Give me an activity to do with my toddler..

[hogu]

We head out everyday but the times we are at home we go over the same things day in day out.. yawn!!!

Give me a new activity or just something daft to entertain my 2 year old please! I feel like I have absolutely zero creativity at the moment!

A few balloons to play with usually works. Or bubbles.

A bubble gun. £10 on Amazon and gives years of entertainment.

Any water games - hook a duck etc. For outside or a bath.

Sticker books / stickers.

Make a house for them out of a giant cardboard box.

We are going to make pom pom caterpillars a la the Hungry Caterpillar and got some red and black fondant so we can bake ladybird cupcakes.

If you have some spare cash, you can order caterpillars online and watch them change and release the butterflies.

Other ideas at home... AquaDoodle, play doh, water play, make their own pizza for tea, puzzles or books now the library is open?

This week I got a small water sprayer (like to mist plants with) which kept her entertained outdoors and in the shower for an hour and a half. She loved it!

Paint the fence or paving stones with water.
Painting feet and walking on an old roll of wallpaper.
An indoor den with blankets over the furniture or an outdoor den with blankets over the washing line.

Well I let my toddler paint in the empty bath, naked for half an hour or so this afternoon. Washable kids poster paint from the works.

She enjoyed it but I probably wouldn't bother doing it again. Was a bit of a faff. Following for other ideas.

Scribble all over the garden with chalk (if you have one).

Aldi are doing small packs of gellibaff, it makes a tub of goo that you can put plastic anamals in.

Orbeez (ordered from eBay) as above really.

Toddler music videos, my 18 month old like 'super simple songs' on YouTube

Threading pasta onto pipe cleaners to make bracelets.

Anything involving water, washing dolls in the garden works well, or even just long baths.

Bubble machine

Anything to do with water! As above and also washing up bowl to clean their toys in (obviously the ones which can survive being in water!)

A big cardboard box filled with balloons and loosely taped up.

Place inside large cardboard box with a crayon.

Pretend to accidentally leave the pan cupboard open (DC love it but I usually lock it to stop constant mess)

Rice play - bucket, rice in it, cups and funnels. Rice gets everywhere though, but hoovering it up afterwards (if you clean the hoover beforehand you can reuse the rice for play) becomes another activity

My DS used to love playing with Lego Duplo. They're big building blocks, so they can't be swallowed. I think you can buy a mixture set for less than £20. It's create for their creativity, especially at a young age.

@LittleToasterx

My DS used to love playing with Lego Duplo. They're big building blocks, so they can't be swallowed. I think you can buy a mixture set for less than £20. It's create for their creativity, especially at a young age.

*great

I used to get my toddlers to help pair up all the family socks (great for practising matching skills), and then take them, one pair at a time upstairs and put them in the right bedroom according to owner.

Got a boring job done, and also had the added bonus of tiring them out with all the up/down stairs , while I sat on the sofa having a cup of tea!

If you have the appropriate or near enough toys build in the night garden or the island of sodor or whatever you can
Top and tail bowl water oneside and either compost or bubble bath water otherside and wash dinosaurs/diggers
Baby bath full of bubble bath in the garden with yogurt pots, plastic jug and other containers for pouring practice
Planting seeds beans and peas are good
Make your own play dough. The recipes that are cooked are better.
Salt dough and bake it. We did hand prints
Coloured ice cubes in water to fish out with a small net. Use the baby bath again
Flour in a tray for mark making, putting dinosaurs/horses/unicorns in. Best outside that one.
Make a ramp out of whatever is to hand and race cars down it. To introduce basic stem put different surfaces on it and see which car goes fastest. Fabric such as felt or fleece (use old clothing) tinfoil and some sand paper

Homemade play dough in assorted colours and textures
Fun song factory DVD if they still do them
Painting the garden fence with water
Playground chalk.
Junk modelling
Decorating biscuits
Polishing furniture
Dancing with streamers
Water bottle skittles
Teddy bears picnic

Mine loves to ‘post things’. Buttons or craft Pom poms into a clear plastic bottles are a favourite. Pasta threading onto pipe learners or string.

Shaving foam on the table. Anything with paint, or bubbles, or chalk. Build a den.

Draw the curtains, put on a YouTube sea and storm video and turn your bed or sofa into a pirate ship. Lots of men overboard, rocking from side to side and almost over balancing, torch for flashes of lightning. If you have any soft toy sea creatures put them around you. Maybe have a shark attack or find a treasure chest if you are lucky.

Play gardeners. You lie on the sofa under a blanket with only your head showing. DC be the gardener, and pour on water, shine on sun, to help you grow (sit up a bit more). Wilting when you have too much sun, shouting I’m drowning when too much water etc. V popular here, and means a nice sit down

Draw a picture for a friend or relative, decorate envelope, put it in envelope, then little outing to the post box

Toilet roll craft
Car wash for the ride-on (bucket & sponges)
Shaving foam car wash for small toy vehicles
Cornflour slime

The cornflour & water thing.

Lol, I have an actual list on my phone...

Stuck inside list

Baking
Den making
Painting
Face painting
Drawing
Sticker books
Obstacle course
Lego
Film
Disco party
Cosmic kids yoga youtube
Long baths
Teddy picnic
Actual picnic in the lounge
Play dough
Musical statues
Simon says
Balloons
Clapping games
Card games
Lego
Duplo

• dice roll exercise / action game - assign each number an action
• Fake birthday party - pick a toy, it's their birthday! Make party invites, presents, birthday cards, make cakes, have a party food lunch, play pass the parcel, have a disco, wear party clothes
• Whiteboard pen frogs and tadpoles - draw them on the bath, add water, watch them float off
• Slalom course using cans, hands and knees, weave in and out, relay to collect toys
• jolly phonics
• limbo
• jumping over a stick! Move stick left and right
• fly swot - chopstick with fly, chopstick with swot, take turns
• pinball - make it out of cereal box, eg cut in half long ways, draw face, cut out round mouth, stick on obstacles, balls (playdough?) need rolling around to fall through mouth
• cup and ball games - roll balls, kids catch them under cups
• table tilt catch game - prop table legs up, roll bricks or balls down, kids catch in tub at end
• circus skills - make stilts from cans, make a balance beam, hula hoop, spin plates on sticks
• fete games - egg and spoon, splat a rat, sack race
• put videos of rollercoasters on TV and get kids to be on it... Use a basket maybe
• fake cafe

Go noodle Just dance videos Paper aeroplanes Paper boats Collage Potato stamps Board games Hide and seek / sardines Origami Study an animal Atlas - learn about a country Charades Marbles Memory game - objects under tea towel / in box, how many can they remember Box feely up game Paint rocks Nature collection and art with it Magazine from the shop, so all the activities Funky fingers mamaot.com/fine-motor-activities-using-household-items/ Dough disco on YouTube

Roll of lining paper or old cardboard from a fridge or bike, child lies on it, draw around them and produce an outline which you then "dress" with real clothes or draw on clothes. If toddler has an issue with dressing, you can lay out the clothes for the next day on it.

"Fishing" for ducks or waterproof toys in the bath with a net on a pole from the seaside.

Creating a den by using duvet covers over a solid table or a large cardboard box.

Searching for, and collecting things, that you have left around the house in different categories of colour or shape eg find five yellow items, or five tsquare items and bring them back to put in a box or bucket. Then combine the two: find five yellow, square items etc.

Find the teddy bear: follow a trail of large buttons or upturned paper cups to find the teddy hiding in a cupboard or under a bed.

Lay out a plastic tablecloth + some small pans and lids, plastic bowls, a plastic plate, and cup, some measuring spoons, a wooden spoon, some dried beans or pasta shapes or green lentils and let them amuse themselves while you supervise from a distance.

Chalk numbers and lines that can run along

@ElfDragon

I used to get my toddlers to help pair up all the family socks (great for practising matching skills), and then take them, one pair at a time upstairs and put them in the right bedroom according to owner.

Got a boring job done, and also had the added bonus of tiring them out with all the up/down stairs , while I sat on the sofa having a cup of tea!

I used to do this! But once they were matched and bundled I used to let him throw them into the drawer from a few steps away