2 year old activities – help!

I’ve found that the best thing to do to keep my ds2 (turned 2 in June, so about the same age as your little guy) occupied while working with dd5 (doing some light kindergarten work this year) is to find something that LOOKS LIKE what she is doing.  For example, we are keeping a little calendar that we glue the numbers onto a blank calendar template each day and he has his own little calendar that he glues things on and scribbles on.  (I don’t try to make him do it correctly at all, just kind of let him do his own thing with it.  He’s happy because it’s the same as what sister is doing.)  When we are doing math, I give him his own little handful of whatever manipulitives we are using.  When we are doing phonics, he has a little lapdesk that is both magnetic and a chalkboard that he can do magnet letters or scribble with chalk on. (Sorry, ours is a really old thing I got at a yard sale, so I can’t link to it or anything.)  We also have a little shelf in our school area with different things he can choose from to play with: simple puzzles, blocks, playdough, a basket of board books, coloring things, etc. I try to rotate them around every so often.   But mostly, I’ve found he’s he’s most content if he has something that looks like what big sister is doing!

HTH!

My 2yo (June) is a total busy body.  Most things keep her busy for about 2 minutes.  I have to keep my eyes on her 100% of the time. If I leave her to herself for even a minute she will have all the toilet paper unravled or worse!  I did find that she loves math manipulatives. She sits at the table with us and will play with them forever. I give her those and a small plastic cup and she is good to go!  We have the math u see manipulatives and the saxon k-3 ones. She loves the bears the most. I am sure tou could find these things cheeply elsewhere if you dont’ have them.  Also magnetic letters on a cookie sheet.

Mine are no longer this young, but I was watching my nephew until the beginning of this year, and his is 2.  One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to make a “busy box” for school.  These are items that are only used during school time.  I included things like sticker books, tacktile books, homemade felt board with various shapes cut out so it could be used to make a real scene or a design could be made by simply using shapes, magnets w/ an old cookie sheet, as well as coloring books and other items similar to those my school age kiddos were using.

Also while your school age child is practicing handwriting, you might try a tactile bag for your 2 yo so that he can practice his own writing on that.  Just place some tempra paint into a zip-lock baggie, press out any extra air, and viola!  He can use his finger to make his own squiggles that can be erased by simply pressing on the bag… this could also be used for your beginning writers.

If you have a sand/ water wheel you could get some rice (beans or oats work, too) and various size measuring cups, place the whole lot in a low rubbermaid tub, and allow your little one to play near you.  An old shower curtain laid on the floor with the box on top of that will help to minimize clean-up from accidental spills.  This was actually one of my nephew’s favorite things to do.