Whether you’re indoors or outdoors check out these easy toddler activities to entertain your little one on these long days. **Post may contain affiliate links. A small commission may be earned.**
As a mom of toddlers, keeping them entertained can always be a battle. I am not a no TV mom, but I really do try to limit the amount of screen time my kids get. For us, I notice my toddlers having more upsets and struggling more when we watch more screen time. I know this isn’t the case for everyone, but it’s what really led me down the path of setting up these little activities for my kids!
My main goals when it comes to toddler activities are easy to set up and inexpensive. I really try to be resourceful with our crafts and activities, so you’ll see a lot of stuff you need you probably already have on hand!
These activities are meant to be fun for the kids (even when they’re educational). So just remember to meet your kid where they are. If the activity is about matching and colors, but your kid “isn’t doing it correctly” – that’s okay! If they are having fun and occupied, let them play. The skills and knowledge will come, this is solely about fun right now.
One last thing before we dive into all the activities… You know your kid and their abilities best. If an activity seems too advanced for your kid, modify it or skip it. Like I said earlier, these are about fun. They should be pretty hands off for you once you have them set up and going.
Alright let’s get started! For each activity I’ll give a quick run down of the set up and how we do it – and then if there are any modifications I make to make it easier or harder, I’ll put those too! I hope you enjoy them.
1 Ice Rescue
This one is so fun inside or outside, but you’ll want to prep it the night before (or in the morning for the afternoon). Grab a few small toys (you can also do pom poms) and place them in a muffin tray. Fill the tray with water and color it with food coloring (completely optional). Freeze it overnight.
Once it’s completely frozen, take the ice muffins out and place them into a cake tin (this is optional, but it’s nice to collect all the water). Give your kid some pipettes and warm water and let them “save” their toys. I also like to give some toy hammers if they want to break the ice that way.
Modifications: You could use mini muffin tins to melt faster. Or freeze a bunch of toys in a bowl for one big ice rescue!
2 Mess Free Painting
I like to do this one with younger toddlers or when we are stuck indoors. You can do it a few different ways, but the basic concept is to take your paper or canvas, splat a bunch of paint on it, place it in a ziplock baggie, and then let your kid mush it around to create a cool, tie dye like picture! The more paint the better for kids honestly.
Once they are done, take the paper out of the ziplock to let it dry.
The modification I have for this one requires a Cricut machine, but leaves you with a cool canvas after. Cut out an image or words in vinyl and stick them to the canvas BEFORE you add any paint. Let your kid do the paint just like above and let it dry. Once it has dried, peel the vinyl off to uncover the image or words!
3 Pipe Cleaner Fishing
With pipe cleaners create a bunch of little fish all different colors. Place them into a bucket or cake tin with some water. Have your toddler fish out the fishes! (You can make this easier and harder depending on what you have them use to fish. Hard: Make a fishing pole with string and pipe cleaner (be sure to create a little pipe cleaner hook). Easy: Give your toddler some tongs to fish each one out.
Modification: If you want to practice colors, have your toddler sort the caught fish into colored bowls or circles. If you want to practice counting, have your toddler sort the caught fish to the number you write in a circle.
4 Color Match Cones
This one was inspired after Easter because my toddler absolutely loved hunting the Easter eggs. We got some colored cones and colored ping pong balls. I scattered the ping pong balls all over the grass and let me toddler run and find them. When she brought back, there was a color coordinating cone waiting for her. She had to match all the ping pong balls to the cones.
I like to make sure there are exactly the right amount of cones to balls so that my toddler knows when she has found all the missing ping pong balls!
Fun Hack: You don’t have to put anything in the Easter eggs and you can continue to do Egg hunts for days after Easter!
5 Ice Painting
This one is always a hit for my toddlers. We do it inside and outside and they love it either way. We want to try a snow version, but this last winter we didn’t have the snow to do it.
Fill a cake tin with ice. Pour out some paint onto a palette and let your toddler paint the ice. We just use tempera paint and my toddler has so much fun. You can also freeze water in a large bowl and have one big ice mound to paint. Both ways are fun!
6 Chalk Painting
We love this one because we aren’t actually allowed to use sidewalk chalk as part of our HOA rules (ridiculous if you ask me, but I found our work around). So we create the chalk paint and we paint some rocks! You could 100% create this chalk paint and use it on the sidewalk, we just aren’t allowed to for whatever reason.
Take a stick of chalk and put it in a ziplock baggie. I use our rolling pin to smash it and roll it out. You want the chalk to be as fine as you can for the best paint. Place the powder into a cupcake tin and add a little bit of water. If I had to give measurements I’d say its about a 3 to 1 ratio of chalk powder to water. You really just want enough to make it a paint consistency. Grab some paint brushes and get to painting!
I’ve seen so many fun ways to put this to play like using stencils and painters tape to create different shapes, images, and words.
7 Hide and Match
This one is a go to for us inside, but I’ll let you know an outdoor version too!
For indoors you want to think of 8 shapes. We usually do this around various holidays so they go with those holidays. Cut a piece of paper into 8 rectangles and draw these shapes onto the rectangles. On a large piece of paper or on your easel draw those same 8 shapes.
Take the 8 rectangles and tape them around various places in your home for your toddler to find. Once you’re ready, have them run around and try to find each hidden shape. Once they find it, they should match it to it’s pair on the easel.
I love how toddlers know when they are done because they can see what pairs they still need to find.
Take it outside: I think it would be so fun to make this a scavenger hunt outside. In my head you’d still draw all the items on the easel, but then send your kids into the yard to find them!
8 Fizzy Dinosaur Eggs
This one has a little intricate of a set up, but it occupies my toddler for so long – it’s always a win.
Take baking soda and mix it with water and food coloring. You want a consistency like Kinetic sand – where you can mold it into an egg without it “melting” or crumbling. Once you have that consistency, take a small toy of your toddlers and form an egg shape around it. Do this with a few toys, we always do little dinosaurs, but it can really be whatever.
This step is optional but helps the activity to last longer – freeze the eggs.
When you’re ready for the activity, give your kid a pipette and a cup of vinegar. Have them drop the vinegar on the eggs and watch the reaction occur. They should keep doing this until they find their little toy!
9 Sticker Match
This one is great for a toddler learning to match colors, but can also be great for spelling and numbers. Peeling stickers is also a great fine motor skill! I love to tear off the background of the stickers to make it a little easier for them.
On a piece of paper or cardboard draw several lines, letters, or numbers in different colors (make sure your colored label stickers match the colors you choose). Draw these letters and numbers big enough for your child to place several stickers on them.
Another fun Sticker Match idea is to write the numbers or letters on the stickers and the paper to have your kids match them!
10 DIY Puzzle
There are a couple ways to do this, for the sake of this post I’ll tell you the easiest way. For a more intricate puzzle check out my Halloween DIY Puzzle.
For this you’ll need cardstock or paper plates and some pens. I love to use the Kwik Stix Tempera Paint Pens because they draw on so easily and smooth and dry in 90 seconds! For when I do this with kids 2 or 3 years old, I will draw simple shapes and use a different color each shape. Draw the shape large on the cardstock or plate. Cut the picture in half and then repeat for several shapes. Scatter the papers across the room and let your toddler solve the puzzle!
For older kids you can make this more challenging and perfect for practicing numbers and letters. Write a capital and a lower case letter to have them match or draw a picture that starts with the letter to match. There are so many ways to make a simple puzzle more challenging for your kid’s learning!
Remember at the end of the day the goal is to set up an activity that entertains our kids and gives us some much deserved alone time. Sometimes these activities don’t always go to plan or your kid doesn’t do the activity *exactly* how you intended – AND THAT’S OKAY! Nothing is perfect, but they will love a quick activity and you will love the little break.
Have the best day and in case no one has told you today, you’re doing a great job. xx Ciara
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