Have you ever bought your toddler a new toy, only to realize that she would rather play with the box it came in?
Toddlers have a great capability to enjoy the simple things in life and build imaginary worlds. At this enchanting age, practically everything is pristine, and we can rest knowing that our connection with our young children, particularly through simple, repeating activities, is improving their growth and love of learning. The secret is to keep it simple and devote a lot of time permitting them to explore at their own speed. Below are several simple and low-cost toddler activities you can appreciate with your toddler outdoors and indoors.
Outdoor Toddler Activities
Toddlers love to be outside, engaging with nature. As you spend time with your toddler, try to envisage how activities, objects, and situations appear from her viewpoint. Toddlers get enjoyment in the simplest objects and tasks, particularly if you do them over and over. Here are some ideas to help your toddler engage with you and nature:
Watch the clouds. Lie on your back in the grass together and find shapes in the clouds.
Make sidewalk art. Use big, thick chunks of sidewalk chalk to make sidewalk art. This is a perfect activity to improve a toddler’s fine motor skills. Let your child make his own drawings and designs. Have him explain what he is drawing. Additionally, you can write your child’s name in big block letters and ask him to color them in.
Walk the neighborhood. Walking in the neighborhood will allow your toddler the opportunity to become acquainted with the world outside her home. As she follows the identical route repeatedly, she will begin to develop an idea of her neighborhood.
Take a toddler led hike. Let your child enjoy all that nature has to offer by taking your child on a toddler led hike. A toddler-led hike means finding safe hiking trails that are suitable for small bodies and minds and hiking at the toddler’s pace. Let your child lead you in exploring rocks, sticks, leaves, pinecones, and other wonderful natural objects that can be touched and studied. Toddler nature times can be frustrating for the more serious hikers. But these times also give you a chance to decompress from the crazy speed of life and explore the world around you. Here’s a great post I wrote about hiking with toddlers.
Indoor Toddler Activities
As parents, we often worry if our toddlers are receiving enough attention, stimulation, entertainment, and educational activities. Many times, the activities toddlers genuinely enjoy are the simplest and lowest cost—specifically when the toddler’s natural pace is taken into account.
Read a story. Reading unlocks a toddler’s imagination and nurtures a love for stories and books, which can drive him to success far into the school years. Read as much as possible to your toddler. Take frequent trips to the library to allow him to choose new books and audiobooks to delight in. Introduce your toddler to the books you enjoyed in your own childhood. Also, remember to let your toddler see you reading a book from time to time too.
Sing out loud. When concepts are put to music, they are likely to stick. Sing songs with your toddler to help reinforce certain concepts such as the alphabet song, five little monkeys, or silly songs about your life. Also, let your toddler create their own special songs, too. See if you can help your child make up a song to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, that uses your toddler’s name and some unique characteristics that you love about him the most.
Create a story. Help your child create her own story. Ask your toddler to fill in the blanks here and there to create the story. For example, you might start with, “Once upon a time there was a boy named: ____” (Ask the child for the boy’s name.). And the boy went to the ____.” Write the story down on sheets of paper and let your child illustrate her story. Staple the pages together to make a book that can be enjoyed for years to come. Parenting.com has a few tips on great story starters for kids.
Have a dance party. Toddlers tend to “feel” music in ways that many of us adults have overlooked. They use their little bodies to express their emotions and explore the ways their bodies move. Here are some ideas to help you explore dance with your toddler. Just turn on some music and see what happens. Not only is dancing a great exercise for little bodies but it is a great mood enhancer.
Don’t worry if you do the same toddler activities more than once, the secret to toddler activities is in repetition. Toddler’s brains create connections by repetitively doing, seeing, feeling, and hearing. So, get out there and explore the world with your toddler.
I love your ideas! I also miss the days when mine were this age and playing was much simpler. We LOVED natured and laying out looking at the clouds finding things in them we would play iSpy with the clouds. Such lovely memories. Thank you for that.
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Love these ideas! We bought chalk for the kids to use in the back garden and it kept them amused for ages!
Rachel @ Parenthood Highs and Lows recently posted…8 Photos of Happiness
We did several of these while our girls were younger. They both had great imagination when it came to play.
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What fun toddler activities these are. We love going on hikes and drawing on the sidewalks with chalk. Any outdoor activities are a hit here. Thanks for the suggestions.
toddler are so easy to occupy outdoors. I remember when my kids were younger, we were always outside. I can never get them to go outdoors now.
These would be a ton of fun to do. We never tried having a dance party with our little ones.
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These are such great ideas. We are big fans of walks, reading, singing and dance parties. Oh we also chase the dog around the house. My little one has learned to say outside and get her shoes and mine. It is too cute I always have to take her out but man I wish it would cool down.
Of course! What better way to make them more active than by letting them experience nature. Awesome ideas.
These are all great ideas for activities to do with toddlers!! I will share them with my sister…my nephew is turning 2 in early October :)
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I love all the ideas! We did some of these when my boys were a younger and we still do some of these too like watching the clouds.
Toddlers are so full of energy and we must find ways for them to burn off that extra sugar in their diet. A walk around the neighborhood would be good. Picking wildflowers would also be a nice, enjoyable activity.
Such a fun toddler activities, i remember when my son was 4 years old we always have an outdoor activity to keep his entertained
These are fun activities that we love to do. Sidewalk art is my twins’ favorite outdoor activity. For indoors, they love it when I read to them.
I like the sidewalk art idea. It seems like a fun thing to do with your toddler. All the other activities are a must too.
These sound like great activities! We’ve done quite a few, though I have never thought to let my toddler lead the walk.
My nieces lover dance parties and what’s more fun than dancing with toddlers? I love the idea of a toddler led hike, I know that would be fun for sure!
t do not take care of toddlers too often but these ideas are smart and thoughtful. I love the idea of a toddler led nature walk in a safe place.
We love making artwork, and having dance parties. They love dancing to songs from the greatest showman the most!
I can’t imagine having to keep a toddler busy during this time period. At this age we just spent hours in the playground, but those are closed. And we live in the city, so no house and property to run around! Luckily my 16 year old is busy without me now!
I love all these ideas. I miss having toddlers, they are so much fun and so interesting!
These are amazing ideas! I love free and affordable kids’ activities.
Toddlers are so easy to please. At least in my experience. When my son was a toddler, I’d sing him nursery rhymes and it always makes him excited.
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These are some really fun ideas. I would love to do some of these with my kids.
These are all smart ideas to keep toddlers happy and busy. It’s so important to get creative with ideas during summer.
I love looking back at videos of my daughter when she was a toddler and she could spend hours playing with a sack of rocks from IKEA.
These are great activities ideas for my toddlers but since we are still under quarantine and kids are not allowed to go out we are going to stick to on our indoor activities and will add some of your indoor activities ideas.
Love these ideas! I really needed something new to do with my kid!