Bored No More: 20 Things To Do With Toddlers

Are things to do with toddlers sometimes hard to think up for you? You’re together nearly all the time, and it’s much easier to think of things you can’t do with toddlers than those you can! Things like getting your nails done, or running a marathon, or taking a nice long uninterrupted nap. But there are plenty of things to do with toddlers too, and some of them are actually fun.

Here is a creative list of 20 things to do with toddlers

1. Go to the supermarket, put your toddler in a shopping car, and play car races down the aisle till the attendant tells you to stop.

2. Go to the park and feed the ducks

3. Pack a picnic lunch and go visit your local botanical gardens—these usually have free days, so time your outing well!

4. Have a ‘bus date’: get on one of the local buses, ride to the end of the line, and then ride back! Enjoy looking out of the window and talking with your toddler about the changing scenery the whole time. Do make sure you pack snacks, or someone will get grumpy!

5. Go on a ‘blackbird discovery mission’: Take a walk around the block, and see how many blackbirds (or hummingbirds, or whatever is local to your location) you can find

6. Take your toddler to the shopping mall and ride up and down the escalator 

7. Visit the storyhour at your local library, and let your toddler enjoy a story told by a professional storyteller

8. Make another visit to the library to check out toddler books, then take them home and read them together.

9. Visit the local pet shop together, then come home and draw pictures of the animals

10. Find out when your public lawns get watered, then take your toddler out in his swimsuit and let him run in and out of the sprinklers to his heart’s delight

11. Visit your local ice-cream parlor together, and let your toddler choose what three flavors he wants on his cone—and what toppings go on that.

12. Do early morning dates at your local donut shop, and give your toddler free choice of the toppings. No, it might not be all that healthy, but you won’t do it everyday!

13. Patronize your local indoor playgrounds—these are always fun for toddlers!

14. Drive out to a poorly-lighted area after dark and look at stars together—this is best scheduled for seasons when days are shorter, so you don’t wreck too much havoc with bedtime!

15. Call up local farms and ask about visiting hours, then take your child to visit the horses, cows, sheep and goats!

16. Go apple-picking at a local orchard in the fall; you’ll need to hold up your toddler so he can pick apples from the trees, or else make it his job to find still-perfect apples on the ground.

17. Blueberry picking is another fun toddler-friendly activity: visit a u-pick farm together and give your toddler his own little basket or bowl to put picked berries in, but don’t expect much to find it’s way in there: toddlers are best at picking for their mouths! 

18. Find a wilderness area with tall grasses, and play hide and seek with your toddler in the tall grass!

19. In the fall, go on a leaf-collecting expedition and encourage your toddler to find as many different kinds of leaves as he can, then bring them home and stick them in a scrapbook or on a collage

20. When it snows, build an igloo big enough for both of you—or at least big enough for your toddler—and play inside it till it gets too cold. Then come home and drink hot chocolate.

See? It’s not so hard to think of things to do with toddlers. Now that we’ve got the ball rolling, I bet you can think of thirty more that are especially suited to your own location and the season you’re in right now! There’s absolutely no reason to be bored, or to miss your own beauty-parlor dates--  doing things with toddlers can be as varied as any of the activities you do on your own, and they have much more potential for adventure and excitement! Go on, we dare you to try out three of our list of things to do with toddlers this week!

Click here to return from Things To Do With Toddlers to Home Page