Learning Activities for Toddlers

Are you looking for ways to keep your busy toddler occupied? Play time can easily become learning time with a little creative thinking. The best way to entertain and teach your toddler daily is to use things around the house. This helps to build imagination and encourages creativity while you spend quality time together. Sometimes you can even get some things done around the house and your toddler will only think that you are playing.

Small children love to imitate and copy adults. Get down on the floor and pretend to be an animal. Crawl around like a lion, hop like a rabbit, or stretch like a cat. Get your child to copy you and imitate animal sounds. Talk about what that animal might normally do. Ask questions like, "How do you think a horse sleeps?" and "What in the kitchen would a bear eat?" Go around the house and talk about how different animals live. Where they take baths, where they sleep, why they don't need coats, etc. While you're acting like animals, fix a snack and eat it like a giraffe. Give your little one a bath like a moose. Put on pajamas and pretend like it's your cat fur. Brush teeth and check them like a chimpanzee. Explain how all animals need love from their parents as you cuddle up for bed time.

Get in your exercise time by dancing with your child. Children love music. There is scientific research proving that certain types of music actually help develop parts of the brain. Sway and stretch to quiet parts. Stomp around and jump to loud exciting parts. Swing your child around, lift them up on your feet, and lift them above your head. You will both be getting some exercise and your child will be developing listening skills, gross motor skills, and imagination.

Teach your child to aim and throw. Go around the house and say that you are basketball players on the hunt for baskets. Find laundry and throw it into baskets from a few feet away. If you have clean clothes, let your child shoot for the target with rolled socks while you fold. Cheer and hug your child when they succeed and praise them for practicing and working so hard. If you need to put clothes into the washer or dryer, let you child help and cheer every time something goes in.

Dusting and cleaning can also be fun for toddlers. Give your child a damp cloth and go around seeing who can find the most dirt. Let them wipe the front of your appliances, tables, counter tops and other surfaces that need wiping down.

Leave plenty of learning toys around for your child to discover. Preschool toys are often designed with development in mind. Something stationary, like an activity table, can give your child opportunities to develop fine motor skills without leaving choking hazards around the house.