Bad weather? Try out today this simple and fun educational indoor activity. It’s great to practice not only gross motor and fine motor skills but also early math skills.

Moreover, it has two more benefits. First, the activity is limited and can be completed in 3-4 minutes, so a 2-year-old should be able to concentrate on this particular activity and repeat it. Science suggests, that a normal attention span is 3 to 5 minutes per year of a child’s age. Second, despite its simplicity, the activity allows your toddler to realise mistakes on their own and discover a solution on their own.
Materials
You need only 2 simple things, that you probably have already at home:
- Numbers or Alphabet Puzzles Mat.
- A basket.
How does this educational indoor activity work?
First, build together with your toddler a hopscotch with the puzzles mat tiles.
Then, let them pop-out the puzzle pieces (in our case the numbers) and place them in the basket. When they are done, ask them to jump like a rabbit and search for the numbers in the basket.
Of course the goal is pretty simple – they need to place the right number into the right puzzle tile.
The activity allows your little one to assess whether they have done it correctly or not. They can see it easily by themselves. Therefore, no need to tell them that they made a mistake if they did. Avoid it anyway, so your little one doesn’t feel negatively judged by you.
Finally, they can hop again and count to 10.
And that’s it. It can be repeated as long as they like.
Here is an example how it goes in our case.
Benefits of the Match the Numbers Activity
- Practice Gross Motor Skills
- Practice Fine Motor Skills
- Practice Counting
- Timely limited activity for short attention spans
- Control of error on their own.
Looking for more fun indoor toddler activities? Check out these ones here!
Happy Playing!