7 Creative Fun Activities for Toddlers at Home

Just like icing on a cake, toddlers fill our lives with adorable moments, despite running over us, all the time.

Have you spent a day without conceiving fun activities for toddlers at home? I hear you! Simple, no-prep, gadget-free activities that engage the little minds at home?

Holding an infant is carrying a bundle of joy, but having a toddler is having a fun package at home. That’s exactly how my days are going now. 

There’s not a moment of rest to my mind and body. As a mother, I am always thinking about how to engage my toddler every single day.

Haven’t I explored the Internet for 100s of ideas before coming up with my own list? Yes, I have gone through top mommy blogs to learn about engaging a toddler.

Then, I came up with these 7 fun activities for toddlers at home, in harmony with my daughter’s response.

Handling Toddlers Tantrums with Fun Activities at Home

Being a stay-at-home mom is not the most comfortable choice for all, but once the decision is made, there is no turning back.

2019 brought a lot of changes in me. Finally, I was determined to spend my stay-at-home time pretty well with my daughter.

I wanted to spend the time entirely with my daughter. Yes, a lot of uninterrupted time, which involved wrecking my mind on most days to come up with ideas.

I had to always have 2-3 fun and creative activities at home for toddlers to minimize my daughter’s screen time. Handling a toddler tantrum is not easy, but diverting them is comparatively easier.

I was not just happy, but overall content with the time I spent with my daughter during her 2-3 year journey. It was indeed the beginning of a long journey of parenting.

Here are some of the fun activities I enjoy with my little girl at home. I wanted to cherish these memories and share our activities with others as well. Hence this post.

My husband was at work at a faraway land for almost a year then. My daughter and I managed to bond better with each other with the help of fun activities.

That’s when we came up with these 7 fun activities for toddlers at home. We created some memorable moments with this fun stuff rather than get tired of each other. 😛

7. Do Re Mi / Sa Re Ga

A 2-year old can be very interactive, trust me on this as a toddler mother. 

This activity requires no preparation whatsoever. You must be prepared since your toddler will eyeball you for humming tunes repeatedly.

Image Courtesy: Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

I hum the song, and she tries to find the song. It is interesting when songs are mixed up. 

I realized some rhymes follow the same music, and it was fun to find related songs through humming. 

You know, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star have the same tune, you get it now?

The good thing about this game is when the baby girl tries to hum and asks me to find it. Imagine my surprise!

While at 2.5, my daughter hummed just a line and expected me to find out the song. I admired her humming, but I couldn’t find out the tunes.

The best part is after she turned 3. Little Lakki has now started to hum her Thamizh, and English nursery rhymes effortlessly. I am so much better at finding them now. 

You’re thinking who has got better skills now, right? Aren’t we both growing? So, the answer is both of us!

Are you thinking if she stopped singing her nursery rhymes?

Not really, but she is more curious to learn new things. Instead, she sings along while she watches TV or while playing her games.

Well, honestly, she finds out songs better than I do. The other day, my father played her favorite song on the guitar. 

My sister sent us the video of my father playing the guitar and asked me to find the song.

I was playing it on repeat to identify the rhyme. Enter Little Lakki, I informed her that her thaatha (grandpa) has sent a video. 

I played it for her, and she identified it as Baby Shark. 

I was like, really? No, that’s not it.

She was like, Amma, it is Baby Shark only. My father was beyond excited at her response!

6. Draw The Rhyme

We need to find the rhyme from the sketch. Let me tell you, I cannot draw a straight line without a scale. 

We identified this game on the go. I used to sing rhymes to her while I draw it out for her to identify. 

During random playtime, she asked me if we could play this game. Hence, from that day, we baptized it as Draw The Rhyme fun activity for toddlers at home.

This is similar to storytelling, but we use this technique for rhymes. 

For example, I draw a mouse, a grandfather’s clock with a piece of cheese right on top of it, and a cuckoo. 

If you have watched Cocomelon, you will understand the following. 

The mouse falls down on the bed each time the grandfather clock rings. His elephant friend helps him get the cheese when the clock turns 6, completes the rhyme.

So could you figure out the rhyme? 

Yes, Hickory Dickory Dock. 

Drawing is not my thing, but what’s the harm in learning to draw a few animals? Earlier, the most challenging part was to make my daughter believe my art. 

Now, she finds it, so I guess I am better, or she finally has figured this is the mouse mom can draw. Anyway, this game excites her. 

When asked to find my animal, she said it was a cat, almost there, right?

5. Arrange the Veggies

I feel this is something most parents love to engage their toddlers. I find it interesting that my toddler enjoys this fun activity. 

The real fun for her is not organizing the veggies; it is in opening the fridge and storing them in. 

If she has to arrange peas, lady’s finger, and tomatoes, only half of it goes in, yes she loves to eat them raw.

If I give her beans, she breaks them into two and stores it. She does this only because she loves to break them. 

If it’s broad beans (Avarakkai), then she treats it like another version of peas. She peels them and says these are different peas.

When you have toddlers helping you around the kitchen, half of the vegetables fall into the category of to be cooked immediately.

Who knows, veggies would jump into the vessel themselves without much ado at the sight of a toddler.

4. The Rain Game

My daughter came up with this fun activity. She collects things, for example, blocks or toys, and pours it down my head like the rain. 

This doesn’t stop with just the blocks, it’s applicable for all stationery that belongs to me. 🤦‍♀️ 

After we are drenched, we get ready to clean the room with the cleanup song (Cocomelon again).

3. Paint it Pink

We learn our colors every day, and the little one must dip in the color I choose. Of course, we take turns. 

We start with a paintbrush and an empty page. By the time she is done, more than half of the pages in the book is stuck because of paint overload.

An 80-page notebook finally reaches the size of a telephone directory with paint overload.

We also use our hand to make a bingo mark(just like another rhyme in cocomelon, where yoyo and bingo paint together) in the notebook. 

Doesn’t mom know how messy her kid can get with paint in her hands?

When she solved the mystery of washing her hands, she knew she had to use the bathroom every time to do it.

Is there a kid who doesn’t love playing the water? There were days when she picks her paintbrush on her own to give it a bath. 

We head to the bathroom to get a wash and a mini-bath after EVERY painting session. 

In case your toddler is adamant about bath time, this is one of the fun activities at home that pushes them to bathe. 

2. Hello Doctor!

Yes, this is a new find. My father underwent laser treatment for Cataract before 7 months. From then, it’s all about what the doctor advised her Grandpa. 

However, we had given our imaginary doctor an extra duty, he handles the phones at our home. 🙈 

When the little one asks for the phone, my father used to say that his doctor does not permit him to use his mobile anymore. 

He was not supposed to use his phone until his eyes got better. 

So when the father takes the phone to attend calls, his granddaughter becomes the strict doctor who denies him access to his phone. 

Another vital element of our doctor game is testing head to toe for pains and troubles and treating them with a hug and a kiss as a medicine.

Another new version of the doctor’s game is addressing each other as doctors. Tell me, doctor, what do you think about this! 

What do you do when you are bored eating fruits? You address it as, doctor, do you really think you are a must for my health? 

1. Role Reversal

Though I enjoy all the above fun activities for toddlers at home, I enjoy this one a little bit more. Little Lakki becomes the mother, and I become the baby. 

This is where I become the baby and must stay the baby at all times!

So I’m supposed to give her all cuddles and requests, and she is supposed to hear me and respond. How cool is this fun activity? 

When I’m not able to handle my daughter’s tantrums, this game comes handy. I get to repeat all she does, and she just looks at me like, damn you are the baby now? 

The best part of this is she calls me endearingly and cuddles as often as I ask. How cute is that? 

Also, let me tell you she warns me just the way I do. Don’t you enter the kitchen? It is not safe for babies! 

That’s another best point in this fun activity, they learn so much.

I am glad I wrote this post. I’d been delaying this for a while now. I remembered something that happened 6 months ago. 

While we were playing the role reversal, something happened. I asked my daughter to come and hug me, but she told me she had to go and meet her grandfather to greet him good night. 

I emphasized she stay with me and hug me(the baby demands, right?). She just turned to me and told me to wait, because she had to go and say good night. I was happy. 

As a mother, she clearly laid her priorities in front of her child. I’m a happy mom. I see myself in a better phase now, both as a mother and as an individual. 

Thanks to my daughter. God bless our little ones, always!

What fun activities do you enjoy at home with your toddlers? I’d like to know so I could add them to my list.