More Activity Ideas
- Light and shadow form interesting contrasts for your baby to look at. Open the curtains to create patterns of dark and light.
- Help your baby learn about up and down by telling him when you are lifting him up and when you are putting him down.
- Make movement patterns for your baby as you bounce or gently sway him or slowly raise his arms up, down, in, and out.
- Hold your baby’s hands and clap them together as you sing or say nursery rhymes.
- Have lots of blocks or empty boxes so you and your baby can build and demolish.
- Talk about quantity with your baby: Do you want some more cereal?
- As your baby becomes mobile, make and talk him through an obstacle course with a box to crawl through, pillows to roll on, a table to scoot under, and so on.
- Compare sizes with your baby: Look, my hand is bigger than your hand.
- Talk with your baby about the order of things while getting dressed or making a meal.
- Read books with numbers, such as Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats; Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox; or One, Two, Three! by Sandra Boynton.
- Your toddler is always interested to know what comes next. The routines you provide keep her feeling safe, but also help her learn about patterns. Talk about patterns you find in clothing, wallpaper, floor tiles, or in nature: Your shirt has a blue stripe, then a pink stripe and a purple stripe. What color is after the purple stripe?
- Make patterns with your toddler using toys or blocks or other materials, like her snack of cracker, banana slice, cracker, banana slice. You can also find patterns to listen to in music or make your own musical patterns using instruments or by drumming on pots and pans.
- Add different patterns of steps to make up dances, like hop, skip, jump; hop, skip, jump or big step, little step; big step, little step. Or sing songs together with body-movement patterns like head, shoulders, knees, and toes. Repeat several times, then have your child create her own body-movement patterns with claps, foot stomps, belly pats, and so on.
- Look for shapes, patterns, and numbers when you’re out with your toddler. Point out shapes of signs, the patterns of lines on the road, numbers on license plates, and so on.
- Help your toddler match mittens or socks.
- Have your toddler help you clean up. As you organize things, put them in categories: Let’s put all the books on this shelf. Can you put all the stuffed animals in that basket?
- When you peel an orange, divide it in half. Then divide it again into equal parts. Explain what you are doing to your toddler.
- Find shapes in your toddler’s meals to talk about: I cut your sandwich into triangles. Help your toddler notice other triangle shapes you see that day.
- Play dough is great for making different shapes or for rolling big and little balls or long and short snakes.
- Count objects on the go: How many red cars? How many houses? How many signs?
- Recite finger plays with predictable patterns, such as Where is Thumbkin?
- Use sidewalk chalk to draw shapes or make patterns. Play with the drawings by asking your toddler to walk on the blue circles or stand between the yellow squares.
- Make a growth chart. It can be as simple as measuring your toddler and writing her height and the date in pencil on her bedroom wall.