One of your child’s first stops in his exploration of the world around him is learning all about himself. This is an exciting time, when your young toddler starts to developing an individual. He is becoming more aware of himself as an entity separate from you and is becoming morle independent as well. You can use these activities to help promote your child’s growth and build his competence and confidence.
Learning About Family Activities
Your child’s first relationships are with her family. By learning about families in general and about her family specifically, your toddler will learn how people interact with, love, and support each other. She will also learn her role in your family. You will notice that some of the activities in this chapter involve other family members. This is a great way to build family cohesion with your toddler as she learns.
Family Tree
Help your child make a physical representation of your family. This project is even more fun if everyone in the family participates.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
1 large sheet poster board
Thin tree branch (optional)
White craft glue
Crayons
Small photos of individual family members
1. On the poster board, either glue on the tree branch or use crayons to draw the tree. Help your child use crayons to draw in branches for each family member.
2. Glue the photos on the beaches. Show your child how to place senior family members such as grandparents and parents on the upper branches. If you wish, label each photo.
Big Feet, Little Feet
This activity will help your child learn about sizes and comparison. You may wish to do this activity with hands as well. If you have a cooperative cat or dog in the family, you can include it, too.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 minutes
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
Construction paper
Markers
Scissors
Crayons
1. Have each family member place his or her feet on the construction paper. Help your child trace around the feet with a marker.
2. Cut the “feet” out and label them.
3. Show your child hw to compare the sizes of family feet. Can she guess which outline belongs to each member?
4. Let your child decorate the feet with the crayons.
I Know Your Nose
Can your child identify other family members by just looking at a nose or other facial feature? This activity develops visual discrimination and problem-solving skills.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
Close-up portraits of family members, including one of your toddler
White craft glue
Index cards
1. Cut out each family member’s facial features (eyes, nose, and mouth).
2. Glue all of the eye sets to one index card, all of the noses on another and the mouths on a third.
3. For each card, challenge your toddler to identify the owner of the facial features.
4. To extend this activity, omit the step of gluing the pictures onto the index cards; instead, tape them on temporarily. Let your child remove them and create a new person by jumbling the facial features into a new face.
Hide & Spot
Set up: Hide the wooden dog named "Spot" near a household item that matches one of the 24 clue cards.
Envelopes: Insert 10 clue cards into 10 movement envelopes, ensuring one of them matches Spot's actual hiding location.
Action: Players pick an envelope, perform the fun action printed on it (like hopping like a puppy or doing a yoga pose), and then search for the household item on the corresponding card.
Winning: The first person to find Spot wins the game.
For tips on how a simple indoor hide-and-seek game can keep little ones entertained with minimal effort.
Learning-about-My-Body Activities
From the moment your child discovered his own toes, he has been learning about his body and how it works. Toddlers are often eager to learn about the body and will show pride and share their knowledge as they explore and identify their body parts.
I Am Special
As your toddler grows, she develops a self-concept. She is becoming increasingly aware that she is an individual person with her own tastes, interests, and personality. Early on, she will have experiences that will shape her self-concept and esteem. Both directly nd indirectly, she will be receiving messages about her worth and competence. You can plan specific activities that will reinforce the message that she is indeed very special.
Self-Portrait
Have you toddler do a self-portrait a few times a year. This is a great way to measure her progress in set-image as well as motor control.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Light-coloured construction or bond paper
Crayons
White craft glue (optional)
Yarn and fabric scraps (optional)
1. Provide your child with paper and crayons to create a self-portrait
2. If desired, let her glue on yarn for hair and scraps of fabric for clothes.
All-about-Me Book
Your child can create a lasting memory. She will enjoy “reading” it as much as she did creating it. You can bin the pages together with a stapler or by punching holes in the sides and attaching the pages with a yarn bow.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 45 minutes
What you need:
Markers
Light-coloured construction or bond paper
Magazines
Scissors
White craft glue
1. Label each page of your child’s book with a title, such as “My Favourite Foods” or “Toys I Play With.”
2. Help your child find appropriate pictures in the magazines to cut out and paste onto the pages.
I Go to Pieces
Enhance your child’s self-esteem with this project. This also makes a great gift for grandparents. Simply put it into a box labeled, “I love you to pieces”
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 45 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Photograph of your child, enlarged to 8” x 10” or larger
Poster board cut to same size as photo
Clear contact paper
Scissors
1. Glue the photo of your child onto the poster board and cover with the clear contact paper.
2. Cut the photo into puzzle pieces. You can make the puzzle simple with fewer pieces or more complex with more pieces.
3. Give your child the new personalised puzzle to complete.
Monkey in the Mirror
Young children are often fascinated by mirrors and their own images. Your toddler my enjoy simply making silly faces in the mirror. Don’t worry—the dry-erase ink is easy to remove with a glass cleaner and a paper towel.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30 -40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Mirror
Dry-erase markers
Have your child stand in front of the mirror and show her how she can use the marker to trace over her image. She may also want to give herself a hat or other accessories.
How I Grow
Your child will be aware that his is small. He will probably start to show an interest in being a big boy as h becomes more independent and competent. You can capitalize on his interest with these activities. These activities will also be teaching your child the math and science concepts of comparison, growth, and measurement.
I Am Smaller Than
Here is a concrete way to show your child how his size compares with others.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
Yarn
Scissors
1. Have your toddler stand with his back to a wall. Run the yarn from his head to his toes, and cut it to the length of his body.
2. Show your child that the yarn piece represents his height. Take the yarn and hold it up to yourself and other family members to compare. You may also wish to compare the yearn with household furniture and other things in his environment. Is he taller than the fence? Is he shorter than the refrigerator.
As I Grow
Your child will enjoy reviewing photos of himself. You may also wish to share photos of yourself from when you were growing up.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Photos of your child at different ages.
Assist your child in putting the photos in sequence from youngest to oldest. Point out to your child the physical differences that are observable in the photos.
Five-Senses Activities
Your toddler relies on her senses to learn about the world around her. She is not yet able to learn about abstract concepts. She only knows about the concrete, real world, things that she has experiences directly. Engage your toddler’s senses, and you engage her mind.
Name That Sound
This activity will help your child use problem-solving skills. She will also be practicing auditory memory and discrimination skills the will help her later with reading.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Recording of various common sounds (such as dog barking, phone ringing, or alarm clock beeping)
Play the tape and have your child guess what I marking the sounds that she hears.
What Is That Smell?
Stimulate your child’s senses with this activity, which also helps develop vocabulary.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Cotton balls
Items from around the house with distinctive pleasant orders (such as vanilla extract, lemon juice, crushed garlic, perfumes, or ground cinnamon)
1. Saturate each cotton ball in a different substance.
2. Have your child try to describe the scent and guess its source.
Smelly Tacky Paintings
This is a fun project that will let your child explore different scents and textures while being creative.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
Spoon
Water
Light-coloured construction or bon paper
Different flavours of Jell-O (dark colors work best)
1. Help your child spoon a small amount of water onto the paper.
2. Let your child sprinkle the Jell-O powder on the wet patches.
3. Your child can then finger paint with these colors. She needs to be gentle so as not to rub through the paper. As she works, she will find the the consistency of the “paint” change from gritty to sticky to slimy.
Fuzzy Hand
Young children like to touch things, and this activity provides an opportunity to explore different textures.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
1 large sheet poster board
Pencil
Scissors
White craft glue
Various fabric scraps with different textures (such as burlap, satin, cotton, or corduroy)
1. Place your child’s hands on the poster board. Trace around them and then cut out multiple paper hands.
2. Let your child glue the various materials onto the hands. Talk about how each hand feels.
Learning to Be Safe and Healthy
It is never too early to teach your child bout keeping healthy. Although you can do activities with him, remember that your child will earn by your example. If you want your child to make good food choices, be mindful of what you eat. If you want your child to brush his teeth, be sure to brush yours as well. As your child matures, you will be able to use direct instruction more and more. Keep in mind that to be effective, these activities need to be interesting and fun for your child so that he wants to continue them on his own.
Paper Plate Meals
Help your child learn about nutrition and balanced meals with this activity. You may wish to introduce the concept of the basic foo groups here.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
Magazines
Scissors
White craft glue
Paper plates
1. Go through the magazines with your child and help him select food pictures that he wants to include in his “meal.”
2. Assist your child in tearing or cutting out the selected pictures.
3. Show your child how to glue the food onto the plate to create a meal. You child may enjoy doing a separate plate for each meal of the day.
Feed Me!
Here is a fun way to help your child start to make healthy food choices. Instead of making the head, you can purchase a bean-bag target face for the same purpose.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 45 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
1 large sheet poster board or cardboard
Markers and crayons
Food pictures cut from magazines
1. Cut a large head (approximately the size of a beach ball) out of poster board. Cut out a hole for the mouth.
2. Have your child help you decorate the head.
3. Provide your child with a variety of magazine clippings of food pictures. Be sure to have a wide selection of both nutritions and junk foods. Ask your child to feed the head with only those food that are nutritious.
Sparkle Germs
Young children are often resistant to washing their hands. It is hard for them to understand things that they cannot see. Here is a concrete way to teach them about germs and the importance of washing hands.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Craft glitter
1. Sprinkle a bit of glitter onto your child’s hands. Explain that these glitter specs are like germs, which can make them sick. The germs are very small and they stick to you and get passed along.
2. Have your child touch different surface and shake hands with other people. Show him how the germs (glitter) spread.
3. Have your child wash his hands and see how the germs are washed away.
Brush the Tooth
It is never too early to teach your child about the importance of good dental hygiene.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
1 sheet yellow construction paper
An old toothbrush
White tempera paint
1. Cut a tooth shape from the construction paper.
2. Talk with your child about teeth and how when they are not brushed, they can develop decay and turn yellow.
3. Let him use the toothbrush to paint the tooth with pretend toothpaste (white paint).