Activity ideas for 20 month old - looking for inspo

[MoroSun]

Hi all,

Please throw your activity ideas at me.

We’ve been doing colouring and cake and biscuit decorating (using coloured icing and sprinkles).

Thank you!

Mine is 23 months:
Set up her fame animals reading a book (about a farm) and then discuss it with her / reenact bits

Put a picture of an animal on the window & she has to find the right toy / other animal picture from around the room

A bag of pasta with measuring cups / jugs / pans to mix between them

Sorting the box of clean socks into pairs

Using a messy play tray to do ‘washing up’

I have a box I put holes into so she can drop balls into it & investigate what comes out & look into it

She loves all the Orchard Games matching game & a magnetic animal Janod thing I got her

I masking taped paint pots to a cupboard at different heights & gave her kids tweezers to put felt balls into them

Tissue paper / newspaper & PVA glue to make ‘cards’

Am following with interest - she is going back to nursery a few days a week soon but I’m running out of ideas!

Oh wow @suziedoozy you sound so creative! Thank you for these ideas. I love love love being with DS but am not the most inspired of people when it comes to keeping him entertained. Thank you!

I have tried with my 21 month old:
Squity cream mixed with food colouring to make marks with, I give him a paintbrush too.

Paint with paint brushes rollers, cars.

Coloured rice with pots, spoons etc.

Water play with different size and coloured containers, bath toys - i add food colouring too.

Farm with wheatabixs as hay, caused up cereal,
yogurt mixed with blue food colouring as the pond.

A muffin tin with lots of different objects, can do food ones like rice, lentils, pasta, yougurt or household like pom poms etc.

I'm going to try:
Threading pasta on string
A box or string tried up to make a little washing line to hang clothes up with pegs.

@MoroSun thank you - I am getting quite bored being at home with her now so I try to think of things to do or we just go for very slow walks where we wave & chat to everyone we find. We even have some people on our road who wfh but are ready to do waves / peekaboo whenever we pass their house! Apparently we are the highlight of their day & I feel the same.

Ive got mine interested in birds (it started as a way to keep her still on her changing table) so we spend a surprising amount of time bird spotting through the window - we don’t see much but she enjoys it

Another activity I did was got family photos cheaply printed and we do different things with them e.g I hide them in bags with zips for her to find and then tell me who the pictures are of. These are close family who she has seen once / twice in 12 months.

Do you use Instagram? Play Hooray & Five Minute Mum have things that can be adapted

I also use a lot of Montessori inspired activities from- Pinterest / Instagram

Good luck 👍

The Five Minute Mum website /FB page has loads of ideas.

Tub of bubbles will keep them entertained for a while.
Or a helium balloon on a weight. Ordinary balloons if they are ok with it when they pop.
A music session with any musical instruments they have, or banging a wooden spoon on a pan base or shaking dried pasta/rice in a water bottle.
Teddy bears picnic.
Chalk painting if you have something suitable outside to draw on.

Stack and unstuck/knock over paper cups.
Rolls balls down ramps. We’ve got some old guttering set up as a ramp in the sitting room!
Blow bubbles for her to pop
Play catch with a balloon or just bounce a balloon about.
Pop bubble wrap
Make shadows with a torch
Make a drum kit out of upturned saucepans
Make dens and tunnels with furniture, cushions and sheets
Draw on patio/paving slabs with coloured chalk
My dd also loves printing - hand printing, potato printing etc..
Hide small objects (we use clothes pegs) round the house and go hunting for them.
Cook up a big saucepan of porridge and let it go cold. Add some food colouring and it turns into a fantastic squelchy messy play activity, especially with little toys hidden! I do the same with custard and with mashed potato using a packet of instant smash! Polenta works well too, as does cooked couscous or cooked spaghetti.