5 Educational Activities for Your 1 Year-Old

Hello and welcome back or welcome if you are new. I'm so happy you are here.

My son is now 14 months old and I've been very eager to start doing some educational activities with him during the week to help build his skills and spark a love for learning (what can I say, I'm a teacher). I've turned to the internet for ideas and there are great ones but none of which really suited my son at this stage in his life. There are loads of activities you can find but most of them are geared towards older toddlers.

Right now, my son is constantly putting things in his mouth or throwing them, or just destroying them in general. So, while I love the activities I see online, I just know that at this stage they are just not going to work for my 14 month-old. For a bit, I was kind of at a loss with what to do with him but I have now found some activities that I think are very engaging, educational, and fun to do with my little boy. I've taken other activities and modified them in ways that make them a lot more suitable for a young toddler such as my son.

That being said, today I'm going to be sharing with you 5 educational activities that I do with my son on a regular basis to help him learn, engage and have fun.

1. Flashcards

Flashcards are one of my favorite and probably the most frequent activity that we do. Basically, I just got a really cheap set of flashcards off of Amazon that had practical pictures printed on them. At the beginning of every week, I pick two flashcards for us to work on based on a specific theme (i.e., animals, food, transportation) and we will just focus on those flashcards for the entire week.

The way that I use them is pretty simple. Every morning when we start playtime after we read our Bible story, we will get out our two flashcards and look at them and talk about them. For example, right

now we are working on animals. This week we have a horse card and a cat card. We get them out and I'll point to each and say "This is a horse. The horse says 'neigh neigh'!" and do the same thing with the cat card. Then, I just leave the flashcards out the rest of the day and we use them as he plays. He will oftentimes come and pick them up and look at them or play with them. When he picks them up, I will do the same sort of thing "You've got the horse! The horse says 'neigh neigh'!" and my husband will do the same thing as he is sitting and playing with him as well. It really helps him to stop and think about what he is holding in his hand and reinforces the connection he is making between the picture, the word, and the sound the animal makes. This week, he has learned the horse sound, and now when we ask him what a horse says, he responds appropriately and I really think this activity has helped build that connection. I will also hold up both cards and ask him to point to one just to test his knowledge. I will also get out sets of cards we've already done just to do some maintenance on what we've already gone over.

2. Wooden Puzzles

Puzzles are a great way to build recognition, concentration, and fine motor skills. Doing puzzles together can be even more beneficial in other ways. If you're doing a puzzle with animals, you can talk about them and what sound they make. If you're doing a puzzle with different modes of transportation you can talk about what each is and what color they are. I just got this set of puzzles off of Amazon for a reasonable price and we have a lot of fun with it. My son can't really get the pieces back together but it is really good for him to match the puzzle piece with the picture it belongs to.

3. Painters Tape

This one is so simple and is really great for building fine motor skills, concentration and obedience. Literally, all you do is take some painter's tape and stick it to the wall. That's the whole show. Then our little one can just peel it off the wall. As I mentioned before, AJ puts nearly everything in his mouth, so this has been a good one to help him learn to follow directions. When he peels a piece off the wall, I give him the direction to bring it to me and most of the time he listens. Along with fine motor skills, concentration, and following directions, this activity can also foster counting and number skills. I normally do five strips of tape at a time, so as he gives them to me I will say "Okay, you have 3 more pieces to go" and continue to countdown in that way. Seriously, this is one of my favorites and it's so simple.

**ALTERNATIVE** You could also tape some toys with the tape to the wall to create a little added difficulty to the activity.

4. Stacking/Nesting Cups

Next up are stacking and nesting cups. These are super fun for a variety of reasons but especially great for motor skills and even working on counting and colors as well. AJ got this set of stacking cups for his birthday. It came in this cool set with a castle that you store the cups in (you can use it as a sandcastle mold and also stack the cups on it to make a tower) and also shapes and a lid that can be used as a shape sorter so it's a really nice setup. But, our favorite part of it is the cups.

AJ doesn't really like stacking the cups but he does like putting them inside one another. What I've been doing is just laying them all out on the table of his tool bench (he likes to do things like this at a table) and then he will practice putting them inside one another. Sometimes I will direct him to put them in order but most of the time, I just let him work on it and see what he can figure out. This is super fun for him and I love the concentration that it fosters. I also will say what color the cups are and we will count them sometimes as well.

**ALTERNATIVE** This same sort of activity could be done with a set of measuring cups as well. If you don't have or don't want to get actual stacking/nesting cups.

5. Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog

One last activity we really like is working with Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog. This helps develop just as the name suggests, fine motor skills. You can pull out Spike's quills and put them back in. The holes where the quills go are numbered so you can also practice counting. The quills are different colors as well so you can work on colors as well. Overall this is a simple activity that we really enjoy.

**ALTERNATIVE** I've seen an activity similar to this online where you just use pipe cleaners in a colander and it does the same thing. AJ got this hedgehog as a birthday gift as well and I was always worried to do the pip cleaners with him because he would just probably attempt to eat them whereas the quills are plastic and quite large so a bit safe.

And there you have it, 5 simple but educational activities to do with your 1-year-old.

I hope you've found this post helpful and it gives you some ideas of things to do with your little one.

Thank you so much for reading.

Until next time.