Toddlers have buckets of energy and curious minds, so keeping them busy all day can be a challenge. The ideas below for activities to do with toddlers will engage their senses and help build their fine motor skills:
Toddler activities at home
Messy play
Messy play helps build your child's imagination, cognitive skills, and using their senses.
Make a jelly and place it on a tray for your child to squelch and play with. They might like to stomp some of their favourite plastic animals or toy cars through it. You could also use other items instead of jelly- dried pasta, yogurt, shredded paper or rice.
Water play
Fill your washing up bowl with soapy water and provide them with a towel. Let them wash their toy cars, plastic animals or dolls in it.
Muddy play
Let your child play in the mud using a range of toys and tools, such as:
- toy pots and pans
- plastic dinosaurs
- toy diggers and trucks.
Don't forget to put their wellies on!
Making bubbles
If you're wondering what to do with a toddler, bubbles are a great option. You can let them have an extended bubble bath with a number of bath toys, empty plastic bottles or a sieve. Alternatively, use a bubble wand to create large bubbles in the garden.
Making potions
Toddlers will love making 'potions' using empty plastic bottles, filling them with different liquids from around the house- water, food dye, shampoo, bubble bath, washing up liquid etc. Just make sure they don't drink it!
Finger painting
Small kids love getting messy! Let them have fun by painting pictures with their fingers, or painting their hands and then printing them on paper.
Baking
Toddlers enjoy baking. Simple biscuit recipes involving rolling out the dough and using cutters are fun for little hands to do. Fairy cakes are also fun to make. Toddlers can decorate with icing and sprinkles.
Chalk drawing
Giant chalks provide hours of fun drawing on outdoor walls or the patio. An alternative is giving toddlers a paint brush and a bucket of water to 'paint' the garden fence.
Dressing up
Keep a dressing up box at home filled with a variety of old clothes, masks, hats and fabric. Dressing up encourages your child's imagination and creativity and playing make believe can be fun.
Create an obstacle course
Use sofa cushions and pillows to create a course of tunnels and obstacles on the floor for your child to clamber over.
For more fun activities to keep children busy, print off our free activity book.
