fun baking with toddlers Archives

25 Low-Prep And Easy Indoor Activities For Toddlers

OphiraLeave a commentMarch 25, 2022April 17, 2019

Read time: 8 minutes

child coloring - indoor-activities-for-1-year-olds-3-year olds

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.

Cooking With Toddlers: Fun Ideas, Tips And Recipes That Work

Ophira2 CommentsJanuary 26, 2022October 30, 2018

Read time: 7 minutes

With the rise in childhood obesity, there is no better time than now to involve young children in the kitchen. Research shows that adults who know how to cook and eat home cooked meals are at lesser risk of obesity. You may look at cooking with toddlers as a messy activity. But cooking teaches our little ones many important life skills and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

In this article, I will cover safety tips, fun ideas, and recipes that can be easily made with your toddler at home.

Why Is Cooking With Toddlers Important?

Sensory stimulation

Working with food provides the much needed sensory stimulus important for brain development. There is no real need to organize special sensory play when you can involve your toddler in the kitchen every day. Getting hands into the flour and mixing it into a dough, or cutting their favorite fruits and veggies provides many opportunities for sensory-based feedback. Different textures, different smells, and different temperature environments teach them about food at the ground level. There is no looking at the food on the plate from a distance, its actual involvement with the food they will eat.

Life skills

Cooking is an essential life skill. Knowing to cook and cooking meals at home every day helps reduce the risk of obesity. The more home-cooked meals you eat the better your health will be. Whether you are a boy or a girl you need to know how to cook in order to survive and live a long and healthy life.

Early math learning

Preschoolers can be taught counting using food ingredients. As they grow older, following a recipe teaches them addition, subtraction and measuring systems.

Motor development

Using a knife, mixing with a spoon, rolling out dough balls all aid motor development. Cooking allows this practice of fine motor skills.

Language development

As the child follows the recipe he is picking up new words and names of things. This helps with language development.

Cooking with toddlers also helps build social skills. The child needs to focus on your instructions, understand what you want him to do next, respond appropriately to the instructions. Such an activity spurs his imagination and leads to follow up questions. This type of learning through experience benefits the child greatly.

Confidence building

Since cooking requires the toddlers focussed attention and work, once the task is completed the child feels a sense of pride in his own creation. I find such activities great confidence builders.

Create an interest in food

Cooking creates an interest in food and encourages the toddler to eat more of what he makes. As a mother to a fussy eating toddler, you can use cooking as an activity to generate curiosity about food ingredients. The sense of achievement the child feels on making his own snack or meal encourages him to try different foods and eat more.

Bonding with parent

It goes without saying cooking together is an easy way to spend one on one time with your toddler. As a solo parent, it’s easier to keep my child away from screens by involving him in dinner preparations with me. This daily activity has helped our bond grow stronger. Like in any partnership both of us know each others working style and have developed our own way of working together in harmony.

Screen-free activity

As I mentioned in the point above, cooking together is a good option to keep kids away from screens. They are learning to focus and create something, much better than watching TV. Also sometimes involving the child in activities around the house with you is an alternative to keeping them under your watchful eye away from danger.

Cooking With Toddlers – Tips For Safety

Cooking can be used as an activity for toddlers as young as 18 months of age. A basic criterion that can help you decide if it’s the right time to start cooking with your toddler is when they can understand and follow simple instructions.

Start with flameless cooking when cooking with toddlers. At this age, they can also be your sous chef in the kitchen helping you prepare certain ingredients for the main meal.

Examples of dishes you can make with your toddler: Smoothies, Energy balls, energy bars, and sandwiches.

Examples of prep work the toddlers can help out with: Making pancake batter, making a cake/cookie batter, rolling dough for chapati’s or cookies, peeling garlic, peeling the skin off hard boiled eggs, cutting soft fruits and cheese, cleaning and sorting vegetables.

Choose a safe cooking area away from flames, sharp knives or other sharp objects. I prefer to make a safe workstation just for my toddler, a designated spot for him to sit far away from the stove and knives.
While it’s not essential to buy toddler sized knives, it does make things a little easier for the toddler. Butter knives work just as well. Other kitchen equipment like large stainless steel bowls, wood mixing bowls, or plastic bowls, spatulas and steel spoons are all toddler-friendly.
Prepare for the mess. Cooking with toddlers is not going to be a clean job. Expect the mess and embrace it. Lay out newspaper sheets if you are worried about spills. I just go with the flow and clean the workstation once the cooking is done, its okay to let the kids make some messes. That’s how they learn to handle equipment better.

Ideas To Make Cooking And Eating Healthy A Fun Activity

Toddlers love being part of adult life, so it not that hard to make cooking together fun. To keep the activity interesting for long-term participation in the kitchen you can try these ideas;

Host pajama cooking parties for the kid’s playdates or birthdays. Make the menu fun and interesting for the kids. Try making cake pops at home, or breakfast pancakes with toppings of their choice. A peer group activity like this teaches them to work with kids their age and builds social skills.
Try new recipes with your toddler. This way they are learning about new foods, recipes and how to eat healthily. I always take the opportunity when cooking with my son to teach him about food groups, which foods are healthy or why we eat certain foods and how they make him a strong boy etc.
Go for parent-child cooking classes. A cooking class is a fun family activity that also makes for family memories.

Recipes That Toddler Can Make Easily

Energy Balls

Chocolate Energy balls

Ingredients:

6 Medjool dates
handful Pistachios
handful Almonds
1 tsp Cacao powder
2 tsp Desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon Coconut oil
Pinch of Salt

Method:

Blitz, all the ingredients in a high speed mixer and make round balls.
Stores well in the fridge for 5-7 days.

Oat Bites

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Rolled oats (roasted)
1-2 tablespoon Cashew butter
1 tablespoon Honey or Maple syrup
1 teaspoon Cacao powder
A handful of Cacao nibs
Handful of Raisins

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and make balls. (If the balls are not coming together properly, give this mix a short blitz in the mixer and use the soft combined mixture to make balls easily)
Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes to allow them to set.
Stores well in the fridge for 5-7 days.

Smoothies

Mango Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup Soymilk/almond milk/cashew milk/oat milk

1 large Mango

1 ripe Banana,

a handful of Spinach leaves

handful Almonds.

Method:

Blend well in a mixer. Pour in a cup and enjoy!

Sandwiches

Peanut butter sandwiches or any simple sandwich that the toddler can help prepare and assemble. Eg, this yummy tomato and cucumber sandwich, made using a hummus spread few arugula leaves, tomato, cucumber, and hard-boiled egg slices.

I hope this post inspires you to get into the kitchen with the kids and make some memories. Let me know of your experiences cooking with toddlers in the comments below. What do you make with your kids?