At Home Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Being stuck at home for an indeterminate amount of time is nobody’s idea of a good time. For little kids, it can be pure torture. Kids need things to keep their bodies and their minds busy. Parents are scrambling to come up with ways to entertain their kids without always relying on the television, although, we can admit we all use that tool as well! These are the activities for kids that I have been using while we have been sheltering in place to entertain and occupy my 4-year-old and 18-month-old

I’ll be honest, I have had absolutely NO schedule during this time. We have been just going with the flow of each day and trying to make each day special in its own way. Sometimes, that does mean a day of couch snuggles and favorite movies, but more often it is doing activities together. These activities for kids are also great for when mom, dad, or both have some work to do at home.

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At Home Activities

Paint or Draw to Spread Joy

One project that we have been working on is to paint and draw pictures to give to essential workers. I am mailing them to health care workers, taking pictures of them and emailing them to hospitals, and giving them to the grocery store and convenience store workers. This is a great way to spread joy and let them know how much you appreciate their hard work.

If you don’t know where to send them, send them to me at katcaliff@califfcreations.com

I’d love to see all your beautiful projects aimed to spread joy! Post them on Instagram and use #spreadingjoy2020 to show others how you are bringing smiles to the world.

Cheerio Necklaces

This doubles as snack time! Pour some plain cheerios into a bowl and give your kids a string with a knot tied on one end. They can thread as many of them as they want onto the string and then you tie it in a loop to form a necklace. My kids loved this wearable snack/activity!

Tip: if you only have yarn or twine, you can wrap the end you are using to bead with a small amount of tape to keep it from fraying.

Bead Sorting and Stringing

This is a fun way to make things for friends. Sort the bead by color, or practice letters and spelling by adding words. Then string them into a necklace that you can give to people once you can see them again. This is a great way to show them that you were thinking about them. My 4-year-old uses smaller beads and there are large ones for toddlers to practice as well.

Yoga at Home

We have been following along with Cosmic Kids on YouTube. There are themed yoga videos like Frozen, Spiderman, and Star Wars to help get even younger kids interested in doing yoga at home. It helps kids stuck at home to slow themselves down, stretch, and move their bodies!

Various Drop Boxes

I don’t know why, but both my kids love to drop objects into boxes, buckets, and bottles. There are several activities for kids that take advantage of this. These are three that we did (the last two were inspired by Little Prince Leopold).

Ball/toy Drop

For this, I took a large container (or you could use a box) and taped a bunch of tubes to the side at different angles. We started by dropping balls down the tubes and it quickly turned into dropping any toy that would fit. The point is that they were both entertained for over an hour! This was made with stuff I had laying around the house.

Popsicle Stick Drop

This has an even easier setup! I took an old cardboard box and cut some slits in the top. Then, I wrapped a big rubber band around the box so it stayed closed (you could also use velcro). I color-coded the holes I cut so my 4-year-old can practice color sorting and gave the kids some colored popsicle sticks. They loved dropping them into the box over and over again.

Pom Pom Drop

This is the same idea as the popsicle drop. You get a container and make a small hole in it. If you don’t want to prep at all, get a water bottle! Then, kids will drop the pom poms into the container. That is how simple activities for kids can be. If you want to increase the complexity, have them try to use tongs.

Sweeping

Teaching life skills is important. Sweeping is one of the ones I want to teach my kids, partly because I hate doing it and can’t wait to give it to them as a chore! The best way to teach this is to have a small broom and some scraps of paper. Tear the paper up and sprinkle it on the floor. I have tile so I told my son to sweep them all onto one tile. You can also use painter’s tape and make a square on the floor for them to sweep the pile into.

Build a Fort at Home

There is nothing better than a blanket fort for kids. It is such a fun way to get cozy and bond as a family. Use blankets, couch cushions, chairs, and whatever else you can find to build a fort. Throw some pillows in and then snuggle up! You can read, tell stories, or even eat lunch in there. This is a great way to make a day inside feel special.

Post-It Note Scavenger Hunts at Home

This quickly became a favorite here. I pick a theme for the day (alphabet, shapes, words, etc) and draw onto Post-It notes that I hide around the house. My son loves running around and finding them. He matches them to a piece of paper that shows what he needs to find. This is a fun way to get in some movement at home too. It is also easily adapted for older kids. Use Post-It scavenger hunts to teach spelling, math, and more!

Painting

There are so many different ways to paint. You can finger paint, paint with brushes on an easel, use stamps, or even splatter paint. These are a couple of our favorite paint projects.

Texture Painting Outside

For this, we just grab a bunch of random objects like cars, forks, a fly swatter, beads, dice, leaves, feathers, sticks, etc and set up a big area outside. The kids will pick an object and color and experiment with what happens when they try to paint with the different objects. Maybe it involves rolling the dice through a spot of paint or driving a car through it to make tire tracks. This is always a fun project and the results are always amazing.

Rock Painting

I love painting rocks. There is something about rocks that kids love and so this is a perfect project. We like to use bright colors or paint little bugs.

Paint Pinecones

Where we live there are tons of pinecones laying around. We went out and collected a few and then painted them! It was so much fun and once they dry we can use them to make a mobile or garland to hang in the house. If you don’t have pinecones, try painting sticks or leaves or anything else you can find and collect outside.

Sensory Bins

Sensory bins are one of my favorite ways to entertain kids. They are so simple and occupy them for such a long time. Our favorite is some old flax seed and barley in a big bowl. Inside I have a couple of small containers, spoons, cars, and letters. The kids will play with this for hours! Another favorite is a snow sensory bin (don’t worry if you don’t have snow, you can get instant snow online!). Other ideas include rice, water, ice, shaving cream, cooked spaghetti, dried beans, and slime, really whatever you have laying around.

Bake or Cook

Bring the kids into the kitchen! Have fun making cookies, muffins, bread, or whatever you want. Little kids love being helpful and even if it takes a lot longer, they are always so proud of the result. Baking and cooking together is a great way to get them involved and it is full of learning opportunities (think measuring).

Start a Garden at Home

Plant some seeds inside and watch them sprout! Then, transplant them outside when they are ready. There are lots of great starter kits that you can buy online. It is a great way to learn about responsibility and where our food comes from.

Pipe Cleaner Fine Motor Activity

This is so simple and kept both my kids busy for a while! Take a colander and give your kids some pipe cleaners and let them push the pipe cleaners through the holes. That is it! It is great fine motor practice and kept they were both quiet for a long time while they focused on creating a masterpiece.

Activities for Kids around Town while Social Distancing

Chalk Your Walk

I know a lot of families are taking walks around the neighborhood to get some of that childhood energy out. Bringing some chalk on that walk and drawing all over town is a great way to spread some joy. We like drawing rainbows, suns, hearts, and planet Earth!

Put Painted Rocks around Town

Remember those rocks I talked about painting before? Why not put them around town for others to find. They are guaranteed to bring a smile to people’s faces.

Spread Flowers around Town with Positive Notes

Clip some flowers from your garden and write some nice notes to attach to them. Don’t have flowers? Maybe you can use sticks or whatever you can find. Put these notes in bushes or by friends’ and neighbors’ houses to let them know you are thinking about them.

Check out my post about how kids can spread joy in times of uncertainty.

More Activities for Kids at Home

I haven’t done all of these yet, but they are all on my list to do at some point while sheltering at home. If you have questions about them feel free to comment below or email me at katcaliff@califfcreations.com