When your child was an infant, his knowledge of the world around him was very limited. He only now what was part of his daily, direct experience. Now as he is growing, he is becoming more aware and more curious. He is meeting and interacting with more people and has the chance to explore beyond his own front door. Here are some ideas to help spark your child’s interest as his experiences and knowledge expands.
Animal Activities
Many young children are fascinated by animals. Your child may enjoy watching videos of animals on television as well as being them at the zoo. You child may begin her exploration of animal at home with the family pet. Here are some activities for learning about more exotic animals.
Animal Safari
Engage your child’s imagination as you take her on a present safari. You may wish to add ambiance by playing a recording of jungle sounds in the background.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Assorted stuffed animals
1. When your child is out of the room, hide a variety of stuffed animals.
2. Have your child return and search for the “wild” animals. Encourage her to name the animals that she finds.
Animal Reunion
Your toddler will learn more about animals as well as develop problem-solving skills with this activity.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 minutes
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
Pictures of animals
White craft glue
Index cards
1. Enlist your child’s help in finding pictures of animals as adults and as babies.
2. Glue one animal picture to each index card.
3. Have your child match up the babies with their parents.
Stuffed Snake
Here is a cute craft for your child. When she is done, she will have a new stuffed animal to play with.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
1 knee-high nylon stocking
Cotton fibre fill or wadded-up newspaper
Scissors
Felt piece
White craft glue
1. Help your child stuff the stocking with the cotton or newspaper. Leave a few inches empty at the end, and tie a secure knot for the tail.
2. Cut out eyes and a mouth from the felt pieces. Let your child attach the features with glue. If your child is still putting things in her mouth, consider using a permeant marker to draw on facial features instead.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Like toddlers, monkeys are known for their ability and desire to imitate. Here is a silly game that you can play with your child. This is basically a version of Follow the Leader. Consider reading the book Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina, before you play the game.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
The lead monkey performs different silly movements and dances that the other players must imitate. Take turns so everyone has a chance to be the lead monkey.
Dog Biscuits
Your child will have a blast making homemade treats for her dog.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 45 minutes
What you need:
1/2 cup cornmeal
6 tablespoons oil
2/3 cup water or meat broth
2 cups whole wheat flour
Cookie cutters
1. Stir all ingredients together If dough seems a bit dry, add a few drops of water. If dough seems to wet, add more flour a little at a time.
2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Show your child how to knead the dough.
3. Help her roll the dough out to 1/4” thick. Let her cut out the biscuits with cookie cutters—a bone shape would be best.
4. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes or until biscuits are light brown.
Handprint Sheep
Engage your child’s senses with this personalized craft.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Construction paper
Pencil
White craft glue
Cotton balls
Crayons
1. Have your child put her hand palm down onto a piece of construction paper. Have her spread her fingers.
2. Use the pencil to trace around her hand. Turn the shape upside down; the four fingers become legs and the thumb is the head.
3. Show your child how to glue the cotton balls to create a fleecy effect.
4. Let her color in the feet and the face with crayons.
Community Helpers
At a very early age, children start to imitate adults. Your child may want to put on Mom’s shoes or Dad’s tie and pretend to be a grownup. He will stat to show an interest in the roles that adults play. In addition to tying these activities with your child, consider making field trips to watch these community helpers in action.
Firefighters
This is a fun activity for a hot summer day. You can bet that when you combine water with a firefighter theme, you will have a hit on your hands.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
Red, orange, and yellow sidewalk chalk
Garden hose
Small buckets (optional)
1. Enlist your child’s help ands the chalk to draw a fire with lots of flames on the pavement.
2. Now the young firefighter needs to put out the fire. Help your child squirt the hose onto the drawing. As the chalk washes away, tell him he is dousing the flames.
3. If you have a group of children, you can use the buckets to set up a bucketloads brigade.
Special Delivery
You child will enjoying a variety of stickers and seals in the project. You may wish to let your child play with junk mail that you receive. Additionally, you may wish to let your child help you write and send a postcard to a family member or friend.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Used stamps, postage seals, and address labels
Large envelopes
Many Hats
Many professionals can be identified by the hats they wear. Here is a guessing game based on this concept. This activity suggests using pictures, but if you have real hats available, use those instead!
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Pictures of different hats
Index cards
Glue the pictures on the cards. Ask you child to look at each card and guess who wears that hat. (Suggested hats include a chef’s hat, baseball cap, firefighter hat, police motorcycle helmet, and hard hat.)
Transportation
Transportation is. Fun theme to explore with your child. Because young children learn through direct hands-on experience take your child for a ride on different forms of transportation when you can. Perhaps your city still has a street car or trolley system. If you live in a rural area, can you go for a hayride on a local farm?
Rolling
Many forms of transportation move on wheels. Consider taking your child somewhere she can see the tracks that wheels leave in the mud or snow.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Small toy cars and trucks
Dark-coloured tempera paint
Shallow pie tin
Light-coloured construction paper
1. Show your child how to gently dip the wheels of the vehicles into the paint, after you’ve poured it into the tin.
2. Let her create interesting patterns and designs by rolling the vehicles back and forth across the paper.
3. Be sure to wash the toys off when you are done.
My Car
Engage your child’s imagination with the project. Remember your child can also build a boat, train, airplane, or whatever her imagination and creativity dictates.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
Large box (an appliance box works well)
Markers or tempera paint
Staple gun (optional)
Pie tin (optional)
1. Let your child decide where she would like you to cut windows or doors in the box.
2. Let your child decorate her vehicle however she wishes.
3. If you with, you can staple on the pie tins for wheels.
Toy Airplane
Much simpler than a model, you and your toddler can construct this airplane. Be aware that the plane will be too heavy and fragile to fly.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
Paper towel tube
Poster board
Paper cup
Tissue paper scraps
1. Cut a 1” slit through both sides of the paper towel roll.
2. From the poster board, cut two wings. Make each the size and shape of an adult’s index finger. Make sure that the wings will fit into the slots.
3. Cut tiny slits up from the rim of the paper cup. This is to slightly widen the top of the cup, which will become the cockpit.
4. Help your child slide the wings in the slits and place the cup over one opening of the tube. You may need to secure the cup with some glue.
5. Provide your child with tissue paper craps to glue on for decoration.
The Wheels on the Bus
Do not be afraid to adapt this song to sing about other forms of transportation. You can easily sing about the sails on the boat or the propeller on the plane.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
Sing or chant the following with your child. Encourage her to use appropriate motions.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All through the town.
(roll hands)
Other verses:
The wipes on the bus go swish, swish, swish.
The door on the bus goes open and shut.
The seats on the bus go bump, bump, bump.
Dinosaurs
Although the dinosaurs are long gone, they still capture the interest and imagination of young children. Many toddlers love to learn about these gigantic creatures from the past.
Digging for Bones
Here is a fun way to show your child how dinosaur fossils were found. To extend this activity, let your child glue the bones together to create his own creature. Here are two activities to help dinosaurs come alive again in your child’s imagination.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Smooth chicken bones
Sandbox
1. Start with smooth chicken bones. Be sure there are no sharp or splinter pieces.
2. Boil and thoroughly clean the bones. You may wish to add a drop of bleach to the boiling water to make them look older.
3. Bury the bones in the sandbox for your child to find.
Dinosaur Egg
Your child will be delighted to crack open the egg to find a dinosaur. Be sure to involve him in making the eggs, too. You should closely supervise the activity. Because both the toy and the balloon can be choking hazards, this activity is best for children who no longer put things in their mouths.
Activity for individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes, plus 1 day for project to dry
What you need:
1 balloon
Small plastic dinosaur toy
Papier máché
Tempera paint
1. Slightly inflate the balloon and insert the toy. Completely inflate the balloon and tie.
2. Coat the balloon with Papier Máché
3. Once the Paper Máché is dry, your child can paint the egg.
The Ocean
There is a whole other world beneath the surface of the ocean. You do not have to live near the shore to introduce your child to this fascinating place under the sea. You can find some great props and artefacts such as shells and coral to share with your child.
Butter Tub Jellyfish
You can create this cute giggle sea creature in a flash. If you want to have your child play with the jellyfish in the water, substitute yarn for the crepe-paper tentacles, and coat the tissue-paper-and-felt body with clear fingernail polish.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Tissue paper
Butter tub
Lengths of crepe paper; ribbon, or yarn
2 felt circles
1. Have your child glue tissue paper onto the tub.
2. Once the body is dry, you child can glue on the crepe-paper tentacles and the felt eyes.
Deep-Sea Dive
This activity will engage your child’s imagination and expand her vocabulary as she learns more about the ocean and aquatic life. For added excitement, let your child wear a snorkel mask.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Blanket
Deep sea items, such as sea sponges, shells, starfish, toy sea animals, and pieces of coral
1. Drape a sheet or blanket over a table. Blue is best, but any color is okay.
2. Place a variety of deep sea items under the table. Suggested items include sea sponges, shells, starfish, toy sea animals, and pieces of coral.
3. Have your child “dive” under the sheet (sea) and bring back a treasure. Ask her to identify what she found.
Paper Bag Whale
Your child may wish to make a group of these—if so, she can have a pod of whales.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Brown paper bag
Newspaper
String
Gray and black paint
1. Have your child stuff he bag with crumbled up newspapers. Be sure that she leaves a little room near the open.
2. Draw the bag closed and tie. Leave a little paper pat the know to serve as the tail.
3. Let your child paint her whale any way she wants.
Birds
Birds are everywhere. Take the binoculars outside and look for them Bring some closer to your home for your child to observe. In your own backyard, you can set up a birdhouse, a birdbath, or a bird feeder to attract them.
Bird’s Nest
If you have the chance, show your child a real-life Bird’s Nest. Talk about what he would use to build a nest if he were a bird. When the nest is complete, you child might want to put a toy bird or eggs in it.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
Heavy duty poster board
Mud
Leaves and grass
Sticks, twigs, and pine needles
1. Withe the poster board as a base, let your child make a mixture of the mud and the leaves and grass.
2. Help him for the mixture into a nest shape.
3. Let him add the sticks, twigs, and pine needles for interest.
Birds in the Cage
You child will love finding the bird in the cage. You might help your child make his own bird out of clay to use for this craft. Remember to collect and dispose of broking balloon pieces, which can be a choking hazard.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 month
Duration of activity: 1 hour
What you need:
Small toy bird, bought or homemade
Balloon
Water
White craft glue
Small bowl
Yarn or twine
1. Help your child insert the bird into the balloon.
2. Inflate and tie the balloon.
3. Mix the water and glue in a bowl to form a thick liquid.
4. Show your child how to dip pieces of yarn into the glue mixture. Have him let the excess glue drip off and then wrap the yarn around the balloon.
5. Encourage him to cover about 75 percent of the balloon.
6. When the glue is dry, pop the balloon. What will remain is the bird in the cage.
Way Up in the Sky
Your child will enjoy this cute action rhyme. It is more fun when you exaggerate the voices and use a high pitch when the birds are talking.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
Teach your child the following rhyme and the corresponding movements.
Way up in the sky
(raise arms in the air)
The little birds fly
(flap arms)
When down in the nest
The little birds rest
(curl up arms like holding a baby)
With a wing on the left
(extend left arm)
And a wing on the right
(extend right arm)
Those sweet little birdies sleep all through the night
(press hands together on cheek)
Shhh
(put finger to lips)
They're sleeping
The bright sun comes up
(raise arms in the air)
The dew drops awake
(apt in a downward motion)
Good morning, good morning
(wave and flap)
The little birds say!
Pond Life
Exploring pond life is a great way to learn more about nature and the environment. You can introduce your child to concepts of life cycles by observing frogs. You can begin a discussion about habitats, where different animals live and what they eat, too.
Lily-Pond Hop
Here is a cute way to teach your child a little bit about frogs and help develop her large motor skills as well. If your child is not yet coordinated enough to jump, help her leap or take a big step.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Carpet squares or mats
1. Set up carpet squares or mats in a pattern around the room. Be sure that they are placed close enough together for your child to jump from one to another.
`2. Talk about how frogs live in ponds and jump from lily pad to lily pad. Show your child how to jump like a frog.
I Have a Little Turtle
Promote the development of your child's fine motor skills with this cute rhyme.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
Teach your child the following rhyme and the corresponding motions.
I have a little turtle
(make a fist)
He lives in a box
(make a box with both hands)
He swims in a pond
(make swimming motions with arms)
He climbs on rocks
(climbing motion with arms)
He snapped at a mosquito
(clap hands)
He snapped at a flea
(clap hands)
He snapped at a minnow
(clap hands)
He snapped at me
(clap hands)
He caught the mosquito
(grab with your hand)
He caught the flea
(grab with your hand)
He caught the minnow
(grab with your hand)
But he didn't catch me
(shake finger)
Frog’s Dinner
This fun game will help your child learn more about frogs while she develops coordination a well. You can get small plastic insects from a dollar store or a bait and tackle shop.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Velcro discs
Small plastic flies and insects
Paper party blowers
1. Glue Velcro to each insect.
2. Attach Velcro to the end of the party blowers.
3. Show our child how to blow the paper party favour so that it unrolls. 4. Show her how to use this as a frog’s tongue to catch the bugs.
Fairy Tales
Young children enjoy he classic fairy tales and rhymes. By sharing the stories and these activities, you will be helping your child develop literacy skills and imagination!
Sail Away
For a change, let your child drag a favourite toy or teddy bear around.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-36 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Towel or blanket
1. Have your child sit or lay in The Center of an old towel or blanket. If possible, do this on a hardwood or linoleum floor.
2. Slowly drag your child around and point of interest. Example: While passing the couch you can say, “Oh look, there goes the king’s castle!”
Which Is the Best?
You may wish to start this activity by reading the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears first.
Activities for an individual child.
Age group: 24-40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
3 bowls of oatmeal with spoons (one very warm, one cold, and one just the way child likes it)
3 chairs or pillows (one with a board under it to make it stiff, one very soft, and one just the way the child likes it)
3 sweaters (one too small, one too big, and one just child’s size)
1. Tell your child that not everyone is suited for the same things.
2. Present the oatmeal and call it porridge and ask your child to pick the one he would want.
3. Repeat with the cushions and the shirts. This time, let your child try them out if he wants.
Cinderella Shoe
Bring the Cinderella story to life and promote problem-solving skills at the same time.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 24-36 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
1 fancy shoe or slipper
1. Read the story of Cinderella to your child.
2. Hide the chosen shoe and ask the child to find it.
3. You may choose to hide the shoe in a room or simply within a pile of shoes.
Giant Shoes
What young child would pass up an activity that encourages him to be loud and rambunctious? Because your child won’t be able to move as nimbly as usual, you need to closely supervise this activity.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
2 shoeboxes
Masking tape
Recording of marching music
1. Cut a hole in the center of each shoebox lid just big enough to fit your child’s foot.
2. Securely tape the lids to the boxes.
3. Help your child insert his feet into the boxes.
4. Once he is able to walk in his shoebox shoes, play some marching music and encourage him to march and stomp in time with the music.
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