Toddlers are just beginning to understand the world in which they live. Parents often try to get them to understand what they need to do to adapt to their surroundings, like wear a jacket when it is cold, or take off their socks when it is hot outside. By ages 4 and 5, children are beginning to learn what they can do to adjust, and they are beginning to see how people change the Earth to their own benefit. Ages 2-3 Toddlers think of themselves as the center of the world. The daily routines of dressing, eating, and playing are the basis for learning how the Earth affects them, and how they adapt to their environment.
Daily routines help toddlers make sense of their world.
With routines they learn that morning is followed by afternoon, and night follows day. As stable as their routines are, changes will occur. These changes occur because of rain, wind, storms, or other weather conditions. Within limits they can adapt things to their needs. Show them how to make sand pies by packing containers with wet sand and dumping out a sand pie or cake.