Monday 17 May 2010

Household Play Ideas for Toddlers

Yesterday it was raining. We'd planned to go out and do something but the weather put an end to that idea and instead we felt stuck inside needing some inspiration to liven things up a bit. Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a post about things to do with a young baby when it rains but now our son is an energetic toddler, some of those suggestions aren't so effective. We did have a bit of a sing-along session and we did go out for a walk anyway but in the middle of all that, we were desperately thinking of something different to do with him at home. In the end we built a living room 'tent' by draping blankets over chairs!

Later that day, I stumbled across a blog post of 10 simple play ideas for toddlers. Too bad I hadn't read it earlier in the day as there are some good things to try:

  1. Tissue Box (for posting things into and then shaking them out)

  2. Utensil drawer

  3. Old phone and keyboard

  4. Pegs

  5. Saucepans and lids

  6. Cup stacking

  7. Lining up (eg. putting socks on a window ledge and then knocking them all down!)

  8. Pillow obstacle course

  9. Dustpan and brush

  10. Cubby (like the 'tent' we made in our living room)


The mother of five children who wrote this post, points out that most toddlers love to play with household items so these can be perfect play solutions for your little ones. I put a similar list (from Simple Mom) in a post a while back but as all the things on this list are totally different, I decided to include another similar post as we can never have too many of these kinds of ideas in my opinion!

My son loves to watch me use the dustpan and brush (especially when I pretend to sweep him up!). He also likes to help me unpack the dishwasher and passes me the cutlery one piece at a time. Utensils and plastic containers are still a big hit with him, as I've mentioned on here before. No surprise then that sometimes the best ideas for fun play are letting children loose with some of the everyday items they see you use so often.

Are there some household items or games you play with your children at home along similar lines to those suggested above?

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Photo credit

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2 comments:

  1. My daughter enjoys plastic bottles (empty) and used (but clean) tin foil. Lots of good noise to make with those :-)

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  2. Thanks for your comment Claire. Empty plastic bottles are definitely very appealing to toddlers and make some good noise when squeezed!

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