10 Learning Activities for Small Children

Did one of your new year’s resolutions include spending more quality time with your children? If so, this post is for you!

My son Weston is almost 4. This year, he and I have put a “Learning Time” into our daily routine. Here are some ideas and suggestions you can do with your small children.

#1 Lego Letters

Use Lego’s to build letters of the alphabet. We had so much fun doing this!

#2 Lego Counting

First I pulled out all the Lego’s the same size and then Weston sorted them by colors.

Then, I placed them in lines (showed above) and we practiced counting.
After discussing which color had the most, which one had the least, etc, then I added in the larger blocks and showed him that these represented two Lego’s. Then we counted by two’s. Then we added the two piles together to see which color had the most and which had the least.

#3 Letter Cards

One time we got a game that came with these little alphabet cards. We have used the cards so much!

I can mix these up over and over again, and he will put them back in order each time.

You can CLICK HERE for free printable alphabet flashcards from Homemade by Jill.

#4 Clock Fun

One day I found this clock at our local bookstore. It was only $1.50.

So glad I bought it! We take turns changing the hands and quizzing each other on what the clock says.

#5 Crafts

Here are a bunch of the crafts we did in October:

This week, we made a snowman:

I just used a paper punch to punch the circles out of scrap paper. Then I put glue on the paper and he stuck the circles on all over it. Then he used crayons to finish up the details. (Okay, I helped with the hat, but he did the rest. Don’t you love the purple snowflakes?)

#6 Bookshelf

Sometime I use cleaning up as an opportunity for learning time.

One time, we were picking up the books, but we ended up putting them on the shelf like three different ways before we were done! First we organized them by color, then by size, then by alphabetizing them.

I love simple teaching moments.

#7 Globe Lesson

This was actually a Family Home Evening lesson given by my husband.

It was so fun to show Weston a visual to learn about the sun, earth, and moon.

#8 Use what you have

We have these little wooden animals that I used for our Learning Time one day.

I wrote the first letters of the animals on the paper, and he had to match up the animal to the correct letter.

#9 Counting with Snacks

Like I said, use what you have.

This particular day I put 60 raisins to represent seconds in a minute, 60 M&Ms to represent minutes in an hour, 24 Cheerio’s to represent hours in a day, etc. It went a little over his head… but he enjoyed counting the snacks before he ate them!

#10 Writing Letters

This white board and marker was a gift from Grandma!

It has served as many Learning Times as well as quiet time in church!

You can find things similar to this to purchase HERE.

I hope your child will enjoy these ideas as much as mine did! And remember, anything you’re doing together can be a learning experience. From cleaning together, to playing Go Fish, it’s the one-on-one time together that makes it memorable.