Age shelf · what suits a two year old · 9 activities
2 year olds
Nine activities a two year old will do again, and again, and then once more, because at two the repeating is the point.
At two the repetition is the interest. Your child pushes the same lid through the same slot, takes the tub apart, finds the lid, and starts again. From the other side of the kitchen it looks like nothing is happening. It is the most useful ten minutes of the day.
Two year olds work in four to eight minute stretches. Four minutes of a child doing something entirely by themselves is a long session at this age, and everything here is sized for that rather than for twenty. They also tip things out, and an emptied tray is not the activity going wrong. It is a two year old choosing the more interesting movement. Every one of these works as well emptied as filled.
Nothing on this shelf has to be bought. Wooden pegs, a sponge, milk bottle lids, a roll of tape and two small jugs cover all nine. If you want something happening in the next thirty seconds, the pegs and the tongs need no setup at all, and the rest of the start right now shelf is built for that kind of evening.
Two has two named corners here, both small on purpose: numbers, shapes and thinking, where the object gives the answer, and senses and sensory play, which at this age lives inside the pouring and the squeezing rather than on a shelf of its own.
The nine
Ordered by the age each one suits best, so the ones written for two come first. The list is built from the whole range an activity suits rather than its single best age, which is why the mirror faces appear here: they are best at three and they work from two. Every line gives the setup, the play time and whether anything has to be bought.
- Cardboard Slotting and Coin Drop Your child turns a disc until it lines up with the slot, posts it, and listens for it landing. 15 min, once · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Clothespin Pinching Your child squeezes a wooden clothes peg open and clips it onto the rim of a bowl, and then does it forty more times. no setup · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Kitchen Tongs and Ice Tray Transfer Your child picks up a cotton wool ball with kitchen tongs, carries it across the table and drops it into an ice cube tray, twelve cups in a row. no setup · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Peg and Hole Matching Your child picks up a fat peg, lines it up over a hole that just fits it, and pushes it home. none once made · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Posting and Slotting Your child pushes a plastic lid through a slot cut in a tub, hears it land, and then takes the tub lid off and finds it again. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Sponge Squeezing Your child soaks a sponge in one bowl, carries it dripping to the other, and squeezes it out with both hands until the first bowl is empty. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Walking the Balance Line Your child walks the length of a strip of tape stuck to the floor, slowly, and then turns round and walks back. 2 min · under 5 min · household only
- Water Pouring and Transfer Your child pours water from one small jug into another, and then back again, and again, until the table is wet. 3 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Mirror Feelings Copycat Your child pulls the face on the card, sees it in the mirror next to yours, and hears you name the feeling that goes with it. 2 min · under 5 min · cards you draw
Several of these are made before they are played: a slot cut in a tub lid, holes poked into a block of foam, a strip of tape down the floor. The longest of them is about five minutes.