With a little imagination and creativity, you’ll be able to find an activity that’s both fun and educational to occupy your toddler. The best part? It’s FREE!
Here are five super easy activities around the house to keep your toddler busy:
#1 Cheerios Tower
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The easiest way to create a simple yet engaging activity is to look inside your kitchen. All you need for this activity is some uncooked spaghetti, a handful of Cheerios (or any-other ring/loop-like cereals you can find) and some dough. Just stick the spaghetti into the dough so that they stand upright, and get your toddler to thread the Cheerios over the spaghetti!This is a great way for your little one to practice hand-eye coordination and improve fine motor skills – which is an essential foundation for handwriting. What’s so awesome about this activity is that you can easily manipulate the difficulty by adjusting the length of the spaghetti or setting a time limit to build the 'tower'.
#2 Sock-Matching
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Many parenting gurus encourage introducing simple chores to keep young minds busy while teaching them responsibility. So get those little hands working for you. Pile all your socks and let your child find the matching pair. Simple, fuss-free and doesn’t cost a cent!This teaches them colours, textures and patterns while also helping them develop a sense of ownership and confidence to complete tasks.
#3 Homemade Binoculars
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The next time your toilet paper finishes, don’t throw out the cardboard roll. Simply tape two recycled rolls together to make a pair of binoculars and use washi tape to decorate if you want to make it prettier.Children are naturally curious and a pair of binoculars encourages them to discover the world around them. You can even develop their imagination by pretending to be jungle explorers on a hunt for tigers!
#4 Paper-Cup Bowling
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Have all that extra paper-cups from your last Christmas party? Stack them up for a fun game of bowling.This develops their gross-motor skills, so they can crawl, climb, bend, stretch, and balance with confidence.
#5 Float Or Sink Activity
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Kids love playing with water, so why not teach them some science at the same time? All you need is a pail of water and various objects from around the house – a button, a cork, a key, a coin, some paper clips. Ask your toddler if the object will float or sink before testing it in the water and discuss the weight, size and material to teach them scientific thinking skills such as predicting, observing, comparing, reasoning and experimenting.This won’t cost you money and helps promote hand-eye coordination as well as concentration skills. You can even teach them about nature by taking your toddler for a walk and picking up random items you see, such as a leaf or pebble, for this experiment.