Can You Find Your Knee?

TODDLER GAMES

The Toddler’s Busy Book

CAN YOU FIND YOUR KNEE?

Most of us play this game informally with our children at one time or another. Very young children often easily point to their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears when asked to do so. Encourage them to identify less common body parts including nostrils, eyelashes, fingernails, lips, throat, wrists, knees, ankles, and so on. This will stimulate the development of memory and vocabulary as well as their ability to recognize parts of the body.

ANIMAL SORT

Gather all the stuffed animals you can find. Help your toddler sort them by color or by size (using words like small, smaller, smallest, big, bigger, and biggest). Older children may want to sort them by the type of sound they make (loud, soft) or by their habitat (jungle, forest, farm).

FLASHLIGHT FUN

Shine a flashlight on different parts of a room: a wall, the door, the floor, and so on. Each time you shine the light on an object, name it: for example, “This is the bed.” Show your child how to turn the flashlight on and off. Let her shine it on various objects and name them. Give her directions to follow, such as “Shine the light on the ceiling.”

LET’S PRETEND

This activity will give your child’s large muscles a workout along with his imagination. Give your child a series of instructions such as “Let’s pretend you are an elephant. Can you walk about like a big, heavy elephant?” Try other animals and include things such as plants growing in the ground, a flower opening on a summer day, or a balloon being filled with air.

FIND THE COLOR Tell your child, “I see the color blue. Can you find it?” As you count down from ten to zero, your child must then run to touch something that includes the color you have named before you finish counting.