Sorting for toddlers

Play a sorting game with your child’s own toys. Familiar categories might be dogs, cats, farm animals and those exciting jungle animals (wow, an elephant!). Talk with your child about all the places you’ve seen dogs and any dogs you know. Think about the stuffed animals in the toy box, the animals she’s seen in story and picture books, trips to the zoo, walks around the block and trips in the car. Sometimes the dogs have names—especially favorite stuffed animals, neighborhood dogs and dogs found in picture books—and sometimes they don’t. Either way, you can talk about what kind of dog it is and play a game by sorting all of these various dogs into categories. This can be based on color (black, white), overall size (big, small), size of tail or legs (long, short) or even breed (dachshund, poodle). Have fun coming up with your own categories!