I thought I’d put together a second collection of the toddler activities we’ve been busy with around here. Like my first collection of activities, I will mention that none of these are particularly original, but we cycle through activities quickly around here, and I can only imagine other homes with toddlers do too. Maybe there’s something here you haven’t tried yet!
Cups and beads. My girl loves putting objects in a container and dumping them out. This is a great activity for that. I give her some plastic cups and some large beads (the same ones we used here), and she transfers them from cup to cup (and usually all over the floor too).
We use beads because that’s what we have around. But you could use any small objects: cereal, rice, pea gravel, etc. Sometimes we sub in those plastic letter refrigerator magnets or small figurines to change it up.
Window gel clings. She loves these, but they lose their novelty after about a day. Still, a great busy activity for short spurts. I should put them away when she’s done and re-introduce them later.
Stickers. Oh boy, does my girl love stickers. I don’t think she cares about what’s on the stickers so much, though. She just loves peeling them and sticking them onto a piece of paper or in a coloring book. I buy the cheap ones from the dollar bins or on clearance. I’ve even given her the free return address labels that come in the mail.
Weirdly, she stacks them on top of one another in layers.
Straws in a cup. This one kept her busy for quite a while. I scattered a bunch of drinking straws on the floor, and she collected them up and inserted them into the cup. My husband would probably say I’m training her to fetch me fountain sodas (my one true vice), but this one was a big hit for several days.
Pipe cleaners in a cup. When she mastered the straws, I swapped them out for pipe cleaners. They take a bit more concentration to put through the hole.
Pennies in the bank. I periodically empty all the pennies out of my wallet and let her put them in her bank. She gets really excited about this, possibly because we don’t do it that often.
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Anyone have any other busy activities to share? Leave a comment! I’m always looking for new things to try.
