The time has come to keep the toddler busy during school.  I’ve always had to keep him occupied, of course, but now I’m finding the need for an arsenal of ideas so that school can flow smoothly.  Well, as smoothly as school can flow with a toddler in the house.

I hope you’ve noticed the toddler section I added to the far sidebar.  I found all sorts of great ideas from the links that should keep my active and inquisitive two-year-old busy for at least a little while.  Here are some of the things I’ve prepared.

A bookshelf full of books just for him.  Board books, hardcovers and softcovers.  Almost all of it living literature because there’s no sense in even reading twaddle to a toddler!

A list of fingerplays, nursery rhymes and songs posted on the wall so I’m not stuck when the time comes.

EFL Fingerplays

Dinosaur Fingerplays

NNCC Fingerplays Plus

Preschool Rainbow Fingerplays

Rhymes and Fingerplays

Wikipedia Nursery Rhyme List

Preschool Express Songs

Preschool Educations Songs

A CD player with preschool-friendly CD’s in the schoolroom.

Toddler Tunes

Preschool Songs

100 Singalong Songs for Kids

Action Bible Songs

Silly Songs

Toddler activity bags and boxes ready to go at a moment’s notice.  I’ve stashed them on a high shelf so he doesn’t have access to them.  It’s partly to keep the activities fresh and partly to keep him from destroying them!

I’ll probably do an activity bag post soon.  Remind me if I forget!

Imaginative toys.  For the moment, they are placed around the room in “centers”, but I’m sure they’ll all be jumbled in one big mess before the first week of the new school year is over with.  What sorts of imaginative centers could you put together for a two year old?

Easy dress up – hats, big shoes without heels, big shirts, old Halloween costumes

A toy barn with lots of animals and tractors (or any Little People set)

Toy cars with a little “town” to drive through

A play kitchen with pots, pans and play food

A wooden train set

Blocks of any sort – my favorite – foam blocks, wooden blocks and bristle blocks

A cheap toy electric piano and other simple instruments

Toddler-safe art supplies – including crayons, washable markers, finger paints, watercolors, paintbrushes, rollers, play dough & cookie cutters, safety scissors, glue sticks, lots of paper scraps, coloring books and two Christmas gifts her received that I’m very excited about – a Aquadoodle Wall Mat and Crayola Color Wonder Coloring Book.  Just in case you’re wondering, the art supplies will always be supervised.  No (more) crayon colored walls for me!  By the way, Magic Erasers are a wonderful invention!!

Giggles computer games

I’ll be excited for you to add wonderful ideas to my list!  Homeschooling with toddlers is challenging, but I’m not defeated (yet!)