How to Develop a Toddler's Scientific Skills
Many toddlers love to explore their expanding world. Toddlers are forming neural connections in their brains at an enormous rate that will not be matched for the rest of their lives. Part of the developmental process is the acquisition of skills that can be applied once his formal education starts in subjects such as science. You can help expand a toddler's science skills in many ways. These include an exploration of the natural world, the development of math skills and the augmentation of his pattern recognition skills.
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Instructions
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Set up a bird feeder in your yard. Many toddlers are drawn to the quick movement of birds. To bring birds to your home, attach a bird feeder to a nearby tree. Birds can also be placed on terraces if you live in a city. Many species of birds will show up at the feeder early in the morning, so bring your toddler with you then. To attract hummingbirds to your yard plant bright red flowers in early spring. Buy a picture book of birds or some simple flashcards to teach your toddler the different species of birds.
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Clean out five jars of varying heights and widths. Drop coins into the jars one by one. Have your toddler guess how many coins are in each jar. Add other objects to the jars such as buttons or beads. Have him guess the number of items in each jar again. Smaller toddlers may not be able to guess. They can count as you drop each item into the jars.
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Purchase nontoxic finger paints. Many toddlers love exploring the world of color. Let your toddler paint designs on old paper bags. Work with the toddler to show him how colors mix together to create new shades. Use red paint on one finger and blue on another. Dab on the paper bag to show her how they combine to make purple. Do the same for other combinations of colors such as yellow and green.
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Hunt through your refrigerator and storage shelves for different-size plastic containers and cups. Fill each container and cup with varying amounts of water and then cover. Let your toddler tap each covered container with a baby spoon to listen to the sounds each different container makes.
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Cut out two of the following shapes from cardboard: circles, triangles, rectangles and squares. Color each shape a different color. Mix up the shapes and give them to your toddler. Show him that there are two of each shape. Have him match each shape. Variations of this pattern-recognition building game can be played in many different ways. Make the shapes in different colors so that you might have a pink circle and pink rectangle. Ask your toddler to match the pink items together. Make some circles big and some smaller. Have him line them up in size order.
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Tips & Warnings
Covered containers can be filled with other items instead of water such as beads and buttons.
