Lets continue to learn more activities for your toddler entering his third year. The biggest change you will probably notice in your child’s abilities as he enters his third year is his increased understanding of his own world and his relationship to it, including the people around him.
During this year your child’s language skills will develop tremendously, opening up a new whole world of communication. Also your child’s hand movements are becoming more precise. Turning the pages of a book one at a time, holding a pencil, holding a cup with one hand are all examples of the greater dexterity he is now developing.
Your child is learning to focus on a single activity for longer time. This in turn gives him ability and concentration he needs to develop more creative tendencies, such as beginning to draw or play with puzzles using his improved imagination and observation skills.
Age 2 years – Week 6
Playing with Play dough
Soft Modeling clay is a delight in itself and your toddler will enjoy just squeezing it. Show your toddler how to flatten and roll clay dough, making impressions in the dough with pastry cutters or making hand prints. Let your toddler try his hand and explore all sorts of interesting possibilities with modeling clay.
This activity develops:
- Eye-hand Co-ordination
- Creativity and Imagination
Age 2 year – Week 12
Recognizing members of the family
Show a family photograph to the child and point out each member of the family by name. Talk about members in detail particularly those who are quite close like grand pa and grand ma after mummy and papa.
This exercise may be repeated for a week and you will be surprised to see that your kid recognizes you and others quite well. This activity helps in more awareness of family and recognition of family members.
Age 2 year – Week 14
Painting
Water colors are quite interesting, I still remember my son first saw his cousin painting. He liked it so much that for the first time he spend one hour sitting quietly colouring some four five pages.
Simply give water colours to your child, initially let him colour by himself and then make pictures and explain him how to colour within boundaries, and don’t forget to appreciate what he has done, that will generate quite an interest in him. Last but not the least, be prepared for the spoilt clothes. This activity develops:
- Creativity
- Free exploration and recognition of colours
- Eye, hand and arm co-ordination.
Age 2 years – Week 15
Animals
Use pictures or show in real life and tell your toddler name of each animal. Repeat this activity till your toddler can recognize them correctly. Later build on this knowledge by showing more pictures or whenever you see something on screen or while reading a book. This will develop:
- Skill of recognizing animals
- Memory recall
- Confidence
- Listening skills
This activity can be extended to birds, sea animals, dinosaurs and so on. But make sure don’t overwhelm your toddler, start such activities in fun way.
Age 2 years – Week 18
Putting article on a line
Draw a meter long line on the ground. Give the child some toys like cars, animals, blocks etc.
Ask your toddler to put these articles on the line. Then encourage the toddler to pick them up. Repeat this activity at various occasions with different objects.
You can elaborate this activity by asking, which object to pick like, “Now you pick that red car or Excavator or Blue Block” etc. This activity develops:
- Awareness of putting object in a line
- Recognizing the objects.
Age 2 year – Week 20
Recognizing the shapes
Introduce the child with different shapes of coloured cardboard. Let him identify the shapes: circle, square, rectangle and triangle. Each of these must have different colour too. Repeat this activity on regular basis till your toddler can recognize these shapes.
Later on start identifying these shapes in daily life objects that you see around. I remember my son was so fascinated with these shapes that he started telling me shapes that he saw at home, or road signal boards and so on. You feel good when you see your toddler picking these things. This activity develops:
- Awareness of different shapes
- Further recognition of colours
- Eye-hand co-ordination
Age 2 year – Week 24
Top and Bottom
Take six paper glasses and six paper cups. Show the child the top and bottom of the cups and glasses. Begin by placing the first two glasses, one facing up and another facing down, ask your toddler to put rest four in same manner for other four cups.In the next row ask him to put the cups similarly. When your toddler understands the game, different commands of alternate cup and glass may be given. Rest is your imagination to make this activity interesting. You can later colour the cups and glasses and ask your toddler to put all same colour glasses together and so on. This activity develops:
- Awareness of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’
- Fine and Gross motor action.
- Free exploration and problem solving
- Following the commands.
Age 2 years – Week 32
Ladder Walk
A wooden ladder can be laid flat on the floor. Show your toddler how to walk in the gaps. Once he is able to do so and has reached the other end, tell your toddler, to turn around and come back.
In case ladder is not available, you can draw a table of one column and say ten rows and ask your kid to walk in the boxes without touching the lines. Kids find this activity very interesting. This activity develops:
- Awareness of concept of “in-between”
- Coarse motor co-ordination
- Body balance
- Listening and following commands.
Age 2 years – Week 42
Recognizing different fruits
Collect all the fruits like mango, apple, banana, orange, peach, papaya, pineapple and pear. Well the choice of fruits is up to you. Show one fruit at a time and tell its name and colour. Tell its characteristics and teach them how fruits are good for health.
Then ask your toddler to pick a fruit by name. Continue till your toddler has learned and recognized all the fruits. Later you can ask him to taste each fruit and tell its name.
This activity may be done many times with different fruits and vegetables. This activity develops:
- Awareness of shapes and size of fruits
- Listening skills
- Recognizing fruits and their taste.
Age 2 years – Week 44
Hot and Cold
Take a cup of hot coffee or tea and cup of ice cream. Let him touch the hot cup and the cold ice cream. Now tell your child that coffee cup is hot and ice cream cup is cold. Allow him to touch it again.
At each meal discuss which foods are hot and which are cold. This activity develops:
- Awareness of concepts of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’
- Art of differentiating ‘hot’ and ‘cold’
Age 2 years – Week 48
Throwing a ball
Allow a child to throw a ball and throw the ball back to him. Ask him to throw the ball back to you. This activity can be done at home or garden. At home make sure you use soft balls. Also make sure to start with big balls and then gradually move to smaller balls, when your toddler starts picking the ball. This activity develops:
- Gross motor co-ordination
- Awareness of distance
- Eye-hand co-ordination
Age 2 years – Week 50
Utility Items
Assemble various household items like one each of spoon, book, shoe, tooth brush etc. Talk about each item, then tell your toddler about its utility and usage. Ask him to recognize each item.
You can enhance this activity by clubbing the items by category like kitchen items: spoon, plate, glass, fork etc, bathroom Items like toothbrush, soap, tooth paste, body lotion, body cream etc and so on. This activity develops:
- Language Enrichment
- Awareness of objects of purpose
- Observational Skills
Age 2 years – Week 52
Foot Pushing
In an open space ask the child to push a football. Clarify not to kick but push it slowly and follow the ball.
When your toddler has developed some co-ordination ask him to take the ball to the designated area by pushing it with his foot. This activity develops:
- Eye-Foot Co-ordination
- Reaching a goal
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