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20 More Ways to Keep Toddlers Busy

by Angela Thayer 36 Comments

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliates. To read more about this, see my disclosure policy.

It’s pretty clear to me that many moms out there are seeking toddler activities to keep their little ones busy. My post on 20 Ways to Keep Toddlers Busy has been my all-time, most viewed and pinned post, so I decided I would add to the list and write 20 MORE ways to keep toddlers busy!! My other post focused on toddler activities that they could do independently. This list is a little different because some of these are activities are designed for parents to do with your toddler to keep them busy. Hope these ideas will be helpful to you!

20 More Ways to Keep Toddlers Busy

1. Bathtub with Stuffed Animals

Have a fun playtime with all your child’s favorite stuffed animals! Just simply put them in an empty bathtub and let them play. My kids played for a long time using their imagination. They pretended they were on Noah’s ark during the flood. 🙂
Bathtub with Stuffed Animals

And just for fun, here is a flashback to my sister and I doing when we were kids! (I’m on the left!)

Playing in the Bathtub with Stuffed Animals

2. Edible Finger Paint

Here’s a fun sensory activity for your toddler — edible finger paint! All you need is flour, water, and food coloring to make this! To see all the details, click here. (One side note- this does not last long. Mine had mold after a week.)


Edible Finger Paint

Edible Finger Paint

3. Felt Board

To start off, I made a felt board simply by just putting felt onto a bulletin board (I used sticky felt) .

Making a Felt Board

We use this felt board to play with our felt activity bags. The activity below is called Little Mouse. For the game, you just hide the mouse under a colored house and say this phrase:

Little Mouse, Little Mouse, Are you hiding behind the ________ (say a color) house? 

Then you see if they are right. It is a great activity for practicing colors. To see all our felt activities (and get the templates), click here.

Felt Board Games

4. Car Wash with Toy Cars

This activity is SO fun! We took our toy cars and got them cleaned with our car wash! I set the toy cars up by the sink. Then I filled the sink with soapy water. We also had a bucket of water on the other side to rise the cars off. Lastly, we dried them with a towel. I loved this activity because my son learned how to follow steps and he also could do this by himself with me just watching. He was so proud of his clean cars! You could also do his with action figures, dolls, little animals, etc.

Car Wash for Toddlers

5. Shaving Cream or Whipped Cream

A fun (but messy) sensory activity is letting your child play with shaving cream or whipped cream.  The first picture below is my son playing with whipped cream. He is making a forest with pretzel-shaped trees.

Playing with Whipped Cream

We have also played with shaving cream. The picture below shows my son playing with shaving cream and water beads together. If your child puts things in their mouth, then this would not be a good activity for them.

Water Beads

6. Water Beads

Water beads are so much fun! They are round, squishy balls that come in all sorts of colors. You can find water beads at the Dollar Store in the floral section or here on Amazon. They are actually used as fillers in floral arrangements.

Fun with Water Beads

Half Moon with water Beads

Since water beads are not edible, you may feel unsafe about letting your little one play with them. Especially if they put things in their mouths! An alternative would be these safe water beads, made from tapioca pearls. You can read how I made them in this post.

safe water beads

7. Button Snake

Create a button snake to help your little one work on their fine motor skills. It’s a great quiet activity, too! To make this, you need a piece of ribbon, two buttons, squares of felt, and needle & thread.

Start by sewing a button on each end of the ribbon. Then cut out squares of felt and cut a slit in the middle.

Button Snake

Then test it out with your toddler! Have them poke the button through the holes in the felt. It may take some time to get the hang of it. This is great for fine motor skills!

Button Snake for Toddlers

8. Bath Paint

In the winter, we play with bath paint several times a week! It’s so easy to make. I squirt shaving cream in a muffin tin and add food coloring to it. Then I let the boys use paint brushes to “paint” their bath tub. They love it!

Bath Paint

9. Pom Pom Drop 

To make this I took an oatmeal container and cut a circle on the top. Then I used large pom poms (found at Hobby Lobby) and had my toddler poke them through the hole. Even though this seems simple, he loved it! We also used this as a counting practice. He loved counting how many pom poms we poked through the hole.

Pom Pom Drop

10.  Colored Spaghetti Noodles

These crazy spaghetti noodles are a super fun sensory activity! To see more on how we did it, visit this post.

Rainbow Noodles

11. Sensory Sink

Sensory sinks are really fun to set up. It’s similar to the car wash, but they have a theme. This one is a pond. To see more on our sensory sink, click here.

sensory sink

12. Fine Motor Practice with Cheerios

My kids love this activity. Just take some play dough, roll it in a ball, then stick spaghetti noodles on the top. Have your toddler slide cheerios down the noodle. It’s simple, but great for practicing fine motor skills! And it really keeps them busy.

Fine Motor Skills with Cheerios

13. Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles are beautiful and fun for little ones to shake and explore. To see how we made these, click here.

Sensory Bottles

14. Melting Ice

There’s something about melting ice that’s fun for kids. We like to freeze water balloons and then squirt them with warm water in squeeze bottles. It’s also a great science lesson on water and ice.

Melting Ice with a Squirt Bottle

You could also stick little treasures inside the water before freezing them. We did that with a spikey ball in this post.

Sensory Play with Ice

Or you could put little dinosaurs in the water balloons and make them Dino Eggs! You can read how we did that here.

Dinosaur Ice Eggs

15. Cardboard Box Fort

It’s funny how kids love playing with simple things…like cardboard boxes! My husband brought home this huge box from work one day, so we turned it into a little fort. My son played with it for hours!

Cardboard Box Fort for Toddlers

16. Hammer Golf Tees in Styrofoam

For this activity, I took a block of styrofoam and had my toddler use a toy hammer to poke in golf tees.

Hammering Golf Tees in Styro Foam

17. Ice Cube Painting

So for this activity, you just fill an ice tray with water and color the water with food coloring. Put them in the freezer and after 20 minutes, stick toothpicks or rounded popscicle sticks into them. Let them freeze until solid. Then you pop them out of the try and have your toddler paint with them. It will look like watercolors on the paper. I know some of you will tell me that toothpicks are sharp and dangerous…and I agree. I should have used popsicle sticks with my toddler. Next time I will!

Ice Painting

18. Cloud Dough

This is probably one of our all-time favorite things to do. You just need flour and oil (I use baby oil) and you can make this! You can find the recipe here.

Cloud Dough

19. Sidewalk Paint

We love coloring the sidewalk with this paint! All you do is mix 1 part water to 1 part cornstarch. Then add in some food coloring.

sidewalk paint

Sidewalk Paint

20. Cardboard Tubes with Pom Poms

In my other toddler post, I shared the activity of dropping pom poms down a cardboard tube. To spice up the activity, you could add more than one tube. My toddler had so much fun with this variation of the activity. You could try it so many different ways!

Cardboard Tubes and Pompoms

Hope you’ll try some of these activities out with your toddlers! Happy Playing!

Want more toddler ideas? Check out my book, Play and Learn Toddler Activities. This book is filled with over 200 hands-on activities for toddlers that are fun, easy, and will keep your toddler busy! Click here for more information.

Play and Learn Toddler Activities

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  • 20 Ways to Keep Toddlers Busy20 Ways to Keep Toddlers Busy
  • Safe Water Beads for ToddlersSafe Water Beads for Toddlers
  • The Best Toys for Toddlers (That are Battery Free!)The Best Toys for Toddlers (That are Battery Free!)
  • Toddler Snack IdeasToddler Snack Ideas

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  1. Careen Baylor says

    May 7, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    Wow, so many ideas of activities!! Thank You

    Reply
  2. Mary says

    March 16, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    These are some great ideas! I am trying to replace screen time with quiet time and activity time so I will definitely use these! I was wondering about the sidewalk paint, I how easy is it to wash off. My daughter loves drawing with wet chalk so I’m sure she would like painting on the sidewalk too.

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says

      March 18, 2022 at 2:42 pm

      It is easy to wash off if you use liquid food coloring or liquid watercolors for the colors. Have fun!

      Reply
  3. Moraima says

    January 30, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    Dear Angela,
    I was researching to find kids play ideas to publish in my Facebook page. I am in the process of promoting that we parents monitor our kids (even pre-teens), and provide them with fun and safe activities to do instead of using the screens.
    My three kids are already grown up, and I did not have the tools available today back in the 90s. So if Ok for you I will start follow you and publishing your posts in my FB page.

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says

      February 3, 2020 at 8:37 pm

      Yes! That would be fine. Thanks for introducing yourself!

      Reply
  4. hanaan says

    December 16, 2019 at 11:59 pm

    loved it really creative ideas and the good thing is you do a lot of things to keep your child busy because they get bore of things in a short time
    hanaan recently posted…How To Wash Car Seat Straps?My Profile

    Reply
  5. Lindsey says

    December 10, 2018 at 9:40 am

    Great ideas, thanks! Somehow my toddler just loves messy activities 🙂

    Reply
  6. Jenny says

    November 18, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    Wow, lots of activities never thought of.
    Thank You

    Reply
  7. Tal says

    September 22, 2018 at 8:28 am

    Thanks for posting this! This is a great overview of some sensory play experiences that help keep toddlers busy (and out of trouble!). One of our strategies when using large bins of tiny objects is to lay down a big plastic liner or tarp under the table – that makes clean-up a TON easier. We also try to do a lot of activities out on the back deck to save our sanity. I’d hate to have a look under the deck to see all the little things that have fallen between the cracks – out of sight, out of mind, right!? 🙂

    Anyway, keep up the great work, this is one of our go-to blogs for finding fun activities and the best baby/toddler/kid products for making those activities possible!

    Reply
  8. Zooey says

    April 8, 2018 at 4:27 am

    Thanks for these interesting ideas! I was looking for some funny activities that would keep my boys busy (they are almost 2 y.o.) and help them to practice motor skills at the same time. I think we will try this thing with Cheerios and edible paint, I’ve never thought about it before but I think it’ll be funny and engaging for my kiddos 🙂

    Reply
  9. Seema Mehta says

    September 18, 2017 at 5:35 am

    It is not always possible for us to entertain our little ones and we often find ourselves at a loss of ideas. This post is such a relief. The ideas are outstanding and safe as well. Thank you so much for the information and thoughts. Useful and informative post for all,

    Reply
  10. Colleen says

    June 3, 2017 at 1:20 pm

    I love that idea for the felt board. I made one recently but used foam core board, hot glue, and duct tape. The duct tape doesn’t really like to stick to felt. My mom gave me my old bulletin boards so I think I’m going to have to use those for our new felt boards. Great idea!!!

    Reply
  11. Mark says

    January 23, 2017 at 10:49 am

    Interestingly great ideas, Some of them are definitely worth a try. I am sure the kids would be loving them.

    Keep up the good work 🙂

    Reply
  12. Dr.Shahana says

    October 6, 2016 at 7:58 am

    Thanks for sharing these ideas.I was looking for some activities for my son as he is into cartoons this week.Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Petunia Evans says

    May 12, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    These are some really cute ideas for toddlers. I especially love the “car wash with toy cars”, as I think my boys will like that. I also really liked the “water beads” idea, I’d probably be playing right along with them!

    Reply
  14. Susie says

    April 8, 2016 at 9:45 pm

    Brilliant! Thanks so much for all these amazing ideas. I thought I offered my toddlers variety but had not thought of any of these so can’t wait for them to wake up tomorrow and start giving some a try.

    Reply
  15. Joel says

    July 14, 2015 at 6:12 am

    These are awesome! Thank you!

    Reply
  16. Mary says

    February 3, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    Thank you so much for these easy, fun ideas! I have stage IV Cancer and not a lot of energy. Now I have lots of fun things I can do with my toddler grandkids – so wonderful! Looking for similar mode of ideas for my 8 year old granddaughter. This is also new territory for me as I had 3 brothers and 3 sons – not used to the girls :). Thanks again!

    Reply
  17. Chantal says

    September 29, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    Your ideas are just AMAZING!!!! I’m soooo looking foward to my son being a little older (he is 14 months now) to try them!!! You’re inspiring! Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  18. Virginia Anderson says

    September 3, 2014 at 4:31 pm

    Fantastic! Creative! Great ideas to use for children with a disability.

    Reply
  19. DIMPLE WILLIAMS says

    August 6, 2014 at 10:21 am

    Fantastic games for tots to keep them busy at home. thank you

    Reply
  20. Mark says

    July 19, 2014 at 12:01 am

    These ideas for kids are awesome. My favourite two are the toy car wash and the bathtub full of toys. I have a similar website with kids ideas being http://www.excitedkids.com but I hadn’t thought of a lot of these. I will add a link to this page as these are really good. Well done!

    Reply
  21. Vivian McDermott says

    April 20, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    Very creative and easy to set up. Great ideas to inspire play and. learning.

    Reply
  22. Judy says

    March 5, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    WOW! I am so impressed. These are all great and creative ideas! As an OTR/L, I must say that there are some great fine motor skills that can be practiced with so many of these activities. Not only will I use them for my own kids, but for my clients as well! Thank you!

    ~ Judy

    Reply
  23. SunnyPower says

    February 13, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    Great Ideas! Love them!

    Reply
  24. Bunnie says

    February 8, 2014 at 3:00 am

    Thank you for sharing your great ideas for little ones. Will try some of them with my grandchildren

    Reply
  25. Irina says

    February 7, 2014 at 1:43 am

    Amazing ideas! Thanks a lot for sharing!!!! I am looking forward to tomorrow even more than before!

    Reply
  26. Carolyn says

    February 2, 2014 at 5:50 am

    So many great ideas that I can’t wait to use!! Thank you so much. My little guy just turned two and we are at the point in the winter when I am looking for new things to do with him.
    Carolyn recently posted…Mother and DaughterMy Profile

    Reply
  27. Jennifer says

    January 25, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    Hey there! Fantastic ideas and as an ECE I applaud your play based approach to teaching! Small tip for you regarding the edible finger paint: if you add in a little bit of cream of tartar (get it in the baking aisle I think it) your paint won’t go mouldy as fast!

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says

      January 28, 2014 at 11:12 pm

      Thank you so much, Jennifer! I appreciate your tip, too! Will try that next time.

      Reply
  28. Lauren says

    January 23, 2014 at 8:06 pm

    Fantastic ideas all in one place – Thank You!!!!

    Reply
  29. Rochelle says

    January 22, 2014 at 4:59 pm

    Love the cardboard tube with pom poms!

    Reply
    • mar says

      February 6, 2014 at 3:23 pm

      love the tube idea..but I think I will try it with hotwheel cars…think the boys will like that idea.

      Reply
  30. janet keown says

    January 21, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    Thanks so much for these ideas. They will help on the days that I Ikeep my 3 year old granddaughter.

    Reply
  31. Julie says

    January 18, 2014 at 2:52 am

    Cute ideas! I’ll keep these in mind for when my son becomes a toddler.

    Reply
  32. sarah says

    January 16, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    Love your ideas, thanks!!
    sarah recently posted…A fun new Sensory material!My Profile

    Reply
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