In all of these resources you will find hands-on, language facilitated activities. Toddlers are already learning about the world around them using their senses without parents even being involved.  Adding language to their activity is the key to vocabulary building on the concepts they are discovering.

One thing I am not going to add to this post is a link to a developmental checklist. You are probably more stressed than you need to be already. There are already to many people sharing their opinion on how you or your child should be.You don’t need a checklist, you just need to be an attentive, interactive and accessible mother. You can’t go wrong with that combination.

Language and Literacy

Read anything, talk about everything, play anytime, and enjoy music often together. It really can be that simple. Your child doesn’t have all the vocabulary needed to carry on a detailed conversation, but you  fill in the blanks. Narrate your day. Ask and answer questions. Not only is your child learning vocabulary he hears repeated, but he is learning the complex patterns of language, the ups and downs of the voice, along with facial expressions and body language that accompanies language.

I think this pamphlet on Getting Ready to Read will help you get the idea and some simple activities to start with, I think you’ll find you are doing a lot of this already. You are just needing the confidence to keep moving forward. Relax! This is natural for you. You were made for this! You are the most important person in our child’s life.

Tips for Choosing Books for Your Child

Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development

Language Development Activities for Toddlers

50 Literacy Activities for Babies (but these are great or toddlers too, only you might get them joining in on more at this age!)

ELF Kid Videos

Songs for Saplings, Free Digital Music Downloads

Math

Here is a great article by the NAEYC about Math Talk. No need to buy lots of materials. Math is everywhere! Make it fun and stress free. Learning can happen in everyday routines. Counting the number of carrots on the plate. Chatting about colors in the park. the shapes of a wheel, a table, the doorway. Playing with blocks can help build problem solving and spatial awareness skills needed later in math.

Math Games for Your Toddler are simple and fun.

Baby and Toddler Math Activities

Math at Play has loads of resources for Infants, Toddlers and Twos including hands-on-activities, songs, rhymes, and language to facilitate math learning.

Toddler Math activities focus on using the toddler’s ever curious senses to explore math.

The Measured Mom has put together some great hands-on Water, Math, and Science activities to do with your kids, ages 3-6.

Don’t forget your library. Here are list of Math books for Children to begin discussion of math concepts and build vocabulary in context. If you can’t find these titles, search your library’s catalog for the types of books listed in the second article below.

Math for Preschoolers

Basic Math for Toddlers

Science

How to Nurture Your Child’s Interest in the Natural World. Don’t stop at this article. Keep reading!

The author of Teaching Tiny Tots understands how busy the senses are and has lots of toddler science fun to be had.

Here is a start-up list for 10 Preschool Science Read Alouds. No worries if you can’t find these in your library. There are sure to have others you can substitute.

Science Activities for Babies and Toddlers

15 Fun Science Projects for Toddlers

Science Activities for Toddlers

20 Science Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Preschool Science Activities organized by topic.

Babble Dabble Do Science for Kids

20 Kid’s Science Experiments You Can do at Home

Social Studies and Social Skills

Children at this age are learning the very basics of Social Studies concepts, “I am part of a bigger world”. They learn about themselves and how to interact socially within the specific environments they find themselves in, the home with family, playdates with friends of multiple ages, a Sunday school class with same-age peers, or in an adult situation where the activities are not centered on them. They learn about different social expectations in each of these situations.

Literacy is another way to learn about the people in the bigger world around them. In books they will encounter people and circumstances they might not experience directly. Videos  can serve the same purpose, while also building vocabulary for these contexts.  In addition, live WebCams for Social Studies and Science, like Wild Earth, can take your child to places he might never see otherwise.

Children will take these new concepts and mimic them in dramatic play, another way children will assimilate the new information, practicing vocabulary and developing problem solving skills for social situations.

Map Concepts can also be introduced at this age with simple activities like mapping the house (with Mommy’s facilitating) or finding places on a map or globe. Here are a couple of article talking more about developmentally appropriate objectives for Social Studies and some suggested activities and literature.

Social Studies Knowledge and Skills
Click on each objective to see some easy activities to engage your toddler in.

Early Childhood Development and Social Studies

Exploring Social Studies Through Children’s Books

Here are some Social Studies Games at PBS that Mom and toddler can begin playing together while toddler gets and introduction into some basic social studies concept to build on.

This article focuses on the classroom, but the objectives in the right hand corner serve for a source of ideas for activities.

Preschool Social Skills for the world he’s in everyday. These are some of the first steps in learning the role he has in other people’s lives, in coming out of his egocentric perspective. When a toddler begins to learn that what he says and does affects the people around him. Toddlers can realize their power and learn self control in order to balance his wants in relationship to what others need. Reading Books about Feelings can help your child understand his own and appreciate that others feel them too.

Get your little one involved in a family role with 10 Chores To Do With your Toddler.

More Resources for Toddlers

Comprehensive Montessori Scope and Sequence

Toddler and Preschool Educational Printable Activities from Totschooling

Hands On Homeschooling -Curriculum for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Homeshooling with Toddlers from The Happy Housewife

Toddler Games and Activities from PBS

Homeschooling the Very Young

Montessori Monday

Early Learning Activities for Toddlers

ABC Jesus Loves Me, a Christian, comprehensive curriculum for ages 2-5

20 (more) Websites and Resources for Starting tot School

Find more FREE homeschooling resources and learn to Build Your Own Homeschool Curriculum for FREE.