Image: Shutterstock
One of the most effective ways for young children to gain knowledge and develop crucial abilities is through play. So, if you’re in search of some fun and educational activities to do at home, word games for kids are the perfect option to keep your little one engaged. This game also makes learning at home enjoyable and lays the foundation for successful school learning. Moreover, word games assist your kid improve their vocabulary, spelling, grammar, writing, reading, verbal, and communication skills. Parents can study alongside their kids as children like having their parents participate in their learning. In this post, we present you with a list of fantastic word games that kids and adults may enjoy together. Read on.
Benefits Of Word Games
If you are wondering why word games for children are beneficial, here are some reasons:
- Develops vocabulary
- Improves fluency in the language
- Hones comprehension and reasoning skills
- Develops a love of words and reading
- Sparks their imagination and memory
- Improves their problem-solving skills
- Encourages creativity
- Serves as a great pastime for the family
- Stimulates the brain
- Improves concentration
There are many word games for kids that help them learn new words. These games are entertaining and educational, making them enjoyable for everyone involved.
We have listed the 20 best word games for kids. These games will ensure you and your children have a great time learning new words.
1. Hangman
Image: Shutterstock
Hangman is a fun paper and pencil guessing word game for kids that can be played between two players. More players can participate and take turns as well. It is a simple game where a stickman is hanged if a player fails to get the word right.
Age group: 6 to 10 years
No of players: 2
How to play:
- Take a sheet of paper and a pen and draw gallows.
- The first player thinks of a word and draws dashes above the gallows equal to the number of letters in the word.
- The other player starts guessing the letters one by one.
- If the letter the player says is in the word, the first player writes it in the corresponding spaces on the dashes.
- If the letter is not in the word, the first player draws one part of the stickman, starting from the head and followed by the body, hands, and legs.
- If the stickman gets completed before the second player guesses the word, that player loses.
- Switch sides and start again.
- Proper nouns or slang words are not allowed.
2. Name the animal
Image: Shutterstock
Name the animal is a multiplayer kids word game that can help teach your children animal names and improve their reasoning skills. This game also offers your child the opportunity to exercise their lateral thinking skills.
Age group: 4 to 7 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- You can be the host of the game.
- Make a list of common animals and a list of words that rhyme with these animal names.
- Call out each player and present them a rhyming word, and let them guess the animal name. You can say things like, “I rhyme with fog. I am a …..”
- The player who gets the maximum words correct is the winner.
- You can also teach them animal sounds by substituting animal names with their sounds.
3. I spy
Image: Shutterstock
I spy is one of the easiest games of the lot. All you need is your imagination and some eager players.
Age group: 4 to 6 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Locate an object, and tell your child its first letter saying, “I Spy an object starting with the letter ….”
- Your child looks around and recognizes each object corresponding to that letter.
- Stop when they get it right and continue the game with the next player.
- You can also mention the color or shape of the object and let your child guess it correctly.
4. Make a word
Image: Shutterstock
If your child is starting to learn new words, this word game for kids is useful. You can also play this game with older kids to make them learn difficult words and improve their memory. This game lays a solid foundation for playing advanced spelling games, such as Scrabble.
Age group: 4 to 12 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- You can play this game with younger children if you have magnetic letters, plastic letters, letter mats, or letter blocks.
- Give them a set of letters and ask them to make two- or three-letter words with them.
- For older children, you can play the game mentally or write a set of letters on a piece of paper and ask them to make as many words as they can from them.
- You can even play a timed version of the game with older children as they enjoy a good challenge.
5. Rhyming words
Image: Shutterstock
Rhyming Words game is a variation of Name the Animal. This word game for kids encourages your child to learn new words and helps hone their reasoning skills.
Age group: For ages 3 to 6 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Name any animal.
- Ask your children to say the words that rhyme with the name of the animal, in turns.
- For example, when you say the word “dog,”your children should come up with words such as fog, hog, and log.
- Continue with a player until they run out of words and repeat the game with the next player.
6. Name, place, animal, thing
Image: IStock
You might remember playing this game as a child yourself. This game helps in expanding your child’s knowledge and memory.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Give each player a sheet of paper and a pencil.
- Say a letter of the alphabet and start a timer.
- Each player must write the words of a name, place, animal, or a thing starting with that letter. For example, if the letter is A, a player may write, “Alex, Australia, Ape, Apple,” under each of these categories, respectively.
- You can assign different letters to different players or the same letter to each one.
- You can include other categories as per your convenience.
7. Hink pink
Image: Shutterstock
Children love this game. This word game for kids is designed to maximize fun while learning new words and their meanings. The game can help improve your child’s ability to solve crossword puzzles and cryptic crosswords.
Age group: 4 to 12 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Ask each player to come up with a set of rhyming monosyllabic words, e.g., fat rat.
- Help them make a clue about their words. In this case, the clue will be “a rodent that is not thin.”
- Each player says their clue aloud, and the others try to guess what the rhyming words are.
- If the children are older, you can play Hinky Pinky (two-syllable words) or Hinketty Pinketty (three-syllable words). You can even make different combinations between different syllabic words.
- Ask the children to act out the words too so that all of you have lots of fun while the children learn difficult words.
- Here are some more words to get you started: Thin Pin, Big Pig, Tan Pan, Fan Man.
8. Guess the correct word
Image: Shutterstock
This word game for kids, if played mentally, is an excellent way to boost your child’s memory. It is a simple game and can be played with pencil and paper if you want to keep score.
Age group: 6 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- The first player thinks of a word and announces its first letter and the number of letters in the word to the others. If the player has thought of the word “Bananas,” they should say B and 6.
- The other players have to guess the word using these clues.
- If a player says another word but it has some matching words with the original word, the first player will say that the word is wrong but there are matching letters in the correct places or the wrong places.
- The next player uses these clues to make the next guess.
- You can keep the words simple or difficult according to the age of the children.
- As for the example of Bananas:
Player 2: Bullock
Player 1: That is incorrect
Player 3: Bahamas
Player 1: That is incorrect, but the As are in the correct place,
and so on.
9. Word hunting
Image: Shutterstock
If your child is just learning the alphabet, this is an easy game to play. However, you can make some minor changes and tweak it for older children.
Age group: 4 to 7 years
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Scatter magnetic letters, plastic letters, or letter blocks on a table.
- Ask your child to pick up a letter from the lot.
- For older children, you can write three- or four-letter words on little chits of paper and do the same procedure as above.
- For children who can read, you can ask them to pick words they see outside shops, etc.
10. Change one letter
Image: Shutterstock
This is a great word game for school children. The game promotes out-of-the-box thinking and allows your child to come up with new words and even their meanings.
Age group: 5 to 10 years
No of players: 4 or more
How to play:
- Begin with a short word that has three, four, or five letters (according to the age of the children).
- Ask the children to take turns in calling out new words by changing just one letter of the previous word. E.g., park – part – dart – dark / mark – mare – mart / cart – care – case – cast – mast (and so on).
- You can set a timer or divide the players into teams to make the game more exciting.
11. Call my bluff
Image: Shutterstock
Call my bluff is commonly played at sleepovers and during picnics and is an excellent word game for older children.
Age group: 8 years and above
No of players: 4 or more
How to play:
- Divide the children into teams.
- Give them a set of words that are common but unfamiliar to them.
- Ask each team to look up the meaning of each word, and make up two wrong meanings for each word.
- Each team asks the other team the meaning of a word and gives them the three options.
- If the opposite team guesses the correct meaning, they get points. If they don’t, the team that asked the meaning gets the point.
- For example, let us take the word “Bewildered.” You can give three choices (a) to be left in the wild, (b) shocked or surprised, and (c) out-of-control behavior.
12. Unscramble the words
Image: Shutterstock
Let your children put on their thinking caps and play this game. The word game makes your child think and helps stir their imagination and improve their reasoning skills.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Think of a word and write it down on paper but in a scrambled form.
- Your child has to think and arrange the word in the right sequence.
- You could even give clues so that they can unscramble the word faster.
- You could also write down a set of scrambled words, set the timer, and ask them to solve as many as they can within the allotted time.
13. Tell me a story
Image: Shutterstock
Children are incredibly imaginative. Children, as young as three years old, start making imaginary stories. You can play this game to fire your child’s imagination.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Start a “story” with a sentence.
- The next player should say another sentence and continue the story.
- As the story grows, it becomes hilarious and absurd.
- For example, you start with the sentence, “In a village, there was a man named Joe.” The next player can say, “He wore a red shirt every day,” and the next player may say, “One day, a bull charged at him,” and so on.
14. Words in a word
Image: Shutterstock
This is one of the most popular word games for kids and one of the best word-building games of all time. It is useful in improving your child’s English, if it is not your native language. You might have played this game in your childhood. It is now your children’s turn to play the game and keep the tradition alive.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Think of a long word. A popular word choice for this game is “Constantinople.”
- Ask your child to write words starting with each letter in the word. They should use the letters contained in the word only.
- For example, Constantinople can have words such as con, cot, on, oil, no, nap, sit, and sip.
- You can set a timer and ask your child to write down as many words as they can within the given time frame.
15. I’m going on a picnic
Image: Shutterstock
This game is for older children. It helps hone their creative skills and improves their memory. The word game is usually played in classrooms, but they can play it at a sleepover or even with you as a family game.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 3 or more
How to play:
- The first player starts by saying, “I’m going on a picnic, and I will bring a ….”.
- The next player adds an item to the list and repeats the words.
- Each player has to repeat the items named in the exact sequence.
- If a player forgets a name or the sequence, they are out of the game.
- You can either start the game all over again or ask the next player to pick up the sequence and continue.
- For example, the game goes as follows:
Player 1: I’m going on a picnic, and I will bring a cookie.
Player 2: I’m going on a picnic, and I will bring a cookie and a Popsicle.
Player 3: I’m going on a picnic, and I will bring a cookie and a Popsicle and a bottle of juice, and so on.
16. Crosswords
Image: Shutterstock
Solving crosswords requires practice and a lot of patience. The game will not only teach your children new words but also develop their deductive reasoning skills to a great degree.
Age group: 6 years and above
No of players: 1
How to play:
- Draw a grid with white and black squares and number each row and column.
- Then, write a set of clues at the bottom of the grid with the corresponding row or column number.
- Ask your child to solve the crossword.
- You can set a timer to make the game challenging.
- You can get some printable crosswords with clues easily on the Internet (you will find some free and printable crosswords in this link). Crosswords regularly appear in newspapers and magazines.
17. Word quest
Image: IStock
Word quest is a word game for older kids. The game involves searching for words using single letters and makes your children use their deduction skills.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Draw a 10×10 or 12×12 grid on a sheet of paper and divide it into squares.
- Write various words below and to the side of the grid.
- Write random letters in random squares.
- Ask your child to fill in the grid using the words you have written outside the grid.
18. Consequences
Image: Shutterstock
This word game helps stir the imagination and encourages creativity. The game works well with both children and adults.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- The first player writes down a sentence on a sheet of paper and passes it on to the next player.
- The next player writes the next sentence and passes it on.
- Once all the players are done with adding their sentences, you can read out the story.
- You can also write 4–5 sentences with open endings on a sheet of paper and hand them over to each player. Each player writes their version of the story and reads it aloud at the end of the game.
- For example, you can write, “There was a man named …….. He …………. a woman named ……………. They went to …………. He said, “…………………” She said, “……………………” And then, ……………..” and so on.
19. Scrabble
Image: IStock
Scrabble is a popular classic word game for kids. If you want your child to learn new words, this is one of the best games.
Age group: 6 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Get a scrabble boards.
- Set it up and read the rules.
- The number on each letter tile tells you how many points it’s worth, and the squares on the board tell you how many points you scored.
- The player who gets the maximum score is the winner.
- After a game of Scrabble gets over, the board looks similar to a crossword.
20. Pass the bomb
Image: Shutterstock
Pass the bomb is an educational game that will test your child’s alacrity. The first player should say a word and pass the bomb as quickly as possible to the next player, who must say a similar-sounding word. The players need to be quick in passing the bomb before it explodes. You can get this board game at a shop or simply make your own set.
Age group: 5 years and above
No of players: 2 or more
How to play:
- Take a set of card papers and write two- and three-letter words on them with a marker.
- The first player picks up a card and passes it around.
- The “bomb” goes off after a certain time. If you have made the cards at home, you can use a timer or even play music.
- The moment the timer goes off (or the music stops), the player holding the card is out.
- However, before leaving, they have to say a word that contains the word written on the card.
- For example, if the card has “ART” written on it, the child who gets out can say a word with ART in it, such as part, mart, or cart.
1. How can word games help children improve their spelling skills?
When children engage in word games, they are required to focus on the spelling of various words, which helps them to learn and remember the correct spelling of those words.
2. In what ways can word games help children with their grammar?
Word games encourage children to think about language playfully and engagingly, making it easier to understand and remember grammar rules. Word games can also help expand children’s vocabulary, an essential component of good grammar. By learning new words and their meanings, children can improve their ability to express themselves clearly and accurately.
3. How can word games help children improve their vocabulary?
Word games are an excellent way to improve children’s vocabulary skills, as they help them learn new words and reinforce their understanding of familiar ones. Games such as Scrabble, Boggle, and crossword puzzles challenge children to think critically and creatively about words, requiring them to use problem-solving skills to develop new words and find hidden ones.
4. How can word games help children become better readers?
Word games can help children become better readers by improving their vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension skills. Such games require children to identify and create words, helping them to recognize new words and understand their meanings. This eventually improves their reading skills.
When education is imparted as activities and games, children tend to grasp it much faster and retain it longer. So, if you want your children to have great communication skills, fluent vocabulary, and fascinating imagination, involve them in word games for kids. Games, such as I spy, make a word, or hink pink, are effective in keeping children engaged and sharpening their grammar and vocabulary. Another good thing about these games is that you can be involved in playing too. So, choose a suitable word game according to your child’s age and have fun while playing.
Key Pointers
- Word games stimulate the brain to improve reasoning skills, vocabulary, and language skills.
- Spur creativity through games such as I spy, rhyming words, and hink pink.
- Test the memory with games such as guess the correct word and make a word.
Was this article helpful?
The following two tabs change content below.
- Reviewer
- Author
Expand vocabulary, develop spelling skills, learn about homophones, anagrams and synonyms and compose huge numbers of silly sentences… all while having a great time. Whether your child is 3 or 13, our favourite word board games and literacy card games offer fast-paced fun for the whole family.
Scrabble Junior, £20.99
Scrabble is the world’s favourite word game – the original set has sold over one million units. Scrabble Junior is a simplified introduction to the game for kids aged 6 (the «Words and Pictures» board) or around 10 (the «Rainbow Scrabble» board on the other side). Pocket, card and app versions are also available if your child turns out to be a Scrabble obsessive!
Story Cubes, £9.99
Nine dice and a bit of imagination are all you need to start playing this engaging and non-competitive story-telling game. Over a million combinations are possible every time you roll, so take a deep breath, start with «Once upon a time…» and have some fun! Other sets with special Voyages, Intergalactic, Enchanted and Actions cubes are avaialble to expand the basic one.
Articulate for Kids, £19.99
The aim of the game is to describe as many words as possible to your team mates, without giving ‘begins with’ or ‘sounds like’ clues. This version has been adapted to be suitable for children aged 6+ but can be played multi-generationally, too. A great way to help children learn to express themselves and to expand vocabulary.
Bananagrams, £14.99
You don’t need a pencil, paper or a board for this fast-paced anagram game, and it’s super-portable so ideal for family journeys. There’s no waiting for turns, as everyone is playing all the time, which makes it particularly suitable for impatient kids (and adults!), and it’s easy to adapt for different numbers of players and different ages. A super-sized Jumbo version is also available to help exercise bodies as well as minds!
Claim four puzzle packs today!
- KS1 & KS2 Word Puzzle Packs
- Numeracy Puzzle Packs for KS1 & KS2
- Challenging and exciting | Boost key skills
Boggle, £12.99
How many words can you find in the grid? The longer they are, the higher your score… but you’ve only got three minutes to compile your list. Have lightning-fast matches almost anywhere; the set is very sturdy and fits well in a parental handbag or rucksack for anytime play. (A Boggle app is also available if you prefer phone-play to dice-play!)
My first Making words snap and Making words snap, £4.99 each
Card decks to play classic games Snap and Pairs with, with a language focus. The aim is to Snap cards that create a word (b-u-g for the 5+ version, for example, and gr- and -eat for the 7+ version). To play Pairs, each player must find matching cards, remembering where they are on the table when turned face down.
Learning Resources Super Sleuth Vocabulary Game, £23
Homophones, synonyms and antonyms are the focus of the Super Sleuth Vocabulary Game, and there are codes to crack and mysteries to solve before you can win the game. You’ll have to use the special decoder to check the answer concealed in the fingerprint on the back of the card, too! A super-spy way to boost vocabulary: challenging but great fun, too.
Learning Resources Word Construction, £25.74
Build basic word building skills in Reception and Year 1 children with this early literacy game. The ‘nut’ pieces are printed with letters; join them together on the ‘bolts’ to create words, from simple CVC (consonant vowel consonant) ones to more advanced options. A hands-on way to develop word recognition and early spelling.
WordARound, £31
Each of the words on these circular cards is positioned in one continuous ring; the challenge is to figure out where the word starts and read it out load before your opponents manage it. Easier said than done! This circular wordsearch game really helps widen children’s vocabulary and word recognition (at speed!), and is ideal to play as a family. Though the children may well beat the adults…
Zingo Word Builder, £32
A great game for early readers who are learning to put letters together to form words. There are two levels of play, which makes this perfect for older siblings to play with younger ones, and the simple rules (you start with simple three-letter words with one mising letter and then move to creating complete words by adding multiple letters) mean it’s a great literacy confidence-booster.
Fletter Card Game, £7.99
A fast-paced word game for all the family: every player must spot words in the letters placed before them – before the other players do! It’s pocket-sized, can be played on-the-go with a minimum of two players and can be adapted for younger players, so everyone can join in, no matter how basic their spelling knowledge. A great game to keep in your handbag!
FReNeTiC, £22.99
Create more than 10,000 words from the letters of the periodic table and give both your literacy and your numeracy skills (not to mention your periodic-table-elements recall) a work-out with this family board game. FReNeTiC is a fast-paced word race in which all the players compete at once (great for younger kids who hate waiting for their turn) to form as many words as possible. Combining the best elements of both Scrabble and Boggle and suitable from age 8, individuals or teams, it offers just the right mix of luck, skill and strategy.
Brain development activities for 2 year olds are vital tools that help improve them mentally and physically, just like educational games for 2 year olds.
For sure, brain development activities for 3 year olds function as a brain improvement booster, too. Similar to having a healthy sleeping routine and diet, these beneficial learning games for 2-3 year olds we’ve collected together are quite important for their development.
All parents should know that not every game can be considered brain development games for 2-3 year olds. Here are some of the best learning games for 2-3 year olds that can make a real difference!
Candy Learning Game
Games for 2-year-olds support children’s developmental process and improve their mental skills.
Friendly Folk
You can help your children to have fun and boost their reaction control and visual recognition skills with fun brain games for 2-year-olds.
Let’s Draw
Focus games for 2-year-olds are very important for kids to develop their memory and concentration.
Musical Game for Kids
You can entertain your children with memory games for 2-year-olds by providing them with a safe and fun learning environment.
Animals Children Game
You can help your kids to have fun and learn at the same time with concentration games for 3-year-olds.
Find The Lost Piece
During the kids’ developmental process, mental exercises like brain games for 2-year-olds are very important for them to grow.
Numbers Game for Kids
Focus games for 3-year-olds develop children’s memory and attention skills.
Funny Squares
Your children will start to concentrate more easily and focus for a longer time thanks to memory games for 2-year-olds
Ball Game for Kids
2-year-old development activities help children to improve their attention and focus skills effectively.
Follow and Learn
You can provide your kids a safe learning environment that they can develop when having fun with the appropriate brain development activities.
Colorful Game for Children
3-year-old development activities are tailored for children to learn and boost their reaction control abilities.
Tricky Letters
If you want your kids to develop their vocabulary and speaking skills, you can use entertaining cognitive development activities for 3-year-olds.
Brain development activities for 2 year olds and brain development activities for 3 year olds are the appropriate baby games that are very important for kids’ fundamental skill development. 👨👩👧👦
You can always get help from learning games for 2-3 year olds when you want your kids to have fun and develop at the same time. 🚀✨
Try these brain development games for toddlers and see how they affect your children positively on such short notice! 👨👩👧👦
Certified and multi-awarded brain development games app MentalUP provides your kids safe and no-ads learning games for toddlers! 👶😇
PLAY TODAY
Brain Development Activities for 2 Year Olds
Children need mental support during their developmental period. Brain development games for 2 year olds and learning games for 2 year olds give them this support and help them to boost their skills by playing appropriate baby games.
If you choose the right 2 year old brain development activities, you both improve their abilities and allow them to spend their time efficiently when having fun at the same time with these baby learning games.
To support your children’s cognitive development in this crucial stage, you can benefit from entertaining and improving learning activities and learning games for 2 year olds as in the following.
1. Shape Sorter
It is a toy that includes different geometric shapes and color blocks to let children sort them in the matching shape holes in the box sorter as one of the best learning games for 2 year old.
The shape sorter boxes that have many colorful and physically similar shapes (5-10 pieces) are suitable for toddlers, but they also can be played with as baby games under parents’ supervision. This toy helps your child to develop reasoning skills, visual intelligence, and eye-hand coordination skills just like learning activities for 2 year olds should do.
Also, you can put these blocks on paper and draw their shapes together with your child. When you want them to find and place the correct blocks on the correct drawings, you support your child in understanding the differences between flat surfaces and space (the concepts of height and depth).
The shape sorter is very useful among other brain development activities for 2 year olds.
Proven Way to Teach Colors and Shapes a Kid: Teaching your toddler to colors and shapes is a fun but challenging adventure! 🌈
But children can learn them easily through play every day. So, why don’t you use that advantage? 🧒
You can use learning games for 2 year olds to boost your children’s different skills. Try MentalUP’s Color and Shape Learning Games to keep them engaged and excited to learn! 🟥🟣🔶
Discover MentalUP’s 150+ brain development games for 2 year olds! 🤩✨
START NOW
2. Play Sets
You can get play sets that include kitchenware or hand tools. By setting the table together and putting cups, plates, forks, and spoons according to the number of people on the table develops number concepts.
Performing various duties with hand tools and similar toys helps children develop their vocabulary, and they learn how to group objects. Keep in mind that this is one of the best sensory brain development activities for 2 year olds.
Kids’ tendency to follow your suggestions and orders increases during the game. So, they also learn how to follow directions.
While they are playing with such toys, they act as a mechanic, doctor, mother, and some others. This provides a significant increase in imagination. These kinds of home learning games for 2 year olds play an important role in learning.
Also, there are lots of other games to play at home here. Don’t skip without visiting the best alternatives of games to play at home and ice breaker games for kids!
3. Picture Cropping-Voice Acting
You can crop and group pictures of various objects from magazines or unused books.
You can contribute to the development of the reasoning skills of your child by categorizing animals, cars, and people separately. Separating things into different groups enables them to develop their categorization skills.
You can act on the voices of cropped pictures that you put together. For instance, you can act cat or dog voices and ask your child to repeat after you. It develops the sensitivity for the identification of different voices as one of the greatest learning games for 2 year olds!
Don’t forget to stick these pictures into a notebook while playing picture cropping and voice acting game.
4. MentalUP Learning Games for 2-3 Year Olds
2 and 3 year old brain development activities are very important for the children’s attention, memory, and logic skills.
Certified kids apps like MentalUP, which is among the best toddler apps, are helpful for kids’ developmental process. Because the award-winning app MentalUP has 150+ boosting games and mental exercises, you can be sure that your children don’t get bored and have all the support according to their age group.
In MentalUP, you can also compare your kids’ scores with their peers and track their progress. Look at the intellectual development activities for 1-2-year-olds and cognitive development activities for 2-3-year-olds to choose the appropriate one.
In a short while, you can see how your children improve, and their abilities boost. Moreover, if your kids need to spend their energy off, MentalUP, which is one of the best apps for 3 year olds, offers them a daily fitness program that assists their physical growth.
Don’t forget your children need your help in their developmental process! 👨👩👧👦
It is very important to choose appropriate brain development activities for 2-3 year olds. In order to support the mental development of your kids, have a look at MentalUP Learning Games. 🧠🧩
MentalUP is a scientific app that is designed by academicians and pedagogues. The MentalUP learning app is designed to be personalized for both preschool and school-age kids. It offers brain development activities for toddlers and older kids. 👶🎈
Children who use MentalUP have fun and also develop by learning at the same time. All of these features of MentalUP were observed and certificated as a pedagogical product by Mental Health Centre. 🏆
GET STARTED NOW
5. Dress Up Games
Dress Up game is one the most entertaining cognitive activities for 2 year olds. During this learning game, your children’s creativity, attention, and decision-making skills are improved.
Moreover, keep in mind that your kids’ social skills will be boosted. They can play it by themselves or with their friends and siblings.
Brain development activities for 2 year olds need to be fun and developing at the same time for your kids not to be bored easily. Dress Up embodies these features. Also, you don’t need lots of equipment for these kinds of child brain development activities. It will be enough if you just pile up the dresses you or your kids have.
6. Simon Says
The well-known “Simon Says” game is one of the other examples of fun learning activities for 2 year olds.
In this popular game, you don’t need any equipment but if you want this game to be more entertaining you can use a puppet. Because it is simple and developing at the same time, it is among the appropriate cognitive learning games for 2-3 year olds.
When you play this game with your kids, you need to start with simple directions such as “Simon says, touch your arms” for your children to adapt better.
After a while, you can continue with more complicated instructions. During the game, your kids’ gross motor and language skills are developed.
7. Word Games
Brain development activities for 2 year olds are very crucial for their vocabulary and speaking skills. If you support them with fun and improving activities during their developmental process, they can start speaking and expressing themselves easily.
Word games that you can play with suitable sets or equipment you will do by yourselves help your kids to develop. The most important tip for these learning games for 2 year olds is for the game to be engaging. If you don’t have any toys for it to use, you can make a colorful board.
8. Puzzles
Puzzles are one of the most appropriate brain development activities for toddlers.
Because they are tailored for special age groups, you can use whichever you want according to your kids’ needs and interests. Puzzles are among the important right brain development activities for babies and 2 year old kids.
If you need activities to do with a 2-year-old kid, you can choose puzzles for their mental development. Colorful puzzles are both fun to play with and improve motor skills. Also, they are known as the best toys that develop children’s coordination abilities.
Try to use puzzles as learning games for 1 year old baby and 2 year baby brain development activities and see the improvement for yourself. Remember, there are many developing puzzles such as tangram puzzles for 2 year-olds. We’ve prepared a guide that is easy to use for you.
9. Face Painting
When you need easy learning activities for 2 year olds, you can use your imagination.
Face painting is one of the most popular examples among brain development activities for 2 year olds that you can use your creativity, have fun and learn together. This game encourages your children to be interested in the arts.
For this activity, you just need the right paintings that are appropriate for the face. Unless you are careful about it, keep in mind that your kids’ skin can be allergic.
After you find the right equipment will be time for you and your kids to have fun and develop. Face painting has been one of the best intellectual learning games for 2-3 year olds.
10. Outdoor Activities
Other than indoor activities, there are lots of alternative 2 year old baby brain development activities you can do outdoors.
For example, going for a picnic or walk in the park can be both developing and entertaining for kids. These kinds of learning activities for 2 year old kids can be very stimulating and improving.
In this way, you will have a chance to bond with your children outside, have fun and freshen up together. When you don’t have any other choices for brain development activities for 2 year old kids, you can always go outside together and explore nature.
11. Cooking Together
Cooking or making a snack together is one of the best activities for 2 years olds at home.
Don’t forget 2 years baby learning activities aren’t limited to complicated toys or playsets. You can always have fun together by doing some errands.
Educational activities for 2-year-olds at home develop your children’s responsibility. In this way, they start to feel useful.
Also, these kinds of 2 year old brain development activities are very important for kids’ gross motor skills. You can just make popsicles, muffins, or other simple things together.
12. Blowing Bubbles
Maybe you don’t think blowing bubbles has an effect on your kids’ abilities but it’s wrong. Actually, it has an important role in developing creativity, and mathematical intelligence as one of the best brain development activities for 2 year old.
Also, when your child starts to blow bubbles, he/she will definitely be curious about how it exists. In this way, you can make your children interested in science.
If you want this experience to be more magical, you can use glitter or paints. Keep in mind that you can change 2 year old baby brain development activities according to your kids’ needs.
You can go outside, for example, to the park near your building or the garden to explore the world together with your children when having fun.
13. Mirror Game
Mirrors are always very interesting for kids. Because they just start to see and identify themselves, looking at the mirror can be adventurous.
You can use this to your advantage and play a mirror game. Toddler brain development activities like this one are both simple and useful.
You need to look at the mirror together with your kid to play this game. When you look at the reflection, you can talk to him or her to develop social-emotional skills.
It will lead them to self-discovery. In this process, you should help them to describe what they might see and encourage them to smile.
14. Scribbling
Some brain development activities for 2 year old kids are just about giving them a free space where they can feel independent.
In this way, their small muscle skills and hand-eye coordination improve efficiently. Because you don’t need complicated equipment to do this activity, it can be defined as one of the most simple but effective 2-year baby brain development activities.
When they get bored, you can give them a big piece of paper, colorful crayons, or other kinds of paints and ask them to draw whatever they want. Also, if you give them a limited amount of time and tell them to control it when it is over, they will feel more excited.
After the scribbling is over, you can talk about its details together and make up a story that is related to the work.
15. Finger Painting
Finger painting is one of the most entertaining brain development activities for 2 year olds.
It helps children to develop their imagination, coordination, and creativity. It is a sensory experience because they use their own fingers. Apart from painting done with brushes, finger painting is much more improving.
When you give your child the right materials, such as paints that can be used for finger painting, or a big empty piece of paper, they start to explore the colorful world by themselves.
You can also prefer to give them sand or other textured materials to boost this sensory experience. Don’t mind the paints on their skin and allow them to be free to maximize the effects of brain development activities for kids.
Brain Development Activities for 3 Year Olds
3 year old kids are able to learn to take responsibility according to their capabilities. They are very curious, and they ask a lot of questions all the time. Their memory skills tend to be improved over time; therefore, brain development games for 3 year olds are important for them.
These beneficial thinking games can be supported with various activities. Activities such as coloring books, storybook reading, narration, drawing, and imitation games, and also, PE games such as playing on the playground provide physical development as well as mental agility.
If you can find good learning games for 3 year olds, you can accelerate the developmental process of your kids. The following 3 years old learning games are suitable for toddlers at this age!
1. Matching Cards
It is possible to make positive contributions to your child’s mental development processes, such as memory development and comparing ability with memory matching card games which are also known as smart cards.
There are many varieties of these cards in the market. For example, You may align 8 cards upside down which include 2 same cards for each on the table, and want your child to match the same cards.
You should turn the cards around immediately when your child can’t match two cards that are opened one after another. Then, your child will try to memorize cards to find the matching cards in order to be successful.
Also, you may give cards to your child while you are keeping the same ones with you too. Then, you ask your child to show the right card according to your description. This is one of the most popular 3 year old baby brain development activities.
2. Balance Toys
For adults, a three-wheeled bicycle may seem pointless for developing balance, but it is one of the most important tools for kids at the age of 3.
While kids are riding a three-wheeled bicycle, they will face some of the difficulties, such as losing the balance of the three-wheeled bicycle, and they will learn to cope with these kinds of difficulties over a period of time. In this way, kids’ concentration and balance abilities will develop.
Also, they learn to be more careful when they hit something every time. As you can guess, brain development activities for 3 year olds like this also provide children to improve attention skills.
You can also ask your child to park the bike in a parking area by specifying certain lines because parking supports geometric and mathematical intelligence development.
3. MentalUP Brain Development Games for 2-3 Year Olds
Here is the best suggestion to support your toddlers’ brain development: MentalUP!
MentalUP offers 150+ learning games and 240+ physical education games for preschoolers! Also, the award-winning app features different tracking tools to analyze your kid’s development according to their peers.
Improve your kid’s all cognitive skills like attention, memory, logic, visual intelligence, and verbal intelligence. Plus, with balance, strength, cardio, and fun exercises, let them grow mentally and physically!
MentalUP is developed by academicians, pedagogues, and game designers. That’s why it contains hundreds of brain development games and activities for 2-3 year olds! 🚀✨
It’s completely child-safe and no ads. Kids love, and parents trust! 👨👩👧👦🐣
Download now, and join millions of families and teachers who prefer MentalUP! 👏
START TODAY
4. Toy Blocks
Toy blocks are among other fun activities that are beneficial for preschool toddlers as with their 3-D and colorful structures.
Toy blocks help children who try to combine small pieces together and make a bigger model improve their problem-solving and analytical thinking skills. When you use these kinds of brain development activities for 3 year olds, they start to improve quickly.
While your children are playing with toy blocks, you may also accompany them to expand their visions by building different models. On the other hand, do not forget to congratulate them on the structures they built. So, you can encourage them to explore the world outside thanks to learning activities for 3 year olds.
If you have 4 year old or older children, you can also use technological and scientific learning games for them. When they start to do activities to engage 3-year-old or older kids, you will see how they have improved themselves.
But the most important thing is to find the right brain and learning activities for 3-4 year olds. Here you can find the best alternatives of brain development activities for 4 year olds by visiting Learning Games for 4-Year-Olds. 🎮
5. Number Hunt
This fun game is very beneficial for kids because it helps them to start learning numbers as one of the best 3 year old brain development activities. In this way, their mathematical intelligence develops.
To play this game, you don’t need much equipment. You can use teddy bears or building blocks. You can ask your kids to find the objects you choose at a designated time and support them by counting the objects. In a short while, you will see how they start to count by themselves.
6. Making Necklaces
Making things together and spending time crafting improve your children’s coordination skills.
You may think that this activity can be more entertaining for girls, but if you use different items like pasta, you can be sure that both girls and boys are interested in these kinds of free learning games for 3 year olds.
Cognitive activities for 3-year-olds like this will help them to develop their imagination. You can change the game by using different objects that your child is interested in, and when you are done playing, if you keep this as a trophy, your kids will feel successful.
Thanks to creative learning activities for 3 year old kids, your children can be little artists and spend their time effectively.
7. Trace Hands and Feet
For this fun brain development activity, you just need crayons and paper. Painting is very beneficial for kids, but when they paint tracing their own hands or feet, their motor skills are developed much more.
When choosing the best learning games for 3 year olds, you need to take this into consideration. Because they can easily be bored with simple painting.
Giving your kids an empty piece of paper and asking them to trace their own bodies will open up their horizons.
Brain boosting activities for 3 year olds like this one are excellent ways to practice their grip on items. You can also ask them to trace their whole body when they are done with their hands and feet.
8. Coloring Pages
If your children are into paint and artsy stuff, you can make them spend more time coloring.
After trying tracing hands and feet, you can give them coloring pages and printables. In this way, they can both have fun and improve their hand-eye coordination skills.
You can find these printables from almost all the related pages on the internet, or if you want things to be more exciting, you can print them together with your kids according to their wishes.
Coloring pages are one of the most popular brain development activities for 3 year olds. This way, your kids become more familiar with objects and other stuff.
For example, if he or she colors an ocean with the creatures inside, they will learn their names, colors, and shapes. You can vary the printable toddler learning games you use and expand their world.
9. Sponge Letters Game
This game is especially for kids who love water. But you can also use it to endear water to your children.
You just need colorful sponges. After you cut them as colorful letters, you can play with them during bath time together with your kids. In this way, you can teach the alphabet to your children.
This game is among the best brain activities for 3-year-old kids. When you play together, they will both learn the letters and develop their vocabulary. If you need learning activities for 3 year olds to use during bath time, you should definitely try this one.
10. Alphabet Playdough
If your kids don’t like to spend much time during bath time, you can always try other learning games for 3 year olds to teach them letters.
Alphabet playdough is one of the best examples of learning activities for 3 year olds. You can help your children to develop their motor skills, attention, and vocabulary in this way.
Sometimes kids, especially boys, need different 3 years baby boy activities to play with. Playdough is an interesting and fun material for them to use their hands.
You can shape letters together from playdough and use them. Brain development activities for 3 year olds like this one can be continued by coloring letters and singing songs about them.
11. Indoor Camping
Camping is always one of the popular 3 years old learning activities because all the children want to have an adventure like this.
But sometimes it isn’t so easy to go camping with all the equipment. In this situation, you can try indoor camping to have fun and explore nature at home.
Brain development activities for 3 year olds at home can be made challenging and exciting for kids by using some stuff such as blankets, books, toys, etc.
If you create a natural space for children to have fun and learn indoors, you can spend time together cozily. You can use learning games for 3-year-olds to make this experience more fun.
12. Climbing
Brain development activities for 3-year-olds are very crucial for children’s developmental process, and physical exercises are an essential part of it.
Climbing outside or indoors is one of the best brain development activities for 3-year-olds. Don’t think it is a climbing activity because kids love to climb everything they see, such as tables, chairs, trees, or a little rock.
When they feel free to move, they start to be more confident, powerful, and physically active. In this way, they can sleep better at night, get up an appetite and become calmer because they spend their energy effectively.
Keep in mind that some child brain development activities don’t need to be complicated and give space to your kids to climb.
13. Playing in the Garden
Nature always soothes kids. It helps them to understand the earth we live on and calm their mind by getting rid of the stimulants in the modern-day such as smartphones, tablets, and computers.
3 year old brain development activities that are done outside are very important for their reflection of the animals, plants, and all living creatures.
If you don’t have a private garden, you don’t need to worry because you can go for a walk in the park with your kid or you can plant flowers at home together.
What matters in these kinds of brain development games for 3 year olds is the connection with nature. Let them make their hands dirty in the soil and discover it by themselves.
14. Building Fort
Building things is very interesting and fun for almost all the children. Brain development activities for 3 year olds like this one develop their multiple intelligences, such as spatial intelligence, planning, and problem-solving skills.
Before they start to construct, you can tell them a story to support their project, and when it is over, you can talk about it together. There are so many different things like toys, household goods, or playsets for this activity.
Building a fort is one of the best alternatives among 2 and 3 year old baby brain development activities so that your children can spend their time effectively and exercise both physically and mentally.
If you want to enhance the game, you can give pillows, blankets, and other stuff for your kids to use in building a big indoor fort. You will see how they love to spend time there.
15. Mealtime Game
Mealtimes are really important for kids in the developmental process because it provides children to have a connection with food.
If you push them to eat or feed them, this may harm their relationship with foods. You can encourage them with brain development activities for 3 year olds such as mealtime games, to make this process more entertaining and beneficial.
You can try to prepare pancakes with a smiling face or teddy bear-shaped cookies together. Then when they eat them, you can tell them a story about it. Also, this can help them to stay away from watching cartoons during the eating process.
Mealtime games like this will develop their senses, such as taste, smell, and touch as well as strengthen their neural pathways in the brain.
Discover the best learning games for 2-3 year olds with MentalUP! 🧒✨
Numbers, letters, colors, animals, and more… Just download MentalUP, choose your kid’s age group, and let the smart algorithm prepare his/her daily programs! 📊🙌
No need to have reading or counting skills, MentalUP will be there to lead your little ones. Surprise and entertain them with the best brain development games ever! 📲🎯
TRY NOW
20 June 2017
Last Update Date: 17 November 2022
Lauran Cole
HOME PAGE / BLOG / Learning Games For 2-3 Year Olds
If you are looking for ideas as to what to do with your toddler today, you have come to the right place. We have a big list of activities for 2 year olds, toddler games, 2 year old toys and fun things to do with toddlers. Pssst…while this list was created with your 2 year old in mind, younger and older toddlers will enjoy many of the things we have selected.
As my youngest toddler is crossing the threshold and becoming a three-year old, but before they do I want them to get the most out of this year so here are 80 of the BEST Activities for 2 Year Olds!
Related: More activities for 2-year olds
These are either things that my two year old enjoyed or would if we had thought of doing them this last year! These toddler activities and toddler games are guaranteed to keep little hands busy with great ideas in a bunch of different ways.
2 Year Olds Love to Play
While every 2 year old is going to be a little different, one of the common traits found in 2-3 year old toddlers is that they love to play. In fact, anything they do turns into toddler games!
I absolutely love that about two year old children…everything they play turns into toddler games. It is something we should all learn from!
Toddler Physical Abilities – Gross Motor Skills
Physically, toddlers are active participants in almost any activity that includes climbing, kicking, running (short distances), scribbling, squatting, hopping and the way they walk starts to appear more like an adult or child than a baby. It is amazing how quickly those gross motor skills develop.
Toddler Physical Abilities – Fine Motor Skills
Toddlers also learn learn coordination through play. Picking things up, grasping, using fingers together and independently, pinching things, holding a crayon, hand-eye coordination and so many other fine motor skills are mastered through simple games and activities.
Mentally, two year olds are grasping language with more skill, being more thoughtful and starting to strategize and hold concepts. In fact, it is at age 2 that toddlers often start running through scenarios in their head that can predict outcomes of actions.
Oh, and don’t forget that important toddler social component as well…remember that everything is toddler games to a two year old.
This article contains affiliate links.
Fun Things For 2 Year Olds to Do to Exploring Color
1. Let’s Make Leftovers Art
Create colorful art using leftovers from around the house. Got different colors of scraps of paper, felt, and other odds and ends from other 2 year old crafts? These are perfect to create a wonderfully abstract masterpiece!
2. Play with Erupting Rainbow Chalk Paint
Side walk chalk is always a fun outdoor activity for kids. Let them create colorful designs and pictures. Then add a bit of science. Let them use a spray bottle of vinegar to watch their creations puff up!
3. Color Learning Activities For 2 Year Olds
Create a color wheel by painting each section of a pie chart a color. Then pick out little toys and trinkets that are the same color. Once you have a basket of goodies allow your child to put each item in its corresponding color. This is such a fun way to learn the colors even on a rainy day.
4. Let’s Make a Summer Time Bucket List for 2 Year Olds
Get outside in the summer time and have fun with one of these simple busy toddler activities or make your summer exciting and try to do them all. It will keep your 2 year old active, exploring, moving, and learning each day.
5. Create Rainbow Hand Kites
These rainbow hand kites are an amazing way to not only learn colors, but to appreciate them as well! Your child will be mesmerized by the way the colorful ribbons and dance and flow with each movement in different ways.
6. Play a Color Wheel Game
Sorting is something that teaches kids patterns, helps them to learn how to differentiate, and is *fun* for little kids! The best part is, toddlers have multiple ideas for learning colors so these activities for 2 year olds never gets dull and are so much fun.
7. Make Rainbow Healthy Gummies Together
Help your kids eat all the colors of the rainbow – these gummy snacks for kids are fun to make, and tasty for even picky kiddos. Your 2 year old will never know they’re eating fruits and veggies, they taste so good.
8. Let’s Play Color And Word Games For 2 Year Olds
Jump through the different shapes and colors with a DIY hopscotch-like mat. Your child must follow the path across the mat by following the same color or the same shape. Plus, looking for some fun activities to do at home to teach your toddler words? There is also a magnetic word game as well!
Related: Try easy handprint art project today!
Easy Crafts For 2 Year Olds
9. Paintsicles are Fun for Toddlers
Make finger painting more exciting by freezing paint in ice cubes for a cool colorful project. Do single colors, mix colors, add glitter, make it unique. Either way, your 2 year old will get to make a neat art project and work on their fine motor skills. It is a win-win.
10. Have Fun with a Sibling Made Toddler Puzzle
Need fun activities at home for older kids? Get an older sibling to paint a picture and turn it into a toddler puzzle. They can do a portrait, make a train, or whatever else your 2 year old may fancy. Plus, it is a great way to get your children to bond and promote kindness.
11. Painting With Cookie Cutters
Make prints with plastic letters – a great way to play with color and the alphabet at the same time. Not only is this a fun way to teach your 2 year old about letters, but it is a great way to start teaching them about words!
12. Teaching Your 2 Year Old About Germs
The year 2020 brought a sobering reminder that germs are very real. Making your own hand sanitizer and cleaning your toddlers hands with homemade hand sanitizer is a great way to remind them we must always clean our hands!
Related: toddler crafts
13. Fork Painted Fish Craft
Get creative with paint. Use different objects to make prints. Check out this forked fish. The texture is so neat and makes the fish looks like it has scales. Mix colors, make zig zags, stagger the strokes, these fish are your canvas!
14. Make Paper Plate Roses Together
Roses are such beautiful flowers with such deep meanings. Now your toddler can make their own Paper Plate Roses. They are colorful, fun, and an easy craft for your toddler. The best part is you can make different colored ones! All you need is different colored paper plates.
15. Let’s Play with Kids Face Painting
Face painting is something that my kiddos love. The first thing they do with markers is draw on themselves. Now you can put together a face painting kit! Use non-toxic paints and markers in your kits and add things like napkins, a towel, paintbrushes, and a couple other items you they will need.
16. Hey, Let’s Make DIY Chalk
Another favorite at our house is diy side walk chalk. They love to smash the chalk to bits in colorful blotches. Make your own paintable chalk version. Or you could make spray chalk, erupting ice chalk, glow in the dark chalk, there are so many options.
17. Oh So Many Crafts For 2 Year Olds
Get crafting with our huge list of toddler crafts. We have over 100 toddler crafts available from parents and bloggers just like you! From painting, tea parties, dry erase games, educational activities, dress up, gifts,, we have a little bit of everything!
18. Let’s Paint with Bathtub Paint
Bathtub paint for kids is one of our favorite ways to make bath time fun! It is so easy to make! You probably have most of the ingredients already in your pantry.
19. Sensory Paint Play
Explore different textures! Paint on unusual surfaces, like bubble wrap with your kids. You can add other textures like pebbles and beads! Paint in a bin, on skin, it is fun and makes finger painting more exciting.
Related: More easy crafts for toddlers & preschoolers
Sensory Activities Your 2 Year old will Love!
20. Easy Rainbow Pasta Fun
Rainbow Spaghetti is a fun medium for kids to explore. Dye it for extra fun. Noodles have a very squishy and sticky texture, it is fun to place with, safe if your toddler puts it in their mouth, plus, save some for later for a fun dinner.
21. Kool Aid Shaving Cream Sensory Play
Shaving cream is a great sensory tool for kids. Add Koolaid for colors and scent variations. If you want to make this a little safer for 2 year olds and babies who may still stick their fingers in their mouths you can substitute shaving cream for Cool Whip.
23. Make a Paper Plate Bird Craft
Feathers are a fun thing to craft and play with. Create a fun, colorful bird in this preschool craft. This is a fun and colorful craft, not only because of the paint, but because of the rainbow feathers! Feathers are such a fun texture to play with.
24. Play in a Rainbow Sensory Tub
Pasta is a blast to play with in a sensory tub. Dye it and add some element shapes for kids to have fun digging, sorting, and touching. Add in colorful rings and plastic coins for even more textures. Add cups for the kids to shake the noodles and trinkets around.
25. Process Art is Fun Toddler Play
Kids love big canvases. Keep one around the house for your kids to paint whenever the desire strikes. Let them spray the paint, mix it, use rollers, and brushes to create a giant, beautiful, piece of art.
26. Rainbow Finger Bath Paint
If you don’t like mess, maybe the bath tub will be a better place for your kids to explore color mixing. These paints are non-toxic and safe for kids and your bathtub and the best part is, while they’re learning their colors you won’t be scrubbing paint off of chairs and the floor.
27. Make a Confetti Collage
Give your kids a hole punch and colorful sheets of paper. They will have a blast creating confetti – and afterwards craft with the bits. Use a paintbrush and glue and then sprinkle the confetti on top to create a rainbow masterpiece.
28. Play with Rainbows
Preschoolers can learn about more than color as they explore. This is a fun rainbow-themed math activity. It uses paint, toilet paper rolls, stickers, clay, and coins! Who knew math could be so fun?
Related: Oh so many toddler sensory bin ideas!
Indoor Toddler Games & Sensory Play Ideas for 2 Year Olds
29. Playdough, Beads, And Pipe Cleaners Toddler Activities
Add pipe cleaners and large beads to playdough play – it will help your kids develop fine motor skills. Plus, they create all sorts of creatures and monsters! Let their imaginations run wild.
30. Stacking Cups for Gross Motor Play
Two year olds have fun rolling stacking cups, and pretending to drink/eat. Add beans or rice and let them scoop and pour. Even better, let them shake them all around to make neat sounds. Worried they’ll put a bean in their mouth? Use Fruity Pebbles instead any round cereal like Coco Puffs or Cheerios for their toddler game.
31. Make Chocolate Ice Cream Play Dough
Chocolate Ice Cream, our preschoolers love to eat it – and this play dough recipe smells delish! Let them pretend to work at an ice cream shop. Give them other color playdough to make sprinkles and cherries! Just a heads up, this chocolate ice cream playdough may smell amazing, however, it is not edible! A taste won’t hurt, it won’t taste good, but this is not one of our edible recipes.
32. Creative Activities For Toddlers At Home
Rice is a fun sensory table addition. It’s cheap and easy to find, and kids love the texture falling through their fingers. Add wooden spoons, tiny cups, hide treasure in the rice, let them pour the rice through a funnel.
33. Arts And Crafts For 2 Year Olds
Toddler art projects can be daunting. Here are 10 easy and fun sensory arts and crafts for two year olds. Promote imaginary play with an ice cream dough bar, play with water beads, paint with yogurt, and there are so many more fun activities to choose from.
34. Who Made That Footprint
Make footprints in playdough with your 2 year old’s favorite toys, then see if they can match the footprints to the toys! It is such a cute game and a great problem solving game as they have to match each footprint with their toys. Plus, it teaches about body parts like feet as they have to search for toys with feet.
35. Let’s Make Homemade Story Stones
Story-telling is a great way to help toddlers develop language patterns and learn sequencing of events. Make your own story stones using pictures of: animals, bugs, aliens, toys, and automobiles. Put them all in a basket and then let the pick one at a time to continue the story.
36. Play Concentration Game
Play a learning game of concentration with your kiddo. Put three items up and remove one. Have your child identify which object was removed. It is a great way to work on problem solving and refine your child’s memory and teaches them to pay attention.
37. Playdough Kabobs are Fun to Make
Make Kabobs of play dough. Form beads and thread them. Great way for kids to explore texture and motor control. Plus it will teach your child about colors and they can count each playdough balls.
38. Fruity Bubble Tea for Play
Water beads are the rage. Here are water beads that toddlers can play with, and even eat as part of a bubble tea. It is a fun texture to play with, to eat, plus they’re full of calories if your child doesn’t like to eat a lot.
Related: Make healthy snacks for toddlers
Outdoor Toddler Games & Fun Things to Do with a 2 Year Old
39. Play in a Mud Pie Kitchen
Mudpies!! It’s a quintessential kids activity – make an mini-outdoor kitchen for your kids to cook and create in. Use a wooden crate and add a bowl, a whisk, spoons, pans, a kettle full of water, and don’t forget the chalkboard menu.
40. Colored Cloud Dough Play
Cloud dough is so soft and squishy, they will play with it for hours. Plus, it is made from a lot of things you may already have at home. It is a fun sensory craft for 2 year olds. Let them build, squish, and smash this soft cloud dough.
41. Make Sandbox On Wheels
Sandboxes are a mess… but what if they were small, easy to cover, and you could drag it into the garage when you were done?? Win! This is a sandbox on wheels. Pile on the toys to hide them and keep your yard clean.
42. Ways To Spend Time With Your 2 Year Old
When was the last time you surprised your child with a picnic – for breakfast? This site has a bunch of other creative ways to connect with your kids. It has great tips to spend time with your kids everyday even in the smallest of moments.
43. Playing with Frozen Water Beads
On a hot afternoon, frozen water beads are a huge hit! Fill a big bucket with them. They’re cold and great for a hot day, but you can spray water on them to thaw them out. There textures change and it makes a fun sensory bin.
44. Outdoor Activities For Toddlers
Do your kids hide in clothes at a department store? Mine do! Recreate that experience by hanging fabric for your kids to run through at home. You can hang sheets, blankets, dresses, long shirts and let them run through!
45. DIY Outdoor Sound/Music Station
This is so cool! Create a sound/music station for your 2 year old using pots, pans, racks, and bells. Bang the afternoon away with a fun musical wall – attach it to a fence in your back yard.
46. Nature And Water Play For Toddlers
It’s a soup!! Only you can’t eat it. This soup is made from flower petals and cut up fruit and water. Smells lovely, and is a hit with the kids! You can add other things too like leaves, stones, and stir with sticks or spoons. Make this nature soup your own.
47. Egg Carton Color Sorting
Use egg cartons to help your kids differentiate between colors with this fun sorting activity. Paint each egg carton a different color and then fill a bowl full of pom poms. Put each pom pom in its correlating colors. If you use spoons and tongs it also helps refine your child’s fine motor skills.
48. How To Make Sponge Bombs
Sponge bombs are the BEST! Make a big batch of them, and add them to your tots bath toys. They also make amazing summer toys as well! Plus, they’re safer for 2 year olds than water balloons.
49. Sidewalk Simon Game
Play with all the colors of the rainbow in this fun Simon Says game. This is a fun outdoors game that will teach your 2 year old about colors while keeping them moving. Say a color and they will need to hop to that color.
50. Cardboard Boat For 2 Year Olds
Card board boats are a blast. This is a fun pretend version you can add to your backyard. It will be loved until it can no longer hold it together anymore. It promotes pretend play, and if you’re able to tape boxes together or use a large box there will even be room for you!
51. Rainbow Bubble Snakes
2 year olds love bubbles, colors, and messy activities! These rainbow bubble snakes are all 3! Bubbles are a blast, especially lots of them. These bubble snakes are perfect for kids who want to learn to blow or who love popping bubbles and they are rainbow!
Related: Things to do with toddlers
Fun Toddler Activities For 2 Year Olds Who Are Active
52. Exploring Color Theory
Summer time ice-cube sculptures. Your two year old can stack colored blocks of ice and watch the colors melt together. Not only is this a fun way to beat the heat, but it is a fun way to learn colors and learn about mixing colors like red and blue make purple. Make this even more fun, and tasty, and freeze different color Kool-Aid’s!
53. Make a Snack Together
Is your child a snacker? Spend time together cooking and make a batch of snacks for toddlers and have a picnic together. Make popsicles from real fruit, muffins, fruit snacks, yogurt gummies, trail mix and more.
54. Water Bead And Flower Sensory Tub
Do your kids love flowers?? Mine do! Check out this flower sensory bin. Add water beads and different flowers and water! This changes the texture of the water beads and each flower feels different as some will be wet and others dry. Dip your hands or feet in the bin.
55. Let’s Make an Indoor Fort Together
Who doesn’t love pillow forts? Building forts and hanging out inside forts is a blast for kids. They love cubbies to crawl into. We love these indoor forts for toddlers. There are 25 to choose from and each one is cool and unique in its own right.
56. Pretend Play is Toddler Fun
Pretend play is such an important thing for kids to do. It promotes social skills, cooperative play, and problem solving. Young preschoolers are just beginning to play pretend. These 75+ Pretend games help them build an imaginary world.
57. Watermelon Activities
Your kids don’t need to have blocks to build. Use chunks of watermelon this summer with your preschoolers. Not only can you build with it, but you can make squish bags, math bags, and best of all, snack!
58. No-Mess Finger Painting
You can fill bags of paint for kids to squish and trace in as mess free finger paint. It is clean play so you don’t have to worry about any scrubbing or baths afterwards. They can still draw pictures in the paint and even mix the colors.
59. Play with a Ball Maze
Drop the ball through a fun maze – your kids can create and explore with long paper tubes. You could even use toy cars with this maze. Either way, it is a lot of fun! All you need is cardboard tubes, can boxes, cutting utensils and a hot glue gun as well as ping pong balls.
60. Spaghetti Shop Play
Promote pretend play with this fun activity. Make an “invitation to play” for your kids cooked noodles (plain and red dyed), paper plates, tongues, forks and strainers – it’s a pasta party! Not only will it promote pretend play, but using tongues and letting two year olds move noodles from various containers is a great way to promote fine motor skill practice.
61. Play with Learning Letters
Water – everything is more fun with water. Use a squirt gun or spray bottle to learn the letters with your toddler. Write letters on a chalkboard. They can be in order or they can be all mixed up. Then name a letter and let your child find it and spray it with a water bottle to erase it from the lineup. A normal water bottle may be hard for 2 year olds, so a wet rag or sponge could also work.
Related: Kids-creative activities at home
Fun Activity Ideas For Toddlers At Home
62. Quiet Play for Toddlers
It isn’t often you can get 2 year olds to be quiet or settle down. But this toilet paper activity is perfect. You don’t need fancy toys to build towers. Use toilet paper – if your kids are like mine, they will enjoy unraveling a roll or two, too. But they can build, drive cars over and around them, and knock them down!
63. Water Play Ideas For 2 Year Olds
We have 20 easy young toddler water play ideas will get them outside on a hot day! Splash in puddles, dance in the rain, wash the car, build your own water table, paint with water, and there are many more fun ideas that you can do together!
64. Five Senses Exploration
Learn all about the five senses with this fun printable for kids. This is such a well-rounded sensory activity as it focuses on: touching, hearing, smelling, sight, and tasting. It is a great way to teach 2 year olds about the world around them and help them explore different textures and different items around them.
65. Simple Play With A Ramp
This is one of our go-to activities for 2 year olds. Grab a box – it can be a terrific launch ramp for toy cars. If you have stairs you can lay the box against them or if you don’t a chair or the couch. But then watch the cars and bikes fly!
66. Make Toddler Friendship Bracelets
Toddler friendship bracelets are a fun way to practice cutting and threading fine motor skills. Plus, they are super cute! Cut up different colored straws and use the pieces as beads and loop them onto a pipe cleaner.
67. Easy Indoor Ring Toss For Toddlers
Use a lump of play dough and a wooden spoon to create a pole to toss rings on. This is a great way for kids to develop hand-eye coordination. Use plastic bracelets as the rings.
68. Bucket List For Toddlers
Encourage your kids to be active with one of these 25 super simple activities. We have silly activities like singing into a fan (robot voice!) and simple activities like moping the floor with socks, or building forts, and so many more! Your 2 year old will love them all!
69. Free Quiet Book Template
Create a quiet book to entertain your 2 year olds during nap time or another calm period. This free template helps you put together a book full of fun felt puzzles and activities. It will keep your child busy for hours!
70. Toddler Kerplunk Game
Kerplunk is such a fun classic game and is one of our favorite activities for 2 year olds. Grab a spaghetti strainer and some pom-poms for a fun game. Don’t worry the plastic sticks aren’t sharp because they are straws! This is such a fun problem solving game!
71. Rock Sensory Box
Rocks. My kids love to play with them when they are at the park. Teach them not to throw rocks at home by making a simple sensory box with different size rocks that have various shapes, textures, weights and colors. You can start your rock box with rocks you find or purchase a variety of rocks on Amazon.
72. Edible Sand For 2 Year Olds
Do your kids want to play in the sandbox, but they are just a touch to young as they put everything in their mouths?? Create edible sand! All you need is a food processor and crackers! You could probably also use something like cheerios or graham crackers for a sweeter version of this edible sand. Either way, your 2 year old will love it!
73. Foam Block Building Ideas
Build with blocks in a water table – a fun outdoor experience. Trace the foam blocks with chalk! That way 2 year olds can learn colors and shapes. Work on your 2 year olds motor skills by sticking the foam blocks to sticky paper. Last, promote pretend play while working on your 2 year olds fine motor skills by letting them build. Use shaving cream as cement!
Related: easy toddler crafts
Activities to Encourage Independence in our 2 Year Olds
74. Printable Chore List
Help foster independence and teach work ethic with ideas from our chore list for your preschooler. Each chore list is sectioned off by age groups. So there are lists for toddlers, preschoolers, elementary kids, older elementary kids, and middle schoolers.
75. Building Towers
Build towers with all the old boxes you can collect – use tape to keep them together and bring a step stool. Let the kids do all the “heavy lifting” (they’re empty so no back brace is needed) and then let them decorate their amazing towers with paint!
76. Introduction To A Ruler
Your kids may not understand lengths and how to use a ruler yet, but they can learn to intuitively grasp varying amounts with the help of scissors, play dough and a ruler. It is a great way to introduce tools they’ll need for school and work on their fine motor skills.
77. Fine Motor Activities For Toddlers At Home
Colanders and straws are the perfect way to help 2 year olds practice their fine motor skills. This can even be used as one of our fun games for 3 years old. It is simple, let your child stick straws through the holes in the colander. It will take precision to get them in!
78. DIY Cutting Station
Create a cutting station! It is one of our fun activities to do at home. Not only is it fun, but helps your 2 year old practice their fine motor skills as well. Use a bucket and tie a pair of scissors to it. Hopefully, kids will keep the scraps contained this way.
79. Making Clean Up Fun
How to get kids to clean? Make cleaning fun! Add music, set a timer, hide prizes around the room! Also breaking down the cleaning tasks and even taking a before an after picture will make it easier on kids and make them feel more accomplished for doing their chores.
80. Toddlers can Help Clean
Encourage your kids to contribute and clean with some of these tips. Mop the floors with socks! Make your own cleaner out of non-toxic items in your home and let your child spray and wipe! This will make cleaning fun, but also teach them responsibility.
Related: Toddler chores
How do you entertain a 2 year old all day?
If you have ever spent an entire day with a 2 year old, you have probably asked yourself this question of what in the world do I do with a 2 year old for EVERY WAKING HOUR! It can be exhausting and overwhelming to consider. There are several things to consider when planning out a toddler’s day:
- 2 Year old Schedule for Day: Try a loose schedule in blocks of time built around your 2 year olds nap time and other things that you might have going on like picking up older kids or running errands. Plan for at least one of those time blocks to be outside whether that is in your backyard, a walk around the neighborhood or a quick trip to the park. Another time block might include one of the toddler activities chosen from our list. Here is a simple example schedule for the day —
- 8-9 Breakfast & Clean Up
- 9-10 Run errands
- 10-11 Park
- 11-12 Shaving cream painting on back porch or in tub (without water)
- 12-1 Lunch & Clean Up
- 1-3:30 Quiet time then nap
- 3:30-5 Pick up older sibling, run to the library and toy time: blocks, cars, etc.
- 5-7 Family time and dinner
- 7 Bath and story time
- 8 Bed time
- Toddler Activities as Play Prompts: Think of activities for 2 year olds as a play “starter”. It is an idea to inspire their own play. Don’t worry if they make the “right thing” or “play the right way”. The idea is to get them entertaining themself!
- Step Away During Toddler Play: When your toddler gets engrossed in play, step away and observe/supervise from a distance. This will help him/her to develop independence and the ability to entertain themselves with a lot of practice.
How do you mentally stimulate a 2 year old?
Toddlers are taking in everything around them all the time. It makes it really easy to mentally stimulate 2 year olds! The bottom line answer to how to stimulate a toddler mentally is…through play and experience. Here are some examples:
- Visit new places: Don’t worry that I am talking about exotic travel locations, any place is new to a 2 year old! Grocery stores, malls, parks, trails, backyards, different sidewalks, zoos, and anywhere you go is a new place to see, observe and learn. Let them look around. Talk about what they see. Let them soak up their surroundings.
- Read new books: Visit your local library regularly and let your toddler “shop” for new books. Choosing books from all the shelves and shelves of library books is fun and sitting down and reading those books at the library or at home is even better. Kids who are read to at a young age develop language skills faster and better.
- Be around friends and family: 2 year olds are social creatures and love to be around others so they can watch and learn. Expose your child to a lot of social situations from play dates to family reunions to large groups like sporting events or church.
What games are best for a 2 year old?
We have some casual games listed above, but if you are looking for card and board games that work well as a toddler’s first game, here are a few to try first!
- Monkey Around – The Wiggle & giggle Game from Peaceable Kingdom that gets 2 year olds moving
- Mr. Bucket – The spinning and moving bucket game from Pressman
- Elefun – This was my kids favorite toddler game – the elephant blows butterflies in the air that you need to catch with a butterfly net
- Where is Bear? The hide and find stacking block game from Peaceable Kingdom
- First Orchard – A HABA My Very First Games is a board game of cooperation for 2 year olds
More Kids Activities for 2 year olds & Beyond from Kids Activities Blog
- Bunk bed ideas
- Kiddie Halloween hairstyles
- School jokes for kids
- A fudge recipe without condensed milk.
- Halloween games for all ages.
- Easy Halloween crafts for preschoolers.
- Pinecone decoration ideas
- Process art ideas for all kids
- Fruit Leather recipe
- Peppermint is a natural spider repellant
- How do you make oobleck?
- Childrens rhymes to help make learning fun.
- Recipe for Cotton Candy Ice Cream
- Super helpful house organization ideas
- Chicken Egg Noodle Casserole
Leave a Comment: Which of these toddler activities did your 2 year old enjoy the most? Did we miss a great activity on our list of toddler activities?