In honor of Back-to-School, I give you a list of table-time activities for the toddler set. We try for about half an hour of table-time a day for the littles (and usually succeed) while the older kids do math and writing assignments. The criteria for these activities is that they must be reasonably quiet, reasonably clean and reasonably independent. One thing I have noticed is that children this age are not as concerned with variety as I would expect. My current 3 year old has happily done the same puzzle every day for the last three weeks. Whatever works.
puzzles
rubber stamps and an ink pad
stringing beads, pasta or o cereal on a shoelace or chenille stem
magnets (but not in the mouth!)
machine screws, a predrilled board and a screwdriver (or this toy)
scissors, paper, glue
teeny, tiny stickers
small cardboard boxes to decorate with paint and stickers
rice in a shallow pan with scoops, funnels and construction vehicles
playdough with a garlic press
sewing cards or burlap and an plastic needle threaded with yarn
distracting boxes (ours our plainer, but in a variety of shapes)
colored water and an eye dropper (see painless painting for minimizing the mess)
sorting activities
sorting activities with tweezers, tongs and other grabbers
And when all else fails, selectively let them make a mess. This mess bought us a good 15 minutes to finish a lesson on ratios and was easily picked up by an older brother while I made lunch. Unpacking mom's purse is another favorite activity.
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