Sensory Table
Fill completely different bins with completely different toddler-safe supplies, like pom poms, rice cereal, dried beans, and feathers, after which let toddlers discover the completely different textures and sensation. They can use scoopers, tweezers, and different instruments to dig by way of and discover toys or different objects. Just make certain that the objects within the bin aren’t choking hazards, and to oversee sensory play intently.
Color Spray
Fill up completely different squeeze bottles and spray bottles with a mixture of meals coloring and water, then fill a bin with paper towels, ice, or cotton, and allow them to squirt the colours to their coronary heart’s content material. They’ll make cool designs, experiment with color-mixing, and, better of all, strengthen the muscle tissue of their arms with every squirt.
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Homemade Modeling Dough
Sticky Wall
Get clear contact paper and tape it to a wall with painter’s tape sticky-side out. Then, stick numerous colourful yarn items to it. Kids could have a grand time attempting to peel all of them off the wall—or sticking them again on once more to their liking.
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Color Wheel Matching Game
Arrange completely different coloration patterns in a circle, after which problem the 2-year-old in your life to take coloured clothespins and fix them to the matching areas. Not solely will they work on coloration recognition, attaching the clothespins will strengthen their pincer grasp.
Sponge Painting
Cut sponges into completely different shapes, pull out the washable paints, and let toddlers stamp away! They’ll work on their form recognition, experiment with color-mixing, and make a masterpiece for the fridge all on the similar time.
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Alphabet Sensory Bottle
Here’s one strategy to get children to be taught their letters: Take a bunch of large alphabet beads, put them in a transparent bottle full of water, seal it up tight, and let children watch because the letters float round. You can problem them to see if they’ll discover particular letters, or to call the colours of the completely different beads.
Hallway Streamer Maze
It’s “The Floor Is Lava” gone vertical: The streamers hung up within the hallway are “lasers,” and the toddler grasp spies should get from one finish of the hallway to the opposite with out touching any. The advantage of this exercise is it may be tailor-made to the extent of the toddler, placing streamers the place they’ll simply step over them or crawl underneath them.
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Scoop and Transfer
It’s time to get all these muscle tissue working in tandem! Fill one container at one finish of the room with ball pit balls, and have an empty container on the different finish of the room. Challenge the toddler to switch all of the balls from one bucket to the opposite—with out simply grabbing them with their arms. Any scooper, like a bowl or a kitchen sieve, would do. It works on each their high quality and gross motor coordination and helps them work out their power suddenly.
Muffin Tin Counting
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Homemade OJ
Kids love being concerned within the kitchen, and squeezing an orange for orange juice is the proper, Montessori-inspired toddler process. Squeezing the orange helps strengthen the muscle tissue of their arms, getting them prepared for pre-writing. Plus, selfmade OJ is scrumptious!
Rainbow Pom Pom Drop
This exercise makes use of these cardboard tubes which might be in all probability sitting within the recycling bin proper now. Paint each a distinct coloration of the rainbow, then give your toddler pom poms of various colours and have them drop them into the right tubes. The’ll get bonus motor-coordination apply in the event that they choose up the pom poms with toddler tweezers.
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Shape Sticks
Add velcro dots to the ends of jumbo craft sticks, and children can join them in varied inventive methods. Give them “challenge cards” and see if they’ll replicate completely different shapes, photos, or letters with the sticks, or allow them to use them for open-ended play.
Color Sorting
Place completely different coloured squares inside attain of the toddler, then give them a bin of their very own toys to kind by coloration. They’ll work on their coloration recognition, and likewise bear in mind to play with a few of the toys they could have forgotten about.
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DIY Coin Box
Cutting a lid in a jar, then giving them huge toys, tokens, or cash to place in it, will give them a lesson in object permanence. If there are a number of jars, minimize slots of various styles and sizes within the lids of every one, and it may be a shape-sorting exercise.
Cardboard Counting
As they grow old, they’ll wish to apply their numbers. Make it enjoyable with this matching recreation. Put completely different quantities of circles on completely different items of cardboard, then put numerals on completely different garments pins. Toddlers should depend the dots, then connect the garments pin with the appropriate numeral on it (which can be good for his or her high quality motor coordination).
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Sound Tubes
Fill up outdated, clear water bottles with supplies of various styles and sizes. (The ones pictured listed here are holiday-themed, however they do not should be.) Seal them up tight with glue so the toddlers cannot get at what’s inside, then hand them over to the children and allow them to shake away. They’ll find out about cause-and-effect, and get to experiment with how the completely different objects make completely different sounds.
Stacking
According to the AAP, 2-year-olds have the power to make a block stack that is 5 or 6 blocks excessive. Give them completely different objects of various sizes, and see if they’ll stack them on prime of one another, from largest to smallest. They’ll get a mini STEM lesson, studying the way to stability out the burden.
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Balance Beam
When it is time for them to expend their power, strolling on stability beams or hopping on stepping stones is nice for his or her gross motor coordination. Or, you should utilize painter’s tape to tape a line to the ground and see if they’ll observe it.
Shape Sorting
When they’re determining which form goes into which slots, they’re additionally engaged on their problem-solving expertise. Plenty of corporations provide shape-sorting toys to purchase, or you may DIY your individual by reducing shapes out of a cardboard field.
Marisa (she/her) has coated all issues parenting, from the postpartum interval by way of the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; beforehand, she wrote about dad and mom and households at Parents and Working Mother. She lives together with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, the place she might be discovered serving to out her group at bar trivia or posting about films on Twitter and Bluesky.
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