@Sara
First and foremost, don īt let them sit at a table!! I always sit on the floor with my 2- to 4-year old kids!
Secondly, I never do these lessons without the toddler īs mothers, because I cannot leave the other kids alone if one of them needs to go to the toilet and I simply haven īt got the time to help them wipe their noses and stuff like that. I get paid for teaching them English, not for changing their nappies! ;))))
Thirdly, no lesson should last longer than 45 minutes.
At the beginning of a lesson I always talk about a certain topic (e. g. food or animals). In order to make them remember certain words I usually give them a colouring sheet. At first, I let them colour the objects the way they want, but as soon as I have taught them some colours, I ask them to colour the apple green, the plum purple, the tiger orange, the elephant grey and so on.
After that I play a lot of different games with them. Dominoes and memory are the ones that work best at this age, I think.
Sometimes, I teach them a funny ryhme which involves a lot of moving. I say the rhyme a couple of times and at the same time I make some moves which they try to copy. They love that!! Moreover, they remember the rhyme very quickly and easily because of the movements which are involved!
Here īs an example:
1, 2,
buckle my shoe! (I pretend to buckle one of my shoes.)
3, 4,
knock at the door! (I knock on the floor.)
5, 6,
pick up sticks! (For this move I give each child some crayons which I put on the floor in front of them so that they can pick them up.)
7, 8,
lay them straight! (I put the crayons straight.)
9, 10,
a big, fat hen!!! (I shout the last part, jump up suddenly and pretend to be a big, fat hen by putting my hands in front of my chest and by moving my elbows up and down hectically at the same time.
)
In this thread I posted something about games from Orchard Toys in the UK. From the games I mentioned there, these once have especially been designed for and are loved by toddlers: Insey Winsey Spider; Two by Two; Red Dog, Blue Dog and Dotty Dinosaurs.
Do you know a card game called "SNAP"? My very young ss LOVE to play that - in fact, they cannot get enough of it!!
@borna
I have even taught 2-year old children before!! 
It does work as long as you prepare loads of different games for them!
Children at this age cannot concentrate on one activity for very long - no matter what kind of activity it is. After a few minutes they start to get bored, e. g. when you play memory games with them.
Most toddlers at the age of 2 years haven īt played memory before. From my experience, they have to get used to the fact that they are not allowed to turn over more than 2 cards when it is their turn, and they are not used to having to wait patiently for their next go. They think it takes ages when another kid has his/her turn. ;))
@Martina
Would you mind letting us know about what you sent to Sara by PM? Your tips could be very, very helpful for other teachers in this community, too...
