorite cartoons, their favorite books, professions they’re familiar with (for example, if a family member is a doctor, lawyer, firefighter, etc), or family members (their sister, grandpa, uncle, etc).
Before You Go
We hope you liked our suggestions and feel inspired to try some of the activities for toddlers at home. We made sure they’re super easy to implement and don’t require too much preparation, while still being incredibly fun and beneficial for young learners. For each activity, we included the main skills and abilities being targeted so you can choose what your child needs to work on.
Beyond the activities featured in this article, let us remind you that we also have a massive library of worksheet packs, all of which contain interactive educational activities for kids older than three or four years old. Visit our main website to check them out.
Finally, you can read more insightful articles such as this one on our blog. Follow the link to see what we’ve covered so far. We regularly update our content with awesome tips for parents and teachers, so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and stay up to date with all the new educational trends.
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