Fun Activities for Toddlers

Every toddler mom I know is always looking for fun activities for toddlers. Toddlers seem to be on the move every waking minute, and keeping them entertained can seem a full time job! Though they love repetition, it’s nice to mix fun and exhilarating activities for toddlers up every now and then, if only for mom’s sanity. Remember, though, that repetition is actually a learning strategy, so do give your child the opportunity to ‘turn on repeat’ on occasion. 

This website is a treasure trove of toddler play ideas and activities, so here we’ll focus on just three fun activities for toddlers that you can do with your child when the two of you want something super-special to spice up your day.

Fun Activities for Toddlers That Your Little One Will Love

Dress up Time

Put together a collection of dress up clothes your toddler can enjoy. These can be selections from daddy’s and mommy’s closet; items that look fun or super-characteristic but which can stand a little rough handling. Perhaps a tie daddy doesn’t care to wear, or some shoes mommy has decided aren’t really her style. You can also collect cheap fancy dress during visits to thrift stores.

When it’s time to play, just dump the collection out on the middle of the living room floor and let your child have fun dressing up! If he needs some encouragement to start, you can help him ‘dress’ in one or two items, carry him to the mirror, and laugh together at the funny image he presents. Or put on something funny yourself, at a rakish angle.

One wonderful side aspect to playing dress up is that your toddler gets fun practice doing an all-important new toddler skill: dressing himself, in a wonderfully low-key, no-failure-possible way.

Treasure Hunt

Sure, Easter egg hunts only come once a year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t tax your child’s strategic searching powers with fun treasure hunts on days that would be otherwise perfectly ordinary! Prepare five or six special snacks or other treasures.  If it’s nearly dinner time and you don’t want to give your toddler any sweets that might spoil his appetite, just choose six stuffed animals from his bedroom—but let him know which six will be hiding.

Then take them into the living room and hide them in places that your toddler can find but which won’t be extremely obvious. When they’re all hidden, call your toddler in the room and let him search while you cheer him on. 

A variation of this game is to hide just one object, and give your toddler hints as he looks for it: as he approaches the object, tell him he is ‘getting hotter’, as he moves away tell him he is ‘getting colder’. Extend that to such expressions as ‘oh, you’re very cold now…” when he’s far away from the item, and ‘You’re so hot, you’re almost burning!’ when he’s just about found it. After he’s found the object, ask him to hide it for you and give you ‘hotter/colder” hints so that you can find it. 

Cheerios Lacing Time

Give your child a clean shoelace, spill out a quantity of cheerios in front of her (or fruit loops, if that’s what your toddler eats) and show her how she can string them all into a lovely edible necklace. Stringing beads—or cheerios—is also extremely beneficial to eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills, so you’re giving your child an extra boost up in preschool preparedness as well as giving her a fun time.

There you have it: three never-fail. fun and exciting activities for toddlers that are wonderful for a rainy day, a snowy day, or just any day! Keep them filed away in an easy to find compartment in your mental ‘fun activities for toddlers’ file, and bring them out when it’s time for something special.

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