2-4 Years Motor Skills

Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.

If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!

Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.

This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:

Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here. 

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.

Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.

Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.

Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

Get That Baby MOVING!

How Much and What Kind of Physical Activity Do Babies Need?

Just like kids and adults need daily physical activity, your baby was born to move! In addition to building muscular strength and balance, physical activity has been shown to improve your infant’s motor development, bone health, social skills, and more. But how much is enough? And what kind of exercise can your baby really do?

According to the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics, infants should have several rounds of interactive, physical activity each day, in addition to at least a half hour of tummy time. WHO also discourages any screen time and too much “contained” time in car seats, strollers, and high chairs, both of which can detract from time babies could be spending moving their bodies and engaging their brains. Once you’ve created a soft, safe (no plugs, cords, or small items) area with enough room (a roughly 5x7 clearance) for your infant to play, here are a few ways to encourage physical movement:

-          Bounce your baby on your lap

-          Play patty cake

-          Play peekaboo

-          Clap along to music

-          Show baby how to shake a rattle

-          Dangle soft toys above baby

-          Bicycle baby’s legs

-          Gently pull baby’s arms (support their head if they can’t do it on their own) to lift them from a lying to a sitting position

-          Make a mountain of pillows for baby to crawl over

-          Place toys just out of baby’s reach

-          Roll a soft ball past baby

-          Show baby how to bang a wooden spoon on a plastic container

-          Create a crawling tunnel out of a smooth cardboard box

-          Support baby as you lean them over and let them right themselves

-          Introduce push and pull toys

The more baby moves, the stronger they’ll be, so be sure to make exercise a part of your little one’s daily schedule!

Montessori’s 5 Cs

Raising a Curious, Confident Learner

If you’re familiar with the Montessori method, you know that schools following these teaching principles focus on child-guided, hands-on learning. There are no lectures or timelines – students explore concepts at their own pace, in their own way, working until their personal curiosity is satisfied. In fact, curiosity is the first of Montessori’s powerful “Cs”. Learn more about these concepts so that you can support your child as they follow their own learning path at home:

Curiosity – Present your child with an activity, demonstrate it for them, then step back and let them explore on their own. Watch as they discover various elements on their own, using each piece or the whole as they wish. Let them play as long as they are interested, without intervening, but redirect if you sense they are becoming frustrated.

Communicating – Speak to your child calmly and lovingly. Praise their exploration, curiosity, patience, and perseverance rather than their efforts or outcome. Encourage them to continue exploring and ask them questions about what they’re doing. Demonstrating positivity and support not only builds self-confidence in your child, it also teaches your child how to speak kindly to others.

Correcting – The ability to recognize a mistake and try again – without becoming frustrated or defensive – will serve your child well throughout their life. Teach them that mistakes are part of the learning process by gently redirecting problems and suggesting a possible solution to try next. Sticking with a problem is more important than getting it right the first time.

Conceptually – You may have heard about Growth Mindset – the idea that everyone is capable of learning a concept and just because a student doesn’t understand it – YET – doesn’t mean they never will. Montessori believes that learning is a journey and there is much to be learned by the process itself. Encourage your child as they embark on the journey and every step of the way.

You can build a curious, confident learner by following these tips from Montessori. Set out a new activity for your little one today and see how they respond!

Tripping and stumbling are not uncommon as little ones develop the gross motor skills they need to walk, run, jump, climb, swing, throw, and catch with confidence. Building the large muscle groups – the arms, legs, feet, and core – provides the strength, balance, and coordination kids need to move their bodies with ease. And the good news is that gross motor development is fun! Give these five activities a go to help your little one feel steadier on their feet:

1.       Hopscotch! Grab the sidewalk chalk and create a simple hopscotch course. Challenge your child to hop through first on one leg, then the other, then on both feet. Add more boxes and trickier moves as your little one builds their skills.

2.       Catch! Start seated, rolling a soft, bouncy ball back and forth to each other. Then stand a few feet apart and practice tossing and catching. Back up a foot or two to increase the difficulty as your child’s aim and coordination increase. Shake things up by attempting to toss the ball into a laundry basket or large bucket or aiming for a chalk circle target on your garage door.

3.       Walk the Plank! Create a floor-level balance beam with masking tape on your carpet and take turns walking across it without falling off. Try walking flat footed, on tippytoe, taking large steps and small ones, and walking forward, backward, and sideways. Turn your plank into a zig zag or circle. Tip: raising your arms out to the side helps with balance!

4.       Stork! Set the timer on your phone and practice standing on one foot for a few seconds, then try the other foot. Increase the time as your little one’s balance improves, then see who can stand the longest on one foot without falling down. Don’t forget to switch feet!

5.       Jump! Place a series of washcloths on the carpet in a room with lots of space (don’t try this with hard wood or other slippery floor surfaces). Demonstrate jumping from cloth to cloth using regular steps and jumping with two feet. Change up the course to make things more challenging – try spreading the cloths out and leaping from cloth to cloth.

6.       Freeze! In a safe, open space, let your child loose to run as fast as they can. Yell STOP and see if they can stand still in place for a second or two before you yell BACK and have them run back to you. Continue with STOP, GO, and BACK until you need a hydration break!

7.       Skip! Skipping requires both gross motor skills and coordination, so don’t worry if your child comes up with their own version of the move. Start by stepping forward with one foot and hopping up in place. Practice this a few times, then practice with the other foot. Put it all together – step forward, hop up, switch – and you’re skipping!

8.       Go Wild! Watch some nature videos on YouTube, noting the way that different animals move. Then see if your little monkey can copy those moves. Call out gorilla, frog, penguin, bear, flamingo, and kangaroo and see if your kiddo can make the moves.

9.       Follow the Leader! This is a great way to help your child practice specific skills they need, from reaching for the sky (without falling over) and balancing on one foot to jumping over a small obstacle or walking on all fours.

10.   Fill the Bucket! Start with two similarly sized buckets, laundry baskets, or clean indoor trash cans. Add small balls, rolled socks, or crumpled paper to one of them, then time your child as they remove the items and transfer them to the other bucket, one by one. Move the buckets father apart as your child’s time improves.

Building gross motor skills is fun, and before you know it your little one will be climbing trees and riding bikes. Enjoy this time together, working on the skills they need to put their best foot forward, literally!

Your three-year-old will always be your baby, but they’re learning and growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s so much you can do to help nurture their natural development! While children develop at their rate and mastering things a bit earlier or later than others is common, below is a list of social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical milestones many kids achieve by the time they turn four (and, hence, the things they’re working on when they’re three).

Social-Emotional Skills

Your little love bug is starting to become less self-centered and more aware of the people around them, showing affection, concern, empathy, and a range of other emotions. As their sense of self and self-confidence grows, they may be becoming more independent. By the time they turn four, they may also be able to:

• Mimic you, other family members, and friends
• Take turns when playing games or using toys
• Make eye contact when communicating
• Play on their own for 10+ minutes
• Begin to separate more easily from parents or caregivers
• Recognize and name different feelings, such as happiness, silliness, sadness, and fear

Language Skills

Being able to communicate verbally with your child is an exciting milestone! With a vocabulary hovering between 250-500 words and blossoming grammatical skills, you (and those around you) should be able to understand about 75% of what your three-year-old is telling you. By the time they turn four, your child may also be able to:

• Follow instructions with two or three steps, such as “Please get your shoes and meet me at the front door.”
• Name several colors and basic shapes, including circles, squares, and rectangles.
• Recognize several letters
• Use pronouns (such as it, me, my, you, your, she, he, and we), the past tense, and plural words
• Speak in full sentences of 4-6 words and carry on a conversation using 2-3 sentences at a time
• Tell stories (they may be silly!)

Cognitive Skills

It’s tough to say who feels prouder when a child masters a new skill – the child or the parent! Three-year-old minds are working overtime, observing, practicing, and conquering all kinds of amazing feats. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds can:

• Engage in imaginative pretend play
• Complete a 3-to-4 piece puzzle
• Build a tower of 6 blocks or more
• Draw a line and circle and begin to draw people (they will probably look more like tadpoles)
• Count to three and begin to recognize quantities, such as one cookie, two cookies, or three cookies
• Sort and match items that are the same or different and compare items by size or color

Physical Skills

If only we could bottle the energy of a three-year-old – it seems they’re always ready to hit the park or playground, race to the corner, or jump off a step. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds are also able to:

• Pedal a tricycle
• Kick, throw, and catch a ball
• Hop on one foot
• Balance on one foot for 5+ seconds
• Hold a pencil using a tripod (3 fingers) or quadrupod (4 fingers) grip

As we said above, children develop at their own pace, mastering some skills quickly and requiring more practice with others. The more practice they get – and the more support they feel from you – the more confident they will feel as they learn and grow. If you’d like to track your child’s milestones by age, consider downloading the CDC’s mobile milestone app!

Four-year-olds are so much fun! Becoming more independent by the minute, fours are generally super social and extra energetic. They’ll probably begin to push the boundaries a bit this year, though, and will likely give up on napping (sorry, Mom). They’ll also benefit from time away from parents and caregivers as they prepare to enter Kindergarten next year. Below is a list of other social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical skills you may see emerge this year (but remember, kids progress at their speeds and may pick up these skills earlier or later!):

Social-Emotional Skills

Your baby is officially a preschooler now, learning to identify and express their emotions appropriately, with words rather than emotions. Other exciting social, emotional skills your four-year-old will likely learn this year include:

• Approaching new experiences with excitement
• Preferring playing with friends than alone (and can take turns and cooperate most of the time)
• Sharing information about things they’re interested in
• Role-playing mom or dad during pretend playtime
• Clearly expressing a thought or idea

Language Skills

Look out! With an average vocabulary of up to 1,600 words, your four-year-old has plenty to say! Fours are becoming much more communicative, using longer, clearer sentences, singing songs, playing word games, even reciting short poems! Here are some other language skills your four-year-old may acquire this year:

• Speaking fluently and enough to be understood by strangers
• Telling a story about something that happened to them
• Singing a simple song from memory… Oh, the wheels on the bus go…
• Answering questions beginning with who, what, where, when, why, how many…
• Playing simply rhyming games (cluck says the duck!)

Cognitive Skills

Fours are building the foundation for future learning, practicing shapes, letters, numbers, counting, and attempting to write and draw. By the time most kids start Kindergarten (usually around age five), they’ll:

• Know their full name and maybe their phone number
• Recognize letters, numbers, and signs
• Count 10 or more objects
• Draw a person with 4-6 body parts (head with mouth and eyes, body with arms and legs)
• Understand comparative terms like big/small, short/tall, same/different, empty/full, etc.

Physical Skills

It may feel like your four-year-old is in constant motion, running, jumping, climbing, hopping, and hiding all day long. In addition to honing their gross motor skills, this year, they’ll also be refining key fine motor movements that allow them to dress and feed themselves (hooray). Other physical skills your little one will be working on this year include:

• Buttoning and unbuttoning their clothing
• Using childsafe scissors
• Running faster and climbing higher than they did at three
• Balancing on one foot for 3 seconds
• Walking a “tightrope”
• Climbing stairs with no support

Remember that kids develop at different speeds, so don’t worry if it’s taking your little one a little longer to master any of the skills above. You can support their development by practicing these things at home, in a fun way – and you can track your child’s milestones by age with the CDC’s mobile milestone app!

Play your way to school-ready toddler skills with these fun, quick activities! This set's hands-on activities help kids learn and retain lessons in counting, color recognition, and early letter skills through fun, active play. Plus, the built-in carrying case lets you take the learning on the go! Learn more about Skill Builders! Toddler Skills. 

Learning Resources® does an excellent job of creating products for a wide range of age groups. They focus on fine motor development for the 18 months - 4 years old age group. I have used many of these products for my children and in my preschool classroom (I teach two and 3-year-olds). In this blog, I will be sharing a little more about how I use some of my favorite fine motor Learning Resources products and their benefits to young learners.

Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog®

Spike the Hedgehog was where the fine motor journey for the 18 months plus age group started at Learning Resources. They now have 7 Spike products, ranging in color and design. The original Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog is a firm favorite with my 2s age group. The idea of Spike losing his quills and children having to put them back in his back is just the right level of fun and challenge. The colors are vibrant and lend themselves to color recognition and sorting activities. I also love how numbers are subtly written next to the holes on Spike’s back, as this opens up the opportunity for number recognition and vocabulary development. The shape of the quills enables little hands to grasp them easily, and it is no surprise to hear that toddlers love the idea of pushing the quills in and out of the holes on Spike’s back over and over again!

There is also a range of great spin-off Spike products. The Spike Puzzle Playmate has been a big hit with my preschooler, who is 4, and the two-year-olds at preschool. This one combines the excitement of matching shape pieces with the challenge of matching numbered quills. It can be fun to hide the puzzle pieces in a sensory bin as an added element of play. Another popular item is the Spike the Hedgehog Sensory Treehouse. The great thing about this product is that it naturally encourages open-ended small-world play. Children like to use the little textured hedgehogs as they would do so with small toy animals. They pretend the treehouse is their home, and they go on all sorts of fun adventures. I love seeing the collaborative play and learning that takes place! There are discussions about the shapes, patterns, and textures on the hedgehogs’ backs and numbers shown on each Hedgehog.

Dottie the Fine Motor Cow

Dottie, the Fine Motor Cow, is a fun and colorful fine motor friend who encourages pull-out and pop-in movements with five tactile dots attached to the cow. This gets little hands working hard and exposes toddlers to learning all about colors. The soft surface of the push/pull dots makes this a great starting point for fine motor play, and the fact that the actions can be repeated is also a bonus. This is an excellent option as a travel toy as there are no additional parts which, as we all know, get lost so easily!

Steggy the Fine Motor Dino

Steggy is a bright and colorful dinosaur who needs help getting his ten scales placed in his back. The scales are durable and encourage the pincer grasp to be developed. Our favorite way to extend the learning is to focus on the number order in which the scales are added. Searching for the 1-10 numbers in the correct order and then carefully organizing them on Steggy’s back can take a lot of concentration for a two or 3-year-old! We recently set up a fun ‘Search for Steggy’s Scales’ sensory bin, which involved digging the scales out of a green rice bin and then adding them to Steggy in the correct number order. We have also had some fun using the scales for color sorting activities. It helps that all of Steggy’s scales can be neatly stored inside his body when not in use.

Have you tested out any of the fine motor friends on offer by Learning Resources? Which are your favorite and why? We’d love to hear how you use them at home or in your classroom.

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.