Activity Ideas For Active Toddlers

Give your child some homemade soft dough or clay and allow him to make some shapes out of it. Once he has made something, tell him what it looks like, a sun, a mountain, a ball and so on. I have found this activity very useful, when I am doing some work of my own for example, when I am cooking food, folding clothes, ironing clothes, or drying clothes.

Once he is done with it, make a thin sheet of the dough and give him shapes of his shape sorter game to cut shapes from the sheet. You can also buy him cars which come with a clay toy set. My son has a tower set with animal carvings on it, so if you have one too, give it to your child and let him print different animals on the dough. There are many products of Play-Doh also available in the market and you can find lots of videos about it on YouTube too.

Give your toddler a piggy bank and a hundred coins. Let him put the coins one by one into his piggy bank. This activity will keep your toddler busy while improving his fine motor skills. It will also give you some time to finish your chores.

My son has a set of giggles star links. This set contains 12 brightly colored flowers which can be linked to make different things. My son mostly plays this game with his father. His father makes him a horse with the star links and my son runs in the entire house saying "gallop, gallop, gallop". My son's other favorite creation is a circle, which we call a tiara. He wears it on his head and pretends to be a prince. Sometimes, I make a straight line with the star links for my son and we pretend that the line is sometimes a sword, sometimes a bridge, sometimes a tower and sometimes simply a line. Another favorite for my toddler is the letter 'A' made from the star links by his father. My son's grandmother makes a big flower out of the star links for my son. Other things which can be made from the star links are triangles, squares, zigzag lines, etc, depending upon your imagination.

These links are difficult for a two year old to fix themselves so in the starting when my toddler wanted to do the linking part himself and was unable to do, I made him make tops of all the flowers. The star links can be rotated both horizontally and vertically. The rotating star links creates a very fascinating sight for him.

These rings can also be used to teach your child about colors as the flowers have different vibrant colors.

These rings can also be used to teach your child about colors as the flowers have different vibrant colors.

This is also an activity which your toddler will enjoy with you. Show him different images on pages of newspaper and describe the images. This is a good way for him to learn about vast topics.

Tower cups used for stacking and nesting is a great toy for toddlers. These days it comes with animal carving at the bottom of each cup. Along with stacking and nesting toddler also like recognizing animals on it. You can also use these cups to make shapes and flowers. My toddler and I also play a game of drinking various drinks from these cups like avocado juice, banana milkshake, lemon juice, orange juice, soup, coconut water and so on.

There are many free apps for picture stories for kids. You can download these apps. Also, many board books are available for kids in the market. Near my home there is a big market of second hand books so I usually buy books from there for my toddler. Also, while buying new books my husband and I go for books which have a large number of stories, say about more than 300 stories, since they come more reasonable than when you buy more books with 10 or 15 stories. I personally like 365 Panchatantra Stories, Sesame Street and Walt Disney.

A notebook and a set of crayons can be used to narrate colorful stories to your toddler.

Story 1: Your son's birthday party. Draw a table with a brown crayon. Tell him its a brown wooden table. Then draw a cake with lots of candles and sing with him the birthday song. Draw balloons and ribbons of different colors. Draw him, his family members and friends with gifts in their hands.

Story 2: Draw a forest with lots of trees with brown trunks and green leaves. Make an orange tree, an acorn tree with squirrels, an apple tree, a banana tree with monkeys, a mango tree, a blueberry tree and a grape tree.

You can also narrate famous children's stories like "The hare and the tortoise", " The monkey and the crocodile", "The lion and the mouse", by drawing pictures.

A typical magnetic slate comes with a magnetic pen and few magnetic shapes. This is a very good way for your toddler to use the pen without coloring your walls and floors. You can keep him engaged for hours drawing objects for him and letting him erase the images. You can also let him scribble and after each scribble you both can discuss what it looks like or you can complete his scribble to make something useful.

Blocks can be used to make towers, trains, car, bridge, buildings, castles, etc.

My toddler has ten board books of the size of a pocket dictionary which we use to make letters A to Z, fences, flowers, shapes etc, by bringing the books together.

My toddler has this shape sorter game and with its shapes together we make towers, candle, house, boat, window, door, monster, etc.

My husband and my son do this activity together. They both make lots of bubbles and my son catches all the bubbles. He simply loves this activity. He becomes so excited running after the bubbles. It is a good fun exercise for him.

These days, many activity books are available. There is a wide variety found on online sites like firstcry, amazon, flipkart, etc. These sticker books are a great way to learn a vast variety of things, with fun.

Peekaboo and hide and seek are enjoyed by all toddlers. Just hide behind a curtain, come out and say peekaboo. As toddlers like repetition, do it again and again. In no time your toddler will also be copying you. The key is here not to hide completely and for long duration. You could use anything to hide your face, like hiding behind the sofa, behind the television, behind doors, behind cloth materials, etc.

Enacting poem with your toddler. You can sing and play poems like "ring around the roses", "twinkle twinkle little star", "teddy bear teddy bear turn around", "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed", "listen to the music and clap your hands", etc.

My husband takes out my toddler to see different animals on the street in our neighborhood. My husband points out all the dogs, cows, buffaloes, ducks, goose, hen, pigs, goats, pigeons and horses on the street. My husband also counts and tells my toddler how many of each type of animals are there whenever they come across more than one animal at a time. At times my husband takes some flat bread with him and feeds the cows, dogs and ducks. This activity has not only enabled my toddler to recognize animals, their sound and the way they eat, but it has also taught him counting.

This is a game that all the toddlers love. Show and name all the parts of his body. After a few days you will see he recognizes all the names and parts and still likes to play this pointing different parts of the body game.

This activity has been very useful for me whenever I want to buy in some time for example my toddler is hungry and shouting or wants to go outdoor immediately, but i have some chores to finish before going out. I distract him with question like "Where is the fan?", "Where is the curtain", etc, or point to a thing like "See that is a flower on the tile", "See that is an orange crayon laying over there", etc. This game is very useful when your toddler cries, when you are outdoor too, you can tell him "see that's a green car over there", "a baby in pink dress over there", etc. This activity is also fun when your child is happy and you are free. It improves his knowledge about his surroundings and enables him to communicate better with you like, "I want my orange toy car", " I banged my head on the balcony door", "I hurt my fingers", "I want my teddy bear from the cupboard", "I want to sleep on my bed in my room", etc.

All toddlers like jumping, running, rolling and climbing. Place two big mattresses on the floor and let him do all those things to his heart's desire while you have a cup of coffee.

Bathing is a special time for toddlers. Put toys which float like rubber ducks, plastic balls, jelly animals, etc, in the bathing tub in which your toddler baths. Also put some tower cups which he can fill with water and empty water into another cup. Teach him to splash water. My toddler also makes his toys have a bath, applies soap, shampoo, etc, to his toys.

Buy a set of rings which can be stacked. This is an activity which toddlers love to do. My toddler also wears the rings as bangles and anklets. He also makes different colored spectacles from it.