I love any activity that comes with task cards. In this Montessori STEM puzzle, the child looks at the task card and slides the pieces around to make their board match the card. It comes with a sand timer to make it in to a game. There are two sides, one side with shapes and the other with colors. This is challenging and fun!

In this activity your child uses rubber bands, craft sticks and play-doh to practice counting. 

Any activity with a task card can ideally turn in to a Sit Beside Me Activity. Which is why I made some of my own to go with the magnet maze activity. Kids look at the cards to help them build mazes using magnetic tiles and a cookies sheet. 

This"color by letter" sticker book encourages letter recognition as they build their robot and includes a joke on each page. 

I totally remember doing these as a kid. Easy enough to do independently for a 3 year old but a 2 year old may enjoy with a little direction.

Any type of guided building activity is great for Sit Beside Me. The child looks at different cards and builds what they see. Even though the box states it is for ages 5+ the cards vary in difficulty so I recommend starting as early as age 2. 

Any type of guided building activity is great for Sit Beside Me. The child looks at different cards and builds what they see. They use the magnets' repelling forces to make the magnets "float" on the stick. This can be played with one or more players. 

If you are familiar with the Color Wonder products offered by Crayola but have not tried these paintbrush pens, you need to! My kids enjoy Crayola's regular mess-free Color Wonder markers but they fight over these paintbrush pens! 

This is similar to color by numbers but with stickers! My kids love stickers and still aren't super great at it so this one can take a while, giving you time to work!

This is a toy sink that actually works! You fill the base with water, flip the handle and water actually comes out of the faucet. 

Building pictures with shapes. Another guided building activity. I recommend buying the magnetic version. 

The child uses a magnetic wand to move the magnetic balls around the maze. This maze is color coded. Each number has a color and spot for them to try to move specific number of balls into. The magnetic wand is attached to the board!

Your child uses a Hot Dot pen to choose their answer on the Hot Dot page. The pen will light up green if the correct answer is chosen and red if incorrect. This gives immediate feedback to your child WITHOUT YOUR HELP! (jazz hands) I recommended this for age 4+ but a 3-year-old could do some of it if they know their alphabet well.

This comes with cards to practice patterns and sequencing. It is a multiple choice answer using a Hot Dot pen to pick your answer. You push the Hot Dot pen on the dot you want to pick and the face will light up green if you choose the correct answer and red if incorrect. This gives immediate feedback to your child WITHOUT YOUR HELP! (jazz hands)

Melissa and Doug make these great sticker pads where you make a face choosing from different stickers of facial features and accessories. If you want this to be a true independent activity I recommend for age 4+. Otherwise your little one will probably ask you to help peel off each sticker. However,  these are great to have on hand for younger ages with parent involvement.

Your toddler can create art independently. The buttons are big enough for tiny hands to hold. The set comes with multiple pictures to complete. The hole on the picture is surrounded by a color for the child to match. 

This is a popular one and all over Pinterest. But it's a good one. I had cardboard tubes taped to the side of my kitchen cabinet for a year at least. My kids would sit there and drop the variety of sized poms down the multiple tubes while I worked. Put this in the kitchen, the side of your desk...wherever you need!

This is an easy sensory bin that keeps my kids occupied for a good amount of time. Just throw in dinosaurs, cars, characters, scoops...literally WHATEVER. 

Take an old spice jar and fill it with cake pop sticks. Thats it! Let them drop the sticks through the holes.