Ages Birth to 5: Activities and Resources
As your child's first teacher, it is important that you encourage and model positive behavior that will promote language and skill development. Following are a few examples of fun educational activities for you to perform with your child.
Activities for infants and toddlers
Roll Olympics
Ages: 3 to 6 months
Benefit: Helping your child roll over from his tummy to his back will benefit his chest and arm muscles. This is a fun game to play while encouraging your baby to roll over.
Put your baby on his tummy on a soft and flat surface. Carpeted floors and the middle of beds are good for this game.
Hold up a teddy bear in front of his face and make the bear dance. Here is a poem you can make the bear dance to:
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
(turn teddy bear around)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.
(make the teddy bear fall down.)
When you know that your baby is watching the teddy, move it to the side so that your baby's eyes and hopefully his body will follow it.
Repeat the poem, moving the teddy bear each time.
If your baby tires of this game, try it again another day.
Gurgle, Gurgle, Squish
Ages: 3 to 9 months
Benefit: This is a good game to play outside with a baby pool or large container of water. This also helps develop fine motor skills, and the receptiveness strengthens neural circuits in the brain.
Put some sponges in the water and show your baby how to squeeze the water out of the sponge.
Squeeze the water on your hand and your arms.
Now give your baby some plastic cups and show her how to squeeze the water into the cups.
Play a game by saying silly words as you squeeze, like "Swish, Gurgle, Squish."
Pretty Light
Ages: 3 to 6 months
Benefit: Not only do babies love to do this, but having your baby track track the light from a flashlight strengthens his vision.
Cover a flashlight with a colored plastic wrap.
Hold your baby in your arms and turn on the flashlight.
Slowly move it back and forth and watch as his eyes follow the light.
Talk to him as you move the light: "Pretty light. Pretty, pretty light."
Falling Ice
Ages: 6 to 9 months
Benefit: This is a great bath-time game. Retrieving ice from the water strengthens fine motor skills.
WARNING: When ice starts to melt and becomes small enough to fit in a baby's mouth, remove the ice: it may cause a choking hazard.
Fill a cup with ice cubes. For an extra treat, you can make colored ice cubes using food coloring.
Give your child another cup. Drop an ice cube in the tub and see if he can retrieve it with his cup. He may also use his hands.
Jiggle Jug
Ages: 6 to 15 months
Benefit: This activity helps your baby learn about cause and effect and develop hand-eye coordination.
Clean a milk or juice jug with handle. Get 6 to 8 old-fashioned clothespins (without the metal springs). While your baby watches, drop the clothespins into the jug and shake it.
Shake the clothespins out of the jug and drop them back in.
A very young baby will enjoy the jug as a giant rattle. An older baby may attempt to empty the clothespins out of the jug and put them back in.
Add some background music and encourage the baby to shake the jug in time to the rhythm.
Boo Boxes
Ages: 1 year and up
Benefit: Peek-a-boo activities help toddlers adjust to being away from their parents by helping them understand that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen.
Collect a variety of boxes; cut and tape pictures from magazines or family photos to fit inside the bottoms.
Put the lid down on the boxes and put the boxes out for your toddler to explore on her own.
Talk with your toddler about the pictures on the inside. Encourage her to play a simple peek-a-boo with the pictures by opening and closing the lids.
Beach Bottles
Ages: 1 year and up
Benefit: This activity helps strengthen sensory awareness for toddlers by allowing them to see the different colors and textures that go into the bottles and listen to the different sounds that they make.
Collect clear plastic soda, water, or sports drink bottles; smaller drink bottles work best.
Fill the bottles about 1/4 full with aquarium gravel, colored rice, or small beans. Fill the bottles with different colors. You can also use colored water and add glitter or small plastic sea creatures to the bottles.
Secure the top tightly with a hot glue gun.
Talk to your toddler about the different colors and sounds they see and hear as they shake and play with the bottles.
For older toddles, fill the bottles with different amounts - empty, 1/4 full, 1/2 full, full. Talk to them about empty, heavy, and light bottles.
Dump Salad
Ages: 1 1/2 years and up
Benefit: At this age, toddlers love to help their parents in the kitchen. They especially love to dump and fill items. This simple and nutritious cooking activity will encourage sensory exploration in your child.
Make sure everyone has washed their hands, and collect the following ingredients:
Canned mandarin oranges
Canned peaches
Canned pineapple chunks
Apples
Bananas
Large container of vanilla yogurt
Have your toddler dump the cans of fruit into a strainer and then pour the strained fruit into a large bowl. Stir after each fruit addition. Let an older toddler cut the apples and bananas with a plastic knife and dump them into the bowl. Dump in the yogurt and stir.
Serve the fruit salad in small bowls and talk to your toddlers about the nutritious fruit they added to the salad.
The Best Playdough Recipe
Ages: 1 year and up
Benefit: Toddlers strengthen their fine motor skills as they push, press, and pull the playdough. Homemade playdough is inexpensive and very soft for toddlers to work with, and can also last a long time.
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups water
Optional: add a few drops of food-coloring, or a packet of flavored Kool-Aid for a nice smell.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large pot, then add liquids. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly. When mixture can form into a ball, take out of pot.
Cover your hands with a light coating of oil or flour, and knead dough until smooth.
Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag.
Activities for preschoolers
Courtesy of "A Year of Fun for Just Three, Four, Five Year Olds" by Theodora Sideropoulos Spewock
Soup Can Sprinkler
Clean soup can and remove label.
Use a hammer and nail to punch holes about one inch apart up the side of the can.
Fill with water and watch it sprinkle out.
Bottle Bowling
Place about two inches of sand in the bottom of five or ten 2-liter bottles. Put the lids on tightly
Stand the bottles on a flat surface; line them up in a triangular pattern.
Show your child how to roll a ball and knock down the bottles. Take turns, and after each try, count with your child the number of bottles knocked down.
Feet Butterfly
Trace around a child's feet to create "butterfly
wings." Draw a butterfly body between the wings, and add antennae and a smiling face. Help your child decorate the butterfly with crayons.
Incentive Chart
Pick a healthy habit that you and your child can do each day such as brushing your teeth, exercising, or washing your hands.
Make a chart with seven columns, one for each day of the week, and place a sticker on the chart on every day you and your child practice the healthy habit.
Plan a special reward for the end of the week.
What If?
Play this game to encourage your child to think. Ask "What if" questions such as "What if you are hungry?" (you cut your finger?; you are sick?; you see a fire?; you break someone else's toy?; etc.)
Yogurt Pops
Blend in a blender
1 cup plain yogurt
1 banana
1 cup fruit juice or fruit chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pour the mixture into small cups and freeze. When the mixture is half frozen, place a plastic spoon or popsicle stick in each cup. To serve, turn the cups upside down and place under warm running water until the popsicles slide out.
Beach Blanket Hideout
Drape a beach blanket, outside or inside, between two chairs or bushes, or over a table. Let your children play in the hideout.
Fire Drill
Draw a floor plan of your house and mark the exits in case of fire. Make a plan for getting out of your home to a safe meeting place. Practice following the plan with your child on a regular basis.
Bubble Stirring
Add a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent to water in a plastic tub. Using a rotary egg beater or whisk, show your child how to make bubbles. You can also make great multiple bubbles outdoors by using plastic rings that hold beverages together.
Triangles
Use pieces of masking tape to make a large outline of a triangle on the floor or pavement. Show your child how to walk, crawl, and hop around the edges of the shape. Look for triangles around the house. Help your child make triangles with various items around the house.