fine motor activities Archives

Keeping toddlers engaged for long periods of time is a challenge for most parents. Before you hand out the iPad, here are some easy low prep indoor activities for toddlers.

I work from home and our 3-year-old doesn’t go to playschool. So, if you are wondering how I keep him busy, read on.

We have our own little system of work and play that suits his interests. I believe in child-led learning and exploration. Most times I am only providing him with the tools and he uses and learns with them in a child led way. There is no forcefulness, no pressure to learn concepts or to complete an activity if he doesn’t like it, and no strict rules on how to play.

All play in our home is explorative and imaginative.

For a 2-3-year-old my focus is on sensory activities, imaginative play, development of fine motor skills, art and craft and introduction of educational concepts through some educational activities.

As I mentioned earlier, I create a safe space for my son to play his games in, introduce these activities and tools, give minimal instructions where needed and then just let him use his hands and imagination to play.

All play is learning. This method has benefitted our son immensely. He enjoys his play environment and has learned key life skills through play.

In a previous post on screen-free activities, I already covered some of these activities and how I keep screentime to a minimum in our home. The following list includes activities from the old list and some new activities that a 2-3-year-old can easily do at this learning stage.

All of these indoor activities for toddlers are low prep and don’t require you to posses DIY skills or be a Pinterest mom.

Let’s get started.

LOW PREP INDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR TODDLERS

Sensory Play For Toddlers

Sensory Bins

Our son loves sensory bins. I usually use materials from our pantry, some cups, spoons in different sizes and voila a 20-minute coffee break for mama is set up.

Do not leave the toddler alone with such sensory bins. Vigilance is needed. So if you are a work from home mom, you can make a small set up close to your laptop and monitor the play.

Sensory bins provide much-needed exposure to different textures and sensory feedback. Add in a few cups and create a pouring activity on the side that helps with hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

Read here to learn more about the benefits of sensory play in child development.

Here are some of our favorite sensory bin activities:

toddler playing with a sensory bin made of rice- indoor activities for toddler — Sensory bin made using rice

sensory bin made with wheat flour — Sensory bin with a nature scene made using wheat flour

sensory bin made with beans — Sensory bin made using beans- Rescue the pom poms activity

Water play

What kid doesn’t like playing with water. This is a simple activity that requires a jug of water and a few cups. The toddler can practice pouring water in different cups.

Sometimes we change it up and build a Car wash station. All you need is baby friendly soap, a big box, and some water. Create a soapy foam. Then give the child a scrubber and his cars to wash. I also add cups and spoons so that he can practice pouring after the car washing activity.

Toddlers love these water games and each of these sensory activities can keep them busy for a good 20-30 mins.

Play with dough

Can’t say enough about play-doh. Play-doh gives children the opportunity to use their hands, improves fine motor skills and encourages creativity.

We use the classic play-doh, but you can also make homemade play-doh.

Fine-motor Skills Activity For Toddlers

We make use of fine motor skill-based toys and activities to help develop this key skill. Fine motor skills are the first step towards developing writing skills.

Here is a list of toys for fine-motor skill development.

Activities for fine-motor skills

4. Stickers

5. Making Pasta Necklace

Use some raw pasta and some thread to build pasta necklaces.

6. Beading activities

7. Cutting activity with scissors

Draw lines on a piece of paper for the child to practice cutting. Once the child is good at cutting, you can draw zig-zag lines or different shapes for them to further develop fine motor skills. Here is a great scissor skills practice book for kids.

8. Sorting Pom Poms

We love this Learning resources set for fine motor activities. The toddler-friendly tweezers can be used to sort pom poms into different color groups. Simple activities like these not only develop fine motor skills but also teach the toddler color recognition.

Art and Craft For Toddlers

9. Easel for painting and drawing

10. Leaf painting

Collect different types of leaves on your next nature walk and bring them back home for some leaf painting activity.

This activity provides an opportunity to talk about the different types of trees, their leaves, the life cycle of a plant.

11. Vegetable painting

You can make use of vegetables like potatoes and okra for some painting activities too. Let the child use his creativity and come up with different designs using these simple natural materials.

12. Art and craft based on a favorite book

I draw out scenes from his current favorite storybook and ask him to color it. Safe, non-toxic finger paints or toddler friendly chunky crayons are the best. They not only provide a rich sensory experience but also help with fine motor skills development.

Get a 10% discount on all Dabble Play Art non-toxic, eco friendly art supplies. Use code DM09 at checkout. My personal favorites are their finger paints.

Sometimes we look for free printable activities for toddlers based on his favorite books.

Here is an activity we did recently based on one of his favorite books – Polar Bear, Polar Bear

polar bear polar bear book based activity for toddlers — Polar bear, Polar bear book based activity for toddlers

13. Sand tracing

A sand tray allows the child to trace the alphabet and numbers providing a sensorial experience along with fine motor skill development. Here is a video to understand how to set up this learning activity.

Imaginative And Pretend Play For Toddlers

Pretend play is huge in our home. Toddlers love mimicking adults and adult activities. Some pretend play and open-ended toys are a must-buy for this stage of toddler development. You can select toys that match the child’s interest.

14. Play Kitchen

Here is a review and our experience using the Hape Play Kitchen

15. Teepee Tent

Here is a review and our experience using the Cuddly Coo Teepee Tent.

16. Open-ended toys like Magna Tiles, Rainbow stacker rings, building blocks, cloth blocks can be used in multiple ways to build different scenes for sensory play or pretend play.

17. Costumes of the child’s favorite characters

18. Child’s interest-based pretend play toys like Doctor set, Teacher set, doll house, or car park

19. Storytelling

Educational Activities For Toddlers

Ages two and up is a great time to get started on educational concept learning. At this stage only focus on exposure not how much is being learned. Learning happens in time with consistent exposure to concepts, correlation, and conversation.

Here are some educational activities for toddlers

20. Sing songs & Dance: Sing Nursery rhymes, different cultural songs, the ABC’s song. Simple song and dance teach little children a lot about language, life around them, rhythm, and movement.

21. Read books on a variety of subjects: Incorporate books on a variety of subjects and in different formats for the toddler. Read here to know more about the benefits of reading daily to your kids. Here are a few age-appropriate book lists for toddlers

Books for babies

Books for 1-year-olds

Books for 2-year-olds

22. Conversation

A conversation about the child’s topics of interest, pointing out to objects of interest build the child’s knowledge base on different topics. Answer the child’s question in an in-depth manner. When you don’t know about something, research the subject, find books and figure out ways to explain it to the child in a simple way.

23. Subscription boxes

When I am running out of creativity and looking for learning activities I rely on children’s subscription boxes. Some of our favorite ones are:

Firstcry Intellikit
Flintobox
Hobby Ideas

24. Cooking with kids

Cooking teaches children so many concepts. They learn about different fruits, vegetables, measurements, counting, and practice motor skills too.

Here is an article on the importance of cooking with toddlers. It includes tips on how to get started and a few easy recipes to make with your toddler at home.

Everyday Routine Tasks For Toddlers

25. Home chores

When looking for activities for toddlers at home, chores are the first place to get started. Toddlers want to be more independent and in many ways, we rob them of opportunities to be truly independent around the house because of our fear of messes.

Allowing them to be more involved in the day to day activities around the house is not only a great way to keep them engaged but is also teaching them key life skills and making them more self-reliant.

Baby proof the house and make sure that the area is safe for your toddler to navigate.

Then give them simple instructions on each activity, guide them through the steps and let them have a go at it.

Here is a post on simple toddler chores to get started with when planning activities for toddlers at home.

Helping out around the house is the simplest way to build confidence in kids and make them feel like a part of the family unit.

That’s how we keep our son engaged at home. If you try any of these indoor activities for toddlers, do write to me and tell me how it went.

How do you keep your toddler busy when you work? Maybe your tips can help fellow moms. Comment and let us know.

One of the key skills your preschooler needs as he starts school is fine motor skills. In this post, I list toys for fine motor skills development. Hopefully, you find this list useful. Here goes,

WHAT ARE FINE MOTOR SKILLS?

Fine motor skills are needed for smaller muscle movements in wrists, fingers, and hands.

Simple everyday tasks like buttoning a shirt, tieing a lace, putting on a belt, writing, all require fine motor skills

FINE MOTOR SKILLS FOR PRESCHOOLERS – WHY ARE FINE MOTOR SKILLS IMPORTANT?

Many school-related activities like writing, drawing, and craft etc. require a preschooler to use his fine motor skills.

The toys in this list can help them exercise those muscles and become adept at these tasks.

TOYS FOR FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Such hand-eye coordination toys for toddlers make great gift ideas. So much better than noisy electronic toys that don’t offer any challenge.

Not to mention these toys for fine motor skills are engaging and fun to play with and your toddler won’t even miss his electronic toys.

You don’t need to buy each of these toys to develop fine motor skills, even a few in your toy collection will go a long way in helping your child.

These days the market is flooded with toys to develop fine motor skills and none of these options are difficult to find.

MUST HAVE TOYS FOR FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Stickers

We started using stickers around 14-15 months of age. A great way to practice pincer grasp and learn hand-eye coordination. Initially, I bought individual 3 D sticker sheets, since these are thicker in breadth and easier for younger toddlers to get a good grip.

Once they become adept at using these, move on to using the Melissa and Dough reusable sticker pads. The sticker pad comes with 4 different scenes and offers a variety of stickers for the toddler to use in different combinations. It’s reusable making it an eco-friendly and cost-effective option.

I also like that the 4 scenes showcase different animal habitats – aquatic, farm, jungle and prehistoric. This encourages creativity and learning in a fun way.

Fruit cutting tray

A great toy not just for fine motor skills but also for pretend play. My son has spent many hours with his pretend vegetables and knife set.

Cooking set

Again, not only do toddlers love the pretend play aspect but they are also developing those fine motor skills as they go along pretending to cook.

A cooking set is an age-appropriate toy for 2-year-olds beginning to learn about the nuances of the world they live in. There is so much to learn through such toys, fine motors skills aside.

Toolbox

A toolbox contains tiny pieces that need to be rotated using fingers, pushed and pulled, hammered in and basically be tinkered with. Each of these actions requires the use of muscles in the fingers and wrist.

Also, the toolbox is another open-ended toy that toddlers can use in many ways making it a must-have in any toddlers toy collection.

Latches Board

Opening and closing latches and doors, this latches board toy is an engaging and challenging toy for toddlers. Many brands introduce different concepts like farm animal sounds, shapes, or colors alongside to make the board more interesting and educational for toddlers.

Lego

Another open-ended toy that requires hand manipulation and hand-eye coordination. The endless possibilities of play with Legos make it an absolute essential in your child’s toy collection.

Sewing toy

Putting the sewing tool through the tiny holes and making patterns helps with hand-eye coordination and develops those small muscles in the wrist and fingers. A sewing tool is an age-appropriate toy for 2- 3-year-olds.

Wooden lacing shoes

This lacing toy enhances the child’s hand-eye coordination, and focus, ultimately teaching key life skills like self-reliance. A lacing toy helps the child practice lacing his shoes, a fun way to teach through play.

Busy books

Busy books combine different themes appropriate to the age of the child. Containing pages on different concepts. Some busy books focus on life skills, some on shapes and colors. Each page contains an activity that needs the use of the pincer grasp, wrist muscles along with logical reasoning and basic concept understanding.

Peg and Knob Puzzle

Peg puzzles are great for toddlers hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Also trying these simple puzzles gets their mind trained to focus for short periods of time. These are a few types of peg puzzles and knob puzzles to try;

a. Skillofun Peg A Puzzle – Engine

b. Skillofun Geo Sorting Board

c. Hape Wooden Toddler Knob Puzzle

d. Skillofun Wooden Identification Tray Vegetables with Knobs

Play-doh

I love the use of play-doh for fine motor skills development. Simple activities like pinching the dough into pieces, making round balls out of the dough and trying to make different shapes all require the use of the finger and wrist muscles. The endless opportunities to play with Play-doh is just another reason why this classic toy is found in every preschool class.

Here are some previous posts on toys that you may also find interesting:

Toys for the first year

Toys for 1 year olds

Toys for 2 year olds

Best educational toys for toddlers and preschoolers.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS ACTIVITIES TO TRY AT HOME

There are a number of fine motor activities you can do at home and not necessarily rely on toys as the only option. A few examples of fine motor activities at home would be;

Peeling garlic or peeling hard-boiled eggs.
Chopping soft vegetables like boiled potatoes.
DIY cardboard board with zippers and laces.
Buy tongs from a local store and build activities that require the use of tongs. For eg. Sorting different colored pom-poms into containers using tongs.

Instead of buying a large number of toys, buying a minimal set of toys that cater to a variety of skill sets is best in the long run. Open-ended toys like a toolbox, legos, and play-doh meet these criteria offering endless hours of play over the early years.

I hope you found this post useful. Which toys does your child enjoy playing with?

25 Low-Prep And Easy Indoor Activities For Toddlers