Hello community!
I can't remember if I've ever shared with you the Valentine's Day activities I did with Caleb when he was two. However, it's funny that I actually did these themed activities for this particular day because my husband and I don't celebrate it much.
And yet, I thought I'd put together some learning activities and work with the little one.
If you're curious to see how we spent our time and learning around February 14th, 2020, here's a sneak peek of those times! I almost feel nostalgic thinking about Caleb being 4 years old now. I sometimes miss him being little! Ohh time, will you slow down please? ðŸ˜
Match the pairs
Matching pairs is all about. Cognitive skills, observation skills, color recognition skills, concentration; these are all required in order that kids being able to identify these heart pairs popsicles.
These are handmade, I used a pouncher for the hearts, but you can easily cut them with the scissors. Also, if you don't have colored paper as the one I had here, you can color it using different colors and patters.
He did great! No mistakes, not even one.
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Sorting by size
This activity is perfect for the little ones, at 2 years old. And for sure is one kind of acitivity you should try and start with for cognitive development and sorting skills.
Sorting by size and sorting in general is great for toddlers because it helps them learn how to categorize and see the differences and similarities within objects. And in the end, these activities are what our kids need in order to develop other important brain skills like memory, problem solving and attention.
I think this is easy to set up and you can do it with whatever: animals, leaves, flowers, etc etc etc. Really, everything.
You can have only SMALL & BIG. But I included MEDIUM SIZE too.
Here is ours:
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Math
Time to count!
Nothing fancy again, just another opportunity to practice counting. Caleb did great this time too! His numbers were his whole world so I guess this was one of his favorites.
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Shape Recognition Puzzle
This is another good idea for a 2 Pieces Puzzle. Starting to put together pieces of a puzzle is a good start for logical skills development and problem solving in small children.
Just make sure to start with easy patterns. The patterns I created by cutting these pair hearts were a bit hard for Caleb who was only 2 years old. But with a little help, we managed to finish this activity successfully.
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Sensory Tray
You can't go wrong with sensory bins. At all. Actually this is like the highest level you could go with when talking about babies and toddlers learning activities.
Small children love everything sensory related. Touching and feeling is actually how they learn from their environment.
Exploration.
Creativity.
This is what Sensory play means. It helps the brain to develop properly and involves all kid's senses. They are good for fine and gross motor skills, problem solving and creating new brain connections.
By exploring all kind of objects, children will learn how to engage and use these objects, also leaving place for creativity and imagination.
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Counting Time and Number Recognition again
As you can see, I had some colored rice and a few different objects. The colored rice is one of the best out there for sensory play. Imagine how nice it feels to play with it. Even us, the adults love to feel that rice (like sand too) running through the our.
Caleb used these items and tools as he wanted to, transfering the rice from one cup to another them pour it again in the white tray. He could hide the red small hearts into the rice and then found them again. Or whatever. This is an opoprtunity to show their creativity and imagination, together with fine motor skills development.
How to color the rice in red: You only need food colorant and vinegar. Put them together with rice in a bag and shake the bag until rice is fully colored. Let it dry a few hours.
As you can see in these pictures, I found another way to practice counting and number recognition.
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Caleb was only two (and one month) during this time, when we did all these activities. And he did great!! You can try any of these activities with children aged 2-6 yrs old, based on their own cognitive development.
This is only half from all activities we did on Valentine's Day theme. I'll be back with part 2 in a few days.
Until then, maybe you can try something from what I just shared here with you and definitely let me know how they turned for you.
Thank you for reading and I DO hope that you'll find some inspiration and implement it in your daily learning activities at home.
Stay tuned for another Valentines Theme activities if you're interested!
love, Missdeli 💗