Activities for 2 Year Olds

Set a sand timer when they sit on the potty and race to finish before the sand runs out — makes sitting still a game.

Search cereal boxes and food packets for letters and familiar words — real print that your child sees every morning.

Draw a simple map of a favourite story's setting — where did the character go, and what happened at each spot?

Stomp, clap, or jump every time you hear a word that starts with a chosen sound — a whole-body phonics game.

Use sock puppets to act out a simple story your child invents — building narrative skills one scene at a time.

Take turns adding one word at a time to build the silliest sentence possible — the longer it gets, the funnier it becomes.

Turn getting dressed into an adventure — arms go through 'caves', heads pop through 'tunnels'.

Turn a colander upside down and let your child push pipe cleaners through the holes — mesmerising, independent fine motor play.

Narrate everything you see on a short walk — naming colours, objects, actions, and sounds to flood your child with new vocabulary.

Set out an ice cube tray and a bowl of small items — pompoms, beads, dried pasta — and let your child fill every compartment.

Read a picture book together but add sound effects for every animal, vehicle, and weather event — making stories multi-sensory and unforgettable.

Add drops of food colouring to puddles and mix the colours with sticks to see what happens.