Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Favourite toddler media

I'm sorry this got lost in the thread. JazzBluesy, if you're still here, it's something like this at 2.5:

Wake
Eat (or not eat) breakfast
Free play--park, reading, trains, blocks, cooking, tools, other toys, etc. with me
Bath

Once a week DS has a group music class. We'll also have a play date with his friend, run errands, go to a museum or the library.

Lunch (or not eating)
Nap
Library/read/free play/park/watch a show with me

Cooking together and dinner
Goof with Daddy
Reading as a family/making up silly games/play fighting
Bed

So, basically a free flowing day of random play, reading, friends, and some excursions, with meals and sleep thrown in...somewhere!

Update: Age 2.5

Just wanted to share a nice set of science books that DS has been enjoying: Earlybird Start-Up Science 1-4. These are the recommended science curriculum for grades 1-2 from Singapore Science, but the material is simple enough to be accessible to a toddler or preschooler interested in science as a game. I was looking for a playful, storybook-like accompaniment to complement some of the topics we read about in our library books. I originally bought them because I was curious what material was covered in grades 1-2, but then decided they'd be wasted if I didn't use them now!

The books contain about 30 1-page "lessons" each, with full colour illustrations. Today, we played a game classifying living and non-living things and sorting animals (bird, mammal, fish) as an extension of a book we were reading. It took about 3 minutes for each page, and DS had fun playing along. We did the second "lesson" at his urging.

The early books have a good balance between life and earth science and run about $5 each. They are in a workbook format, but you can easily convert the activities to oral ones without losing the fun of the tasks (and resell them!) They don't contain any experiments, but there are enough good sources (I particularly like Vicki Cobb's Science Play books) that I don't worry about that, especially at this age where everything is supposed to be about play!

These are awesome ideas! Thanks for the app recommendations. The bugs and numbers game and inventions game were HUGE hits. I never buy apps for my I pad but my son played the first inventions game so many times after he beat it that after a few months I decided to get the second one and Felix version. After he played this he developed a big interest in gears and the way things work.

Some activities my son enjoyed starting at 3.5 were:
-Lego(he played more with it after I got the big base for it to attach pieces to)
-playdohgh( I add in plastic eyes, string, buttons, Popsicle sticks or whatever I have to make crazy alien creatures)
- play Mobil camping set
- painting the wall with water outside
-putting animal stickers on paper and adding (with markers) to the paper around stickers: cookies that the animals are eating or water that they are sitting in or a tree for them to climb. This activity can go on for so long because the ideas are endless.
-window markers!

Other apps:
Elmo abc
Elmo 123
Bugs and buttons
Reader rabbit
My amazing body
Cat in the hat books

Shows:
magic school bus
Leap frog number factory
Busy town


Books:
To be continued when I have more time:)

He just turned 4 and, Currently he is into the scooby doo mystery books that don't have stuff thus too scary but I want to come up with a list of great ones we have enjoyed up to this point. Thank again for ideas everyone!

Thanks for the new suggestions, Flapperfeet! Glad some of the ideas have been hits. I missed Marnie's post with the inventions app and just downloaded it now. It's exactly the sort of thing DS adores.

We have been LOVING kinetic sand. It is sand with a polymer mixed in, like silly putty. So it acts like sand that is wet or play dough that never dries out. We put it in a big plastic bin and drive little toy trucks around or build sand castles. It's an awesome sensory activity!

What brand do you use, Space_Cadet? I've tried a few locally and they have been hit and miss in terms of malleability.

Hi Aquinas. We picked up some Waba Fun kinetic sand from Amazon. Ours is nice and malleable.

DS 24 months is loving these apps/games right now:

--Wallykazam app (letter recognition)
--Monkey Preschool Lunchbox app
--Smatch game (memory game but a bit more challenging...you have to match based on numbers, shape or color)
--Roll and Play (he still really loves this one!)