Indoor activities are great to have on hand for any age this time of year. But toddlers especially seem to get antsy and need some extra hands-on attention.
Every one of these activities is easy to do, easy to set up, and uses materials that you should already have on hand (they’re all pretty common items). And if you don’t have the items, I’m listing a bunch of other options you could do instead!
- Get out the cardboard boxes and create! Let the imaginations flow. A box can be anything: a train, ramps for cars, an airplane, a house and dont forget to send us pictures!!
- Tape up the doorway and throw some newspapers (or cotton balls!) at it to see if you can stick them. A great indoor activity for gross motor practice!
- Shaving cream is a wonderful indoor sensory activity that toddlers love. Squirt some on a pan and just let them have fun. Add food coloring if you like. You might want to put them in an old shirt and maybe put a towel down, too. It does get messy!
- Bowl indoors! Grab one of the kids’ balls. Set up a few items for pins. Lots of things will work for these, pop bottles, paper towel tube, or toilet paper works too!
- Create a necklace, toddler style! Use a piece of string (a shoestring works well because of the hard end) and something to thread on it. Big beads would be great. But other items such as straws or large pasta noodles work too. This would be a great fine motor activity.
- Dig a newspaper out of the recycling bin and have a ball throwing them! Add a target to the mix and practice counting too. All great gross motor practice.
- Here’s a sensory activity that’s easy and clean! Squirt some hair gel (lotion would work too) into a baggy and zip it up! Add some odds and ends craft items to the mix too for added fun.
- Tape a line on the floor in different ways (zig zag, curvy or straight) and have a toddler walk along it, trying to balance their best. Can they do it forward, how about walking backward? Another fantastic gross motor activity that can be done indoors.
- Have your toddler poke pom poms through an opening in a small bottle, or cut a small hole in a container. Pom poms and other small items can be used for fine motor practice, but always be careful with small kids and watch them closely.
- A play dough alternative (although its great, its fun to throw in something else sometimes) is cloud dough. The texture is awesome and the kids will love to explore
