As a parent, you want to provide your child with endless fun and adventure. There are many different activities to accomplish this! One of my favorite ways is by exploring the world together. This is why I’ve compiled a list of fun activities for toddlers that will help them learn new skills and make memories with their families.
These activities will keep your toddler engaged and safe
Your toddler is growing up fast. And all that growth means they need to be active and engaged, as well as safe. While you can’t keep your toddler completely away from dangers, there are plenty of ways to keep them both engaged and safe—and it’s important to try!
Get out the cardboard boxes. Boxes are an excellent toy for children of all ages, particularly when they’re young toddlers who aren’t yet old enough or coordinated enough to play with more complex toys like blocks or puzzles. By going through the motions of putting things in boxes, putting things into baskets, stacking things on top of each other (safely!), and moving them around outside their home environment (if possible), your child will develop important motor skills that will help him or her grow into a healthy adult who knows how his body works best while getting some exercise along the way!
Play hide-and-seek games with your child’s stuffed animals or dolls/action figures. This will teach him/her how hard it is sometimes even just finding someone else, before letting them know where we’ve hidden ourselves.
Playing with blocks
Toddlers are ready for block play when they can sit up and hold a block in each hand. The next step is to place the blocks on a table or other flat surface. At this stage, toddlers may still put their fingers inside the holes of the blocks and push them around. This is fine; the goal is for toddlers to have fun playing with objects and learn how these objects interact with one another.
- Building towers. Blocks are an excellent way for toddlers to practice matching colors, shapes, and sizes by building towers as high as they can go without toppling over! If you want to make it more challenging (and more fun), try stacking two or three blocks together before adding any additional pieces on top of those first ones, then take turns stacking them higher until all your blocks fall down again!
- Building roads/bridges/forts/etc.. Toddlers love using their imaginations while playing with toys like Legos®, Lincoln Logs®, Tinker Toys®, K’NEX® Rods & Connectors Building Sets (various themes available), and Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks™–the possibilities are endless!
Playing with water
Playing with water can be fun, soothing, and messy! Water is also dangerous and should always be supervised by an adult. It can be used for many things such as sensory play, art projects, science experiments, and math games.
Here are some tips for you to use when playing with water:
- Make sure the area where you are playing is safe. You want to make sure there is no risk of drowning or getting hurt while enjoying your time together!
- Be prepared for any spills or messes that may occur while playing with water. We recommend having paper towels or rags on hand just in case something gets wet that shouldn’t get wet (and we’re talking about more than just being splashed). This will help keep things tidy so everyone stays comfortable while learning how to use this new tool!
Playing with sand
Playing with sand is a great sensory experience for your toddler. Sand provides a feeling of controlled messiness, as opposed to water where the messiness is more difficult to control. The feel of sand in their hands, on their feet, and rolling over them teaches toddlers about exploration.
- Make a castle: Use blocks or other objects available indoors to build a castle as tall as you can make it and then knock it down!
- Make a snake: Put your little one on their stomach and have them crawl across the carpet like a snake! This is also fun to do outside if there’s no grass on top of the dirt because they’ll just be crawling through dirt instead of grass which means less mess for mommy (or daddy!) later 😉
We hope this helped you to get a better sense of what your toddler might enjoy doing. Remember that every child is different, so don’t be afraid to experiment! If one activity doesn’t work out, there are plenty more ideas out there for parents with little ones.
