Learning Games for 2 - 3 Years Olds

Before we start to talk about the suggestions on brain development activities for 2-3-year-olds, we would like to remind you of something important.

Educational games for 2-year-olds are a vital tool and help improve them in many ways. Games for 2-year-olds and toys that are appropriate for their age provide physical and mental development for the kids who always need spending energy off.

Also, educational games for 3-year-olds function as a brain improvement booster. Don’t forget they are essential as their sleeping routine and diet.

In this article, we will give you suggestions about various games, toys, and some objects that children can play with. We recommend that you should print this page out and share it with your family to play the most popular ice breaker games for kids whole together.

Learning Games for 2 Year Olds

Children need mental support during their developmental period. Learning games for 2-year-olds support give them this support and help them to boost their skills.

If you choose the right educational games for 2-year-olds, you both improve their abilities and provide them to spend their time efficiently when having fun at the same time with these brain games for 2-year-olds.

Learning Games for 3 Year Olds

All the parents want their kids to be smart and sharp. Educational games for 3-year-olds help your children to improve. You can use learning games for 3-year-olds to help your kids to boost their mental skills.

Keep in mind that these brain games for 3-year-olds will entertain your children when providing support in the meantime.

Fun Learning Activities for 2 Year Olds

Children need to have an effective developmental period by means of the appropriate activities for 2-3-year-olds.

Even if you don’t notice in the beginning, the age of 2 is a very important time when your kids start to improve at a faster pace. Children’s attention, memory, and other mental skills begin to develop in this process.

After a while, you will definitely see that your 2-year-old babies start to point things out when they are asked. Also, they begin to recognize the time concept.

You can distinguish that your kids aren’t little babies anymore, and they start to grow.

If you want to support your children’s cognitive development in this crucial stage, you can benefit from entertaining and improving 2-year-old learning activities 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.

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 by those who are younger. This toy helps your child to develop reasoning skills, visual intelligence and, eye-hand coordination skills.

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 to understand the differences between flat surface and space (the concepts of height and depth).

The shape sorter is very useful among other activities for 2-years old kids.

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 activities for 2-year-olds.

Kids’ tendency to follow your suggestions and orders increases during the game. So, they also learn how to follow the 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. Various home games play an important role in learning for 2-year-olds babies.

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.

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 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 sensitiveness for the identification of different voices.

Do not forget to stick these pictures into a notebook while playing picture cropping and voice acting game. So, you will be ready for the next game.

4. Dress Up Games

Dress Up game is one the best entertaining cognitive activities for 2-year-olds. During this 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.

Educational 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 game embodies these features. Also, you don’t need lots of equipment for this activity. If you just pile up the dresses you or your kids have, it will be enough.

5. Simon Says

The well-known “Simon Says” game is one of the other examples of fun 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 activities 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.

6. 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 express 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 activities 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.

7. Puzzles

Puzzles are one of the most appropriate brain-boosting activities for 2-year-olds.

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 activities for 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 improving regarding motor skills. Also, they are known as the best toys that develop children’s coordination abilities.

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

8. Face Painting

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

Face painting is one of the most popular examples among 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, it will be time for you and your kids to have fun and develop. Face painting has been one of the best intellectual development activities for 2-3-year-olds.

9. Outdoor Activities

Other than indoor 2-year-old development activities there are lots of alternatives you can do outdoor.

For example, going for a picnic or walk in the park can be both developing and entertaining for kids. These kinds of 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 of brain development activities for 2-year-old kids, you can always go outside together and explore nature.

10. 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.

Fun Learning Activities for 3 Year Olds

3-year-old children are able to learn to take responsibilities 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, especially during these ages. Therefore, 3-year-old brain development activities are very important for them in this process.

If you can find good activities for 3-year olds, you can accelerate the developmental process of your kids. 3-year-olds children can memorize short poems and read them.

They can focus on a job for about 3-4 min. The following 3-year-old baby brain development activities, games, and toys 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 games used for memory development.

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 ability 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 provides 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. Toy Blocks

Toy blocks are among other fun activities that are beneficial for pre-school 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 cognitive 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 developmental activities for 3-year-olds.

4. Number Hunt

This fun game is very beneficial for kids because it helps them to start learning numbers. In this way, their mathematical intelligence develops.

We can say that it is one of the best alternatives of educational activities for 3-year-olds at home. 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 in a designated time being and support them by counting the objects. In a short while, you will see how they start to count by themselves.

5. Making Necklaces

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

You can think that it is appropriate for girls but if you use different items like pasta you can be sure that both girls and boys are interested. 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 activities for 3-year-old kids, your children can be little artists and spend their time effectively.

6. Trace Hands and Feet

For this fun 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 educational activities for your kids, you need to take this into consideration. Because they can easily be bored from 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 hands and feet.

7. 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 excited, you can print them together with your kids according to their wishes.

Coloring pages are one of the most popular 3-year-old development activities. 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 printables you use and expand their world.

8. Sponge Letters Game

This game is especially for the 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 in bath time, you should definitely try this one.

9. Alphabet Playdough

If your kids don’t like to spend much time during bath time, you can always try other 3-year-old educational activities to teach them letters.

Alphabet playdough is one of the best examples of it. 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. Learning activities for 3-year-olds like this one can be continued by coloring letters and singing songs about them.

10. Indoor Camping

Camping is always one of the popular 3 years old 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.

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 games and activities for 3-year-olds to make this experience more fun.

Brain Development Activities for 2 - 3 Year Olds

All beneficial thinking games for 2- 3-year-olds that we mentioned above can be supported with various activities. Activities such as coloring books, storybook reading, narration, drawing, and imitation games are important for children's mental development.

Also, active games such as playing on the playground provide physical development as well as mental agility

Especially, playing house is one of the most restful games for kids at the ages of both 2 and 3. Acting various characters and behaving in the way that the character needs will provide mental development, and on the other hand, the child will be discharged psychologically while playing house.

1. MentalUP Cognitive Development Activities for 2-3 Year Olds

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

Certified kids apps like MentalUP can be helpful about it. You can use it for kids’ developmental process. Because it has 150+ boosting games and mental exercises, you can be sure that your children don’t get bored and has 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.

2. Blowing Bubbles

Maybe you don’t think blowing bubbles have an effect on your kids’ abilities but you are wrong because actually, it has an important role in developing creativity, mathematical intelligence.

Also when your child starts to blow bubbles, he or she will definitely be curious about how it exists. In this way, you can make your children are 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 3-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.

3. 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 developmental 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 because they spend their energy effectively, become calmer.

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

4. 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. Cognitive development activities for 3-4-year-olds 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 their 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.

5. Finger Painting

Finger painting is one of the most entertaining developmentally appropriate 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 the painting done by 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, 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.

6. Playing in the Garden

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

2-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 cognitive development activities for 2-year-olds is the connection with nature. Let them make their hands dirty in the soil and discover it by themselves.

7. Building Fort

Building things is very interesting and fun for almost all the children. Brain development activities for 2-year-olds like this one develop their 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. For this activity, so many different things like toys, household goods, or playsets.

Building a fort is one of the best alternatives among 2-year-old baby brain development activities 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.

8. 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.

9. 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 can harm their relationship of eating. You can courage them with 2-year-old cognitive development activities 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.

10. Role Play

Kids like to play different roles theatrically. If you provide the right equipment and materials for these role plays, you can help them to improve their creativity and imagination when they are exploring the world outside.

2-year-old brain development activities like this one will empower the connection between your kids and society. In this way, they can adjust to the environment around them.

Because the options are endless in these kinds of games, you can support them when your children want to be a nurse, doctor, witch, or characters they are interested in.

You can also use these games to teach them animals by offering them to be a veterinarian or other occupations they may want to go in for in the future.