Indoor Toddler Activities

We've covered quite a few indoor toddler activities in the toddler craft ideas pages and fun activities for toddlers pages. Here's some larger scale toddler activities that your child will love - and some smaller scale ones too!

Indoor Toddler Activities: Make A Play House

Making a playhouse or a den is such fun for a toddler. He will have his own house! Get some blankets or throws in place, and drape them across the furniture - dedicate one room of your house for their den for the day. If you can, you can also get really large cardboard boxes from hardware stores (holding large chairs, washing machines and other large household appliances).

Use clothes pegs to join bits together, use clothes horses to keep the shape. Have a little chair inside. He will love it!

Have A Teddies Tea Party

Toddlers love to set up a little party. Have a little plastic tea party set and let your toddler choose who would like to invite. Put a table cloth on the floor (a plastic one is handy) and let your toddler have water in the tea pot and jug, sultanas, fruit pieces and crackers on the plates, and your toddler will love hosting the party and checking that his "friends" have what they need. They are being the "parents" (and it's so sweet to watch...!)

Indoor Toddler Activities: Make An Assault Course

Yes, this really can work! You just need to make it safe! Use cushions on the floor, rugs to jump on, a bridge to crawl under, a box to go through. If you don't have the space then make an assault course for your child's favourite dolls or teddies.

Indoor Toddler Activities: Cooking

Cooking is one of our favorite rainy day activities. It's fun to make something simple, gingerbread men, cookies, biscuits, pop it in the oven and then sit round the table and enjoy munching the results. It requires a bit of patience and it's a bit messy but it's fun too.

If you don't want to start the biscuits from scratch then you could just use plain biscuits, and have a bowl of icing and some decorative little jellies for your toddler to decorate. You might need to make a rule that only a certain number of jellies can be eaten whilst they're cooking (!) but the end result is very satisfying - pretty biscuits for everyone to enjoy. They're also great gifts if you happen to be visiting grandparents the next day.

Indoor Toddler Activities: Making Puzzles

Some toddlers love puzzles and some have very little interest in them! One idea is for your toddler to find a nice picture in a magazine, cut it in two. Do this with about 3 pictures, mix them up and then your toddler can make them up again. It can make doing puzzles more interesting!

Indoor Toddler Activities: Reading

Toddlers will love to sit on your lap, all cuddled up and cosy and be read to. It's a great way to spend time on a rainy day or just for some quiet time together. It's not only a great educational activity but it's also a very nurturing and loving activity. Looking at books with children will also help them have new ideas from the pictures as well as encouraging their language development. Reading to children will encourage them to have a lifelong interest in books which in turn will give them a lot of joy throughout their lives.

Indoor toddler activities can be fun and it's an opportunity for you to be involved in your toddler's activities. You may need to supervise your toddler and even if you don't be sure to join in for some of the time and spend some quality time together, so giving your toddler positive attention. That positive interaction with you will reap rewards for everyone both right now, in just a few years to come and in the long term future as he becomes an adult...