Time Value of Mommy

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19 Toddler Learning Activities At Home

Although my daughter goes to daycare full-time on the weekdays, I have been racking my brain on the weekends when the weather is terrible (which seems to be always these days) trying to think of screen free indoor activity ideas for my 2-year-old daughter to do at home to exhaust some of that toddler energy.

This is the comprehensive list of indoor activities for play-based learning that can help boost your toddler’s language development, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and prepare for kindergarten!

I am NOT a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mom by any means.

This is not a “DIY” play list. I also don’t do many “messy” activities. I’ve listed some free toddler activities under “Quality Time Play” below, but most of these indoor activities will require some financial investment. I have linked the toys and activities we love and get the most play out of.

We don’t always follow the “recommended age” on the labels.

For reference, my daughter is 26 months at the moment of writing, and we’ve played with most of these toys since she was 18 months old.

I always supervise and play with my daughter for any toys above her recommended age range as some toys are dangerous due to their small parts.

For educational toys, I focus on toys that are just a tiny bit more challenging than what she is able to do. This provides a stretch and a challenge for that curious toddler brain.

Passive vs. Active Toys:

I always opt for passive toys that require the child to engage, imagine, and play with. Passive toys = active child.

Active toys are usually toys that have batteries, they light up and entertain the child. These active toys result in the child becoming a passive bystander.

Check out my blog post on “Working Mom Hacks to Save Time” to learn about how passive toys and teaching your child can save you time in the long run!

How we play:

For busy moms, I’ve got you! I’ve also included how we play beside each activity to boost the learning benefits of play with your toddler. These are the ways that I play with my toddler daughter for your reference. You can find specific manufacture’s recommendations of play from the links.

I always keep in mind Maria Montessori’s famous quote, “play is the work of the child“. Try your best to not interrupt their flow, sometimes they just need you to be there like a fly on the wall. Try to observe your child at play rather than focusing too much on the “proper” way to play or do things.

Some of these toddler activities can occupy my daughter anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Toddlers love to repeat the same things multiple times over, and this helps to build their brain! If your toddler seem interested and want to repeat an activity, let them!

Rotate the toys!

I highly recommend you to rotate the toys. This is a Montessori principle where you want the toys and playthings to be displayed beautifully so your child can see it easily, choose, and put it back independently.

I display all of the current line up of toys on a 2-tier toy shelf (Etsy has so many great hand made options!), giving my toddler 3-6 activities to choose from.

We’ve had the Lovevery subscription since my daughter was born, but cancelled when she turned 2 years old (last play kit being “The Helper“). I didn’t buy any additional “toys” until my daughter was about 15 months old. If you’re thinking about adding Lovevery to your rotation, I highly recommend it. Great quality toys, developmentally helpful and great resale value.

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Educational Toys

Learning Resources

You can click through to each of these learning resource toys and scroll down to read about what stage and skill you are teaching as you play with these toys. You can also find Learning Resources at Walmart!

How we play:
  • Sorting by colours: put all of the same coloured birds into the same coloured plate.
  • Sorting by size: separate mommy birds and baby birds.
  • Counting: start by counting the mommy birds (1-6), count baby birds (1-24).
  • Taking instructions: “can you put the blue baby bird into the purple plate?”
How we play:
  • Identifying numbers: scatter the picnic baskets on the table, give your toddler the butterfly and ask the butterfly to “fly” to the the numbers.
  • Counting: count from 1-10
  • Picking & sorting colours:
    • “What colour is the picnic basket with the number 2?”
    • “Can you open the red basket?”
    • “Which basket does the green apple go into?”
  • Identifying foods: get toddler to say the food item as she takes it out. You can teach them about the food groups.
How we play:
  • Letter recognition: find the letter! Match them up (upper and lower case)
  • Singing the letters and phonetics: “A is a letter AHH is the sound that it makes!”
  • Popsicle shop:
    • “Can I buy ONE, PINK popsicle please?” and pretend to eat.
    • Talk about how popsicles are cold, how popsicles melt.
    • Talk about the flavours of the popsicles.
How we play:
  • Spin the spinner: get your toddler to dance, tiptoe, stomp, hop with the bunnies. We do this also with the Ms. Rachel “Hop Little Bunny” song and change up the lyrics.
  • Sorting by colours & numbers:
    • Sort the bunnies into their own families by colours.
    • Sort the bunnies back into their “house” and call out the number on the house. You can also count the bunnies as they enter their house.
  • Search and find / hide and seek: Hide the bunnies in different parts of the room and get your toddler to use the dustpan and broom to “sweep” up the bunnies as she finds them.

Sensory Bins

How we play:
  • Hide and seek: hide the animal in the sand and find it.
  • Name that animal: name the animal, make animal sounds.
  • Ocean & Sand division: separate the animals that live in the ocean and the ones that can go onto the sand.
  • Make imprints in the sand: use the mould to make the animal shapes in the sand.
  • Tell a story: tell a story with the scene.

Flash Cards

Check out my blog post on Preparing Baby’s First Library on ways you can read to make it more fun and engaging for your child.

I highly recommend using flash cards that have REAL photos, or very realistic photos on them like the ones I’ve linked below. This helps them connect the word on the flash card to real life easier.

How we play:

My daughter loves to use these pointer fingers from Learning Resources and point as we play.

You can scatter these flashcards onto the table, or do them one after the other.

  • Identifying the photo:
    • Scatter 9 cards (more or less up to you) on the table, and ask your toddler to find the photo you named.
    • Ask your toddler “what is this?” and point to a flashcard.
  • “Is there” questions: lay out a few cards on the table.
    • “Is there a RED FRUIT?”
    • “Is there something you can SIT on?”
  • Spelling: after identifying the photo, get them to identify the letter. For example A-P-P-L-E.

Reading and Drama

How we play:
  • Colours: identify the colours, learn nuanced names of different colours.
  • Tell a story: each page has a different colour theme, and there are some additional tidbits of information provided. You can use this to read and teach to your toddler, or link it to their recent experiences. Try to paint a picture with words.
  • I spy: “can you find a pumpkin on this page?”
How we play:
  • Act it out: act out each emotion that is on the page. You can do this yourself with your toddler, or use stuffed animals. Talk about when these emotions happen in real life.
  • Identify the emotion: name the emotion, talk about how it feels and what it looks like.

Pen Control Practice

How we play:
  • Homework time: make it fun and only do a couple pages each time. Hold your toddler’s hand and guide them to write each line. Then ask them to write it themselves.
  • Draw using the lines: these pages are all dry erase and you can talk about the different shapes the line can make, draw them, and talk about them.

Mess Free Painting (No Paint Needed)

How we play:
  • Paint: simply get some water and you can get your toddler to paint the pages. I use the no spill paint cups in the kit here. Once the pages dry down completely, it becomes colourless and you can paint again with water!
  • Story telling: tell a story with the painting they are making on the page.
    • Identify the animals/trucks/items in the photo.

Pretend Play

Doctor

How we play:
  • Fever: act out having a fever, get a temperature check and talk about fever symptoms. Ask if they are feeling better after medicine.
  • Coughing & Sneezing: act out having a cough/sneeze, teach manners on saying “excuse me” and “bless you“.
  • Body check: use stethoscope to listen to different body areas. Name that body part.
  • Going to doctor’s office: pretend that you are going to the doctor’s office together step by step.

Farm Animals in the Barn

How we play:
  • Name that animal: we prefer the “farm friends” that I’ve linked because these farm animals are fuzzy and way cuter than the ones that come with the barn. All of these extra animals fit in the barn.
    • “What animal is this?”
  • Make that animal sound: what sound does each animal make?
  • Gentle hands practice: tell your toddler to stroke the horse, pet the sheep, and practice gentle hands with animals.
  • Tell a story: narrate where the animals are going, ask if they can climb up to the top of the barn, open the barn door, set up the fence. Pretend you are a farmer from day to night.

Cleaning Up

We do pretend play clean up most of the time when I am actually cleaning the house. Making cleaning and chores fun is a huge part of building this life long skill for your toddlers. Praise their hard work, but don’t expect them to actually do any real cleaning!

How we play:
  • Clean the window: spray and wipe the window. Parent to demonstrate and your toddler to mimic your motion.
    • “You missed a spot over here, can you try again?”
    • “Wow! You cleaned the window so well! It’s squeaky clean!”
  • Sweep and dust: you can put little bits of “fake garbage” and have your toddler sweep it up. Dusting can be done with real dust.
    • “Do you see dust here? Should we sweep it up?”
  • Vacuum with mommy/daddy: when you vacuum, get your little helper to do the same! This Dyson toy actually makes the vacuum noises.

Vanity Set

How we play:
  • Daily makeup and hair: if your daughter is like mine and likes to watch you as you get ready, this is the perfect set. It has everything for the face and the hair. I put this by my vanity when I’m getting ready and she wants to also “do makeup”.
  • Makeup on dolls: ask your toddler to blow-dry the bunny’s fur, or put eyeshadow on the giraffe. Encourage different vocabulary usage.

Peppa Pig House

The portable version is versatile because we can also bring it to play dates. We got the additional full Peppa family because the ones that came with the house is not exactly the same as the Peppa on TV. The Peppa and George included in this kit we take to restaurants or out and about as a fun toy in her little bag.

How we play:
  • Play house: reenact all of the day to day things you do in the house!
    • Narrate everything you do in the house.
    • Tell a story like you’ve seen on an episode if your toddler watches Peppa Pig.
  • Furniture and household items: get the toddler to find and touch the same item in your house.
  • Take Peppa and George out: we take Peppa and George out with us when we go to a restaurant or somewhere shorter distance. You can ask your toddler to “feed” Peppa, wipe George’s mouth, and treat them like friends you are taking along.

Tea Party

We love this set because it’s super durable and toddler friendly! This wooden tea set is high quality, made with non-toxic paints and meets all safety standards. I highly recommend this over a tin set or a ceramic set for toddlers under 3.

How we play:
  • Making tea: demonstrate how to make tea, make it fun, put up the pinky!
    • fine motor skills: stir the cup, dip the tea bag, pour the tea cup holding the lid.
    • language development: Focus on using relevant vocabulary that’s transferrable in other similar situations such as: “This tea is very hot!” or “Can you blow on the tea to let it cool down faster?”
  • Pass the pastry: ask your toddler to pass the specific pastry.
    • Utilize this as an opportunity to practice their manners such as : “please” and “thank you“.

Ice Cream & Popsicle Cart

This was one of my daughter’s 2 year old birthday presents. She has played with it everyday, and we leave it in the living room as one of the activities and toys she can do while we cook. This will grow well with the child as it has instructional play and money that can add complexity into this pretend play activity.

How we play:
  • Ice cream flavours: ask for vanilla, strawberry, mint or chocolate flavour icecream.
    • talk about how icecream is cold, it melts, and your favourite flavours.
    • mix and match different scoops.
    • fine motor skills: button clicking and scooping the ice cream onto the cone motion.
  • Popsicle flavours: ask for different toppings or take it plain.
  • Counting: 1-10 by pressing the syrup pump or the coin button.
  • Early learning about money: comes with bills and coins to interact with toddler when you buy something.

Play Kitchen

We have not yet taken the plunge on a full kitchen play set. I opted to see what my daughter is really interested in and got bits and pieces for now. We have the Lovevery sink, this microwave set, this pizza set (my daughter LOVES pizza), and some play food we received as gift.

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How we play:
  • Microwave: this microwave actually spins and beeps. Super realistic for such a cute toy. We use this toy microwave to learn the buttons and the mechanism of a microwave, and I ask my daughter to help me when I’m actually using the real microwave (see “Quality Time Play”).
    • talk about which foods can go inside the microwave, why some foods take longer to cook.
  • Pizza party: teach your toddler the pizaz toppings, ask for specific toppings on your pizza.
    • Counting: I want 2 Pepperoni slices and 1 mushroom on my pizza, please.
    • Fine motor skills: cut the pizza, put the pizza onto the plate and bring it to your table.
    • Practice manners: please and thank you, always!

Gross Motor Play

Kiddie couch

There are SO many companies that makes these play couches. We ended up choosing Kiddie couch because of the kid and pet friendly material that’s machine washable, colour selection, CertiPUR-US certified foam, fast shipping directly from Richmond, BC (Canada). You can read more about this play couch specifications here.

How we play:
  • Build a fort: build a hiding place, toddlers love hiding places.
  • Obstacle course: we use different cushions in our house and the yogibo. Floor is lava!
  • Dancing mat: play their favourite music and let your toddler show you their dance moves!
    • More ideas on dancing below.
  • Sit and read: simply a great place to relax and read together!

Yogibo

We’ve had the yogibo short since my daughter was 10 months old. She took her bottles on it, we would lay on it and spend quality time together. The “short” one is big enough for me to sit and lay down comfortably. It truly has “zero pressure points” like the website says. Trust me, you’ll want some back support and a place to sit playing with an energetic toddler.

Check prices on the yogibo website, depending on the colour and style, sometimes Amazon is cheaper and sometimes the website is cheaper with a sale code.

How we play:
  • Trust fall: get your toddler to fall directly backwards onto the yogibo. My daughter LOVES this activity.
  • Face plant: same as trust fall but face first.
  • Obstacle course: make an obstacle course with other cushions you have around the house. We use our Kiddie Couch and it’s the perfect combo.

Dancing / Music time

How we play:
  • Dancing to the song: play the song and dance to the dance moves of the song. Favourite playlists on the left.
  • Dance up a storm: random dancing with crazy moves!
  • Taking instructions: parent to tell toddler to touch their head, twirl, jump, hop around, lay down, etc.
  • Follow me: toddler to mirror what the parent is doing.

Indoor Multi-ball Play

How we play:
  • Kicking
  • Throwing
  • Passing
  • Scoring goals

Exaggerate your moves and really show different facial emotions during play. This helps toddlers learn about their body movement.

Quality Time Play

Little Helper

This is perhaps the best and free activity you can do with your toddler. I’ve linked a few toddler friendly items but these are not essential to spending quality time with your toddler.

I learned a lot about Montessori from the book “Montessori from the Start“, and one of the key aspects of developing independence is learning from practical life.

Kids from 15 months old (once they are walking independently) have a strong inclination to want to be independent, and to mimic the parent’s day to day activities like cooking or doing chores. This is the perfect time to start to foster the curious mind and encourage them to take an interest with these daily activities!

A few of my daughter’s favourite tasks to help me with:

  • Food preparation: always wears her apron and climbs onto her learning tower (that converts to a table).
    • she uses her crinkle cutter and helps me cut veggies like carrots, cucumbers, radishes, etc. with my supervision.
    • cracking eggs and beating eggs with a smaller egg beater.
    • season marinates: I measure out the amount and she helps me dump it into the bowl.
    • putting items into the pot with my supervision.
  • Laundry:
    • put her dirty clothes into the hamper.
    • put the dirty clothes from the hamper into the washing machine, closes the door, press buttons (as I guide her).
  • Cleaning:
    • wiping the table.
    • vacuuming with her toy Dyson.
    • picking up scraps from the ground.

This post was all about the 19 indoor activities to do with toddlers at home with your 2 or 3 year old. I hope this list gave you some toddler activity ideas for the next time you are stuck at home with your energetic toddler!

Stimulating your toddler’s rapidly growing brain is going to help them so much with their development during this sensitive period.

If there are any other toddler at home activities or ideas you have, please comment below. I’d love to add more activities to my arsenal considering Vancouver is Raincouver most of the year.

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