Are you looking for fun and educational activities to do at home with your toddler? These 5 simple ideas use everyday materials and help build foundational skills like letter recognition, fine motor strength, and color matching–all through play.
There are so many skills that we can be working on with our toddlers every day. It’s also super easy to set up quick activities to work on those skills with items you most likely already have at home. You don’t need to go out and buy new toys or educational materials. You just need a few ideas and a plan to get started.
Here are 5 simple ideas to get you going–try setting one up today!
1. Toilet Paper Roll Letter Matching
Grab an empty toilet paper roll and write some letters (or numbers!) on it with a sharpie. Write the same letters on dot stickers. Have the child peel off a dot sticker and match it to the correct letter on the toilet paper roll.
You can start using this activity even before your child knows their letters/numbers. This is a great intro activity that works on letter recognition, but toddlers can begin matching the letters even before they identify them by name.
2. Popsicle Stick Dot Sticker Puzzles
Break out those dot stickers again! If you don’t already have dot stickers at your house, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing some. It’s a cheap purchase and you can use them for SO many toddler activities.
Place different colored dot stickers on top of two popsicle sticks placed side-by-side. Make different color patterns. Then take a knife and run it down the middle between the two popsicle sticks to cut the stickers in half. Mix them all up and let your toddler work on matching each popsicle stick to its pair!
3. Pom-Pom Color Matching
Pom-poms are another must-have in your home for easy toddler activities. They will provide you with so many creative toddler activities.
Grab an old egg carton and place colored dot stickers in the holes. Give your child a bowl of pom-poms and tongs if you have them. Have child categorize the pom-poms by color by placing them in the correct colored opening in the egg carton.
4. Aluminum Foil Wrapped Puzzle Pieces
This one is a favorite of my 2.5 year old son! Grab a familiar puzzle and wrap all of the pieces in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped puzzle pieces in a bowl. Have child unwrap each puzzle piece and then put it in the puzzle.
My son asks to do this over and over again! It’s a great way to make a familiar toy feel new.
5. Clothespin Name Recognition
I love DIY cardboard learning activities–and this one is as simple as it gets! Just write your child’s name on a piece of cardboard. Then write the letters of their name on clothespins with a sharpie. Let them work on matching the clothespins to the correct letter on the cardboard.
Once again, they don’t need to already know their letters to do this activity. This is a great intro activity to name and letter recognition!
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I hope these activity ideas have been helpful! Pin them or save them for a day when you want a simple learning activity to do with your toddler, but you just aren’t sure where to start.
