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23 to 32 Months:

Learn about colors: sort blocks, socks, clothes by color, saying the color word many times.

Show your toddler different uses for the same thing: dig with a spoon, eat with a spoon.

Make stories longer, and try different books more often.

Knob puzzles with 1-5 pieces are fun, but so is dropping buttons or dry macaroni into small plastic bottles.

Finger painting and fat crayons are treats and good learning tools.

Make everything an adventure; your toddler loves enthusiasm. Do exercises together, with or without TV help.

Begin to tell your toddler about plans for the day, such as shopping and doctors' visits, before you go.

Your toddler thinks chores are a game. Enjoy it and praise lavishly when your toddler picks up toys, puts clothes in the basket, or puts things in the trash for you.

Make faces in the mirror together and describe how the two of you look.

Explore with hands: half fill a dishpan with beans, rice or sand and practice shoveling, pouring, dumping and funneling.

28 to 38 Months:

Begin the public library habit. There are tape stories and books for check out. There are also story hours which delight the children and allow parents time to browse the books or just listen and rest.

Act out songs, learn songs with actions, and make up your own songs

Build things with blocks, Duplo, pillows, or pencils.

Pretend to be an animal and live under the table.

Crayons or fat magic markers on old newspaper make wonderful pictures.

Puzzles with 5-10 pieces are about right.

Go on a walk and look at bugs, sticks, or interesting rocks. Talk about everything you see.

Play copy cat with your body and your words.

String cheerios or fruit loops on a string for a beautiful good-tasting necklace.

Play with bubbles and plastic dishes in the sink. Put down the plastic tablecloth and play with dry rice and beans with scoops and cups.

Say-sing nursery rhymes and counting songs.

Read your favorite stories; let your child fill in frequent words of the story.

Make up your own songs to match whatever you are doing.

Identify and sing songs about parts of the body: eyes, knees, nose, feet, hands, ears.

Talk about time passage, things that are past and things that are in the future.

Play action games with hopping and skipping.

Ripping and tearing is a fun natural desire at this age, so provide scrap paper and old newspaper to avoid having books and magazines shredded.

Make sure your child sees you read. Don't always save your own books and reading for when your child sleeps.

35 to 46 Months:

Offer choices whenever it's realistic: Do you want to brush your teeth before your bath or do you want to take your bath first?

Help your child choose his/her own clothes in the morning.

Enjoy any kind of arts and crafts: drawing, painting, cutting, and gluing.

Let your questioner choose a book and tell you the story from the pictures.

Make a book from paper and pictures cut from a magazine.

Read a familiar story, but add something silly. Let your child catch your mistakes and tell you the way it should be.

Tape your child's made-up stories; you'll enjoy listening to them later.

Singing and dancing in costume is a special treat. Play Follow the Leader and Simon Says.

Plan and pretend how to act in new places and situations.

Help your child share with others, but allow him/her to have one thing he/she doesn't have to share with his/her friends.

Since fantasy is more elaborate, puppets and stuffed animals can be animals in the jungle, in the zoo, or kings at a tea party.

Help your child notice the seasons and the changes in nature.

Talk, pretend, and discuss feelings a lot - feelings your child has and feelings others have. Being able to pretend you are someone else is the first step in understanding others and being able to get along and share.

Call a friend on the phone.

Dress all in one color and look for that color all day everywhere you go.

Make rock animals with rocks and magic markers; glue-on eyes are a real treat.

Sort your little toys into coffee cans, animals in one, trucks in another.

With vanilla wafers and a tube of frosting, make face cookies for dessert.

Squeeze your own orange juice.

Look at family pictures. Discuss ages and relations.

Doctor your baby doll or stuffed animal before going to the doctor's office.

Buy different colored dried beans to use for sorting into egg cartons, glue-on art projects, and counting.

Crayons or fat magic markers on old newspaper make wonderful pictures.

Puzzles with 5-10 pieces are about right.

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