Needing some inspiration for toddler activities? Entertaining your toddler and encouraging them to use their imagination can be TEDIOUS.
Here are some tried and true, great toddler activities that I have personally done with my own two girls.
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28 Toddler Activities
1. Magnets
I’m betting like most families with toddlers you have some fun magnets on the bottom of your fridge. Your little one probably loved them at first and is now kind of over them. Try a new location like the dishwasher, the front or back door or a cookie sheet.
2. Color Recognition Games
This one is for the color curious- pick one color and point out everything that color as you come across it. Make a game out of picking out their toys that are that color and putting them all together. This isn’t something to force, just have with it.
3. Stained Glass Window Painting
Put some paint inside a ziplock bag and then tape it to the window- covering the zipper so your little one doesn’t open it. Let them explore mixing the colors in a mess-free way that they can come back to over and over again. It won’t dry out and you can keep adding more paint. We’ve had one on our window for 2 months that my 1.5 year old comes back to all the time.
4. Unloading the Dishes
Both of my girls loved doing anything “grown up”. Take out anything glass or dangerous yourself and let them help with the rest. At 2 years old my oldest could practically unload the entire dishwasher, and she was happy to do so.
5. Window Markers
Did you see those markers in picture #1? They’re window markers!!! We absolutely love these bad boys and have been using them for two years. Keep scrolling to see who cleans the windows 😉
6. Bubbles!
Put on a handy dandy waterproof smock and grab a beach towel, cause we gonna make a little mess.
7. Fun with gravity
Take a box (I used a cereal box) and cut the corners in to individual rectangle boxes. Tape ’em to the wall and start dropping balls y’all. We had a bag of ping pong balls sitting around, but so many kids toys come with balls so I’m sure you have some lying around.
8. Baking… or not
Either bake together or if you are trying to create some space for your toddler to play on their own, then measure out some random ingredients that you don’t mind throwing away and let them get creative. You might want to do this in a sensory bin or isolate them to the kitchen table to contain the mess that will follow.
9. Explore Your Food
Every year, in late winter, we take the seeds out of our veggies and fruits and see what we can get to grow. It’s important to use organic produce for this as some GMO products cannot be propagated from seeds. Don’t mind our little potty, it followed us around during potty training season.
10. Experiment with Growing plants
All those little sprouts are the seeds from our veggies. Tomatoes, peppers and a little onion sprout. My daughter loved checking on them every morning as they really come up so fast.
11. Painting Your Nails
My daughter desperately wanted her nails painted, but as soon as I would start she’d get scared. This happened over and over again for a week. Until, I let her paint my nails.
12. Painting Their Own Nails
Then she painted her own nails. After this she wasn’t scared anymore. Just put down some paper, and make sure they are wearing something that can get messy. Also, if you are worried about the chemicals in nail polish, like I am- get something non-toxic like static nails. I also love this nail polish remover that actually makes your nails healthier with it’s oils and vitamins.
13. BOXES
If your toddler is anything like mine, they LOVE BOXES! Any boxes really, but especially big ones. We’ve made houses, trains, planes, ball pits, etc. The box usually transforms from day to day. We color it, poke pipe cleaners through holes in the box. Even the dog likes it.
14. Sorting
Sorting, Dumping, Mixing! Toddlers love it. They also love everything texture and color. Also, googly eyes are a surefire win for any toddler activities.
15. Nuggets are GOLD
The Nugget is our all time favorite toddler purchase. It has endless opportunities and if you have the space and money you might wind up with way too many sets. Parents seem to become way too invested in these, but for good reason.
Personally I would rather add complimentary items to our playroom, rather than many of the same. This one is definitely going to be on my radar for Christmas.
16. Washing Windows
My daughters LOVE to wash windows. Mostly because they love spray bottles. But they really cannot get enough.
Haha, I didn’t notice when I selected this photo, but I guess the outdoor kitchen mud sink I was making was “in progress” at the time of this photo. I’ll have to write a how to on that one.
17. Doing Mommy’s Makeup
Another grown-up thing that can double as a toddler activity.
18. Doing Their Own Makeup
Or Dad’s. Honestly kids just love to do makeup. Rather than buying the stuff marketed to kids I bought them adult makeup that has ingredients I trust but isn’t too expensive, also sooo much chapstick. Those kids makeup kits look horrible in my opinion. We also have a pretend makeup kit for when I can’t be bothered or when I’m trying to encourage independent play .
19. Doing The Laundry
I think toddlers are naturally fascinated by the washer and dryer. Water, Spinning things, what’s not to love? Also, let’s tire these little munchkins out!
20. Baby Doll Baths
My kids are natural care takers. They play mommy, teacher, doctor, veterinarian all day long. Through some bubbles and a water friendly toy in the mix and you’ve bought yourself 20 minutes.
21. Play-doh/ Cookie Cutters
I kind of pride myself on being resourceful. If your kids love play-doh it’s likely you have some of those shape cutters laying around. Go ahead and use em in the kitchen too. I’ve used them on sandwiches, fruits and veggies, and COOKIES.
22. Paint Til Ya Drop
Paper gets boring. Grab something random out of the recycling. Seriously, they will paint on anything- a box, toilet paper roll, a rock, anything.
23. Parenting Baby Dolls
Some kids love to pretend to be adults. One of our favorite accessories is this baby doll carrier. I baby-wore both my kids constantly, so they associate it with part of the parenting job.
24. Giant Box Play Pen- Laziest Toddler Activity
Got a giant box? Too lazy to make it into something cool. No problem, throw some toys in it. They will put so much junk in there to play with. Soon your kids will be buried in toys and happy for longer than they have any business being.
25. Controlled Chaos
Have something random like these straws laying around? Let them dump them out. Cut them in half. Put pipe cleaners through them. Thread pipe cleaners through a colander.
26. Chalk Inside
If it’s crappy outside and the normal indoor things just aren’t cutting it. Break out the chalk and put something disposable down. Box, contractor paper, brown paper bags.
I hate to touch chalk! These chalk holders are the best and keep my toddler from snapping the chalk.
27. Bath Crayons
We love these bath crayons. They are easy to clean off and provide a creative outlet that most kids crave. Sometimes my girls will do this without any water in the tub. They will just take a bowl of water in to dip the crayons in. And we haven’t had any skin reactions, which I know is a concern with many products like this.
28. Obstacle Course
There’s an endless list of ways you can make obstacle courses. We love making “lasers” with masking tape. Playing the floor is lava and using pillows to crawl across. For the littler ones, don’t underestimate the power of literally just sticking pieces of tape to the wall. They will pull them off and put them back on over and over again.
This post has been all about toddler activities. I hope you are inspired to try something new and get creative.
Check out my first post
which inspired this whole blog.
