White Board Shape Matching Activity

This one is one of those no-brainer, impromptu, zero-effort kind of an activity that I set up for the little guy late one evening. We were just done scribbling and drawing on our white board and were wondering what to do next when my eyes fell upon the shape sorting toy that was sitting in the toy shelf. 

Randomly drew four of each shape - circle, square, rectangle and triangle - on the white board. Then, I just asked the little man to pick the shape blocks from the sorting toy, one by one, and place the m on the whit board, on their matching shapes that I drew. 

That was that and he was one happy little monkey, as he did this fun easy matching activity! :)

DIY Sound Cylinders

Here is a simple sound matching activity that I set up for the Mini a few months back. These little boxes are actually building blocks encasing different types of lentils within! The objective of this activity is to find one red and one blue cylinder that make the same sound and pair them together. 

This is like a simple DIY version of the Montessori Sound Boxes. I am no expert in Montessori teaching and so have no idea on how such activities are explained or presented to the child. 

I just laid the boxes together on a little wooden tray and explained to him how to match the cylinders based on sound. He seemed to have understood the concept and I was pleasantly surprised to see him match the similar sounding boxes at first go! :) It is a lovely little game to sharpen the memory and also to work on the auditory senses of little ones.

Shape Sorting Fishing Game| Toddler Games

When the Mini was littler, I had bought this set of lacing buttons and rope toy for him. He showed absolutely no interest and so they just sat at the back of his toy shelf for a long long time. Recently, an idea struck me and I decided to re-purpose the shape discs from the lacing set for a fun little game that I was sure will be a hit with him.... and it was!! :)

He loves his shapes and colours and a complete water baby who loves water play! So putting these together, I set up this Shape Sorting Fishing game for him. All I used for this game, was a big plastic container filled with water, the coloured shape discs from the lacing set and a strainer from his beach set! It took me all of 2 minutes to set this up and kept him busy for a long time, as he wanted to do it over and over again! And I was just happy that I could re-purpose an ignored old toy!! :)

Ice Painting | Toddler Art | Mess-free Toddler Art

What a simple. fun, refreshing and mess-free play this is!! 

If you don't count the actual freezing part, this activity can be set up in 2 mins! Well, since it is ice cubes we are talking about here, including the freezing time, you can actually have this ready for play in about 2 hours. I had kept the colored ice cubes to set in the freezer when he just went for his nap and it was ll ready when he was done and ready to play in the evening! 

I had as much fun putting it together and playing with him, as did he. Oh the joy coloured ice cubes can bring is absolutely priceless! :) And the fact that these are mess-free is just prefect. Just make sure to lay out a plastic sheet below the play area before you get started!

I tucked in wooden sticks in a few cubes while I left a few without sticks just to prompt him to actually take the cubes in his hands and feel the chill. He absolutely loved both versions :)

So, along with the abundance of fun of just getting to play with coloured ice cubes, the little ones get to learn a few things too through this art activity. My boy was amused and wondered how cold the ice cubes felt in chubby hands, how they all melted into a puddle of water after a few minutes of play, how the colours on the ice cubes transferred onto the paper, and how the colours mixed with each other to give out new colours!

These beauties are such a visual treat and incredibly inviting that your little one will love you for making this for them! Go ahead and freeze some pretty ice cubes and let those little artists have fun! :

Building Blocks - Upper and Lower Case Letters Match

This particular game is dear to me as it was through this super simple and fun game that my little boy got a hold of lower cases letters. While setting this up for him, I had not expected him to pick up the concept of upper and lower cases really, I knew he will like it as he was and still is super fond of blocks and this case matching game is all about playing with building blocks! :)

My little fellow's obsession for the English alphabet began at 25 months and since then we have played quite a few fun games around identifying the letters. So in about two months, he was able to identify all the letters, in upper case... because that's the only form I had introduced to him so far. I was never looking to train him in knowing the letters by a certain age, I was only keen on feeding his curiosity around letters and helped him identify them as and when he pointed and asked what each letter was. Around 27 months, I began basing our fun games around lower cases to help him understand the different letter cases.

So, I really didn't go by any rule of introducing letter sounds first, and if letters, then only lower case letters. I did have an apprehension if it will cause a problem for him later on once he joins school where they focus on letter sounds and not letter identification. But I really went by what I felt was best for him and what I felt interested him. I am really glad I did that because, today at 3 years, he is doing just fine with letter sounds and the fact that he knows to identify letters in both cases does not hamper his phonics learning journey at all.

So, getting back to this little game. All that we used here are a few building blocks and a marker. I am always looking for new ways to repurpose his existing toys, so used some old building blocks for this little matching activity. The Mini loved it, like I knew he would but he surprised me by matching the upper and lower case letters in just one go! :)

Mother's Day Card for Grandmothers | Toddler Craft

While browsing Pinterest for inspiration to make a simple Mother's Day card with my toddler, I found this super cute Mother's Day card idea. It was a card in the shape of a hand (a toddler hand) and it just opened up as a card with personalised message inside. So, I gave it a little twist and made it a Mother's Day pop-up card for the Grandmothers, using the toddler's and our hand prints! :)

It indeed was a fun activity which involved all of us. It did take a few retakes to get a perfect hand print of the wriggly little Mini, but at the end, it was all so well worth it! We just used some very basic craft supply for these adorable cards. You can customise it your own way and make as a birthday card, a farewell card or the like. 

We made two - One for my mother with my palm print cutout enveloping the Mini's palm print cutout and the other for my mother-in-law with my husband's palm print cutout enveloping the Mini's palm print cutout :)

Go ahead and get crafty with your little one. This project is sure to warm everyone's hearts :) 

Maze Shape Sorting Game

This was one fun activity we did a few months ago. It needs just 5 minutes of prep work and you are all set to have loads of fun for a good amount of time. It aids them to concentrate and multi-task and they need to walk on the ramp and also sort the items based on the shape. It tingles their little brains a bit and also give those tiny legs a little work out ion the process! :D

My boy is very fond of shapes and loves identifying shapes in everyday items. He has a few shape based puzzle and toys. This little game actually uses the pieces of a simple wooden shape sorter toy that he has in which there are little wooden pieces of 4 different shapes and colours that need to be sorted and inserted based on shape, onto a stand that has tiny sticks to hold the shapes in place. If you do not already have a shape sorter toy, you can use anything else that you have at hand or you could just cut out pieces of chart paper into different shapes and colours.

This game was an absolute hit with my Mini. He wanted to do it a few times over! Hope your little one enjoys it too :)

DIY Jigsaw Puzzle from an Existing Jigsaw Puzzle

 

If your Mini is as crazy as mine is about jigsaw puzzles, then this one is for you! 

I noticed my little one's fondness for puzzles right from a very early age. I introduced him to knob and chunky puzzles at around 16 months and he immediately took to them. He would ask for them everyday and keep himself busy solving them. And then slowly we moved onto 2-3 pieces jigsaw puzzles at around 22 months. By the age of 25 months he was loving solving 9-12 pieces puzzles. 

Apart from these little jigsaw puzzles, we also have a couple of floor puzzles which are 24-36 pieces and the Mini and I do them together every now and then. Very recently, at the age of 33 months, he has begun doing these bigger puzzles all by himself. It is such a joy to watch him get so engrossed in finding and fixing the pieces of the puzzle together and the delight in his eyes when he completes the puzzles! :)

We have a good collection of jigsaw puzzles to suit my little boy's interests. Vehicles being his primary interest, most of our puzzles are based around them. He loves doing them over and over again and is not yet bored of any of them! I however felt, a little bit of variety would help and so wanted to try adding in more range to our current set of puzzles.

I came across this idea of drawing a picture on plain puzzle pieces and actually making your own personalised jigsaw puzzles! I wanted to try that too only, I did not know where to find plain jigsaw pieces. One day, it just occurred to me that most of the puzzles that we have, are plain at the bottom! I could just flip over the puzzle and use the bottom side to create my own jigsaw puzzle there.... and so that what I did! :D 

I used the backside of two of our little 12 pieces wooden jigsaw puzzles to make new puzzles. I drew some basic shapes with different coloured markers on one and wrote numbers from 1-12 on the other. The little guy is happy with these new additions to his puzzles collection :)

 

Bye Bye 'ABC'

Our weekend was all about the white board and ABCs! We played a few different games and this one in particular was a huge hit with the Mini. Its amazing how just very minimal things sometimes, bring the most joy! All we had at hand for this game is our white board, marker pen and the white board eraser. The delight on the Mini's face was absolutely priceless! :)

I named this fun little game - 'Bye Bye ABC!'  

I just randomly wrote a few letters on the white board, handed over the eraser to the Mini, called out one letter at a time and got him to erase them off the white board one by one! That's it!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you the most fun part... we bid them 'Bye Bye' before we erased them !! :D

This super simple little, as silly as it may sound teaches the helps the little ones a few important little skills. It improves auditory skill when then listen intently to the letter being called out, sharpens their letter recognition skill, and finally aids in gross motor skill when they use their chubby little hands to erase off the letter.

Along with my little boy, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game with him. The best memories are created, then we enjoy being silly and happy while doing fun little things together :)

Sticky Notes Memory Game (Shapes)

A few weeks ago, we discovered that all we needed was our white board, some sticky notes and some markers to keep us entertained for a good deal of time! :) I have been coming up with quite a few variations of early learning activities with just these three items and this is one of them.

Most of our activities these days revolve around ABC, colours and shapes. Because the Mini is obsessed with these :) So for this particular activity, I chose to base it around some basic shapes. The concept is the same just like any other memory game - remembering, finding and pairing the similar items.

This was the first time I was playing a memory game with him, so was not sure if he would grasp the concept. But to my delight he did, and enjoyed it thoroughly too! :)

You can do this activity based around what interests your child. Numbers, Letters, Names etc. We based it around shapes for this one and eventually tried other variations too. Its a lovely little game to help little ones improve their memory power. Happy playing! :)

ABC Fishing Game

Now, which kid doesn't like water play!? Well, I know mine loves it! :) Splishing and splashing... he can be in water all day, if allowed! :D I have read, that water play has a good calming affect on children. I have actually noticed that with my little boy. All hid bad mood just vanishes the moment he is in his bath! Its such a delight to watch him enjoy in his little tub.

So the other day, I decided to put together his love for water and ABCs and made up this fun little game of ABC Fishing! Yes, there is a fair bit of cleanup required after such water play... but hey, what is childhood if not for such little fun memories!

It took me 5 minutes to set this up for him. I used up the little plastic ABCs from a peg board set, some foam ABCs from a puzzle and a little sieve from our beach play set for this game. So basically all things that were already available with us.

So, this is almost a zero prep game... OK let me say minimal prep game. Go on now... get your Mini playing! :)