It’s natural for toddlers to be full of energy but if you’re stuck inside with them for the day – or for many rainy days in a row – finding ways to channel all this enthusiasm can be daunting. To help you bust all the endless energy, we’ve collected a load of fun indoor activities for kids. Hang on to this list – and make sure you have a good supply of toddler toys handy – so you’re never caught without children’s indoor activities again.
Why indoor play matters for toddler development
All types of play are important for toddlers – play helps small children develop language and physical skills, as well as learn more about the environment and how the world works. Indoor activities for families also, importantly, helps them build social skills and understand how to interact with others.
Top Indoor Activities for Toddlers (Ages 1–3)
Indoor activities for toddlers under 3 can be structured or unstructured and both forms have a role in your child’s development.
Creative play ideas
Creative play is unstructured, imaginative and generally self-directed but you obviously need to get your toddler started and oversee the rainy day activities. Here are some more ideas for messy play activities to try after you’ve done these.
DIY sensory bins Collect an assortment of objects in a box – things like a leaf, a feather, dried pasta shells, an empty jar. Blind fold your toddler and get them to feel and talk about the objects.
Finger paint with edible paint Put down a drop cloth and let your kids get messy with fingerpaint
Dress ups Instead of throwing away old clothes, keep them in a dress-up box and let your kids get imaginative on rainy days
Splat art Put blobs of different coloured paints on a piece of paper and cover each blob with a cotton pad. Your toddler uses a toy hammer to hit each blob, revealing a colour and creating fun splat art.
Unsplash
Finger painting:
https://unsplash.com/photos/person-with-paint-on-his-hands-LUYBpL5jfUA
Physical activities to burn energy
After a day or two cooped up inside, your toddler is going to want to run wild. Direct their energy into these indoor activities that help develop gross motor skills.
Indoor obstacle course: Set a course throughout the house that includes crawling under a table and racing around cans. If you have a tunnel, set that up, too. Time how fast your toddler can go.
Soft play tents: If you have a kids’ teepee or tent, set it up and have your kids decorate the area. They can even have snacks delivered there throughout the day. No tent or tunnels? Sheets work well, too.
Musical statues: Put on some tunes and dance with your toddler. When the music ends, everyone has to freeze.
Balloon volleyball: Clear a safe space and tie some string across the room for a net. Now everyone has to keep the balloon from touching the ground.
Crab carry: Teach your little one to walk like a crab by placing their feet and palms to the floor while raising their stomach to the sky. See how long they can walk around in this pose and add soft items (like a toy or bean bag) on their belly to practise their balance!
Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/child-sitting-on-floor-and-playing-with-xylophone-toy-Vuum1s92M7M
Educational & quiet-time activities
When you need to bring the excitement levels down a little, try these activities for toddlers.
Toddler-friendly puzzles:You probably have a load of puzzles in your kid’s bookcase. Pull them all out and tell your toddler you’re having a puzzle-solving hour (or 30 minutes if that’s all your little one can manage).
Colour matching game:This game has two parts – making the colour sorter and sorting the colours. Get your child to paint old cardboard rolls in different colours. When they’re dry, stick them onto the inside of a box so the tubes just out the top. Now sort things like pom poms and building bricks into the matching coloured tubes. A quicker way to set this up is to place coloured sheets of paper down and tell your toddler to match coloured objects to the paper.
Sticker design: Get your toddler to apply stickers to paper in lines, circles and shapes to keep them busy and develop their fine motor skills at the same time.
Reading time: It’s not a game but it can be fun. Set up a reading nook with pillows and blankets – make sure you have a stack of books on hand for them to choose from.
Colour matching:
Cognitive & listening skills activities
Get your kids thinking and listening while they try these indoor toddler activities.
Book workout: Grab a book with a lot of action words like walk, run, skip, jump and so on. As you read the book, get your child to mime out the corresponding actions. There are lots of benefits of reading aloud to babies and toddlers, so they’ll learn while they have fun.
Music chairs:It’s a birthday party classic, but as long as you have a few people in the house, it works for rainy days, too. Set up one less chair than people in a circle. When the music stops, everyone sits down as fast as they can so as not to be the person without a chair.
The whisper game: Here’s another one if you have a few kids at home. Line up and whisper a sentence to the first child. Everyone has to whisper it to the next person until the last person says the sentence out loud to see how it has changed in transmission.
Guess the animal sounds: Play animal sounds on your phone. Instead of saying the animal out loud, get your child to impersonate the animal while making the sound.
Interactive game-based learning
Interactive toys are great for keeping kids amused for hours. These games are also good – helping kids practice balance, coordination and creative thinking.
Active Jenga: Write simple moves, actions and exercises on Jenga blocks. Set up the tower as usual, and every time your little one pulls out a block, they must carry out the action written. Get creative and add some curveballs, like ‘sing the alphabet song’ or ‘act out your favourite TV character’. If your toddler knocks over the tower, they have to make up a silly dance.
Bubble chase: Chasing bubbles and popping them improves concentration while also encouraging movement and developing hand eye coordination. Do this one in the garage or outdoor covered area.
Laser maze: Turn the hallway into a maze by tying some yarn from different heights. Challenge your little one to make it all the way through without touching the string.
Safe setup tips for indoor toddler play
Letting kids make a mess and have fun on rainy days can be chaotic. Make it safe by clearing out space for games and following these tips.
No sharp objects:Before you let the kids loose on the house, put away anything sharp or pointy, and set up games away from sharp edges like the corner of the table.
No heights: Keep activities like obstacle courses at knee height and don’t encourage climbing over furniture. Look out for tripping hazards, too.
Think of the surface: For anything that involves fast movement like musical chairs, an obstacle class or musical statues, stick to the carpet so the kids don’t slide on the floor.
Non-toxic essentials:Look at the ingredients of things like modelling clay and paint before you give them to your kids. You can make your own edible fingerpaint with flour, water, salt and food colouring.
Constant supervision: Kids need supervision – keep an eye on them at all times when playing these games.
