Category: Early Learning

Tape Shapes

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Veronika loves shapes and she literally squealed with delight when I set up this easy learning activity on the floor this morning.

Using colored masking tape, I made four giant shapes on the floor: a triangle, square, star (her favorite!), and circle. Note that the circle is a little tough to make with tape, and shapes with straight sides will be easier.

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Not only was this great for shape recognition, but also counted as our gross motor play for the morning. First she hopped to the triangle!

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Then she ran to the square.

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Then she twirled in the star.

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You get the idea! For each shape, give your toddler a new action to perform, simultaneously testing their shape recognition and their listening skills.

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She’s off to the circle, folks! This was so easy, but she absolutely loved it. Definitely a game we’ll repeat soon.

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Big or Little Sorting Game

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This is one of those activities that you shouldn’t expect your toddler to get ” right” on the first try. Rather, it’s about introducing concepts. Today, I set out a variety of items that come in two sizes: big, and little! It was up to Veronika to determine which was which.

You can play with just about anything, and I included: big book and small book, big car and small car, big ball and small ball, big dinosaur and small dinosaur, big sock and small sock, and more!

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“This is the big ball,” I told her, emphasizing the word big with my hands apart and using a big voice, too.

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“This is the small ball,” I told her next, and used a tiny high voice and put my hands close together. Then I asked her, “Can you hand me the big ball?” or, “Which is the small ball?” Repeat with all of the sets!

Don’t worry if your toddler pauses to play along the way. Veronika wanted to leaf through the books at one point, or drive the cars around. It’s fine if your child just wants to arrange items!

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You can also add the interim step of “medium”. With nesting boxes, we lined them up in size order. At 18 months old, I had to do this for Veronika, but older toddlers can proudly solve the challenge themselves.

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Then we got sillier and decided to make big feet and little feet. Big brother helped with the tracing on a long sheet of craft paper, and we labeled our prints big and small.

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How have you taught the concepts of big and little? Please share in the comments!

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DIY Abacus for Toddlers

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This giant version of a classic abacus is a great way to get toddlers thinking about counting, long before they are aware of concepts like addition and subtraction. To set up, you simply need any object that your toddler can slide along a string, as well as a sturdy stool or chair. Tie a string to one leg of the stool with a secure knot, then add whatever items you’ll be sliding.

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First, I tried out large wooden beads on one string and pipe cleaners looped into circles on a second. Tie the other end of the strings securely to the stool. But Veronika wanted to grab these big items off so much that this version was short-lived!

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I moved on to a second version, this time stringing small pony beads onto the string. Now, Veronika loved sliding the beads back and forth!

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She already mimics counting up to about 5, so I showed her how to slide and count. “One, two, three!” she parroted.

 

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Of course, being a toddler, she also just loved the way the strings dangled on the stool, and enjoyed solo time twisting the beads around.

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This was a great way to keep her busy – and make her feel included! – for part of home school. Other ideas for threading include large buttons or straws cut into pieces.

Color Match

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Veronika is showing great interest in colors now. She knows all the words of the rainbow, but adorably gets them all wrong. “Yellow!” she’ll say with confidence, holding a blue crayon. “Purple!” she calls out, to just about anything. So today we played this little game to help associate each color with the correct word.

I set out pairs of construction paper and crayons, sticking with only four colors so as not to overwhelm her. We used: blue, red, yellow, and green.

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For each color, I showed her the crayon and said (for example), “Yellow. Can you find me the yellow paper?” I then directed her to the right sheet so she could draw yellow on yellow.

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Repeat with the remaining colors, or reverse it: “Here is blue paper. Can you find me the blue crayon?”

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After she’d scribbled for a while, I wrote the name of each color on the paper, using black crayon.

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Don’t expect your toddler to get this “right” on the first try, of course, as that’s not the point. These early color games are all about introducing the concept.

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And of course she loved just scribbling.

Simple Sorter

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Veronika has started to recognize shapes. Although right now she calls almost all of them “stars”, what she’s exhibiting is an awareness that the world is made of shapes. She’s just starting to say triangle and circle, too! So I grabbed at the chance for some early learning today, by making a shape “sorter” with only one shape.

She has a toy bucket and lid that features a variety of shapes, but this can make it confusing for toddlers who are just learning the vocab. Instead, the sorter I made her only contained circles. I cut holes in the lid of a clean non-dairy yogurt container. Ideally you want your cut-outs to be a perfect circle, although this was tough to achieve with the knife I used.

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I gave Veronika the can and lid, along with soft yellow golf balls to push through.

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Since it was all circles, I could help her say “circle, circle, circle” over and over as she pushed each one through.

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She used a round milk carton cap a few times, too, which roughly fit the circle theme.

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The golf balls were just the right size though, such that she had to give each one a little push to make it pop in. She seemed to enjoy that sensation!

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It seems like we’re all about inserting into containers and dumping these days, but whatever keeps her toddler hands busy is fine with me!

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Let’s Count

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Counting out loud might seem silly when you play with babies who don’t have many words yet, but it’s never too early to learn! At one year old, here are some fun ways Veronika and I count.

First off, little fingers and toes practically beg to be counted.

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You can simply count them out with a touch or a tickle, or recite a classic rhyme like “This Little Piggy”, but add numbers for a twist. (“One little piggy went to market, two little piggies stayed home…”)

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Stairs are another fantastic place to count. Chances are your little adventurer loves climbing up these days. Counting helps cement the notion that numbers go in order, plus helps keep grown-ups patient since those little feet take longer than yours on steep steps!

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We also play with toys that involve counting, like a veggie farm set or Duplo blocks.

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Consider counting bubbles as you blow them. Or pop them!

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You could also try counting when you’re out and about, such as when you wait for a green light to change. Finally, read fun counting books together, especially ones with tactile elements.

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Before you know it, Veronika will be counting along! Once your baby does reach this milestone, don’t worry if he or she counts out of order. “One, two…five” will still mean he or she is learning these new words and concepts!

 

Set Up a Book Corner

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Veronika’s big brother loved books from the earliest age, engaging directly with them and sitting still for story time. Veronika has way more of her own agenda, which means I often find myself reading solo while she crawls around the room. But she does love to pull out a book and flip through pages on her own.

To encourage this early “reading”, I set up a cozy book corner that can be her own special space. Think: blankets, pillows, and anything else that makes the nook cozy.

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Next, add a dedicated book basket. You can decorate it, but I had a hunch Veronika would just view the decorations as invitation to tear them off, so left the basket plain.

Now fill it! I put in copies of her Hello magazines, as well as books that engage with more than just pictures: tactile elements, jigsaw puzzle books, you name it.

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Imagine my delight, then, when I saw her scoot over to the corner, pull books from the basket and “read” to herself.

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Veronika does this with a little drone or humming noise, almost like she’s pretending to read the words as I do.

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She loved the big flaps of one book, and was quite content to read for a while.

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This is definitely our new go-to story spot! Do you have a story nook in your home? Please share in the comments!

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Counting Fish

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Veronika was gifted an adorable counting fish game, which reminded me of a rhyme I used to sing for big brother Travis.

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Both the tune and the counting elements are fun in this one, and Veronika is at a great age for counting rhymes. As we played with the fish, I sang:

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive.

Six, seven eight nine, ten,

Then I let him go again.

 

Why did you let him go?

Because he bit my finger so.

Which finger did he bite?

This little finger on my right.

We counted out the fish one by one to the words…

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Or practiced letting the fish go when I sang that line.

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In sum, this is an adorable one to add to your repertoire, if you’re in need of new songs!

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Developmental Bath Toys

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It can be hard to keep Veronika in one place long enough to “learn” from her toys these days (think: shape sorters and stacking rings). One great option for babies who just won’t sit still is to take advantage of a bathtub’s confined quarters. This makes bath time ideal for developmental learning and play!

I found a tub-safe shape sorter on Amazon and brought that to the bath, along with her plastic stacking ring set.

The shape sorter was an enormous hit! Whereas in her playroom she’ll fiddle around with the shapes for a moment and then lose interest, now she was fixed in front of the shape sorter.

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She spent quite some time trying to insert the circle into the square. Hmm, that didn’t work. I showed her the circle space. Tada! She was fascinated and wanted to play over and over.

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As a bonus, tub toys like this often have water wheel or pouring features, which further engaged Veronika.

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The stacking rings were also novel in the tub. She usually just likes to pull the rings off the center post, but now she had the time and incentive to stack the rings on.

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For any toys like this, keep up the dialogue as baby plays: shapes, colors, relative sizes. There is so much you can say!

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As an added bonus, all these fun toys kept my little imp from trying to pull up on the side of the slippery tub… but that’s a topic for another day!

Flashing Colors

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Most often I carve out time to play learning games with Veronika during the day, but there are also unique opportunities for games at night. Namely, flashlight games!  This one is fun for getting your little one interested in colors, and works better the darker it gets.

Set out a variety of play scarves in different colors, and take turns shining a flashlight on them. As you do so, name the color.

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Veronika loved watching the light move from scarf to scarf,

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…and wanted a chance to hold the flashlight too, of course!

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Once it’s very dark, hold the flashlight right up to a scarf and shine against the wall; you’ll see the colors reflected back, a beautiful effect.

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Big brother loved helping out as flashlight holder, which makes this a great way to involve older siblings in a little one’s bedtime routine.

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What games do you play with your baby after dark? Please share in the comments!