Easy Low Prep Tray Activities for 1-3 Year Olds

I am often asked by other parents for advise on what activities to give to their kids when they find out that I homeschool. I have tons of ideas and best of all, most of them require what you already have in your house. Here are a few Montessori-inspired activities for your toddlers. 

Sorting Letters

This is a simple activity that teaches letter identification, letter order, colors and counting. These are wooden letters. There are about 5 pieces of each letter. Put the letters in a bowl or jar and ask your child to put them in the correct box, arranging them in order from A to Z. Even my 3-year old who already knows how to read still had a blast doing this activity. Actually, he was the one who came up with the idea. He dumped all the letters on the bed and proceeded arranging them in the boxes. 

Car Sorting

This is an activity that is a super hit with my child. Of course, since he loves cars. I used to have a couple dozen of these small cars and they come in different colors - red, blue, green, yellow and purple. We don't have the others anymore but I was demonstrating this activity for my SIL for them to give to their son. They have these cars as well. 

So, what you do is get several bowls, same number as the color of your cars and then put a sticker or a paper in the same color like in the photo. I put red and blue. I didn't bother putting out a green bowl as this was just an example. Then put the cars in a small basket (this one is a hotdog basket) and tell your child to sort them. 

Letter Sorting using Foam Letter Tiles

This is another letter activity that is fun and teaches your child to identify letters, put them in order and gives them some fine motor practice as a bonus. You can take out the letters or ask your child to take out the letters and put them in a bowl. Arrange the tiles in order. For older kids, ask them to connect the tiles in order. Then proceed with putting back the letters. You can also do this with number tiles. While I was preparing this activity, my son started to put the letters back into the tiles. He had a good 20-30 minutes with this activity even though he already played this activity many times when he was younger.

That's it for my easy, low prep activities. Let me know if you do any of these activities with your child in the comments below. Stay tuned for more activities for your homeschool!