Fun Activities that will Keep your Toddler Engaged for a Long and Productive Time

Last updated on September 5th, 2019 at 09:02 pm

Toddler Activities, Ways to entertain a Toddler, How to keep my Toddler busy? These are my recent searches and I am still on the look out for more.

But can I be honest and real as a mom and say that almost 60% of what’s out there can only interest my toddler for a very limited time, to be frank 10 minutes max and then we need to introduce a new one as he’d lost interest already.

That’s where this post come in. I want to give parents a tried and tested list of Toddler Activities that is 15 minutes minimum and can last you close to an hour to keep your toddler occupied and busy and may last longer if Parent Engagement is involved (since we are their most favorite playmate).

Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children.

(Source: www.pediatrics.aappublications.org)

I will be categorizing the Activities under Indoor and Outdoor play because the weather and environment are crucial and must always be considered for the safety of our children.

Indoor Activities

Play Dough

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Make sure that you are using the non-toxic, edible type. I recommend doing one at home because its so cheap and easy to make.

Make your own Play Dough using my No Cook Recipe!

Play dough or clay play is open-ended and is such a creativity booster, observe your child and be amazed of what he’ll do with it. A little taste test is inevitable, they always seem to sneak a taste. It’s like they cannot resist.

Add in some cooking set to stretch your play time. (My toddler always sees me in action on the kitchen and buying him a cooking set is worth it. He’s imitating me flipping the pancake during his clay play).

Animal Toys

Whose kid is not into Animals and Dinosaurs? No One.

Sturdy, easy to clean and efficient in entertaining my toddler for a long time. I thank them for my many uninterrupted time to do productive things and chores.

We have discovered the 2 Best Activities to do with them:
1. Animals Toys with Kitchen Tongs.

This was a surprise hit to my toddler. We have a bunk bed and I hanged the animal toys on the grills and gave him the kitchen tongs to pick them and give to me.

This made him focused as some animals as harder to get than others. The more animal toys you can hang the better and longer. We did the activity 3x on repeat!

2. Creating Shadows using Flashlights

Best done before bedtime with his pajama and makeshift tent from our blanket. The possibilities are endless. You can even use it as props for your storytelling with your kid’s active participation in making the characters “move”.

Playing with Bubbles

I always loved this when I was a kid and even now as a parent whose role is to keep blowing them. There are great bubble toys with playful https://www.tribobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1.png and concepts in the stores now. Make sure to stock up on bubble soaps!

Drawing on Whiteboard

Why whiteboard? Because you need all the space you can get as the kid will ask you to draw animals, your faces, movie characters then trace his toys, his hands, his foot and even his snack.

You don”t need a fancy drawing skill here. A weird doodle will do, he’ll smile and appreciate your masterpiece no matter what.

Kids and Screen Time has become a parenting issue in modern times. Let’s discuss on the Alternatives and Solutions on this in my related post.

Alternative Activities for Children Instead of Screen Time

Outdoor Activities

Nature Walks

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This is my favorite of them all. Exercise, fresh air and good scenery. Those are good factors involved in this activity. We are trying to raise a Nature Baby and this is the best way to start that.

He loves picking stones, leaves, stems and anything that interests him. I try to save some of them to use for our other activities. Leaves for our cooking pretend play, this particular stem as a sword, wand and clothespin hanger.

The time range of this depends on your route. I recommend doing this everyday or as frequent as possible.

Water Play

Water play particularly with this household items:

• Watering Can
• Sponge
• Spray Bottle

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Toddlers love all types of water play. That’s why this activity is done before taking a bath. We gave him the watering can and sponge and he started pouring it first on plants, then stones and soon to Mommy. Since we’re drenching with water by this time, we headed to bath time and continued playing.

For the spray bottle, you can give him targets to shoot like on the photo above. I recommend to introduce the items at different times as one is engaging enough.

I will end this list with this Activity as it can be played both Indoor and Outdoor depending on your Messiness Tolerance. Play at your own risk!

Sensory Play

We’ve tried several and I claimed it to be an engaging toddler activity even to adults. Our moon sand took us 2 hours of playtime. Mung beans, rice, sand, ice, pebbles and more. Add in the animals, beach toys or any scooping props will surely result to fun times.

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Most toddler activities are messy which is not new to toddler moms. But the worst one is sensory play as it involves grainy, infinite pieces.

And just for fun, Let’s see if you can relate to this post 🙂
7 Telltale Signs You Live With A Toddler

Get your toddler busy and learning with this post
15 Developmental Activities To Do With Your Baby.

Mom Thoughts:
I am researching and reading the internet on the importance of play and observed that all articles I read had a section saying that reduction of play in consequence of screen time had experts worried on its effect to child behavior and development.

I am guilty of this because as much as I love giving Seb his toddler activities so he can veer away from screen time, I also have my guilty moments when I let a gadget babysit him for a while so I can do chores. It is inevitable I tell you and please do not judge me for this.

I believe that screen time is not bad. Depending on how you let your kid get exposed to it. Its a simple matter of knowing when is too much.

I will be discussing Screen Time’s Effect on Toddlers on a separate, more thorough and researched post because it deserves that.

Anyway, These are my tested long time engaging toddler activities. I will be adding more as I discover others as well. Try doing them with your child and time it and let me know the result in the comment below.

If you find this helpful, please comment or share. Thanks!

Phots credited to www.freepik.com