Two-year-olds often get a bad rap. Sure, there might be some (or many) tantrums right now, but this is also an exciting time for their growth and development! That’s why relevant learning activities for 2-year-olds are crucial.
As a loving parent, you might have a few questions. What games will they enjoy? How can you help them continue learning and growing into the best version of themselves?
These questions and more will be answered as we take you through our list of fun and educational activities you can try with your child at home today!
Importance Of Learning Activities For 2-Year-Olds
As a parent to a toddler, your days are probably filled with lots of cleanups, mealtimes, and trying to prevent physical injuries. Unfortunately, while all of this is happening, learning can sometimes be an afterthought.
While children do learn through everyday play, it’s also essential to create specific activities for them. In a nutshell, learning activities for 2-year-olds are essential because they:
- Introduce children to new concepts (colors, textures, numbers, etc.)
- Allow kids to think strategically as they face new challenges
- Help children learn to try until they succeed
- Encourage kids to try new or unfamiliar things
- Help children continue developing their fine and gross motor skills (depending on the activity)
Before you try out some of the below activities with your child, it’s important to note that we encourage a mixture of playing with your child and allowing them to play independently.
What To Consider Before Choosing Activities For 2-Year-Olds
Will Your Child’s Senses Be Engaged?
At this stage, one of the best ways your child is exploring and trying to understand their world is through their senses.
Your toddler’s sight and hearing have improved significantly from when they were a baby. In addition, their taste buds have come across lots of new foods (and if it smells odd to them, they will let you know!).
You’ve probably also noticed how your child’s tiny fingers and hands love touching and exploring new textures.
Of course, it’s not always possible to engage every sense through play, but ensuring that the activity you choose involves using at least a couple of their senses will help your young learner continue learning through external stimuli.
Is The Activity Safe?
It’s important to choose activities for 2-year-olds that are “child-friendly.” For instance, consider if the items for a game you’ve selected are small enough to fit in your child’s mouth. Choking is a serious hazard for children under three.
While you’ll likely be closely monitoring their play, it’s beneficial to be proactive and avoid unnecessary stresses.
Is The Activity Age Appropriate?
When choosing learning activities for 2-year-olds, keep in mind the developmental milestones to expect from your child.
For instance, by the 24-month mark, children can sort shapes and colors, build towers of four or more blocks, and communicate in simple two- to four-word sentences.
Understanding these and other milestones will help you choose the most relevant games to help your child continue learning and growing at a healthy rate.
7 Fun Learning Activities For 2-Year-Olds
1) Mini-Tangram Puzzle
What You’ll Need:
- Our printable mini-tangram puzzle guide
- A pair of scissors
What To Do:
After printing out the file, proceed to cut out the different shapes on the first page. The second page has an outline that the cutouts from the first page will fit into perfectly.
Start by showing your child where and how to put the puzzle pieces together. Afterward, step back and let them practice on their own.
In the beginning, there might be a lot of trial and error. That’s OK!. This is the perfect opportunity for them to practice their problem-solving skills.
To make it more challenging, your child (or their older sibling) can complete the puzzle using only the border on page three.
Optional: Make Your Own Puzzle
If your child has mastered our mini-tangram puzzle, why not make your own?
Start by gluing a picture you like onto some firm paper (bond or construction paper). Then cut this into four, five, or more pieces. Just like that, you have yourself a new puzzle!
You can also give your child a piece of bond or construction paper and let them draw their own puzzle, which you can then cut out afterward for them to piece back together.
2) Crazy Costumes
What You’ll Need:
- An iOS or Android device with the HOMER app
What To Do:
In this fun activity, children get the opportunity to dress up their favorite characters, even HOMER characters! Your child’s storytelling and creativity will be front and center here.
You can follow this link to get detailed instructions about playing Crazy Costumes on different devices (iOS and Android).
What crazy costumes will your child come up with?
3) Play-Doh
If your child loves Play-Doh (what kid doesn’t?), then don’t forget to incorporate this soft and squishy material into their playtime.
There are many relevant Play-Doh activities for 2-year-olds, including:
- Creating basic shapes, like a ball or a pancake
- Forming animals, like a snake, fish, or dog (remember it’s OK if these animals aren’t perfect!)
- Learning basic 2-D shapes by outlining triangles, squares, and circles with their Play-Doh
We also encourage you to use a variety of Play-Doh colors so your child can practice learning colors while they play. Hands-on activities engage kids’ senses and are a fantastic way to fully immerse your child in learning!
4) Building Blocks
What You’ll Need:
- Set of building blocks
- Large play mat
What To Do:
If your child is like most two-year-olds, they probably love playing with blocks! Playing with building blocks is a great independent activity for children, but you can also join in to help enhance learning.
You may ask questions to encourage creativity, such as:
- What is your building — a school or a home, a toy store or an ice cream parlor?
- Who lives in your building?
- Who might visit it?
- What else is in the neighborhood?
By thinking through these questions, your child will be improving their language skills as well as creativity.
Additionally, you can use blocks to demonstrate how to create a solid base for a building and to practice counting and learning colors (e.g., let’s stack two red blocks on top of each other).
5) Color Mixing Sensory Bag
What You’ll Need:
- Icing or shaving cream
- Food coloring
- One small bowl
- Toothpick or spatula
- Large zip-top bag and tape, or cookie sheet
What To Do:
Start by filling your bag with icing or shaving cream. After selecting two different colors, add a few drops of each into the bags. Proceed to tape the bag carefully onto a working surface. Now, your child can use their fingers to squish and mix the colors.
While they’re mixing, put some icing or shaving cream into your bowl. Next, add a few drops of food coloring into the bowl and fold the color into the icing or shaving cream.
Lastly, it’s time to scoop the colored icing or cream into the bag or cookie sheet and encourage your child to mix the two colors.
Color mixing is a great hands-on activity to engage your child’s senses while they learn their colors.
6) Colorful Cookies
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup of butter or margarine
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 2 ¾ cups of flour
- Food coloring
- Rolling pin
- Cookie sheet
- Cookie cutters
What To Do:
For detailed instructions on making delicious cookies your two year old (and you!) will enjoy, check out this link.
This is a great activity to help your child explore kitchen items. They can also act as a little sous chef by helping you roll the cookie dough and use the cookie cutters.
This activity is also excellent for language development, learning colors, and sensory skills. Considering all the yummy goodness from this activity, they probably won’t need much encouragement to participate!
7) Plant A Seed
What You’ll Need:
- HOMER’s printable field notes template
- Crayons or pencils
- A large jar (glass or clear plastic)
- Fast-growing seeds (e.g., peas or beans)
- Paper towels
- An old milk or juice carton
- A ruler or measuring tape
What To Do:
Follow the simple instructions from our field notes template to help you plant a seed and watch it grow! Your child can actively participate by measuring the plant daily and observing any noticeable changes.
We love this activity, as it helps to encourage language development. It also helps your child learn to compare and contrast (as the seeds grow) and understand the basic needs of a growing plant (e.g. sunlight and water).
Make Playtime A Priority
You may feel like your child was just born yesterday. They grow at an incredible rate, don’t they? One day, they won’t be this little anymore and they’ll need to use all the skills they learned as children to thrive in life.
Help your child by continuously introducing them to engaging learning activities for 2-year-olds that will promote their growth and development. Whether you use some or all of the above activities, we hope you and your child have fun through it all!
For more engaging activities for children, check out the HOMER Blog today!