Best activities for a 1 year old?

[lottie198]

Would like to do some more activities with my 1 year old. I'm talking about activities in the home.
We do lots of reading and playing with his toys but he's at the awkward age where he prefers exploring every corner of the house and emptying drawers etc (which I let him do as well).
We go out for coffee /lunches sometimes and go to a baby group once a week.
We also do the usual go for a walk most days and sometimes into town.
Any ideas on home activities?

sensory toys - blackout blinds and make the room like a little sensory den

messy trays - ideally using things that are safe to eat because he might still shove everything in his mouth! e.g. blend cheerio’s to make ‘sand’ and blue jelly for water in trays and put toys like sea animals etc in

toy kitchen / dollhouse / etc

water pad for mess free doodling

If you can get to the library and borrow the ten minute Mum book, or follow her online she has lots of fab activities to do at home.
Also the Words for life website by the NLT is really good wordsforlife.org.uk/ I have done lots of their activities during and since lockdown.

Mine spends a LOT of time in his toy kitchen. It’s in our kitchen which frees me up to do stuff in the kitchen when he’s playing in his.

Toy pots, pans, spoons (or real ones) and some dried pasta shapes.

Dustpan and brush is a big hit too.

Toy supermarket trolley

Wooden fruit that you cut up

drawing and painting

Thank you ! Great ideas. We do have a toy kitchen which he likes and also a water drawing pad but he's not too interested at the moment x

Great thank you ! He's got a wooden toy kitchen. But nothing really in it yet as I didn't know if he'd bother playing with it at his age. I've put a few cups and spoons and he plays for a little while. I think I'll go and buy him some more stuff for his kitchen x

Get a few toilet roll holders and tape them to a wall or cabinet or something. Babies like dropping little balls through them

Someone bought us the giggle giraffe on amazon as a birthday present and to say it's been a hit would be a massive understatement.

Fill a shoebox with sensory toys and leave somewhere to be discovered.

Toddlers love putting things inside other things, and also taking them out and putting back in

My 11m old loves her treasure basket still. Has it out most days but I rotate the items in it so it's fresh regularly. Although that's more for her to do on her own but I do involve myself sometimes.
We also do messy play which she loves.

What's in the treasure basket ? X

@lottie198
It's everyday items (not toys) made of mostly natural materials (no plastic mostly) for her to explore. Have a google and you will get loads of ideas. Currently DD has- 2 small metal bowls (the sort you might put dips in), a metal bell, a little cardboard box (sort jewellery came in at Xmas), heavy wooden box (like a sewing box), a little metal compact mirror, a piece of rope, bubble wrap, a stress ball, a lavender sachet, wooden spoon, mini whisk, curtain rings shells, a hanky and a small decorative tin in the shape of a cat!
We have also had strings of small metal beads, a little raffia basket, a cotton reel, wrapping paper, a paint brush, pine cones, large pebble from the beach, a metal tin, a honey drizzler, a wooden plate, a shoe brush, a piece of survival blanket, a metal drink bottle, tissue paper, a biscuit cutter, a necklace with large wooden beads and a metal spoon

The things already mentioned are great. One thing mine liked was putting little Pom poms into things or pushing pasta into holes in a cardboard box. Sensory play is always a winner so a tuff tray with shaving foam, pipettes and food colouring, or lentils/rice , wooden spoons and toy diggers. My son would sit for about an hour in a ruff tray with rice and diggers 😀

Wow this sounds brilliant! My boy would definitely love all that. He loves exploring textures and taking things in and out of boxes 🤣

@lottie198 they are fabulous. She has had one since about 4-5m and used to just be feeling it or chewing on things (honey drizzler was the number 1 teether for a while!) but she has started to expand on it slightly- opening the boxes and putting things in, covering things with the hanky etc.
obviously none of it is made to be toys so it's closely supervised only although I don't get involved much and let her get on with it in her own time, just commenting on what's she is doing etc.
I keep it all in a rattan type basket and get it out at some point most days but she doesn't have open access so it remains interesting.
I have brought some bits specially but a lot was stuff I already had and I asked around friends etc- a friend was clearing the house of a mutual friend who had passed away and was a real hoarder- several tins, hanky, stress ball and cotton reel all came from there! Other things came from charity shops or the local freebay group.

I'm currently trying to get hold of a ring of old keys she could have in there

If they've stopped putting everything in their mouth then one of ours favourite activities (and still is now at 2.5 years) is a couple of bags of lentils in a shallow box/deep baking tray. And some spoons, cups, things to hide ect. We do it sitting in a collapsible hall bit to save on mess.

My little boy was 18months when lock down happened so a bit older but here are things I did that he enjoyed

Blow up some balloons and hang them at varying heights hanging down from the ceiling for him to bat and run through (fully supervised due to string and potential risk of strangulation of course)

Fill some zip lock bags with water and food colouring and tape them to windows for him to have a squish at

Make a posting game (I styled mine on the hungry Caterpillar as it was his face book at the time - slit in lid of a coloured in formula tin with cardboard food) like a box with a slit and different sized envelope or shapes

Tough tray with shaving foam, big toy jewels and sequins

Bath in the dark with glow sticks in the water and music

Use masking tape to mark out roads on the kitchen floor for his cars

Make a slope with a big bit of cardboard and roll cotton reels or toy cars down

Ds when he was little also liked the job of moving tea bags from a bowl into the jar and back again and on the subject of kitchen activities - get your spices out and let DC smell the different types

Home made playdough

Bring outdoor toys inside if you have room (IE little slide) and use sofa cushions to make obstacle courses