Activities to Do with Your Toddler at Home
Creative Crafts and Play to Help You through the Winter Days
Feb 15, 2009
When the weather is too cold or rainy to go outdoors, you can brighten things up by bringing a bit of creativity to play with your toddler. Here are a few simple activities which require a minimum of equipment and are suitable for toddlers of all ages.
Make Home-Made Playdough Together
This is much cheaper than buying ready-made playdough, and making it can be fun with toddlers of any age. Get the younger ones involved by helping to stir or pour ingredients in.
Recipe:
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup salt
- 2 heaped teaspoons of cream of tartar
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- Food colouring
Whisk the first four ingredients together to make a thick batter consistency. Add oil, then food colouring. Heat in a pan, stirring all the time, until it all clumps together in a big lump. Knead. Wrap in clingfilm and store in a plastic bag.
Make Bottle Chimes
Supplies required:
- Bottles – different or same size
- Wooden spoon or beater made by inserting pencil into empty spool
- Water
Line up different sized bottles and tap them gently with the spoon or beater. Each size bottle will make a different tone. If the bottles are the same size, fill each one with a different amount of water. You can also add or subtract water to make a musical scale.
Make Home-Made Bubbles
Recipe:
- 1 cup liquid detergent or no-tears baby shampoo
- 3 cups water
- Food colouring (optional)
Pour into cups and blow bubbles with straws or bubble pipes. You can add food colouring for coloured bubbles.
Make Fingerpaints
Recipe:
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1 quart boiling water
- 1/2 cup talc
- 1/2 cup soap flakes
- Dry tempera
Moisten starch with cold water. Add boiling water and cook, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir vigorously. Add talc and flakes. Beat with egg beater. Cool. Add tempera for colour.
Make a Pizza from Felt
This is a good way to review concepts of colours, shapes, and the names of food items with your older toddler. Children should be supervised at all times to make sure they don't put felt pieces in their mouths.
Supplies needed:
- Different coloured felt
- Scissors
- Baking pan (optional)
Take a yellow piece of felt and cut it into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. This will be the "crust". Then take a red piece and cut it into a circle about 6 inches in diameter. Next, take this red circle and cut it in half. Then cut the halves into 3 wedges each, like pizza slices. Now you can take the other coloured pieces of felt to create the toppings as follows:
- Black for olives (circles)
- Green for green peppers or broccoli (strips or circles)
- White for cheese (strips or small rectangles)
- Dark red for pepperoni (small circles)
- Brown for either sausage or mushrooms (squares)
Once you have made all the "ingredients", let your toddler put them together, on the baking pan if you wish. First lay down the yellow big circle, then add the slices of red felt on top, and then add all the toppings. This can be done again and again, making lots of different pizzas for each member of the family.
Rainy days at home needn't be boring. Making playdough, bubbles and felt pizza, creating bottle chimes, and using fingerpaints are all simple ways of channelling the toddler's need to make a mess, exploring creativity and connecting with parents.
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