Any fun ideas or activities for toddlers?

Going outside? Walks in the woods, parks, playgrounds.

Musical instruments that you hit, like drums. Young kids love hitting stuff and making a racket :D

Puzzles, building toys of different kinds.

Treasure hiking.

My son likes to climb ladders. Up, down… up, down… tries to drag his toys up with him. Fails. Up, down…

Likes to push shopping carts, too.

He helps me cook – usually baking things, or making pancakes. I’ll set out a bunch of random ingredients, and let him throw handfuls in. We love to end up with strawberry chocolate chip blueberry walnut pancakes.

Pooh sticks. Stand on a bridge over a stream; drop sticks in the water. Go to the to the side of the bridge and see which comes out first.
Catching fireflies in the summer.
Helping a parent make cookies by stirring the dough.
Collecting leaves in the Fall; shells at the beach.
Lie on the ground and look at the clouds. What shapes do you see?
Building towers and forts with blocks. Marble runs.

I’m going to bookmark this question; I’ll have a toddler to play with this year.

Marshmallows… in games,counting,building,throwing,etc. Great fun.

Balloons, ball pool. Yay!!

Follow the leader- good to teach gross motor movement. Imitate animals and they also learn about elephant trunks, cheetahs run and alligators snap.

Bean/Rice play. Get a large tub and fill with beans or rice (two inches deep therabouts). Get buckets, cups, funnels and shovels (or spoons) and let ‘er rip. Teaches tactile identity and hand-eye coordination and cause/effect.

Whipped cream play. (also sensory development) Take whipped cream (cans are cheaper and they like to get ‘extra helpings’ on their hands) and let them smear it out over an outside table.

Pudding painting. Get vanilla pudding and paper plates. Let them ‘finger paint’ with the pudding on the plate. Once dried- take a picture then show it to them. Any flavor (think color) pudding will work.

“Hoppers”. Place clothes, rugs, pieces of paper etc on the floor and make a game of jumping between targets. Teaches gross motor movement. If you use paper that’s different colors, you can teach color at the same time. Cut the paper into shapes and you can teach shapes as well. For younger toddlers- instead of jumping, have them stand next to the color/pad/shape so they don’t slip.

Go to a fabric store and check out all the sparkly fabric. The last time I checked, one yard costs less than $5, and many are even washable. A square yard is perfect for a toddler’s height, and they can tie it around their shoulders, wrap it around their head, or swoop through the air with it. My grand daughter had about 10 or so. We’d get her a new one for Christmas or birthday, or whenever. She became the most popular kid in the apartment complex, and all her little friends joined her in playing superheroes! It was great!

Kids I know love ripping papers. Buy some newsprint at the arts store. It’s easy for little fingers to tear.

Books books books! My son loves them. In the beginning he feigned indifference, but now we spend a lot of time reading. Once we get to know a book, we make up silly sounds and actions to go with the words and pictures on the page. Sometimes I catch him ‘reading’ to himself, and he remembers the silly little noises and such for each page as he turns it. It’s a really great way to have down time and get him to sit still, which is proving useful in potty training too. Spend time choosing books you can enjoy, or at least tolerate, as you’ll be required to read them over and over.

Books we love: Goodnight Moon, Everyone Poops, Meg and Mog books, Lost and Found, One Gorilla, I Want My Potty.

Oh, duh, you already said story time. Sorry! I’ll just crawl back in my teacup.

Thank you each one of you for each and every idea. Love them!

Jeanmay..please don’t crawl back to your teacup. :) Love your post. Our daughter loves Goodnight Moon and that book makes me sleepy when you say “Good night air” I will check out the other books you suggested.

Thanks again bunches to all.

We love Everyone Poops. I don’t know if it had any effect, but my son was potty trained almost as soon as he turned two. Great fun to read either way.

Oh gosh. I want to get that book, but I don’t know what it would do to my son’s vocabulary. The youngling already runs around saying “E poo-poo. E poo. Eeeewww…” all day long. (he calls himself “E” – his name’s Ian)

Wait, don’t buy newsprint! Whoopsie! If there’s a recycling bin near you, you can use those papers and then put them back in recycling when you’re done.

@Seek_Kolinahr For a while we thought our son had picked up “s**t” and were busy blaming each other, but then we figured out he was only saying “sit”! Phew!

Attach a piece of clear tape to the end of a little kid’s nose. It feels funny, and tickles. My kids loved it so much one year we filled their Christmas stocking with Scotch tape. They were thrilled.