Looking for easy to do toddler activities that you can easily do at home with your little one? Find these 10 learning as well as engaging activities for toddlers.
Last month I had done a Q&A on my Instagram story as to what content you would like me to write more about and a lot of you had asked for easy toddler or preschool activities that can keep your little ones engaged for long and not get bored easily.
Honestly, I get that! I have a 32 months old toddler girl and with our new quarantine life in the midst of this pandemic, trying to do it all as well as keep my daughter busy has been really tough. Every time I open my work laptop or get engaged in any other household work, I feel extremely guilty as I can see Mishika getting bored. Mishika as a kid has always loved independent playtime and she could do that for hours, but lately, with such limited activities to do outside, we have been having too much free time and I have started to notice that she has started to get bored too. Also, I have been feeling a little stressed that she is not able to go to school and learn anything new and is completely dependent on me to teach her new learning skills and get her ready for her soon upcoming preschool.
Hence after a month of lots of chaos, I forced myself to follow a strict routine with her similar to what her day looked like before the lockdown when she was going to her school. Everyday depending on our schedule as well as the weather outside, I add 1-2 new toddler activities to do with her and repeat the same activities a couple of weeks later.
After trying a few of them, I found that these were our top 10 activities, which Mishika never seemed to get bored off also they thought her new skills too. Find everything that you need to set up these toddler activities in this blog post as well as what you can talk teach your little one while doing these activities. These toddler activities are very simple and just require stuff mostly lying around your home and they are good for preschool kids as well.
Running out of ideas to keep your little ones engaged at home for long. Download this FREE 45 list of activities that you can do with your kids to keep them engaged for long.
Related blog reads:
30 Playful activities for one year olds
How to get started with toy rotation at home easily
18 Indoor activities to do with kids when you are at home
20 Playful activities for three year olds that you can do easily
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10 Easy Toddler Activities
1. Color blobs in the bag
- Toddler learning skills: Learn to observe, colors, size
- Things ‘ll need: plastic zip loc bags, food colors, water, oil
- Steps: Let your toddler mix a few drops of food color in water and then transfer the colored water in the plastic Ziploc bags. Release air from the Ziploc bags and then seal it. Now show your little one how the colored water mixes with the oil and creates color blobs and bubbles. You can let your little one also breaks the color blobs using his fingers and observe how they all look so different.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can talk to your little one about the different sizes of the color blobs, different colors of the bubbles that break out, and their texture.
2. Play-Doh tower
On my blog, I have a recipe for non-toxic play-doh that you can make at home. This is a fun activity and all you need are small plastic bottles caps from a used water bottle.
- Toddler learning skills: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, patterns, numbers
- Things ‘ll need: caps from plastic bottles, play-doh
- Steps: Show your toddler how to make a small tower by sticking play-doh between the plastic caps and then let him do it on his own.
- Mommy talks: While he does that you can talk to him about the number of caps used or show him different patterns of the tower.
3. Play-Doh birthday cake
Doesn’t your little one just loves to sing happy birthday all the time!
- Toddler learning skills: Motor skills development, numbers, creativity
- Things ‘ll need: play-doh, cake decoration items, play-doh tools to make a cake (roller, pins, etc)
- Steps: Help your toddler make a cake using the different play-doh colors. Also, let him get creative and decorate the cake by using the play-doh tools. Also, once it’s ready, help him add candles to the cake and then make your toddler blow them out and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ song.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can teach your kid about numbers by counting the candles and the different cake layers.
**This has been one of my daughter’s most favorite activities. I have seen her get really creative with time as she comes up with new cake ideas by decorating them with toys and mostly stuff at home lying around.
4. Mirror finger painting
- Toddler learning skills: Learn colors, sensory skill development
- Things ‘ll need: Mirror, finger paints, paintbrush, washcloth
- Steps: You can either use a glass window or take a mirror and lay it down. Let your little one finger paint or paint the mirror using a paintbrush.
- Mommy talks: While he does that you can talk to your kid about how he can see the reflection of himself in the mirror as well as the objects around him.
5. Old CD sun catcher
- Toddler learning skills: Fine motor skills, learn about sun, creativity
- Things ‘ll need: old CD, string, decorative items (glitter glue stick, paint, stickers, sequins, etc.)
- Steps: Let your child decorate an Old CD on the non-reflective side and then let it dry up. Once the CD is dried up, put a string through the hole in the CD and then hang it outside on a tree branch or anywhere in the open.
- Mommy talk: You can talk to your kid how the sun reflects on the CD and how the CD shines in the sun. Also, you can teach your kid about the sun and its shape.
6. Q-tips painting
- Toddler learning skills: Fine motor skills, colors, patterns, numbers
- Things ‘ll need: Q-tips, washable paint, rubber band
- Steps: Tie a bunch of q-tips (~10) with a rubber band and let your child dip them in paint and have fun drawing fun shapes with them.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can talk to your little one about patterns (show them new ones to make), colors, and numbers (how many lines are created).
7. Toothbrush painting
We love this activity and once you guide your little one, they can even have fun doing it by themselves while you can get some work done.
- Toddler learning skills: Learn about colors, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills
- Things ‘ll need: White paper, old toothbrush, washable paints, painter palettes, or a paper plate (to display colors), tape
- Steps: You can either use a white sheet in a drawing notebook or tape a white paper to the ground so that it is fixed and unable to move. Let your toddler dip his toothbrush and create a fun color abstract on the paper.
- Mommy talk: While he does that, you can talk to him about the different colors he is using and also show him how the color changes when you mix two entirely different colors.
8. Transferring water between cups
- Toddler learning skills: Fine motor skills, problem-solving
- Things ‘ll need: bowls, water, large plastic tub, small cups, tools to transfer water like syringes, spoons, droppers, etc.
- Steps: Arrange small empty plastic cups in a big plastic tub. Place a bowl of water on the side. Motivate your kid to transfer the water from the big bowl of water to the small cups using different tools like a syringe, droppers, spoons, etc.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can talk to your child and help him observe how about each tool (spoon, syringe, droppers) transfer water in a different way.
9. Up in the air floating ball
- Toddler learning skills: Motor skill development, learn about air and its properties
- Things ‘ll need: Bendable straw, tape, plastic cup, plastic ball or pom-pom, scissors
- Steps: Cut a hole in the bottom of the paper cup the same size as the straw. Insert the straw in the hole and fix it there using tape. Place a small plastic ball or pom pom in the plastic cup. Let your little one blow air through the straw and watch the plastic ball or pom pom float in the air.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can talk to your little one about air and its properties and also you can tell him about how it is everywhere around us.
10. Veggie stamp
- Toddler learning skills: Hand-eye coordination, patterns
- Things ‘ll need: Vegetables (like carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, etc.), washable paints, paper plate, popsicle stick (you can also you a baby plastic fork)
- Steps: Cut vegetables in different shapes and stick a popsicle stick or you can also use a baby plastic fork to create a handle for the vegetable stamp. In a paper plate (as you will need a bigger area) spread the washable paint and let your kid dip his veggies in the paint and then create shapes by stamping them on a white paper.
- Mommy talk: While doing this activity you can talk to your kids about patterns, colors, shapes, and vegetables.
Tip* As this activity can get really messy, you can tape one or two white papers on the ground so that they are fixed and unable to move.
Mommy tip** Also I have noticed, that while doing activities with paint, my daughter often finds it limiting to just stick to a white sheet of paper, so I make sure to do these activities next to a mirror or a glass window. Once she is bored with the white sheet, she then moves the glass window, which keeps her busy for long.
I hope you enjoy doing these toddler activities with your little one and if you try any of these please let me know!
This is a really wonderful post! So many great ideas. I really love the idea of extending painting time by moving on to a different material. You are very talented!
Thank you Sarah 🙂 Painting next to a glass window helped me keep my daughter busy for long. It happened coincidentally for the first time but it always works.