The toddler’s brain is as busy as a buzzing bee…always on the lookout to do something new. Here are some more activities that you can do with your toddler.
After developing some reasonable control over their hand movements and coordination skills, by performing the tasks illustrated in my previous articles, we will now focus on following simple directions, sorting pairing etc.
Get a rug or at mat ready with a colored tape stuck in the centre. Demonstrate to the child that he has to sit on the tape. Slowly, this will develop a sense of following directions, listening and the ability to sit on a line. A very simple yet effective activity.
Now, next is to sort two different types of things- like small cars and small plastic animals. These should be familiar to the child. You can start by asking the baby to name a few animals and the colors of the cars. Then show him how to sort them in two different baskets. An interesting challenge which you can scale-up and make it more difficult (farm and wild animals) as the child’s abilities grow.
To teach the concept of color, put 2 black and 2 white shirts in a laundry bag. Point to each one and tell, this is black…this is white. Now ask for the child’s help in sorting the shirts. Sort and keep them together according to color.
Pairing is a great skill which toddler’s love to learn. Take a pair of 2 items, like crayons and ribbons. Take out one ribbon , place on tray. Then take out 1 ribbon and place on tray. Ask the child, ‘can you find me another crayon ? ; can you find me another ribbon ?’ Let the child place them near each one. Such matching exercises help in the development of reasoning skills as well as concept formation.
We hope you enjoyed our series of articles on doing different activities with simple home accessories. Please post photographs and do write in to us.
