Activities for families with toddlers: 20 Best Toddler Activities – Fun Things to Do With Toddlers

20 Best Toddler Activities – Fun Things to Do With Toddlers

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1

Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

Happy Toddler Playtime

DIY rainbow rice is a feast for the eyes, and a toddler can then spend hours scooping, pouring, and digging through the pile to find little treasures. Just be prepared to do a little sweeping afterward.

Get the tutorial at Happy Toddler Playtime »

RELATED: These 50 Fun Activities for Kids Will Keep Them Entertained for Hours

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2

Pom Pom Drop

Whirlybobble

Take old tissue boxes and cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper, tape them to the wall, and give your toddler some pom poms to send down the chutes. They’ll love exploring the different paths the poms can take.

Get the tutorial at Whirlybobble »

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3

The Floor Is Lava

Hands on As We Grow

We’ve all played some form of this game at home: The carpet has turned into lava! Kids have to jump from square to square to stay safe, getting a lot of good indoor exercise in the process.

Get the tutorial at Hands On As We Grow »

RELATED: Backyard Games for Kids That Will Get the Whole Family up and Moving

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4

Sidewalk Chalk Spray

Wine & Glue

Flour, food coloring, and warm water can combine to make a liquid chalk, and your toddler can make cool street art at the squeeze of a spray bottle. Plus, all that squeezing strengthens tiny hands.

Get the tutorial at Wine & Glue »

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5

Tape Shape Matching Game

Toddler Approved

Take shape-sorting to the next level with a life-size version spread all over the house! Tape out shapes on the floor with painter’s tape, cut out matching versions with construction paper, and send your toddler off on a matching adventure.

Get the tutorial at Toddler Approved »

RELATED: Amazing Indoor Activities for Kids’ Rainy-Day Fun

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6

Busy Board

Hands On As We Grow

Buckles, flaps, locks, and knobs — all of these things are endlessly fascinating for a toddler. Instead of constantly telling your kid to stop fiddling with your dresser drawers, attach a bunch of hardware to a board and let them have at it.

Get the tutorial at Hands On As We Grow »

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7

Clothespin Rainbow Match

Adventures and Play

Create a rainbow out of construction paper, hand your toddler colored clothespins, and have your kid affix the clothespins to the corresponding colors. Not only does this activity get them to practice color-matching, opening the clothespins helps them work on their pincer grasp.

Get the tutorial at Adventures and Play »

RELATED: Fun Activities for 1-Year-Olds You Can Make With Items You Already Have

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8

Bottle Bowling

Mommy Mouse Clubhouse

Empty water bottles and a kickball can transform into an at-home bowling alley that also improves gross motor skills. This mom also added a point value to each “pin,” so an older kid can practice counting and simple math at the same time.

Get the tutorial at Mommy Mouse Clubhouse »

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9

Rainbow Alphabet Spaghetti

The Imagination Tree

Toddlers will love digging through the wet, multi-colored spaghetti and finding all of the alphabet shapes — an experiment in different textures. After the shapes are all found, you can even let them stand in the bin and squish their feet around, too.

Get the tutorial at The Imagination Tree »

RELATED: The Best Learning Activities for Toddlers to Get Them Ready for Kindergarten

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10

Pool Noodle Lacing

unOriginal Mom

Lacing a bit of thick string through a pool noodle helps improve their coordination; as you get older, you can turn it into a counting game, or challenge kids to match different patterns.

Get the tutorial at unOriginal Mom »

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11

Walk the Line

Hello Wonderful

Mark a path on the floor with painter’s tape, and challenge your toddler to follow it and work on that gross motor coordination. Make sure to leave gaps in the tape for kids to jump over!

Get the tutorial at Hello Wonderful »

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12

Tape Car Track

Hello Wonderful

After the balancing act is over, you can re-purpose the tape on the floor as a “road” for toy cars, and see if your toddler can line them up in a row. Beep, beep!

Get the tutorial at Hello Wonderful »

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13

Play Dough

The Best Ideas for Kids

Whether store bought or homemade, play dough gives toddlers the opportunity to get those hands working. Asking them to make little balls will also help them with their pincer grasp.

Get the tutorial at The Best Ideas for Kids »

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14

“I Spy” Bag

Six Sisters’ Stuff

Fill a sealed pouch with poly pellets and treasures, and see if your kid can “spy” them all through the window. But be sure that this activity is well supervised and the pouch is sealed up tight: You don’t want toddlers playing with small toys, which could be choking hazards. (You can also use a soda or water bottle and rice, which you can fill with larger toys.)

Get the tutorial at Six Sisters’ Stuff »

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15

Mystery Box

The Best Ideas for Kids

Take an old tissue box, or an empty container of baby wipes, and place a variety of objects of different shapes and sizes inside: a Duplo piece, a toy car, a fuzzy scrap of felt, etc. Challenge your toddler to reach inside the monster’s mouth and find one of the mystery objects without looking — just by feel. When all of the objects have been found, you can “feed” the monster again!

Get the tutorial at The Best Ideas for Kids »

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16

Pom Pom Placement

Etsy/RainbowHandmadeStore

In addition to color-matching, this game challenges kids to pick up pom poms with kid-safe tweezers, which helps them with their fine motor coordination. You can buy this game, or re-create it by putting different-color circles of construction paper in the different cups of a muffin tin and letting kids fill it by using children’s learning tweezers.

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17

Finger Paint

Crayola

Finger-painting is a classic toddler activity for a reason — it gets their hands touching different textures, it gets them thinking about colors, and it gets them to make a masterpiece you can hang on the fridge.

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18

Lacing Cards

Lauri

Lacing a piece of string in and out around the border of a shape helps toddlers’ fine motor coordination, and your tot might have to use the pincer grasp to get the string through the holes. There are plenty of lacing toys to buy in every shape under the sun, but you can also DIY with a piece of cardboard or felt, a hole punch, and a shoelace.

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19

Backyard Obstacle Course

MiriamOConnor//Getty Images

Hula hoops, pool noodles, and frisbees can be transformed into a tot-friendly race course with obstacles to jump over, crawl under, and run around. The best part is you can tailor the difficulty of the course to your kids’ level of skill, and even have parallel courses for siblings to do at the same time.

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20

Bubble Wrap

Elva Etienne//Getty Images

It may seem simple, but popping bubble wrap actually improves the pincer grasp! Now you can say that all the hours you spent mindlessly doing it yourself were actually put to good use.

32 Toddler Activities to Keep Them Busy at Home

Keeping a toddler occupied and happy day after day is no small feat! Children in this age group rarely stay engaged in one activity for long. But give them pots and pans to bang on, water to splash in, or music to dance to, and, as any parent of a 1 or 2 year old will tell you, toddlers are at their happiest.

So, we’ve put together a list of toddler activities that will encourage little ones to create, move, learn, and have fun.

For more ideas on how to help kids of all ages have fun playing indoors, check out our At-Home Activities Guide for Parents. Don’t be surprised if any of your toddler’s older siblings want to join in on the activities below. These ideas are fun for a range of age groups. For ideas to keep your baby occupied, read our 12 Easy DIY Sensory Activities for Babies.

Anytime Toddler Activities

1. Use an extra cardboard box to make a ramp. Send cars flying down and stage races.

2. Dump some plastic toys in a bin and let your little one paint them with washable paint.

3. Bake cookies together.

4. Pull out the play dough and encourage creative play. If you don’t have any play dough-specific tools or want to try something different, set out cookie cutters, spoons, measuring cups, and other kid-safe kitchen utensils for your child to use. Don’t have any play dough in the house? Making homemade play dough is super easy.

Toddlers delight in a simple picnic in your yard.

5. Head outside for a picnic breakfast, lunch, or dinner! The change of scenery makes the meal feel extra special. To lengthen the activity, pair the picnic with No. 18 on our list.

6. Flatten a cardboard box and draw a town with roads, buildings, a park, and a zoo…anything your little one likes! Then, add toy cars, animals, and people. Let your toddler get busy playing.

7. Build big with giant building “blocks” using toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, upside-down laundry baskets, plastic bowls…anything big that can be easily stacked. Little ones love knocking down their oversized creations, too.

8. Go fishing! Cut out simple fish shapes from cardstock or construction paper and attach a paper clip to each one. Grab a piece of yarn and tie one end to a stick and the other to a strong magnet (Magna-Tiles work great). Set the fish on the floor and let your child fish. Make it an extra challenge by having them fish only for red fish or green ones, etc. Optional: Use a laundry basket as a boat.

9. Stack cups…then knock them over. Repeat.

10. Head outside with sidewalk chalk on a beautiful day and decorate the driveway and sidewalks.

Have fun with a DIY board game older toddlers can help create and play.

11. Draw your own board game—and have your toddler help create it!—and use toys as the playing pieces.

12. Paint or draw a scene on a large piece of white paper—it could be outer space, under the sea, or anywhere in between. Then use toys or upcycle some cardboard rolls to fill in the scene you created. 

13. Make music with pots, pans, bowls, and spoons. DIY some instruments by putting rice or corn in a jar or coins in a plastic water bottle (secure the cap with tape!) Don’t be surprised if No. 14 naturally ensues.

Things To Do With Toddlers to Burn Extra Energy

14. Put on some favorite tunes and have a dance party, and don’t just play kid music. Kids love to wiggle along with the beat of family-friendly rock music and traditional polka songs.

15. Draw shapes on sticky notes and hide them at toddler-height around the house. Then, hand your little one a flashlight and send them on a hunt for the hidden notes. Put on music or time them to get them running around even more.

16. Secure a long piece of bubble wrap on hardwood or tile flooring with painter’s tape and let your toddler race, jump, and stomp along.

17. Blow up balloons and play a match of impromptu balloon volleyball.

18. Go for a stroll—take your time, let your child stop and find a walking stick, inspect rocks, bugs, and flowers. Point out things you find interesting. Enjoy each other’s company.

Mucking around in mud is a kid-friendly favorite. Don’t forget your rain boots!

19. Pull-on rain boots and wade through puddles after it rains or when the snow melts and the ground thaws.

Simple Sensory Bin Ideas for Toddlers

20. Create color baskets by collecting child-safe items from around the house in one particular color, such as a green paintbrush, a green measuring cup, a green building block, etc., and encourage exploration and play.

21. Dump cotton balls into a bin or large bowl and add spoons and measuring cups, then let your child make “snowball soup. “

22. Head outside and make leaf soup with a large bucket or bowl of water, leaves, flowers, and grass clippings. Stir it up with a big stick.

23. Add uncooked rice, beans, pasta, leftover dry cereal, oats, etc. into a bin, add kitchen utensils, and let your little ones play. Place a sheet or towel underneath for easy cleanup and be sure to supervise. 

Indoor and Outdoor Water Fun for Toddlers

24. Fill up the tub, plop your kiddo in, and dump in a bunch of Duplos or other large bricks to see what they build.

25. Set out a container of water and have your little ones wash some of their plastic toys. Use just dinosaurs, cars, or pets and play “dino wash,” “car wash,” or “pet groomer.” This is especially fun—and useful—if you already did No. 2 on our list!

26. Take a large paintbrush outside along with a bowl of water and wash walkways, garden gnomes, brick walls…this is a kid-favorite!

27. In a bowl, add ice cubes, water, and a spoon. Your toddler will enjoy making ice cube soup.

28. Tape pool noodles to an outside wall with buckets on the ground beneath the openings. Kids love pouring water down them and watching it come out the other end.

Indoor Activities With Toddlers to Encourage Creativity

Little ones love getting creative…and they usually engage in art activities for quite a while (score!)

29. Grab an old cardboard box or scrap wood that’s been sanded down and set out washable paints and paintbrushes. Decorate!

30. Give your little one a sheet of stickers and a piece of paper to decorate. Peeling off stickers is a great fine-motor activity, and what child doesn’t love stickers?

31. Set out buttons, pompoms, craft sticks, torn bits of paper. Hand over a sheet of paper and some glue and let your toddler’s inner artist shine.

32. Trace your child’s outline on a large roll of paper. Then let them decorate themselves.

Photos courtesy of the author

Action plan to strengthen the institution of the family with children

Taking into account the important role of the family in the development of the state and society, the Committee of Culture and Youth Policy of the Administration of the Krestetsky Municipal District, together with subordinate institutions, continue to work to strengthen the institution of the family with children, which began in 2008. The work of cultural institutions in 2009 is aimed not only at organizing leisure and involving residents in creativity, cultural development and self-education, amateur arts and crafts, but, first of all, at strengthening the authority of the family, basic family values.

As part of the implementation of this direction, the Committee for Culture, Youth and Sports developed an action plan, the main directions of which are the directions: “Family and Culture” and “Family and Society”.

Action plan for strengthening the institution of the family with children of the committee of culture and youth policy

for 2009.

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90,000 Family centers invite parents with children to events in April

to develop useful skills, find out about non -conflict communication, strengthen communication with loved ones and build trusting relationships with them will help parents and children in family centers Moscow. To do this, specialists conduct master classes, psychological trainings, discussion sessions and meetings. We tell you more about activities for families in April.

For children aged 7 to 14 there will be a master class “From Sadness to Joy” in the theater studio “Kulis” of the Orientir family center. At the lesson, experts will talk about various methods. Participants of the event will explain why internal sensations are important, how they affect relationships with others and the general well-being of a person. Game acting training will help children both on stage and in life, develop empathy and fantasy. The event will take place April 5 at 16:00 at the address: Moscow, st. Middle Pervomaiskaya, house 26. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (499) 748-15-06.

Also April 5 at 17:00 in the family center “Oberig” branch “Lomonosov” will be held “Webmaster’s Day “. This is an interactive activity for teenagers, where children aged 12 and over can try their hand at creating a website. Each participant will come up with an idea for their own company or product, and then implement it. The event will be held at the address: Moscow, st. Garibaldi, d.6. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (916) 755-15-97.

In the family center “Palitra” April 4 and 6 at 18:00 will be held psychological training for parents “Family conflict. Is there any use in it? The activity will help moms and dads learn the skills of conducting a constructive dialogue. Experts will tell you how to manage a conflict situation, find a way out of it. The participants of the training will also learn about techniques that help relieve emotional stress, their own and loved ones. Location: Moscow, st. Kuntsevskaya, 17. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (495) 413-98-87.

Dialogue Family Center invites teenagers from 12 years old to the meeting of the “Anime Club” , which will take place on April 8 at 14:30 . Regular participants of the event will bring to the meeting posters, figurines or items of clothing related to their favorite plots and characters of Japanese cartoons and comics. The guys will discuss cosplay, themed festivals and other interesting events from this area. Location: Moscow, st. Kargopolskaya, 11, k. 2. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (905) 567-30-85.

In honor of Cosmonautics Day, the Gorizont family center starts a cycle of classes about the Universe for children aged 10 and over. April 12 at 16:00 meeting “Conquerors of outer space in literature” will be held, dedicated to fantastic works of domestic and foreign authors. Together with the experts, the participants of the lesson will try to compose their own story about flights to distant planets. Venue: Moscow, st. Svobodny prospect, 19. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (495) 307-75-95.

Horizon Family Center invites parents and children from 10 years old to psychological training “5 Love Languages” . The activity using metaphorical cards will help family members to better understand each other’s feelings and their needs. Experts will tell you how to determine your own way of expressing care and tenderness. The meeting will be held April 13 at 18:00 at the address: st. Rudnevka, 24. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (499) 721-33-31.

April 19 at 16:30 in the family center “Preobrazhenie” branch “Dmitrovsky” there will be a lesson on the program of social adaptation “IQ-shka” for children aged 4-5 years. The children will perform various exercises for the development of speech. The participants of the event will solve riddles dedicated to spring, consolidate their knowledge about the signs of this season (snow melts, streams run, grass, flowers appeared, birds arrived, etc.). Also, boys and girls will be able to compose their own stories based on bright pictures. The event will be held at the address: Moscow, Karelsky Boulevard, 21k1. Additional information and appointment by phone: 8 (495) 485-11-81.

Specialists of the Sirius family center, Koptevo branch April 21 at 15:30 will conduct a psychological training for adolescents 12+ “Under the rays of the spring sun” . Tasks, tasks, plans, exams – all this is tiring. We invite children to have a rest with benefit: improve their mood, relax and develop useful skills. Participants are waiting for art therapy exercises, team games and communication of interests. The lesson will be held at the address: Moscow, Cherepanovyh Ave. , 44. Additional information and registration by phone: 8 (499) 153-45-01.

In 2023, the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian literary figure Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky is celebrated. In the Zelenograd Family Center (Green City branch) April 25 at 17:00 a creative meeting will be held for families with children aged 8 years and older “Talents and Admirers” . Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about the playwright’s work, hear and read his comedies, plays, fairy tales and stories themselves. At the end of the evening, parents and children will share their impressions and discuss their favorite works. Address: Zelenograd building 1137. Additional information by phone: 8 (499) 717-26-24.

April 28 at 16:30 specialists of the family center TiNAO branch “Creation” will conduct a psychological training “How does friendship begin?” for children aged 10 and over. Children and teenagers will be told why to build strong relationships with peers, why trust and mutual understanding are important.