I’m not sure if I should blame the crazy weather in Pittsburgh, or having an infant at home, for the lack of outside time that my toddler has been getting these past few months. I know getting outside, is good for him (and my sanity), but sometimes it is really hard to make that time to get up and out of the house. I realized that I needed to get creative, otherwise he would spend the whole day watching tv (admittedly he has done this a time or two, but sometimes screen time is the only way to make it through a day). While he has a lot of toys that he can, and does play with, the teacher in me wanted to do more to help him to stay active and engaged. Using some old classroom activities, searching Pinterest, and finding ways to use things that we already have at home, I found some great ways to have fun inside.
Here are 14 of My Favorite Indoor Activities
Craft Kits
My son adores those foam craft kits. I usually try to find them on clearance at a craft store
Painting
You can use paint in a bunch of different ways; with a brush, fingers, cookie cutters, cutting a toilet paper roll to make fireworks, dots with Q-tips
Collage
Cut pieces of construction paper or pictures from a magazine and glue them to paper
Flash Cards
I got a bunch from Dollar Tree and the Target dollar section. We have colors, shapes, dinosaurs, and animals
Building
We build with Legos (Mega Blocks), foam pieces and shaving cream, and Magnet pieces
Color sorting
I used plastic cups and placed a different colored pom pom in each cup. My son then filled the cups with the rest of the matching pom poms
Hot Wheels
We don’t have any tracks with his cars, so I make them with painters tape. I tape off a track on the floor, and add ramps using recycling
Baking
Like me, my son LOVES to bake! I let him help by measuring, pouring in ingredients and mixing. He also likes to put on his oven mitts
Giving toys a bath
We have a double sink, so in one side are his plastic toys that we cover in chocolate syrup. On the other side I fill it with soapy water, sponges, and brushes. He takes the toys covered in “mud” and cleans them off. It can get messy, but it keeps him occupied for a long time. Once he cleans them all, he puts them back in the “mud” and washes them again.
Dance Parties
All day, every day we dance in the kitchen!
Nugget Couch
We sit, lay, read, and jump on it.
Foam Bubbles
Cover just the bottom of a bowl with water and add a few pumps of dish soap. Use a hand mixer to get foam! You can add food coloring and even make a few bowls with different colors and mix them together. We threw in some toys, cups, and spoons
Vinegar and baking soda
Get a cupcake pan and place a drop of food coloring in each cup ( I used a different color in each). Cover the drop of food coloring with a sprinkle of baking soda. Get a dropper, squirt bottle, or spray bottle and fill with vinegar. Let your toddler put the vinegar on the baking soda. They love seeing it bubble up and see what color it turns.
Play-Doh
Use cookie cutters or get Play-Doh tools. We cut them into shapes and pop them into a tray and “cook” them in the toy kitchen
Don’t Let the Mess Stop You from Having Fun
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These are just some of the many things we do together. If you can’t get out, make the most of your time inside with your little ones and don’t be afraid to make a mess! Things can be cleaned, just let them have fun. If you are worried about messes, you can lay down a sheet or plastic on the floor, have the kids take off their clothes or put them in your old oversized t-shirts from high school that you can’t seem to part with (guilty), or maybe save the extra messy ones for outside. If they do end up getting things on their clothes, we LOVE Miss Mouths; it really is like magic. You can get rid of berry stains with just a spray, most other stains need a quick rinse, a spray of Miss Mouths, and they are as good as new after a trip through the wash. It’s gotten the messiest of blowouts from onesies with little to no scrubbing.
Let’s be honest, life is busy and some days it’s really hard. Some days it is hard to get that play time in with your toddler. I found that it helps me to schedule activities to make sure we do at least ONE different activity a day. We have a wall calendar in our kitchen and I write the daily activity on there. It also helps me to get activities ready that may require a little planning.
Remember, just have fun! Life is all about making memories.