Organizing Toddler Activity Ideas

Toddlers are children between the ages of 1yr. to 3yrs. old. I believe that toddlers should spend lots of time pretend playing, exploring nature, being read to and listening to good music. They also need some structure in their day. Workboxes allow me to have several intentional learning opportunities for my daughter every day. I'm able to make sure she's getting some attention during our school time and she loves to have "school work" like a big kid!
Here's what I found works best for us:

-- Use only 4 to 6 boxes.
-- Vary the types of activities.
-- Plan for the activity to last between 5 - 15 min. max.
-- Spread the workboxes out through the school day.
-- Be flexible! :)

My daughter always has a buddy to work with her with her workboxes. At least one activity is done with me, but I also assign my older kids to help as well. Some days my daughter might be in the mood to do several consecutive activities. Other days, after one workbox she is done. That's ok! You want these structured learning times to be fun, not stressful for either you or your child.

In each workbox, I place all the materials necessary for the activity. If it is something that won't fit in the box, I write directions out on an index card and place in the box (i.e. nature walk, big wheel riding etc.).

"Tot school is nothing more than intentionally providing your tot with age appropriate activities that are fun and engaging. By choosing specific toys and activities, we expose our tots to a variety of early learning skills. Mastery is not the goal FUN is!" ~ Carisa from www.1+1+1=1

There are so many activity suggestions on the web that it can be overwhelming! At first I started writing down activities on index cards and then placed them in categories in a file box. This worked ok for awhile. I wasn't so great with following through. Next I tried bookmarking all the ideas I found. That didn't work for me either. So now I thought I'd try to keep an on-going list here, since I seem to be on the internet so often! Most of these ideas have been gleaned from workbox discussions found on Homeschool Share , Workbox for Littles Yahoo Group,Tot School ,No Time For Flashcards and Having Fun at Home. If you have any activities, links or ideas, please let me know in the comment section and I'll get them added. This lens will be updated frequently.

To help plan your Tot School, Carisa, from 1+1+1=1, has created planner and assessment pages: Tot School Planner.

One of my favorite sites for toddler activity inspiration is Tot School by Carisa. Each week she hosts a blog hop where other bloggers can share links to toddler activities they have done for that week. I have gleaned so much from participating in her Tot School blog hop. She has so much on her site that I can't list it all here--you'll have to check it out for yourselves.

Tot School by Carisa:
materials, storage ideas and more

"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. ~Roger Lewin

"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Homeschool Share is another one of my favorite sites to turn to for literature ideas. They offer free literature-based units, lapbooks, notebooks and more.

"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline. ~Proverbs 1:7 NLT

Here are some of my favorite blogs to glean ideas from: