Toddler Activities

Toddlers at their age do not have the understanding and capability of time value. For them, there’s no time like the present. In fact, there's no time but the present. The words like yesterday, last night, tomorrow, today, in a minute, later on are all relatively meaningless terms. Minutes are no different from hours, and hours no different from days. You can’t expect a toddler to rush when you say “hurry” or be patient when you say “wait”.

Midway through the second year, most toddlers are focusing on “now”. Past and future are still beyond their comprehension. “Now” is when they want to play, want to have some fruits, want to go out, and want to get to the car. But as the second birthday approaches, there’s a big jump in time knowledge, and toddlers begin to understand when you say “soon” or “later”. By the age of three, there’s further progress, as such concepts as “today”, “yesterday”, and “tomorrow” become separate entities. Many toddlers use “last night” to refer to anything that happened in the past; some will also convincingly talk about “tomorrow”, but the true comprehension of tomorrow doesn’t usually come for another year or two. And since it isn’t until about age six that the concept of time as a continuous line really becomes clear, it won’t be until the early school years that a clock will hold any significance for a toddler. However, in the meantime, parents can help the learning process along with these timely tips:

Be a two- (or three-) timer. Talk to your toddler by using more than one way to describe the same time whenever possible – “We’ll read this book in the afternoon, right after your nap”, or “In the morning, after breakfast, we’ll go to the market to buy groceries” – With the older toddler, you can start mention the hour – “We’ll read this book in the afternoon, at 2 o’clock, right after your nap”