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We just adopted our 5th kiddo. He came to live with us when he was a little over 18 months old. PHEW!!! My youngest bio kid was 6 when our newest little guy joined our family, so it’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a toddler in the house. Holy moly. Toddlers are SO BUSY. This post has lots of activity ideas for a busy toddler!!
I will say- some of these activities have a certain level of mess associated with them. You can keep it contained, for sure. But the truth is, little kids need space to explore. Ideally, they’d just live outside and keep the mess with them. Haha!
But, if you need some fun indoor activities to keep them occupied, then you might have to just deal with a mess.
Decide how much mess you can tolerate, and when.
I can deal with pom poms or dried noodles getting dumped out. Easy to sweep! Rice and fingerpainting? Not so much.
Know thyself. And only set up what you have capacity to clean up. Your toddler can “help” you clean it up, but let’s face it. You’ll be doing most of the work. (Someday, they’ll be amazing at helping you clean up!! My older kids are all awesome at getting the house back into spic-and-span shape.)
Most of these are cheap toddler activities. I also have a post about how my toddlers play with trash. 😂
This age group doesn’t need giant playrooms full of expensive wooden toys like you see on Instagram. They just need room to explore, a safe home where they have lots of access things that satisfy all their curiosity, and they need a lot patience & love.
Okay, here we go. A round up of the most fun ideas for easy toddler activities on the internet!!
1. Pipe Cleaners + Colander
Perfect for fine motor skills practice. Anything that requires fingers to pinch is a great way to build fine motor skills. Start out with 5 pipe cleaners and a big colander. Show your child how it works. After they get all 5 in, they may ask for more pipe cleaners, or they may just keep taking the same ones in and out.
2. Sensory Bin – Stick to Pasta
I’m a big fan of a homemade sensory bin. We use a shallow under-the-bed size bin. I keep a ziplock bag with pasta in it and we dump it in a plastic bowl. Pasta is WAY easier to clean up than rice!!!!
I let the kids choose “real” kitchen tools, rather than buying them separate special sensory bin tools. One time, we went to the dollar store and picked out kitchen items there!
I have a small hand-held brush & dustpan the kids use to “help” clean up after they’re done.
3. Card Drop
This is a favorite activity around here. Grab an old oatmeal container and cut a slit in the lid. Show your toddler how to push the cards through the slit. They’ll probably figure out how to take the top off and on too. Cards are very fun to drop at first. Once it gets boring, you can put it away for a while and pull it out a few weeks later.
4. Coin Drop
As they get older and you’re comfortable with them handling coins, coins are so much fun to drop in the slot!! Because they make a loud clank. This picture was taken when my oldest was 2.5 and she was well past putting things in her mouth. Every child grows out of that at different ages… obviously, be sure they don’t eat random objects any more!!
5. Special Reading Chair
1 and 2 year olds love things to be their own size. We have this super cute dinosaur chair that even folds out into a little bed type thing. Our little guy loves to sit with a basket of books and a not-too-messy snack in this chair. I read to my kids a TON and highly recommend everyone do the same. The book that first convinced me of the importance of reading to your children (no matter their age!!) was: the 7th edition of The Read Aloud Handbook. (The 7th edition is my favorite because it’s the last one that the original author actually wrote and contributed to before stepping down from the project.)
Some of our toddlers’ all time favorite books have been:
- – This series of first word books
- – Dear Zoo
- – Anything by Sandra Boynton
- – This cute singing book (that actually isn’t that irritating!!)
- – This cute ABC sound book (that also isn’t irritating). Perfect for initial exposure to letter sounds.
6. Random Objects with Pots & Pans
If your toddler loves to play near you in the kitchen, let them go to town with some small pieces in your pots and pans. For older toddlers who are past the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage, you might use are math linking cubes, blocks, brain flakes or dried pasta.
For younger ones, you can use larger objects such as blocks, silverware, or even a favorite snack like cheerios or gold fish.
7. Push & Pull Straws
Here is another fun way to have your toddler practice fine motor skills. Plus kids like taking things in and out!
8. Egg Matching Toy
This is one that the kiddo plays with in lots of different ways for about 2 years. Opening & closing the container takes some fine motor skills. Pulling the eggs apart. Pairing up the different colors to match. This is another one that’s fun for a while. Once it’s old news, you can take it out of the rotation and put it back in.
9. Obstacle Course or “Hot Lava” or “Don’t Touch the Ground.”
This one seems to work better if you have multiple toddlers. When our oldest 4 kids were 1, 2, 4, and 5, they loved to play a version of this game! They’d get a ton of couch cushions, pillows, and blankets, and spread them out all over the family room. Then they’d crawl on them, climb, jump from cushion to cushion, etc.
Truly, this activity lasts longer with young children if you let them do it near you… in the main family room. We now have a nugget and climbing structure in our basement. They do get used by our littlest, but not as often as when we had multiple toddlers/ preschoolers and they played it in the main living room.
It’s the perfect gross motor activity for a rainy day!
10. Paint the Paper
Okay, this is so easy. Get a sheet of paper – construction paper works well.
Get a small container of water & a paint brush. At first, you might want to supervise from nearby so you can step in if they’re about to dump the water.
BUT this can go on for quite some time. I sometimes cut a few pieces of construction paper into quarters and give a kiddo a whole stack of paper to paint.
11. Paint the Deck/ Sidewalk
Same thing!! Get a shallow plastic bin of water and let them have at it.
If you’re feelign really fun, you could make sidewalk chalk paint. Instructions here.
12. Water Play – Outside or Inside
Speaking of a shallow plastic bin of water!! This is my go-to for outdoor sensory play.
Shallow under the bed bin – half full of water and a few kitchen toys. Basically the same setup as the pasta sensory bin above, but with water. Obviously, your child will get soaking wet. We keep this one outside & I keep a bin of old beach towels on the main floor of our house so I can easily dry a wet toddler off.
For inside, I like a pouring station! Expect some water spills at first, but if you set clear expectations (as described below in activity #13) your tot will get the hang of it eventually.
13. Playing at or in the Sink
Turn on some warm water and get your child some pouring utensils, such as small measuring cups or plastic drinking cups. Playing with water is a GREAT hand-eye coordination builder. I usually keep beach towels or these super absorbent felt towels nearby. This is one of those simple toddler activities that basically never gets old. Currently, my two year old plays in the sink for about 30 minutes every morning while I do homeschool work with my first grader in the same room.
A word of caution – the first few times I let a toddler water play, I stay nearby but pretend like I’m not paying attention. (I just do some food prep or kitchen cleaning nearby.) If they’re about to dump water out of the sink or on the counter, I quickly and firmly say “No. That’s a no. No pouring water.” If they turn it into a joke, I take them out immediately and say, “all done.” After a few days of this, even a 16-18 month old toddler will understand.
Some water will inevitably splash out, but dumping water out is not allowed at all.
14. Droppers & Colored Water
This might be hard for a 12-18 month old, but a 20-36 month old would definitely be able to have fun with this. You could put a couple drops of food coloring in a dish and let your child pour water over it.
Encourage them to stir the water and mix up the color. Then they might use a dropper or ladle or syringe to transfer the water from that dish to another interesting dish.
Incorporate ice cube trays if the dropper or teaspoon for transferring is small enough.
Another idea – You could have a bowl of clear water and put a drop of food coloring in each little spot one or two ice trays. Then let your child discover that adding water to the ice cube tray slots makes colorful water!
You could also let the child drop water on to paper towels! Show the child how adding food coloring makes the water darker too.
15. Pom Pom Drop
This one is super simple. Tape up some old cardboard tubes and put a few pom poms nearby. Less is more. Show your child how to drop them into the tubes and see what happens. Older children or preschoolers can help by taping up the cardboard tubes with painter’s tape.
16. Pom Pom Push
Recycle an old wipes container by letting your toddler push things in and out. Pom poms or cotton balls are fun for this. I’ve also let my child use different items like fabric scraps, lego bricks, and puzzle pieces.
Initially, they just love to pop the container open with the button. Eventually, they find it fun to put things in and take them out.
17. Craft Sticks
Craft sticks can be used for various toddler activities. Some toddlers will like water coloring a craft stick. If you don’t mind the mess, that’s a great activity.
Another option is to drop craft sticks into an old cardboard oatmeal container or cardboard boxes. I like having 2 or 3 small containers available for kids to switch between.
This egg carton version is cute!
So is this color sorting version… probably 2 years old on this one!
18. Kinetic Sand
I love kinetic sand for many ages, actually! Even my older kids like playing with it. It’s one of those great sensory activities that isn’t too messy. It sweeps up pretty easily and lasts for a long time.
The premade kinetic sand kits are pretty cute and inexpensive. They make for easy activity that you can pull out for a special time and then put away for another day.
I also like letting kids use kitchen utensils or cookie cutters.
19. Giant Ball
If you can get one of those bouncy balls from the display cages at Walmart, it makes for the best gross motor activities. Kicking, chasing, throwing with 2 hands all make fun toddler activities.
20. Stickers!!
The magic trick to toddlers + stickers is peeling the backing off. Then fold back the paper a little and let them peel off the sticker. Eventually they’ll be able to peel the sticker off themselves. Suzy from Busy Toddler has a TON of fun activities with dot stickers, especially for older kiddos. For little ones, she suggests just letting them cover a small piece of paper or something.
Toddlers also seem to like putting stickers on themselves. Haha!
21. Fall Tree Cardboard
I saw this super cute idea at a nature center once. Draw a tree with sharpie on a piece of cardboard. Poke some holes in the lines of tree drawing. Take your child leaf hunting and show them how to stick the leaf stem in each hole. You could also use fake flowers if you have those around. Holding the cardboard so that the leaves don’t fall out might be a bit tricky, so feel free to hold the cardboard for child.
22. Spray Bottles & Squeeze Bottles
Every summer, I buy a few plastic spray bottles at Walmart or Target for $1.00 each. I’ve also ordered condiment style squeeze bottles. Kids of all ages have lots of fun spraying plants, the sidewalk, themselves, and each other!
23. Pretend Play Grown Up Stuff from Thrift Stores
The most popular “toys” over the years have been thrifted phones, remote controllers, baskets, purses, hats, and other real-looking things. Thrift stores are a great place to get this stuff, and I just kept it all in one bin. Toddlers seem to especially love bags that are just their size, so I highly recommend a tiny backpack or fanny pack or something they can carry around and take stuff in and out of. This type of pretend play has incentivized all of my kids to learn to zip and unzip, which requires kind of a lot of hand eye coordination for those little hands.
24. Q Tip Painting or Glue
I learned so many craft activities hacks from my kids’ little preschool. Q tip painting was a VERY popular activity. You can get white or yellow acrylic paint and let kids q-tip dab “stars” onto a black paper.
Another idea is to draw tree branches on a regular paper. Let your child have green or orange and yellow paint and draw “leaves” on the tree.
You can also let your child dab Elmer’s glue on cardboard and then put giant googly eyes or buttons on each glue dot.
Q tip play is so good for little fingers!
25. Toothpicks in the Container
I ordered this 2 pack of toothpicks for our kitchen. I used one for a toddler toy. I took most of the toothpicks out and left one in. I showed the toddler how to dump them out and put it in. I helped him take the lid off, put it back on, etc. This occupied this little guy for a good 25 minutes. That’s miracle level concentration in my book.
Obviously toothpicks have sharp edges so be careful! You may need to do a different version of this activity and just poke holes in an old coffee tin lid for plastic straws. Long skinny objects in and out of holes – so fun.
26. Freeze the Toy!
This one cracks me up – another idea from Suzy at Busy Toddler. You freeze a toy overnight and the let your child chip away at it to rescue their toy from the ice. My older kids actually love doing this themselves. They freeze things and then watch them thaw in the sun or chisel through the ice. Bonus educational experience points because freezing and thawing water is a fun science concept. Working with ice is such a fun sensory experience too.
27. Play with Ice!
Speaking of working with ice… this is another great opportunity to just play with what you have around. Your little 1 year old or 2 year old will have a lot of fun with a bucket of ice and a few other kitchen tools. Personally, I’d take this activity outside, but I suppose you could also put a bunch of ice in a sink for them to play with too.
28. Block or Lego Stacking
The ideal stacking block for toddlers is easy to connect. I love the old fisher price ones as pictured below, but they’re hard to find.
Search “fisher price little people builders” on ebay to find used sets.
Duplo Legos work well too. I like to limit the child to a basket of lego squares so they’re not overwhelmed. The 2 year old below really went to town!
29. Magnatiles
Magnatiles and Duplos are honestly 2 of my all time favorite toys. They’re fun for kids for YEARS. They use them in lots of different ways.
For a young toddler, they might just play with them flat or put them on and off the refrigerator for a while. They also like to stack them flat on top of each other and carry them around.
As the kids got older, we added tons of tiles to our collection and now have a few huge bins. They build epic towers!
30. Toddler Watering Can
Toddlers love to be outside! A toddler size watering can is such a fun toy.
31. Laundry Baskets
My toddlers loved to play in laundry baskets… They’d put toys in there, climb in, read to each other and eventually push each other around as they got older!
32. Good Old Cardboard Box
Obviously a box is fun!! It can become anything – a house, a boat.
You’ll notice the picture below is bascially the same activity as the laundry basket. But it feels new to a toddler 🙂
33. Dishwasher Play
Kids love to copy parents. And parents unload the dishwasher! Haha, my girls used to go to town playing dishwasher and our little guy right now loves it too. All the plastic dishes in and out, in and out.
One of the Hardest Ages – Some Encouragement for You
I told a new friend this summer that I thought 12-20 months was by far the hardest age in the first few years and she almost burst into tears with relief at hearing me say that. She said that age range with her twins was so hard and discouraging and she was so tired. She was carrying around a lot of guilt because everyone would just comment, “Oh they’re so cute!!” (And they are!! All one year olds are, but her toe-head blonde boy-girl twins are especially cute.)
I said, “There is no guilt!! They are so cute but man are they exhausting. They’re frustrated with lots of opinions and minimal communication ability. They’re tired because they’re transitioning to one nap. They can’t really do anything for themselves yet but they’re not tiny snuggly babies. They’re into everything. They dump everything out. LOL it’s a lot.
So if you have a kid this age – hang in there. It does get easier. And I actually think if you patiently train and discipline and guide your 1 year olds, then the 2 year old year will be SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE. I actually love two.
To that end, I have to tell you about this book I ALWAYS recommend to people with kids between 8 and 36 months.
It’s one of the best parenting books I’ve ever read & I’ve had countless readers (and in real life friends) thank me for the recommendation and say how much it helped their parenting. If you have a kiddo between 8 months and 3 years old, I highly recommend reading it ASAP. It will make you laugh, encourage you, and give you loads of practical day to day advice for the years with a toddler.
I have several other posts on toddlers, toddler discipline, and the “Terrific twos!!” Here are a few more that might be helpful or encouraging.
- Effective + Patient Toddler Discipline
- Surviving with 2 Under 2
- Teach Your 1 Year Old No
- 2 Year Old Sleep Help
