24-30 months

One for you, one for me

You can use anything you like for this game -- buttons, crayons, raisins. Give your toddler a small pile and ask him to
share them out -- 'one for you, one for me' -- into some small containers or plates. Invite your partner, a little friend or
his favourite teddy to join in, too, so he can practise sharing things out three ways. Your toddler will love being in
charge -- and this game will help introduce him to numbers as well.
Indoor basketball
Use sheets of newspaper to make lots of balls by scrunching them up small. Clear any nearby breakable objects
before starting play. Practise by having a competition to see who can throw the balls furthest. Then play basketball -place a wastepaper bin a metre or so away and see who can land a ball in it. Besides being lots of fun, this game will
help improve your toddler's hand-eye skills.
Odd man out
Practice this game using your fruit bowl or a plate of biscuits to begin with. Put a couple of apples and a banana, for
example, or two plain biscuits and one chocolate one, in front of your toddler and ask him which is the odd one out.
Gradually you can make the game more difficult with card shapes or pictures -- two squares and one triangle, for
example, or two flowers and one tree -- and seeing if he can spot which one is different. A great game for helping
your toddler understand the concepts of 'same' and 'different'.
Going on a picnic
Make an ordinary day more fun by having a picnic for lunch. You don't need to go out -- just spread a blanket on the
sitting-room floor and eat from paper plates. Prepare some finger food with your toddler -- mini sandwiches,
vegetables sticks, hardboiled eggs, for example, and encourage him to pretend that you're somewhere more exciting,
like up a mountain or by a stream. Your toddler will love using his imagination and it will also give you lots to talk
about.
Where does this go?
Using old magazines cut out pictures of pieces of furniture -- chairs, TV, cooker, bed -- as well as other things you
have around the house like a kettle, towels and books. Then cut out pictures of rooms -- a sitting room, dining room,
garage, garden. Lay the pictures out on the floor and ask you toddler to help put all the pictures of the furniture and
objects in the right room. Don't worry too much if he doesn't know or gets it wrong -- just see the game as a great
chance to have a chat and encourage your toddlers conversational skills.
Don't fall in the sea!
Pretend the carpet is the sea and your toddler has to reach the other side of the room without getting his feet wet.
Place cushions, magazines or paper plates across the floor as stepping stones. A fun game that will help your
toddler's sense of balance and spatial awareness.

30-36 months

Red letter day

Make one day of the week a red day. Choose something to wear that's red. Have strawberry jam on toast for
breakfast. Do a red painting, pick some red flowers, have a pizza for lunch, count red cars on the way to the shops
and stop for a strawberry milkshake on the way home. A fun game to help teach your toddler about colours!
Lotto
An easy shop-bought game your toddler will love. The idea is to fill up spaces on a board by placing matching cards
over the pictures on the board. Choose a version with big bold pictures your toddler will recognise. Matching games
like this are great for developing number skills.
Scribble away
Invest in a box of jumbo crayons, spread some large sheets of plain paper over the floor and join your toddler in a
scribbling game. Don't worry about making pictures -- just marking the paper with different colours and shapes will be
fun as well as helping your toddler develop his hand movements.
'Simon says'
Although this is usually a game for a group, it's also fun played one to one. You are the leader -- begin by calling out
simple commands like 'Simon says, put your hands on your head' and demonstrating the command yourself. Your
toddler has to obey you. Carry on with other commands, such as 'Simon says put your hands on your knees', 'Simon
says cross your arms'. Do some funny ones, too, like 'Simon says stick your tongue out'. For older two-year-olds you
could try to catch your toddler out by saying 'Touch your toes' omitting 'Simon says'. Without the magic words your
toddler mustn't follow the command! A great game for learning body parts and practising observation skills.
Hot and cold
Hide a small treat in a room and then ask your toddler to come and find it. When he gets nearer the treat he's warm,
when he's really close he's hot! But if he's too far away he's cold. If he gets frustrated, hold his hand and try to find

the treasure together. Keep up a running commentary until he discovers where it is. A fun game that reinforces the
idea of object permanence -- in other words, just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.
All fall down
Make a set of skittles using plastic bottles or cardboard tubes from kitchen roll. You can decorate them with paint or
stickers. To begin with just set up three or four about one metre from the throwing line. Use a large soft ball or a pair
of rolled-up socks. Encourage your toddler to roll the ball, or throw it if he finds rolling difficult. The more practised he
becomes, the further away he can stand. When he knocks one down tell him how many he has left to help him with
counting.
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a554858/games-to-play-with-your-two-year-old#ixzz3nCzlLmgf

Shades of Color

Kathryn Gamble

Materials You Will Need: Colored construction paper

What to Do: Your child may be beginning to recognize colors. Hand your child a red
piece of construction paper, naming the color. Point out items in your house that
are different shades of red, describing them as lighter red or darker red. Repeat the
activity using other bright colors (red, yellow, green, blue).
Variations: Get paint cards at the paint store to show shades of various colors. Use
the words "pale yellow," "bright blue," etc.
Skills Learned: Classifying, concept development, visual discrimination

Starter Chopsticks
Materials You Will Need: 2 bowls, tongs, pompoms, starter chopsticks
What to Do: Practicing movement "left to right" prepares your child to read. Show
your child how to pick up the pompoms in the bowl on the left with tongs and
transfer the pompoms to the empty bowl on the right.

Variations: Try using starter chopsticks for this activity.

Skills Learned: Eye-hand coordination

Set the Table

Materials You Will Need: Fork, knife, spoon, vinyl place mat, napkin, basket.
What to Do: Children love to help their parents around the house at this age. Fill a
basket with the items needed for a place setting. Draw an outline of a plate, fork,
knife, and spoon on the place mat with a marker. Have your child take the basket to
the table, then put the place mat on the table. Show your child how to match the
objects to the outlines on the place mat. The napkin can be placed under the fork.
Your child will be proud to have been so helpful. Complimenting your child builds
self-esteem.
Skills Learned: Self concept, matching, social development

Dig for Hidden Treasure

Materials You Will Need: Plastic Container, 8 to10 small items, sand
What to Do: Place sand or cornmeal in a large, rectangular plastic container. Place
several items of the same theme (small plastic animals, keys, or coins) in the sand.
See how many items your child can find by moving his hands through the sand. You
may also use a sifter to do this activity. Count the objects as your child finds them.
Skills Learned: Sensory development, tactile stimulation

Self Portrait
Materials You Will Need: Large sheet of paper, markers
What to Do: Children love to see themselves! Have your child lie down on a large
piece of craft paper. Draw the outline of her body on the paper. Ask your child to
draw the eyes, hair, nose, mouth, and ears. Hang the self-portrait in your child's
playroom.
Variations: Have your child draw clothing on the portrait, including shoes, etc.

Skills Learned: Creative expression, body awareness

Activities to Improve Numbers and Vocabulary

Counting
Materials You Will Need: Five small, clear containers (all the same size), 15
pennies, tray, basket
What to Do: This activity will help your child begin to develop counting concepts.
Place the five containers in front of your child. Put a penny in the first container and
count "one." (Be sure your child hears each penny as it falls into the container.) Put
two pennies in the second container. Continue until you put five pennies in the fifth
container. Then let you child do it. Note: Your child may be interested only in
putting the pennies in and out of the containers. This is a great hand-eye
coordination activity.
Variations: Use the same-size Lego pieces.
Skills Learned: Counting concepts, eye-hand coordination, listening

Chalk Numbers
Materials You Will Need: Chalk
What to Do: If you're able to be outdoors, write the numerals one to seven on the
driveway or sidewalk. Have your child locate and stand on the number you call out;
for instance, "Stand on number five," "Sit on number seven," and so forth.
Variations: Use different-colored chalk to write a set of numerals in each color.
Then say, "Stand on the blue number two," etc. Some chalk can even be used on
carpeting indoors.
Skills Learned: Listening, counting concepts

My Home
Materials You Will Need: Photos

What to Do: This activity involves matching, a skill that is important for math and
reading. Take a photo of each room in your home and separate photos of objects
that belong in each of the rooms. Line up the photos of each room. Put the other
photos in a stack. As your child selects an object photo, see if your child knows the
room where it belongs. For example, ask your child to put the picture of the
refrigerator next to the room where you can find the refrigerator.
Variations: Label each photo and create a book that shows the matching pairs.
Skills Learned: Language development, classifying, matching, visual discrimination

Preposition Play
What to Do: Language concepts are learned through play. Enjoy this language
game with your child, as you say, "Sit AGAINST the wall," "Walk AROUND the chair,"
"Sit ON the chair," "Get OFF the chair," "Go OUT the door." "Come IN the door." Ask
your child to tell you to do some actions.
Variations: Repeat the activity when you are with your child. This reinforces the
concepts.
Skills Learned: Listening, language development

What's Inside?
Materials You Will Need: Paper bags, toys and household items, tape
What to Do: Your child's curiosity will be piqued with this fun activity. Collect a
number of familiar items that your child uses: special toys, hairbrush, drinking cup,
set of keys, shoe, ball. Place each item in a small bag and tape it closed. As you sit
with your child, bring out one bag at a time and let your child feel the bag.
Encourage your child to guess the content of each bag. When the correct guess is
made, let your child open the bag.
Variations: Have your child hide items for you to find.
Skills Learned: Problem solving, tactile stimulation

Grocery Store
Materials You Will Need: Fruits and vegetables, play grocery cart
What to Do: Role-playing helps prepare children for the future. Download pictures
of favorite fruits and vegetables. Show one of the pictures to your child saying, "I
need some fruit. Will you go to the store and buy me some apples?" Have your child
place the food in the grocery cart. Continue playing the game, using the word for
the fruit or vegetable and naming the one you want. It is important to say, "Thank
you" each time your child brings you the object. This is how children learn social
skills.
Variations: Take photos of fruits and vegetables with your phone.
Skills Learned: Language development, concept development, social development

Learning How to Measure

JULY 28, 2012 BY TRISHA

Learning how to measure is an important science skill. Measuring is used in science data collection.
Measuring is also a necessary life skill. Think about how often you measure something. You employ
measuring cups in the kitchen for recipes. You use tape measures and rulers to build something or when
decorating a room. Measuring may seem like an intuitive skill, but it really does need to be taught. And
just like any skill, measuring requires practice. Here are some ideas for introducing the skill of measuring
to your child.

Practice with Measuring Cups

Set out bowls, measuring cups, and spoons for your child to explore.
Practice measuring with a variety of substances. Cheerios, rocks, dominoes, flour, water, dirt, sand
whatever you feel comfortable allowing your child to use. Substances that can be level (like water, flour,
sand, and dirt) are great for teaching the skill of line reading and making measuring cups level to
accurately measure something.
Letting your child help in the kitchen is the perfect time to hone measuring skills. Measuring ingredients
for recipes and adding them in will give your child real life experiences to draw on later.

How to Use a Ruler

Teach your child how to correctly use a ruler. Place the end of the object to be measured at the zero line
on the ruler. For many rulers, the zero line is the end of the ruler; for other rulers, the zero line is the first
mark on the ruler.

Playdough Learning: Prewriting for Toddlers

JULY 8, 2012 BY KATEY

Summer is the perfect time to find packages of colorful drinking straws on sale at your grocery store. I
think they are a terrific crafting material. Drinking straws are easy to cut, come in lots of colors, and are
super cheap (you dont feel badly throwing them away when you are done).
Weve combined drinking straws with liquid glue to make sun catchers. My kids have had fun sticking
them in my hair for a crazy up-do, and Toddler Approved has used them to make cardboard sailboats, to
name just a few ideas.

Playdough Learning
Drinking straws are also lots of fun with play dough. Jabbing the straws into the play dough is a great
sensory activity, and kids can make some pretty interesting creations this way.
To fuel your childrens creativity, suggest that they

use the straws as hair on a persons head

make a little zoo cage with the straws as bars and form animal to go inside
shape a turkey or peacock and use bright, colored straws to form tail feathers.

Prewriting for Toddlers

When theyve had their fill of free play, you can try adding a little educational twist with a pre-writing
exercise.
First, flatten out a medium sized piece of play dough on a flat surface.
Use a sharp object to draw a letter, number, or shape on the flattened area. Make sure that the letter is
large enough to be easily recognizable when filled with straws.
Cut straws to about one inch in length. If they are much longer they will be too easy to knock over, and
your child will have a difficult time getting his or her hand into the area.

Baking soda and vinegar reactions: Make Lava

MARCH 24, 2012 BY RACHEL

Kids love exploring and experiencing cause and effect. Last spring we had fun creating fizzing sidewalk
paint where the kids and I painted our patio with sidewalk paint made from baking soda and then sprayed
the paint with vinegar, watching and listening to the sizzles and pops. This rainbow lava activity is an
adaptation off of that morning. Baking soda, vinegar and dye it is the perfect preschooler science
project!
.

Our experiment testing the reactions of a base and an acid:

We dripped food coloring into our tub and covered over the drips with baking soda. The drops were
hidden by the sodium-bicarbonate it looked like a snowy white field.
{You probably have a container of baking soda that is ancient sitting in the back of the fridge? Go give it
new life while bringing oohs and aahs to your childrens faces.}
After we had the colors adequately covered by the powder, we filled a cup with vinegar and grabbed
some medicine droppers/syringes. It was so much fun to watch the colors emerge, pop and sizzle, from
the white space of baking soda, eventually blending together. This is a great activity to explain chemistry
and how some chemical opposites explode. Taste the baking soda, its salty (sodium base), and the
vinegar is sour (acid).
.
A perk: When you are finished making rainbow lava you can dump the mix down the drain it is a terrific
drain cleaner or you can dump it into your dishwasher to help get rid if the filmy buildup. We have a
post with other homemade cleaners,many of them are based on baking soda and or vinegar.
.

What science projects have your kids enjoyed recently?

We would love to hear about it in the comments! Other projects we have done include:

Exploring chemical reactions with our kids as we inflated a glove with gas (made from baking soda and
vinegar!!)
We have also used the same ingredients to make raisins dance in this Baking Soda Experiment.

Games for Baby: Muffin Tin Fun

making toys out of random things we have around the house. I also love repurposing the toys we do
have, mixing up parts etc. Often some of the actual toys become much more fun when mixed with some
of the non-toy items.
The other day it occurred to me that those little plastic balls from one of the little guys toys (that were
spilled all over our living room floor) would fit perfectly inside the cups of my muffin tin. So while he was
napping I ran around and collected them, plopped them in, and set it out and waited for him to get up from
his nap. I couldnt wait to see what he would do with it!
Immediately he was drawn to it and grabbed a couple of balls. Then a couple more. As he emptied the tin
I would fill it back it back up. Although I didnt set out with the idea of this becoming a game, I think Mr. C
had other things in mind.

40+ Activities for Two Year Olds

AUGUST 19, 2013 BY RACHEL

Our two year old kids *love* to BE BUSY with all sorts of activities. We have a two year old boy and girl
and they are constantly doing and creating. I am sure they are not alone in the seemingly boundless
energy. Below are some of the games that they enjoy.

Activities for Two Year Olds

1. Help your child learn to measure.
2. Make letters with play dough.
3. Explore chemical reactions with baking soda and vinegar.
4. Jam to musical instruments (and other ideas for kids play).
5. Play with a muffin tin and toy balls as a color game for toddlers.

Be silly with your kids:

6. Decorate faces with playdough hair.

7. Make Squishy bags into an aquarium for your kids to explore.
8. Make a fruit (or veggie) snack necklace for your kids to make and eat.
9. Throw your childs favorite toy, a birthday party.
10. Play with bubbles and balls in a tub.
11. Get some PVC pipes, add some seeds tubes for toddlers!
12. Stab at an foam plate with this toddler activity.

Help your Child Develop:

13. Make bracelets from cut up straws. Great for Fine Motor development!
14. Dig out the kitchen tongs and have fun picking up items.
15. Play with pompoms try blowing them across the floor.
16. Build with craft sticks just use Velcro dots.
17. Make collages together a fun two year old activity.
18. Create a basket of play items great for the development of play!
19. Practice balancing with a plank of wood (aka. Balance beam).
20. Create an edible sandbox using cream of wheat.

Get creative!
21. Use beads and pipe cleaners to create sculptures.
22. Watch your kids have fun and create with spray bottle paint.
23. Go on a nature hunt around your neighborhood.
24. Make a light box for your kids to interact with.
25. Play with edible jewels eat pomegranate seeds.
26. Finger paint with sponges. It is a great way to have a less-mess art time.
27. Trace their bodies outside with chalk
28. Make tracks in playdough with your toy animals.
29. Practice pouring with your child. Give them a pitcher and some cups.
30. Make glitter slime with your kids

Just for fun:

31. Play with foam shapes in the bathtub.
32. Give your child a pair of scissors and let them shred paper.
33. Play with Petals in a floating bouquet.
34. Make tracks in playdough with your toy animals.
35. For a quiet-time Kids Activity, have your kids create felt faces.
36. Play with Petals in a floating bouquet.
37. Make tracks in playdough with your toy animals.
38. Here are 32 *other* fun ideas of things to do with your kids.

39. Create sensory bags with your toddler.

40. Create an invitation to playtime in a bag.