Toddler Activities

Having a few toddler activities up your sleeve and will make arranging fun activities for toddlers easy and hassle free. Having regular play time with your toddler is key to their early child development and to your toddler feeling loved and valued. Schedule in play time as a top priority and get involved in some toddler games to see your child flourish. Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.

Here we want to give you a few ideas of toddler activities as well as stress the importance of toddler activity.

• Toddler Activities: Early Child Development
• Toddler Craft Ideas
• Indoor Toddler Activities
• Toddler Coloring Pages
• Play Toddler Games Online
• More Fun Activities For Toddlers

When you are thinking about fun activities for toddlers try not to worry about the mess that might be made! Prepare for it so that you can be relaxed and enjoy the this special time e.g. put down a protective cover on the table, have aprons and a clear sink for washing hands afterwards.

It will be a bit messy but keep the whole activity fun. Allowing a little mess will allow your child to learn and enjoy the time with you without developing anxiety around the idea of mess (which could in turn effect his eating habits and play habits).

Toddler Activities Ideas

• Messy Play: Get the plastic sheet down on the table and do some painting, drawing, food making or plasticine.
• Music: Make a band with a tambourine and a drum, sing some silly songs, dance and jiggle.
• Stories: Make up some stories and ask your toddler to join in. Your toddler can choose some puppets or her favourite teddies and you will make up a story together. Sometimes, the sillier the better! (Telling stories is also an excellent distration technique).
• Cooking: Make some simple cookies together. Make fruit faces on a plate. Make some sandwiches. Enjoy a picnic with your homemade food. Or let your toddler pretend to cook whilst you cook.
• Dressing up: Children often love dressing up. Let them dress up in your clothes too! Children often love to pretend to be their mummy or daddy. Make a play and act out whatever story your toddler wants to do. Children love role play and can be absorbed in their imaginary world for hours. Let them tell you about who they are, perhaps a fireman, a farmer, a nurse, and give them your time and your patience for them to lead their own story. Let them be free with you.
• Explore the garden or outside: Find bugs, flowers and leaves. Make a mini garden on a plate, or do some real digging and weeding. Lie outside and look at the clouds. Or go camping and have a picnic in the garden.
• Sand pit: An outside sand and with some spaces, buckets and moulds are a favorite play item. Choose a sand pit with a lid to keep out nasties!
• Paddling pool: Fun, gleeful easy play in the summer. A few pouring jugs, boats (you can even make your own), bubbles, hours of fun.

Toddler Activities By Skill

Activites For Toddlers for Fine Motor Skills

• stacking blocks
• making towers
• filling and emptying boxes
• pop up toys
• lego and duplo
• activity boards
• knobs and buttons

Activites For Toddlers for Gross Motor Skills

• running and chasing
• jumping
• sliding
• climbing
• skipping
• swimming
• push and pull toys
• playing with balls
• dancing

Toddler Activities for Imaginative Skills

• soft toys and animals
• dolls and doll furniture
• characters and their associated toys
• cars, trucks, aeroplanes
• play kitchen and house items
• dressing up clothes

Activities for Creativity

• crayons and paper
• paints
• clay
• playdough
• sticking and gluing

Music Activties

• tambourines
• making a band
• using an electronic keyboard
• singing (great for the car!)
• cassettes and cds

Also let your toddler lead the activities sometimes and play so that he can find their own interest and voice and so develop his self-confidence and sense of being an individual. His drawing might be a spaceship to him and a scribble to you but enthuse about it anyway - it's his own creation. You might want to show them how to do something but if they do it in their own way then try not to fuss - they are learning and developing a skill in their own way.

There are lots more fun activities for toddlers to do and the above are just a few examples. Once you get started your toddler will show you lots more ways of playing. Keep play time and your toddler games a priority. Your toddler will flourish from the time spent with you and you will enjoy your time with your toddler much more. It's a win-win situation.

And whilst you play together, reward their play with praise and encouragement. Let the chores wait a while.