Temperatures will start to drop during the fall and winter months and there’s no way anyone will want to be spending time outdoors, including your toddler. But how can you maintain your sanity when you’re stuck indoors facing random acts of household destruction and toddler tantrums? Sometimes you’ll need to be creative to find things that will work well for your kids, and sometimes that means using what is right in front of you.
Building Forts
This has been a childhood favorite for years and it never seems to fail. Transform your Amazon packages into an amazing cardboard obstacle course. It is truly great to see what creative things you can make with a box, scissors, and duct tape. If you don’t have cardboard go ahead and pull out the pillows and blankets, those work just as well.
Arts and Crafts
Getting creative can be messy, but arts and crafts are so important for learning and developing and can be made from simple things like toilet paper rolls and paper plates. If your child doesn’t get much use out of crayons try washable markers, chalk, or even stickers for a chance to let the little artist in them shine.
Indoor Play Gym
One of my son’s favorite things to do is play in his ball pit. We live in a two-bedroom apartment so a small ball pit was perfect for the corner of his room. If you live in a bigger home with a playroom, building an indoor play gym will let your toddler release some of that wild energy when playing outside is out of the question.
Sensory Bins
If you're looking for an activity that will help with your child's learning and development, sensory bins are great. These bins can help your child with a variety of skills including fine motor, matching, and counting. Grab a few containers, bottles, bins, or even sealed plastic bags and fill them with an array of objects around your home that your child can explore.
Bath Waterplay
When you’ve run out of games and activities for your child to do, let them splash around with their water toys in the bath. My toddler absolutely loves bath time in the evenings, so why not bring bath time into the daytime? I like to add bubbles to help him have even more fun.
Music
One of the things I have learned from my son is that he loves to dance. I like to throw a little dance party with him right in our living room. Toddlers love jumping around and mimicking adults so I use this as a great time to show off my mom moves. Find some kid-friendly songs and rock out!
Books
Break out the books and make sure you use all of your quirkiest voices and skills to animate the characters and get your toddler into the story. Make sure to pick shorter books to keep their attention.
