Give your toddler a bowl full of four different kinds of beads. In addition, give her tweezers and four empty, smaller bowls. After showing her how to hold the tweezers correctly, ask her to use the tweezers to sort the beads into the four smaller bowls. This exercise builds fine motor control and you can use it as a segue to a lesson on the names of colors or counting skills. Small beads are a choking hazard and sharp tweezers can cause injury, so supervise your toddler well during this activity.
Introduce your tot to ruler-based measurement using homemade playdough. Engage your child in mixing together 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of oatmeal and 1 cup of water (or your favorite playdough recipe); have him help you with the measurements and mixing. Add food coloring if desired. Have your toddler mold the playdough into the shape of a snake. Then, help him measure and cut it into different lengths. This is a great opportunity to give your toddler a foundation in units of measurement and the concept of part to whole.
Teach your tot how to make new colors from existing ones. Give her a set of watercolors and several glass containers of water. Show her that putting yellow paint and blue paint into a container makes the color green. Likewise, putting blue paint and red paint together makes purple. Allow your child to experiment with other materials, such as colored playdough, to see how colors mix.
Use the materials you have around your home to teach your tot how to build fantastic creations. For instance, build a tower out of couch cushions. Or, enlist your tot's help in folding the laundry, then have him help you make a tower out of folded shirts and a moat from folded socks. Activities like this will stimulate your tot's imagination and his ability to re-envision existing arrangements of objects.