What activities do you do with under 2s?

[Sam's mum]

I had my first ever day today, and it was with a 1.5yr old (and I have my own baby who's not even 1 yet).

As it was my 1st day, I took it fairly easy and we played in the garden, in the house and did some drawing...

Should I be doing more with this age, and if so, any ideas what I can do?

I guess once I get to know the children more I'll get to know their capabilities a bit better...

[mama2three]

Once you get to know each other then you will see what the los stage of development is in the various areas - then you can introduce things that will help them advance....at 18 months probably lots of songs and rhymes to help with language development is just one example ....

Planning should be all based round the little one , what they enjoy and how it is helping with their development. hth:)

[grindal]

I have always looked after under 2s and will have 3 on my books in September. I find with this age group that most of the activities centres around their basic needs. What with meals, changes, sleeps, snacks and a playgroup and school run in the mix there is not a busting amount of time left. Mostly free play with favourite toys and a bit of paint spodging and play dough. Then there are childrens centres and child minder drop ins and before you know it the week is over :laughing:

[onceinabluemoon]

My under 2s are now over 2s but they loved things like rainbow rice, playdough, wet sand, mark making, glueing (with help), dancing to music, songs with actions, storytime with puppets, pasta play (uncooked for us but some do it cooked), toddler groups and library drop ins, painting always a massive favourite especially 'finger painting (substitute whole hand for finger, lol!)

Does that help? x

[Sam's mum]

My under 2s are now over 2s but they loved things like rainbow rice, playdough, wet sand, mark making, glueing (with help), dancing to music, songs with actions, storytime with puppets, pasta play (uncooked for us but some do it cooked), toddler groups and library drop ins, painting always a massive favourite especially 'finger painting (substitute whole hand for finger, lol!)

Does that help? x

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful.

What is rainbow rice? And what do you do with pasta play?!

Do you find they run off with paint / glue all over their hands and get it everywhere, or are they usually quite well behaved?!

[Madame Gazelle]

Rainbow rice is rice you've coloured with food colourings - all I do is get three seperate bowls of rice, put a couple of drops of red in one, blue in one and green in another and mix them around, let the rice dry on sheets of paper then let the kids play with the bowls of rice. Extend by adding spoons, jugs, funnels etc.

All 3 of my mindees are under 2, I do everything already mentioned too, as well as lots of outdoor play digging my flowerbeds, hiding things in the sandpit, bubbles is always a winner. With pasta you just stick it in various bowls and encourage the kids to play with it, pour it, sort it, get pasta swirls that are different colours perhaps, add lentils maybe? I do a lot of flour play which is exactly the same but with flour, kids LOVE getting covered in flour! Add small world toys/vehicles etc so they can make marks in the flour. If you're not a fan of painting (I'm not tbh) then go to the Children's Centre and always take the opportunity to do craft there, then you don't need to worry about doing it at yours. You could do water painting (just tubs of water and brushes) and paint the patio/driveway/walls/fence outside. 18m onwards (in my experience) start to enjoy building, so lots of different building blocks, mega-blocks, duplo, peek-a-blocks are great to look out for.

For babies I do a lot of treasure baskets, lots of crawling around on the grass, small world toys, mirrors, water play and flour play, I make sure that pasta play and sandpit are kept out of the way as EVERYTHING is still going into my youngests mouth and she's just about to turn 1!

[Chell]

Rainbow rice is rice you've coloured with food colourings - all I do is get three seperate bowls of rice, put a couple of drops of red in one, blue in one and green in another and mix them around, let the rice dry on sheets of paper then let the kids play with the bowls of rice. Extend by adding spoons, jugs, funnels etc.

All 3 of my mindees are under 2, I do everything already mentioned too, as well as lots of outdoor play digging my flowerbeds, hiding things in the sandpit, bubbles is always a winner. With pasta you just stick it in various bowls and encourage the kids to play with it, pour it, sort it, get pasta swirls that are different colours perhaps, add lentils maybe? I do a lot of flour play which is exactly the same but with flour, kids LOVE getting covered in flour! Add small world toys/vehicles etc so they can make marks in the flour. If you're not a fan of painting (I'm not tbh) then go to the Children's Centre and always take the opportunity to do craft there, then you don't need to worry about doing it at yours. You could do water painting (just tubs of water and brushes) and paint the patio/driveway/walls/fence outside. 18m onwards (in my experience) start to enjoy building, so lots of different building blocks, mega-blocks, duplo, peek-a-blocks are great to look out for.

For babies I do a lot of treasure baskets, lots of crawling around on the grass, small world toys, mirrors, water play and flour play, I make sure that pasta play and sandpit are kept out of the way as EVERYTHING is still going into my youngests mouth and she's just about to turn 1!

Thank you for the ideas. Using dry pasta with bowls, scoops, etc would be an ideal next steps for my 15mth old mindee. When we got out the crayons the other day he spent the whole time moving them from container to container.

I'm struggling for ideas a bit too. USing bubbles was very popular the other day. I blew them and he crawled/bum shuffled around outside to catch them.

Re: painting, I always strap the 15mth old into a high chair as he can't stand very well. DD who is 2yrs sits on a chair at the table. I bring a bowl of water and sponge to the table ready for handwashing. It means I can clear the mess quickly before they tough anything they shouldn't! We've done hand/feet painting a few times. You can turn the prints into ne end of things. We used paper plate painted yellow and orange/yellow handprints all round the edge to make a smiley sunshine. YOu can do Christmas wreaths and alsorts with handprint, reindeers with footprints, branches of a treee with your fore arm printed then finger prints for the falling leaves.

I've printed a tree trunk from http://www.dltk-kids.com/ which we'll finger paint when the leaves start to fall from the trees.

We read lots of books too.

[snufflepuff]

I look after a 19 month old and a 15 month old, and my son is 18 months. Used to have a 21 month old too. Here are some of their fave things:
Being in the garden- ride on toys, balls, sand and water table, slide, swing etc
Construction toys- mega blocks, wooden bricks etc
Vehicles- we have a huge box of cars/ motorbikes/ tractors etc
Animals and happy land figures
Dolls, buggy, a bottle to feed the dolly with
Trolley and plastic food, cash register and shopping bag
Music- they all love the instruments and like to have a little boogie
Going to the park
Posting letters- they love going for a walk to the post box down the road!
Tunnel, pop up tents, ball pool
Mark making- i usually leave a pile of paper out with pencils/ crayons/ chalks so they can help themselves

They only come 8.30-3.30 so with the morning school run/ nap times/ snack and lunch, theres not much time to fill- so we usually just have lots of free play and i slip in individual activities where i can.

[mummyof3]

Do you find they run off with paint / glue all over their hands and get it everywhere, or are they usually quite well behaved?!

I look after an 18mth old and a just turned 2yr old I put them in booster seats at the table I would not let them sit on a small table and chair or my house will resemble a balamory! :laughing:

[Madame Gazelle]

My 15m/o mindee has been displaying a transporting schema for a while now, she loves to carrying things about so I've made sure there are lots of different methods for her to carry things - bag, bucket, tin, shopping basket, see-through container, shoulder bag, wheely-suitcase etc.

I set up a packing/unpacking activity where there was a box full of different types of bags/cases, a box of natural/sensory items, a box of material and a box of balls. I started the activity by filling my bag with items which instantly got the children doing the same then once they had tired of fiddling with all the items I encouraged them to take their bags into another room and unpack them into a big box. All the kids loved it. I have a 23m/o, a 20m/o and an 11m/o, they were all able to do the acitivty in some capacity and get a lot out of it.

Under 2s love phones - I have loads of old mobiles, a Fisher Price toy phone and a couple of old handset phones, good for CLL and fine motor skills.

Lots of singing, loads of action rhymes and number rhymes, get puppets or soft toys or even small world toys to hand out as you sing - eg Old MacDonald has a ...... show everyone a toy sheep, give them the opportunity to figure out what it is and baaaaaa etc, hand the sheep around, keep singing using other animals. Hickory Dickory Dock .... wiggle a mouse up mindees leg etc. 5 little ducks went swimming one day, 5 bath ducks and a bit of blue material for the river etc, possibilities are endless and really good for settling in new mindees and making everyone feel part of the group, CLL, PSRN, KUW if you extend to what you're going to feed the soft toy animals etc.

Sounds silly but my lot LOVE playing peek-a-boo, give them loads of different fabrics, extend by feeling the fabric textures, colours, positional language etc.

Youngest mindee has been re-arranging my DVD cupboard for MONTHS, anything that opens and shuts is always a good one for this age group.

Don't forget treasure baskets and heuristic play.