Brain Development Activities for 2-3 Year Olds

Brain development activities for 2 year olds are vital tools that help improve them mentally and physically, just like educational games for 2 year olds.

For sure, brain development activities for 3 year olds function as a brain improvement booster, too. Similar to having a healthy sleeping routine and diet, these beneficial learning games for 2-3 year olds we've collected together are quite important for their development.

Brain Development Games for 2 - 3 Year Olds

All parents should know that not every game can be considered brain development games for 2-3 year olds. Here are some of the best learning games for 2-3 year olds that can make a real difference!

Brain Development Activities for 2 Year Olds

Children need mental support during their developmental period. Brain development games for 2 year olds and learning games for 2 year olds give them this support and help them to boost their skills by playing appropriate baby games.

If you choose the right 2 year old brain development activities, you both improve their abilities and allow them to spend their time efficiently when having fun at the same time with these baby learning games.

To support your children’s cognitive development in this crucial stage, you can benefit from entertaining and improving learning activities and learning games for 2 year olds as in the following.

1. Shape Sorter

It is a toy that includes different geometric shapes and color blocks to let children sort them in the matching shape holes in the box sorter as one of the best learning games for 2 year old.

The shape sorter boxes that have many colorful and physically similar shapes (5-10 pieces) are suitable for toddlers, but they also can be played with as baby games under parents' supervision. This toy helps your child to develop reasoning skills, visual intelligence, and eye-hand coordination skills just like learning activities for 2 year olds should do.

Also, you can put these blocks on paper and draw their shapes together with your child. When you want them to find and place the correct blocks on the correct drawings, you support your child in understanding the differences between flat surfaces and space (the concepts of height and depth).

The shape sorter is very useful among other brain development activities for 2 year olds.

2. Play Sets

You can get play sets that include kitchenware or hand tools. By setting the table together and putting cups, plates, forks, and spoons according to the number of people on the table develops number concepts.

Performing various duties with hand tools and similar toys helps children develop their vocabulary, and they learn how to group objects. Keep in mind that this is one of the best sensory brain development activities for 2 year olds.

Kids’ tendency to follow your suggestions and orders increases during the game. So, they also learn how to follow directions.

While they are playing with such toys, they act as a mechanic, doctor, mother, and some others. This provides a significant increase in imagination. These kinds of home learning games for 2 year olds play an important role in learning.

Also, there are lots of other games to play at home here. Don’t skip without visiting the best alternatives of games to play at home and ice breaker games for kids!

3. Picture Cropping-Voice Acting

You can crop and group pictures of various objects from magazines or unused books.

You can contribute to the development of the reasoning skills of your child by categorizing animals, cars, and people separately. Separating things into different groups enables them to develop their categorization skills.

You can act on the voices of cropped pictures that you put together. For instance, you can act cat or dog voices and ask your child to repeat after you. It develops the sensitivity for the identification of different voices as one of the greatest learning games for 2 year olds!

Don’t forget to stick these pictures into a notebook while playing picture cropping and voice acting game.

4. MentalUP Learning Games for 2-3 Year Olds

2 and 3 year old brain development activities are very important for the children’s attention, memory, and logic skills.

Certified kids apps like MentalUP are helpful for kids’ developmental process. Because the award-winning app MentalUP has 150+ boosting games and mental exercises, you can be sure that your children don’t get bored and have all the support according to their age group.

In MentalUP, you can also compare your kids’ scores with their peers and track their progress. Look at the intellectual development activities for 1-2-year-olds and cognitive development activities for 2-3-year-olds to choose the appropriate one.

In a short while, you can see how your children improve, and their abilities boost. Moreover, if your kids need to spend their energy off, MentalUP offers them a daily fitness program that assists their physical growth.

5. Dress Up Games

Dress Up game is one the most entertaining cognitive activities for 2 year olds. During this learning game, your children’s creativity, attention, and decision-making skills are improved.

Moreover, keep in mind that your kids’ social skills will be boosted. They can play it by themselves or with their friends and siblings.

Brain development activities for 2 year olds need to be fun and developing at the same time for your kids not to be bored easily. Dress Up embodies these features. Also, you don’t need lots of equipment for these kinds of child brain development activities. It will be enough if you just pile up the dresses you or your kids have.

6. Simon Says

The well-known “Simon Says” game is one of the other examples of fun learning activities for 2 year olds.

In this popular game, you don’t need any equipment but if you want this game to be more entertaining you can use a puppet. Because it is simple and developing at the same time, it is among the appropriate cognitive learning games for 2-3 year olds.

When you play this game with your kids, you need to start with simple directions such as “Simon says, touch your arms” for your children to adapt better.

After a while, you can continue with more complicated instructions. During the game, your kids’ gross motor and language skills are developed.

7. Word Games

Brain development activities for 2 year olds are very crucial for their vocabulary and speaking skills. If you support them with fun and improving activities during their developmental process, they can start speaking and expressing themselves easily.

Word games that you can play with suitable sets or equipment you will do by yourselves help your kids to develop. The most important tip for these learning games for 2 year olds is for the game to be engaging. If you don’t have any toys for it to use, you can make a colorful board.

8. Puzzles

Puzzles are one of the most appropriate brain development activities for toddlers.

Because they are tailored for special age groups, you can use whichever you want according to your kids’ needs and interests. Puzzles are among the important right brain development activities for babies and 2 year old kids.

If you need activities to do with a 2-year-old kid, you can choose puzzles for their mental development. Colorful puzzles are both fun to play with and improve motor skills. Also, they are known as the best toys that develop children’s coordination abilities.

Try to use puzzles as learning games for 1 year old baby and 2 year baby brain development activities and see the improvement for yourself. Remember, there are many developing puzzles such as tangram puzzles for 2 year-olds. We’ve prepared a guide that is easy to use for you.

9. Face Painting

When you need easy learning activities for 2 year olds, you can use your imagination.

Face painting is one of the most popular examples among brain development activities for 2 year olds that you can use your creativity, have fun and learn together. This game encourages your children to be interested in the arts.

For this activity, you just need the right paintings that are appropriate for the face. Unless you are careful about it, keep in mind that your kids’ skin can be allergic.

After you find the right equipment will be time for you and your kids to have fun and develop. Face painting has been one of the best intellectual learning games for 2-3 year olds.

10. Outdoor Activities

Other than indoor activities, there are lots of alternative 2 year old baby brain development activities you can do outdoors.

For example, going for a picnic or walk in the park can be both developing and entertaining for kids. These kinds of learning activities for 2 year old kids can be very stimulating and improving.

In this way, you will have a chance to bond with your children outside, have fun and freshen up together. When you don’t have any other choices for brain development activities for 2 year old kids, you can always go outside together and explore nature.

11. Cooking Together

Cooking or making a snack together is one of the best activities for 2 years olds at home.

Don’t forget 2 years baby learning activities aren’t limited to complicated toys or playsets. You can always have fun together by doing some errands.

Educational activities for 2-year-olds at home develop your children’s responsibility. In this way, they start to feel useful.

Also, these kinds of 2 year old brain development activities are very important for kids’ gross motor skills. You can just make popsicles, muffins, or other simple things together.

12. Blowing Bubbles

Maybe you don’t think blowing bubbles has an effect on your kids’ abilities but it’s wrong. Actually, it has an important role in developing creativity, and mathematical intelligence as one of the best brain development activities for 2 year old.

Also, when your child starts to blow bubbles, he/she will definitely be curious about how it exists. In this way, you can make your children interested in science.

If you want this experience to be more magical, you can use glitter or paints. Keep in mind that you can change 2 year old baby brain development activities according to your kids’ needs.

You can go outside, for example, to the park near your building or the garden to explore the world together with your children when having fun.

13. Mirror Game

Mirrors are always very interesting for kids. Because they just start to see and identify themselves, looking at the mirror can be adventurous.

You can use this to your advantage and play a mirror game. Toddler brain development activities like this one are both simple and useful.

You need to look at the mirror together with your kid to play this game. When you look at the reflection, you can talk to him or her to develop social-emotional skills.

It will lead them to self-discovery. In this process, you should help them to describe what they might see and encourage them to smile.

14. Scribbling

Some brain development activities for 2 year old kids are just about giving them a free space where they can feel independent.

In this way, their small muscle skills and hand-eye coordination improve efficiently. Because you don’t need complicated equipment to do this activity, it can be defined as one of the most simple but effective 2-year baby brain development activities.

When they get bored, you can give them a big piece of paper, colorful crayons, or other kinds of paints and ask them to draw whatever they want. Also, if you give them a limited amount of time and tell them to control it when it is over, they will feel more excited.

After the scribbling is over, you can talk about its details together and make up a story that is related to the work.

15. Finger Painting

Finger painting is one of the most entertaining brain development activities for 2 year olds.

It helps children to develop their imagination, coordination, and creativity. It is a sensory experience because they use their own fingers. Apart from painting done with brushes, finger painting is much more improving.

When you give your child the right materials, such as paints that can be used for finger painting, or a big empty piece of paper, they start to explore the colorful world by themselves.

You can also prefer to give them sand or other textured materials to boost this sensory experience. Don’t mind the paints on their skin and allow them to be free to maximize the effects of brain development activities for kids.

Brain Development Activities for 3 Year Olds

3 year old kids are able to learn to take responsibility according to their capabilities. They are very curious, and they ask a lot of questions all the time. Their memory skills tend to be improved over time; therefore, brain development games for 3 year olds are important for them.

These beneficial thinking games can be supported with various activities. Activities such as coloring books, storybook reading, narration, drawing, and imitation games, and also, PE games such as playing on the playground provide physical development as well as mental agility.

If you can find good learning games for 3 year olds, you can accelerate the developmental process of your kids. The following 3 years old learning games are suitable for toddlers at this age!

1. Matching Cards

It is possible to make positive contributions to your child’s mental development processes, such as memory development and comparing ability with memory matching card games which are also known as smart cards.

There are many varieties of these cards in the market. For example, You may align 8 cards upside down which include 2 same cards for each on the table, and want your child to match the same cards.

You should turn the cards around immediately when your child can't match two cards that are opened one after another. Then, your child will try to memorize cards to find the matching cards in order to be successful.

Also, you may give cards to your child while you are keeping the same ones with you too. Then, you ask your child to show the right card according to your description. This is one of the most popular 3 year old baby brain development activities.

2. Balance Toys

For adults, a three-wheeled bicycle may seem pointless for developing balance, but it is one of the most important tools for kids at the age of 3.

While kids are riding a three-wheeled bicycle, they will face some of the difficulties, such as losing the balance of the three-wheeled bicycle, and they will learn to cope with these kinds of difficulties over a period of time. In this way, kids’ concentration and balance abilities will develop.

Also, they learn to be more careful when they hit something every time. As you can guess, brain development activities for 3 year olds like this also provide children to improve attention skills.

You can also ask your child to park the bike in a parking area by specifying certain lines because parking supports geometric and mathematical intelligence development.

3. MentalUP Brain Development Games for 2-3 Year Olds

Here is the best suggestion to support your toddlers’ brain development: MentalUP!

MentalUP offers 150+ learning games and 240+ physical education games for preschoolers! Also, the award-winning app features different tracking tools to analyze your kid’s development according to their peers.

Improve your kid’s all cognitive skills like attention, memory, logic, visual intelligence, and verbal intelligence. Plus, with balance, strength, cardio, and fun exercises, let them grow mentally and physically!

4. Toy Blocks

Toy blocks are among other fun activities that are beneficial for preschool toddlers as with their 3-D and colorful structures.

Toy blocks help children who try to combine small pieces together and make a bigger model improve their problem-solving and analytical thinking skills. When you use these kinds of brain development activities for 3 year olds, they start to improve quickly.

While your children are playing with toy blocks, you may also accompany them to expand their visions by building different models. On the other hand, do not forget to congratulate them on the structures they built. So, you can encourage them to explore the world outside thanks to learning activities for 3 year olds.

5. Number Hunt

This fun game is very beneficial for kids because it helps them to start learning numbers as one of the best 3 year old brain development activities. In this way, their mathematical intelligence develops.

To play this game, you don’t need much equipment. You can use teddy bears or building blocks. You can ask your kids to find the objects you choose at a designated time and support them by counting the objects. In a short while, you will see how they start to count by themselves.

6. Making Necklaces

Making things together and spending time crafting improve your children’s coordination skills.

You may think that this activity can be more entertaining for girls, but if you use different items like pasta, you can be sure that both girls and boys are interested in these kinds of free learning games for 3 year olds.

Cognitive activities for 3-year-olds like this will help them to develop their imagination. You can change the game by using different objects that your child is interested in, and when you are done playing, if you keep this as a trophy, your kids will feel successful.

Thanks to creative learning activities for 3 year old kids, your children can be little artists and spend their time effectively.

7. Trace Hands and Feet

For this fun brain development activity, you just need crayons and paper. Painting is very beneficial for kids, but when they paint tracing their own hands or feet, their motor skills are developed much more.

When choosing the best learning games for 3 year olds, you need to take this into consideration. Because they can easily be bored with simple painting.

Giving your kids an empty piece of paper and asking them to trace their own bodies will open up their horizons.

Brain boosting activities for 3 year olds like this one are excellent ways to practice their grip on items. You can also ask them to trace their whole body when they are done with their hands and feet.

8. Coloring Pages

If your children are into paint and artsy stuff, you can make them spend more time coloring.

After trying tracing hands and feet, you can give them coloring pages and printables. In this way, they can both have fun and improve their hand-eye coordination skills.

You can find these printables from almost all the related pages on the internet, or if you want things to be more exciting, you can print them together with your kids according to their wishes.

Coloring pages are one of the most popular brain development activities for 3 year olds. This way, your kids become more familiar with objects and other stuff.

For example, if he or she colors an ocean with the creatures inside, they will learn their names, colors, and shapes. You can vary the printable toddler learning games you use and expand their world.

9. Sponge Letters Game

This game is especially for kids who love water. But you can also use it to endear water to your children.

You just need colorful sponges. After you cut them as colorful letters, you can play with them during bath time together with your kids. In this way, you can teach the alphabet to your children.

This game is among the best brain activities for 3-year-old kids. When you play together, they will both learn the letters and develop their vocabulary. If you need learning activities for 3 year olds to use during bath time, you should definitely try this one.

10. Alphabet Playdough

If your kids don’t like to spend much time during bath time, you can always try other learning games for 3 year olds to teach them letters.

Alphabet playdough is one of the best examples of learning activities for 3 year olds. You can help your children to develop their motor skills, attention, and vocabulary in this way.

Sometimes kids, especially boys, need different 3 years baby boy activities to play with. Playdough is an interesting and fun material for them to use their hands.

You can shape letters together from playdough and use them. Brain development activities for 3 year olds like this one can be continued by coloring letters and singing songs about them.

11. Indoor Camping

Camping is always one of the popular 3 years old learning activities because all the children want to have an adventure like this.

But sometimes it isn’t so easy to go camping with all the equipment. In this situation, you can try indoor camping to have fun and explore nature at home.

Brain development activities for 3 year olds at home can be made challenging and exciting for kids by using some stuff such as blankets, books, toys, etc.

If you create a natural space for children to have fun and learn indoors, you can spend time together cozily. You can use learning games for 3-year-olds to make this experience more fun.

12. Climbing

Brain development activities for 3-year-olds are very crucial for children’s developmental process, and physical exercises are an essential part of it.

Climbing outside or indoors is one of the best brain development activities for 3-year-olds. Don’t think it is a climbing activity because kids love to climb everything they see, such as tables, chairs, trees, or a little rock.

When they feel free to move, they start to be more confident, powerful, and physically active. In this way, they can sleep better at night, get up an appetite and become calmer because they spend their energy effectively.

Keep in mind that some child brain development activities don’t need to be complicated and give space to your kids to climb.

13. Playing in the Garden

Nature always soothes kids. It helps them to understand the earth we live on and calm their mind by getting rid of the stimulants in the modern-day such as smartphones, tablets, and computers.

3 year old brain development activities that are done outside are very important for their reflection of the animals, plants, and all living creatures.

If you don’t have a private garden, you don’t need to worry because you can go for a walk in the park with your kid or you can plant flowers at home together.

What matters in these kinds of brain development games for 3 year olds is the connection with nature. Let them make their hands dirty in the soil and discover it by themselves.

14. Building Fort

Building things is very interesting and fun for almost all the children. Brain development activities for 3 year olds like this one develop their multiple intelligences, such as spatial intelligence, planning, and problem-solving skills.

Before they start to construct, you can tell them a story to support their project, and when it is over, you can talk about it together. There are so many different things like toys, household goods, or playsets for this activity.

Building a fort is one of the best alternatives among 2 and 3 year old baby brain development activities so that your children can spend their time effectively and exercise both physically and mentally.

If you want to enhance the game, you can give pillows, blankets, and other stuff for your kids to use in building a big indoor fort. You will see how they love to spend time there.

15. Mealtime Game

Mealtimes are really important for kids in the developmental process because it provides children to have a connection with food.

If you push them to eat or feed them, this may harm their relationship with foods. You can encourage them with brain development activities for 3 year olds such as mealtime games, to make this process more entertaining and beneficial.

You can try to prepare pancakes with a smiling face or teddy bear-shaped cookies together. Then when they eat them, you can tell them a story about it. Also, this can help them to stay away from watching cartoons during the eating process.

Mealtime games like this will develop their senses, such as taste, smell, and touch as well as strengthen their neural pathways in the brain.