One of my least favorite things is being stuck in the house with a toddler with nothing to do. It makes time drag and there is nothing worse than a bored toddler. Within 5 seconds of moving on from an activity my daughter has already dropped all the diapers out of its' basket, pulled her clothes out of her drawers and tried to play with the toilet (thank you child locks). If you want to keep your house and your mind in any type of decent condition, I recommend having some fun activities up your sleeve for those rainy and hot days. In a previous post I provided some ideas for sensory play activities, but in this post today I will include those in addition to some new activities to keep your toddler out of trouble (for the most part).
5 Sensory Play Activities for your Toddler
1. Water Play
Water play is one of the activities I talked about in my previous post, "The Ultimate Guide to Summer Fun: Top Activities for Toddlers", but it definitely deserves mentioning again. Water play is my favorite summer sensory activity and it is one of the only activities that can entertain my daughter for long periods of time. Whether you have a splash pad, kiddie pool, water table, or a pan with some water in it; water play is an excellent way to keep kids entertained, cool during those hot summer days as well as help them practice their small motor skills. To add a little more fun to water play, you can put add ice cubes with food coloring, or freeze fruit in an ice cube tray and your toddler can watch the magic as it melts.
2. Sorting Activity
One of the milestones for one-year-olds is beginning to identify and sort colors. I was trying to find an easy to prep activity that targeted this milestone so I picked up a pack of assorted colored pipe cleaners, feathers, and pom poms. Note if your child is 3 and under, use larger pom poms just to avoid choking hazards. My daughter is still in the "everything in the mouth phase" so I bought jumbo pom poms for this activity. I also grabbed some different sized mason jars and bottles. With this activity, the idea is that your child sorts the different items by color into their corresponding labeled jar. This activity is great for practicing fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. It is also challenging enough to keep your toddler's interest for a lengthy period of time. Make sure you are supervising your child during this activity although pipe cleaners and the feathers are harder to choke on it is still a possibility.
3. Hide and Seek Toys
Another milestone for 1 year old's is trying to find hidden objects. So I filled a pan up with some infant oatmeal that we never used and hid some of my daughter's toys in it. I would suggest doing this activity in an easy to clean surface because it gets messy! You can also use rice or sand to hide the toys. If you want to add additional exploration to this activity if you are using something edible to hide things, you can hide snacks and encourage your toddler to explore with their sense of taste. Since they are already shoving anything and everything into their mouths, might as well have some fun with it!
4. Toy Rescue
I found this cute idea in an online Facebook video by Jake Coco. For this activity you will need tape, a muffin tin, and some toys. Place the toys in the muffin tins and put tape over the toys. If you want to increase the difficulty you can add more tape. This activity allows your child to build their fine motor skills, practice their hand-eye coordination, and build their sense of confidence as they will be able to successfully rescue their toys! This activity was a lot of fun, but my daughter got the toys out pretty quickly, so afterwards I began to tape them to different furniture or to the walls around the house to add another level of difficulty for her.
(Source: Baby Play Hacks)
5. Finger Painting
If you are looking for artwork for your refrigerator this is the activity for you! I learned this activity from our daughter's daycare teacher. You will need nontoxic finger paint, paper, and a freezer bag. You put the paper inside the freezer bag add a little colored paint onto the paint and zip it up. Your child can then move the paint around with hand their hand on the freezer bag and make beautiful art! This mess free activity encourages toddlers to explore their creativity, foster their curiosity, and practice their fine motor skills.
Conclusion
Being stuck inside can be difficult, but if you have some easy, minimal prep activities at the ready you can turn a rainy day into one filled with exploration, developmental opportunities, and memorable moments for you and your toddler. If you have any additional activities or ideas to share please leave them in the comments! I am always excited to learn about more ways to keep my toddler engaged and learning.
Thanks for reading!
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Not even 10 minutes into the day and my toddler found the toilet paper
Stay sane out there parents!
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