Inspiration for DIY toddler activities

[MyUsernameIsBetterThanYours]

Hello,

Just looking for recommendations for books, websites, etc which have good easy ideas for toddler activities. Indoor and outdoor sensory and creative play.

I’m not a very creative mum and would like to do better at keeping my toddler entertained/stimulated/learning, but I need help.

Thanks

What age is your little one?

Paddling pool or bath with ice cubes made with food colouring and water, bath crayons, ice cubes with little toys frozen into them. They then melt the cubes in the bath and colour the water or rescue the toys.

Paddling pool or bath with whatever plastic cups, bowls, spoons you can find so they can move the water between different containers.

Underbed storage tub with the cheapest cereal you can buy in it, bury toys and give measuring cups/spoons so they can dig them out and re bury them.

Roasting tin with play sand or kinetic sand and practice drawing shapes and making sandcastles in it.

Box broken at the seams and flattened out, draw round toddler and have them colour themselves in or decorate with tissue paper and glue.

Cup of water and a paint brush, let them paint the fence, wall, floor, window outside.

Home-made play dough
Cupcake tray to out same colours items in each one
Baking shortbread biscuits
Reusable or cheap stickers on paper
Paint in sandwiche bags (rape them up) to squash around/paint

Five minute mum is great for activity ideas (she's on Instagram, has a website and books).

Instagram in general is good for ideas (always adapt to suit your needs, some of them are insane!).

Mumsnet is also great, use the search function to discover a million threads along these lines (messy play/creative play/toddler play ideas/rainy day ideas etc).

Often the best activities can be discovered by just watching your toddler, see what they're interested in/like doing and think 'how can I add to this/extend this play?'. You'll often be more successful building from something they already like than introducing something completely random because it looked good on Instagram.

My friend got me an excellent book called 5 minute mum! Have a look for it