Game for Toddler

Since I've been behind on Tuesdays lately, here's an early post.  I brought out Easter items yesterday.  It's funny how a a couple of "new" soft toys can really excite a 2-year-old.  I always put away a number of toys for the holidays only. She really liked these stuffed peeps that I bought when she wasn't even crawling yet.  I found them at a thrift store in the packaging for next to nothing.  Yesterday, we were playing together and created a really fun game with the peeps.  You can easily use eggs, other stuffed animals or laminated pieces in replacement of peeps.

First we asked her to sort the peeps.  First she did it by color and then by character (chick and bunny).  I noticed when she sorted by chick and bunny she also lined them up by color -- so interesting to see that mind work.

Then Daddy hid the peeps while she and I were out of the room (counting to 20).  She came back and "hunted" for her peeps.  When she had found several, we asked to count how many she had missing.  She lined them up and looked for the ones she hadn't found yet.  What an great way to watch her think!  We gave her clues to help find the ones missing.  It was so much fun for her.  I'm guessing it's going to be a regular game around here for a couple weeks.

Skills to focus on:

• Counting
• Sorting
• Figuring out clues
• Listening to directions
• Figuring out what's missing
• Fun

I also want to mention that this is math (shhh, don't tell).  I think many times we focus so much on literacy with young kids that we forget to work on the math skills. And it's crucial to know that math is more than numbers.  Maths with little ones include counting, sorting, number recognition, comparing, sizes, shapes, measuring, patterns, colors, opposities.  For some really simple math ideas go here!