Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Natural learning/ stimulating activites

Hi all,

Hit me with your ideas for engaging activities for a proably gifted 2.5yo.

Currently favourite activities are tablet (apps and watching videos/ shows), blocks, toy kitchen and food, toy shops, Little People play set, duplo, playground, kicking ball, pop up castle play outside, drawing, singing songs, dancing.

We are starting swimming lessons soon and go to a playgroup/ mothers' group weekly.

Read aloud sometimes happens during the day, but generally is only bedtime (three stories each night).

Trying to fin the balance between following her lead and not ramming stuff down her throat, while still trying to stop her from being bored.

Thanks

My first thoughts are:

Puzzles, dollhouse/fire station/farm, play tunnel, Kid K'Nex

One of my DSs loved to look at flashcards at that age especially cards with letters and shapes. He learned his letters and shapes very early, and he would sit and just go through the flash cards and tell me what they were and the color. He used to carry around an orange diamond card. We also practiced counting at that age.

The magnetic letters and word building toy was fun for both of my twins at that age. We went to children's music classes, and listened to music at home. I kept a lot of paper and crayons around for drawing and writing. One learned how to write letters, and the other had fun coloring.

We bought a chalkboard/dry erase easel, and they used it a lot. My children loved play dough at that age. Also we had a little trampoline. We had a lot of the wooden puzzles, and one of them started doing regular puzzles around that age. They loved to look at books, and if I remember that started liking lift-the-flap books at that age. I read to them a lot during the day, and we used to go the story times at the library.

We played outside a lot. They loved using sidewalk chalk and blowing bubbles. Playing with balls and using riding toys were activities that they did everyday.

DS2 enjoys these sorts of things...

- Snap circuits
- Magnetic letters and matching pictures we drew together of words for him to spell (bonus: let him colour in the pictures)
- Books, books, books! We easily go through 30 a day, often more.
- Homemade play dough (recipe in this thread: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/167772/Favourite_toddler_media.html)
- Virtually any construction vehicle toy
- Playmobil large playsets (e.g. fire truck)
- A children's balance with weights
- Play kitchen utensils and pots; a tea set
- Schleich animals
- Plastic test tubes and beakers for various "experiments"
- The TV shows "Dinosaur Train" and "Between the Lions"
- YouTube clips of the David Attenborough "Planet Earth" show
- Puzzles
- Helping me cook. We have a step ladder in our kitchen for him to stand on, and I have him help me by stirring, washing vegetables and drying them in a salad spinner, measuring ingredients, grinding pepper, etc. In other words, real jobs. I'm trying to build up his fine motor skills with a butter knife when we play with play dough so that he'll be able to begin cutting soft ingredients safely.
- Gardening-- we have a small pitcher, and I have DS weed and water with me. You can easily discuss the water cycle, plant reproduction and life cycles, food chains, etc. while gardening.

When my son was that age he loved his "magazine pictures". Since we are all about to get swamped with holiday advertising, it would be an easy activity to try.

We would look through all our magazines and catalogues and cut out interesting pictures. He kept a huge collection of them in a box. Then he'd play with them by making up stories about the pictures.

Yes! This was a favorite activity for my DS as well. He particularly enjoyed looking for different household items within furniture catalogs. We had fun cutting and pasting into a little composition book.

DS also enjoyed taking apart any household item he could get his hands on (to my great annoyance!). So I gave him a box that contained a clean spray bottle, soap dispenser, mechanical pencil with no lead, and bottles with different types of lids.

When DS outgrew those wooden chunky puzzles, I extended their use by doing hide-and-seek (ie "The sheep piece is somewhere in the dining room, the rooster piece is under a sofa cushion, can you find them and put them in the puzzle?", etc). This activity can be entertaining for a surprisingly long period of time.

This is sort of quirky, but I buy two identical packs of postcards featuring my favorite artists and use them to do matching and memory games.

I haven't done this since my second came along, but I used to make bread dough in clear, 6 quart storage containers -- it was fun to watch the dry and wet ingredients mix into dough and then to watch the dough rise. We just used those super-easy, Bread in 5 minutes a day recipes.

Here's another trick: I noticed that if I put on some background music, like classical, that is stimulating enough that DS will play with toys that he is usually bored with.

Water exploration
- Submerging empty plastic bottle - why do bubbles come out
- Color mixing with water colors
- Ice cubes placed in various temperature cups
- Squirting cotton balls with water and squeezing them
- Experimenting with water pressure


Kitchen
- Grinding items with mortar and pestle
- Cutting butter for baking
- Drawing in flour or sugar
- Learning how to wipe clean a surface
- Sifting
- sorting into small containers

I'm definitely going to try this!

We made a cardboard house out of the carseat box. He still loves to play in it at 3.

Cardboard box ramps for the matchbox cars.

Wooden trains with tracks were big at 2.5... The track is really just a free form puzzle.

Puzzles, block buddies, Magnetic Mighty Minds

Balance bike, ours is a much loved Stryder

Mini trampoline is much loved here

Musical instruments... Guitar (mine), piano, shaker eggs, jingle bells, recorder, tambourine

Museums

Books, lots of books... Content definitely matters. My son loves books with small details in the pictures, lift the flaps have long been a hit, and stories aimed a couple years higher. If a book is too simple, he just isn't interested.

Helping to cook, smelling spices

Parent tot gymnastics classes are a hit here

Swimming, music classes, and story time were fails here due to age limits, too much repetition, and unwillingness of adults to leave a script or field questions from a curious toddler. Individual teachers make all the difference though, so definitely recommend others try.

Gear magnets for the fridge. I bought ours from Lakeshore Learning after not being able to find them elsewhere.
Magnadoodle

DD is a different child in different classes depending on the teacher and classmates so yes, it's important to find one that is a good fit. In a "boot camp" like environment with older children, my DD is a very serious student and an astute observer but if I take her to an age appropriate class, she's a complete goofball, which I wouldn't mind if it weren't costing us $25 and an hour plus all the effort and time that goes into commuting.

The best thing we've done for her thus far are group dance lesson with a teacher with very high expectations (I'd imagine martial art would work just as well) and private music lesson with a teacher who is a giftie herself. Between practicing dancing and music on top of reading, math, and helping me around the house, DD's day is quite full.