Learning & Development Activities for 18 – 24 Month Old Toddlers
August 27, 2020 No Comments
Category: Motherhood, ParentingTags: 18 - 24 Month Old, Fine Motor Skills for Toddlers, Gross Motor Activities for Toddlers, Learning and Development, Sensory Activities, Toddler Activities
Jack has quickly moved from a baby to a toddler and I realized recently that I needed to switch up his activities and toys to be more age appropriate. The activities below are all simple and easy to execute (who has time for much else right?!) but hit on necessary learning skills like language, fine motor / hand eye coordination and gross motor.
Most of the activities below you can do with items around your home. Otherwise, I linked a few items I recently purchased, like stacking cups, easy puzzles, etc.
Fine Motor / Hand Eye Coordination Activities
Practice stacking cups or stacking rings
The First Years Stack Up Cup Toys
Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker Wooden Ring Educational Toy
3-4 piece puzzles
6 Pack Animal Puzzles for Toddlers Kids
Shapes into slots puzzle
Playskool Form Fitter, Shape Sorter
Chopping banana or avocado (anything super soft) with a toddler-safe chopper. Perfect way to get your kiddo familiar with cooking (Chloe always loved it).
Joie Fruit And Vegetable Wavy Chopper Knife
Put magnets on a cookie sheet so he / she can pull them off. Bonus if you get alphabet magnets.
Tape empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls onto a bin and slide small objects through like a slide.
Unwrap “presents” – Put animals or other things inside tin toil to unwrap
Clothespin – put clothespins around a silver bowl so they can pick them off and hear them fall into the bowl
Shape and Color Recognition Puzzle
Dreampark Wooden Educational Toys
Pompoms and Shaker Cups – Put the pom poms into the shaker bottle, dump out and repeat.
Sensory Activities
It’s easy to get creative with sensory bins – try different textures, temperatures, colors, objects. Few ideas below:
Water beads – Transfer them into buckets. Jack loves the texture!
Rice bin – Include utensils, bowls, spoons to transfer.
Water bin with ice and spoons
“Car wash” with trucks and cars and some soap
Give “baby doll” a bath with sponge – doesn’t have to be fancy! A soap, washcloth is all you need. This was one of Chloe’s favorite activities.
Shaving cream with safe color dye
Sensory grip balls – this help your kiddo grasp a ball
Arts & Crafts Activities
Painting with water (no mess!)
Practice drawing with crayons on a big piece of paper / cardboard box for ample room
Stamps on a piece of paper
Language Activities
Aim to read 3 stories a day (before bed and otherwise)
Post-it Note Peekaboo – Identify words / things in books – put a post it over animals and items and have him pull off and identify what it is
Practice animals and sounds. Say colors out load. This is a great book to do both:
Put animals / items in rice / sensory bin and dig for cards and then identify what it is. I just this pack of 50 animals to make this easy!
Gross Motor / Movement Activities
Practice going up and down the stairs safely.
T ball and Basketball hoop – May be a little young but can’t hurt to start to introduce these activities early on!
Kicking a soccer ball – this one below is foam and intended for beginners
And last, I developed this Weekly Overview Chart that will help me / our nanny track Jack’s activities, his progress and take notes when he’s “mastered” something or does something new. You can download the Learning & Development Activities Chart Here.
I hope it’s helpful for you. 🙂
