Learning Games for 1 to 2 Year Olds: Tips for Parents

Learning games are important in raising a 1-2-year-old child. The second year of a baby's life is a time of active development of motor skills, acquiring knowledge of the surrounding world, and expanding interests. Learning activities and outdoor games are good examples of ways to develop important skills. A child can easily be captivated by a fairy tale, drawing, or outdoor games. They are no longer just an observer, but a full-fledged participant in play.

In this article you will find tips on how to develop the basic skills of children from one to two years old through learning games such as creativity, fine motor skills, and imagination.

Learning Activities for 1-2 Year Olds: What a Child Knows and Can Do

A baby develops very quickly. Keep this in mind when choosing learning activities. Parents will notice progress almost every month. By the age of two, this is no longer the same child that was one year old. Their new skills are being improved:

1. Behavioral. A child is aware of their gender, can distinguish a boy from a girl, but does not fully understand the differences. They imitate adults as well as the sounds of the animal world. Gradually, they detach from their mother and can give up breastfeeding or use it for other purposes, such as to calm down but not to quench hunger. Keep this in mind when choosing learning activities for 1-2 year olds.

2. Communicative. Despite the skill of signaling their needs through crying, a child understands that there are other ways to communicate with parents. They can point their finger at an object of interest, come up, take it, and look at their mother saying, "May I?". Also, a baby understands well who is theirs and who is a stranger, expresses their affection for adults they like or older children, even if they are not close. This is important when choosing games for one or two year olds.

3. Emotional. Children under 2 years of age are still closely tied to their parents, but they are already showing the first signs of disobedience with full awareness of their actions. From now on, parents need to start the educational process to prevent the habit of ignoring the requests and prohibitions of adults. During this period emotionality increases - a baby can easily be scared by a loud sound, a scary toy or very active learning activities.

4. Speech. The first words have long been said, which means it's time to improve the vocabulary. The easiest way is to get acquainted with the animal world, at least in the pictures. Toddlers at the age of one year already distinguish animal species, they distinguish a dog from a cat, an elephant from a giraffe. They imitate their sounds: wow-wow, meow, muuu, etc. They understand the addressed speech well, fulfill simple requests (come to me, give me a hand, bring a ball). By the end of the second year, their vocabulary consists of about 300 simple words. Learning games will help with this.

5. Motor skills. A child already walks well without help, which allows them to significantly expand the geography of movement. They explore their living space and climb accessible surfaces. It stimulates their curiosity - a wish to touch, feel, and reach for any object they like.

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Learning Activities for 1-2 Year Olds: Which Toys Will be Interesting for a Child

How to choose toys for learning activities? If before the age of one year, a child was mainly interested in rattles and simple toys like cubes, pyramids, and stuffed animals, now it is time to add to their collection. What would be appropriate for this age? See learning activities examples below:

1. Toys for the development of motor activity. All kinds of rocking machines, sledges, swedish wall.

2. Sand play trays, shovels, rakes, sieves.

3. Interactive toys with songs and fairy tales.

4. Nesting dolls, roly-poly, yule.

5. Musical toys — concertina, drum, bells, maracas.

6. Everything for creativity — play dough, pencils, finger paint.

7. Toys for role-playing learning games — dolls along with all the paraphernalia (cars, horses, houses, furniture), baby dolls with care items, and equipment (trucks, dump trucks, fire trucks).

You can start introducing your child to books. Buy well-illustrated editions, with figured cutting, dense textured pages. There are also books made of fabric, felt. Children at this age like lacing toys, mazes, sorters, and liners. Show them how to play with them, and you can safely go about your business — for the next half an hour the baby will be fascinated with a new activity.

What to Play with a 1-2 Years Old

Of course, toys alone are not enough. If you want your baby to develop comprehensively and timely, you will have to spend time and effort on educational activities. If possible, involve other children in the game. Watching the elders, a child will follow their example, which means that they will handle the learning game tasks much faster and better.

Also: How To Teach Logical Thinking To A Child: 7 Ways

1. Development of Fine Motor Skills

It has been proven that learning games with small objects, where fingers are involved, have a positive effect on the development of speech, cognitive function and attention. Take 5-10 empty jars (from facial cream, any food, “Kinders”) and ask them to pick up their own lid. Or mix beans, large pasta, nuts in one container and ask them to sort the contents into piles - beans separately, pasta separately, and so on. Just make sure that the child does not put anything in their mouth.

Teach them to draw with their fingers. This requires special paints and paper.

2. Musical Development

Music is a great option for learning games. Sing children's songs and lullabies to your baby, turn on quality music (for example, classical music). Learn a simple song with movements, "Dance of Little Ducklings" for example. Teach the concepts of "loud", "quiet", "slow", "fast", "happy melody", "sad melody". To do this, turn on the corresponding tracks one by one, adjust the volume and clearly pronounce what and how sounds now.

3. Development of Attention

Puzzles are a great solution for indoor learning games. Put together simple puzzles with your child, encourage them for each correctly selected segment. Play with pictures - put pictures of animals and ask them to find a dog, a cat, a lion, a monkey. Put buttons of different colors and sizes in a box and invite your child to find all white, red, round, square buttons. Put socks or mittens in front of your child, show how to pair them up, and then let them do it themselves. Hide a tasty snack in the room and ask your child to find it.

4. Creative Development

Mold simple figures from colored dough or clay. This is also a good option for learning activities for a one or two year old child, for example, balls of different colors. Lay flowers or beads out of them. If the weather allows, give your child a big brush and offer to paint some object on the street - a box, a bucket, a stone (note - paints should be safe for children's health). Make an application or a herbarium: stick bright pictures or dried herbs, flowers, leaves on a large sheet with PVC adhesive.

5. Physical Development

Train your child to exercise. They should be simple movements, best to the music: put hands up, reach on toes, take steps left-right, bend, stomp, clap hands. Fulfill them together, voicing each exercise and counting the number of repetitions. Play outdoor learning games like basketball, football, or balloons. If there is a Swedish wall, teach your child to climb up and down the ladder, and set the pull-up bar lower so that the baby can grab onto it with their hands and hang. A special mat or armchair bag should be near such a wall to soften the blow in case of a fall, but it's best not to leave a little one to themselves with this activity.

Also: 10 Ways to Teach Kids about Boundaries

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Any learning activities contribute to the development of a child. It makes them aware of their limits and motivates them to improve their skills. As you practice, verbalize your every action. This will help your child understand you better and enrich their vocabulary. Do not insist on any activity if it does not work out due to the age or unwillingness of the child. It is better to do what gives them pleasure and excitement.