Beanbags

Toddlers enjoy beanbags. There are many different games you can play with a beanbag. You can toss them, play catch, throw them at a goal, knock down objects, and feel them. Keep several small beanbags on hand–different colors and shapes.

Trace Hands

Toddlers enjoy having their hands traced on paper. Let you toddler color and decorate hands after you traced them.

Potato Stamp Art

Cut a few potatoes in half. Carve a design on the end of each potato. Use the potatoes as stamps. Dip them in finger paints and stamp on paper. Toddlers enjoy this activity.

Art Supplies

Toddlers love to color, paint, and draw. Keep on hand some basic art supplies such as fingerpaints, glue stick, crayons, colored pencils, chalk, paper, markers, and coloring books.

Toddler Sugar Cookies

1 cup white sugar
1 cup margarine
3 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
5 cups flour

Mix together all ingredients and chill for 4 hours. Roll out dough. Cut into desired shapes. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 375. Decorate as desired with frosting and bite size candy.

Homemade Bubbles

Homemade Bubbles

1 cup of water
1/2 cup of liquid dish soap

Mix water and soap together and use to make bubbles.

Chalkboard Fabric

Chalkboard fabric is great to use with toddlers. You can easily move it and use it anywhere. Take a small piece with you when you travel. Just roll it up for easy storage.

Cooking

Toddlers enjoy helping to cook. Plan a cooking activity. Bake cookies, make a cake, or mix some juice. Allow the toddler to add ingredients and stir.

Dough For Play

Dough for Play

5 cups flour
1/4 cup cooking oil
3 cups salt
3 cups or more of water
food coloring

Mix together well and store in an airtight container.

Laundry Game

Help your child learn matching and sorting, as well as personal responsibility. Take colourful paper and draw a shirt, pants, socks, etc. Laminate between two pieces of clear sticky film if possible, and tape to the front of the appropriate drawer. Come laundry time, you and your child can "play" match the clothes as clothes get put away. Your child will love playing the game, as well as feel proud that he did it "all by himself".

Activities from A to Z

A – art, acting
B – bean bags, bath fun, balls, blocks
C – cooking, clapping, coloring, chasing
D – dancing, drawing, dress-up, domino
E – egg counting and coloring, exploring
F – finger paint, follow the leader, finger plays, fishing
G– guessing games, grandparent fun, going places
H – hide-and-seek, hats, hammering, hand games
I – ice cream, icing cookies, indoor camping
J – jumping, juice pops, jigsaw puzzles
K – kitchen fun, kazoos, knick knack building, knot tying
L – lids, laughing, letter magnets
M – make-believe, music, mirrors, matching games
N – naming objects, nature walks, noodle necklaces & pictures
O – online games, organizing, obstacle course
P – pots & pans, play dough, puzzles, parades
Q – quiet walking, quick pick-up
R – reading books, rolling
S – sightseeing, stacking, singing, sorting, stories
T – treasure hunt, taping sounds, telephone talk
U – upside-down fun, unbox toys, unstack blocks, unwrap objects
V – volley a balloon, voice games, village play
W – walks, water fun, wrapping items
X – X marks the spot, xylophone
Y – yarn dolls & balls, yo-yo
Z – zoo, zipping

Stringing Beads

Get some long thick shoestrings and brightly colored blocks with holes in the middle. Let your toddler put the blocks on the shoestring. This activity will usually keep a toddler entertained for a good while.

Finger Paint

Toddlers enjoy painting with their hands. Get water washable paints for easy cleanups. Thick paper works best as toddlers tend to use a lot of paint on each picture.

Singing

Toddlers enjoy singing songs and dancing to music. Provide some tapes or CDs of children songs to sing along with. Join in with your toddler in singing and dancing.

Rules

Toddlers like to make their own rules to games. Be flexible with whatever game you are playing. Keep rules simple and let everyone win.

Bored Toddler

When my child gets frustrated or bored, I tell him that we`ll do a project. Anything from coloring and cutting a piece of paper to a full project. It occupies his mind and changes his attitude and actions.