7 Easy Pre-School Inspired Activities To Do At Home With Your Two to Three Year Old Child
With the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic my son’s school is closed for a few weeks and he’s at home with me…all day; I was worried and stressed about how to keep him engaged and occupied all day.
He has so many toys scattered throughout the house but only plays independently for about 5-10 minutes before he turns to me looking for what to do next. He’s still young and needs a companion to interact with. And I’ll admit I’m not great at free play and prefer to do more structured activities / projects (not surprising as I’m a very goal-oriented person by nature).
So with a little bit of Googling and following guidance from my son’s school teacher, I discovered and tried some easy and fun activities to do at home with my son (who is about two and a half right now) that he’s actually enjoyed quite a lot.
Each of the activities listed below take about 20-30 minutes because that’s the average amount of time my son can focus for at this age. And the best part is: I can repeat and switch up these activities every few days and he doesn’t get bored of them!
I hope you find the list below helpful 🙂
Table of Contents
Unicorn Foot Print Painting
What you need:
- Paper (white or coloured)
- Child-friendly paint
- Paintbrush
- A large plate / palette or surface you don’t mind getting messy
- Markers
- Glitter
- Glue
What to do:
- Put a large amount of paint (colour of your choice) on a large plate or flat surface and help your child step his or her left foot in it evenly to get a nice coat of paint.
- Then help them to stamp their foot on diagonally on the piece of paper with the sole facing the bottom left corner and the toes facing the the top right corner. It should look something like the image above.
- Let the footprint dry completely.
- Then using markers or paint, draw on the unicorn’s eye, horn and hair.
- Finally, sprinkle and glue on glitter into unicorn’s hair and wherever else you like to add a little magic to your painting!
Cut Outs and Mark Making
What you need:
- Printable cut out template of your choice
- Paper (white or coloured)
- Child-friendly paint
- Paintbrushes, sponges, dead leaves, pine cones etc and anything else you have at home that offers interesting textures to make marks with
- A large plate / palette
- Scissors
- Glue
What to do:
- Google “printable cut out template [insert object of your choice]” and lots of black and white image results will show up. Choose one your child likes.
- Print it out and let your kid freely paint / make marks on it using different objects
- Wait for it to dry completely
- Help your child cut out the shapes and pieces from the template
- Glue it all together onto another piece of paper and you have a new piece of artwork!
Mark Making (a simpler version of the previous activity)
What you need:
- Paper (white or coloured)
- Child-friendly paint
- Sponges, dead leaves, pine cones etc and anything else you have at home that offers interesting textures to make marks with
- A large plate / palette
What to do:
- Give your child paper and a palette with different coloured paints
- Let them freely make marks with different objects and using their fingers
Play Doh
What you need:
- Play Doh (alternatively: Google “homemade play doh recipe”)
- Tools to cut, roll, make marks etc (optional)
- Flat surface
What to do:
There are no rules! Let your kid explore and play with Play Doh any way he or she likes. If you have some tools like a rolling pin and shape cutters and random objects to make marks, that’s great but it’s not essential. Your kid can easily just use fingers to mold and shape the Play Doh and it’s a great, engaging 20-minute activity.
Counting Number Train
What you need:
- Printable number train template
- Scissors
- Paper clip
- Flat surface
What to do:
- Do a Google search for “printable number train template/worksheet” and print out any that you like and cut them out.
- Place all the different train pieces in random order on a flat surface
- Encourage/ask your kid to count and interact with the train carriages in different ways:
- Place the carriages and count out loud in order from 1 up to 10
- Do the same as above and count backwards from 10 to 1
- Place the carriages in random order and talk about the different colours / patterns / numbers of the carriages etc
- Use the paper clip to hold the pieces together and store away for repeated uses
Tracing Worksheets
What you need:
- Printable tracing worksheet
- Crayons or coloured pencils
- Flat surface
What to do:
- Do a Google search for “printable tracing worksheet/activity” — you’ll see a variety of results pop up.
- Choose something that is simple with a clear star and finish like the examples below:
- Ask your child to use a crayon or pencil to trace inside the route marked.
- Encourage your child to repeat the activity multiple times using different colours and he/she can also colour in the worksheet
Water Play
What you need:
- A bowl or sink filled with water
- Blue food colouring (option)
- Random waterproof objects around the house / plastic bath toys
What to do:
- Fill up the bowl / sink with water and add blue food colouring if you want to
- Ask you child to put in each object / toy one by one to see if it “floats” or “sinks”
- Alternatively: use water play to talk about a specific topic such as “under the sea / fish” or “boats & ships” depending on what toys and objects you have at home
If you have any other ideas, please share in the comments below 🙂
