How to Keep Toddlers Busy: Top Activities and Toys

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• Arts & Crafts
• Energy Burn through Active Play
• Sensory Play
• Pretend Play
• Games That Educate
• Adventures Under the Sun
• Age-Based Activities to Keep Kids Entertained

Their attention spans are short, they ask a gazillion questions at a time, looking for your attention, care, and your time. Toddlers are curious and eager to explore the world around them. So your task is to keep them occupied and engaged in the process, that is the challenge itself. After all, you’re juggling your to-dos at the same time. The good news is that there are toys and activities to keep toddlers busy that are mom-approved and designed to foster learning, entertain, fuel creativity, and capture pumpkin’s attention. The team of Child-Universe has listed some for you exclusively.  

Arts and Crafts

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If you wonder how to keep toddlers busy indoors, let their creativity flourish with arts and crafts for self-expression. Such fun as finger painting can boost hand-eye coordination and entertain your fidgets. Use non-toxic and washable paints to let kiddies create chef-d'œuvres. Plus, sticker books are full of fun that toddlers have while honing their dexterity. They’re excited about peeling and placing stickers. Just like they’re enthusiastic about making collages! Just give them paper, magazines, glue, and kid-friendly scissors, and wait for DIY masterpieces.

Energy Burn through Active Play

How to keep toddler occupied and promote their healthy physical development? By making active play part of their routine! Help them release energy by setting up simple outdoor/indoor obstacle courses. Use toys, tunnels, chairs, carpets, and other stuff to have kids run, jump, crawl, climb, etc. Don’t forget about the dancing! Lively music is the other way to channel toddlers’ energy. Plus, the ride-on playthings like push cards, balance bikes, and tricycles are extra fun and excellent for motor skills.

Sensory Play

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Exploring things with their different senses – smell, sight, touch, and sound – is one of the top ideas to keep toddlers busy and help them learn new colors, textures, sounds, etc. Playdough and clay stimulate munchkin’s senses and encourage creativity as they mold and shape soft and colorful doughs. Plus, you can create sensory bins by filling different containers with pasta, rice, and water beads. To add a fun scavenger-hunt touch to the process, hide miniature toys in those containers, too.

Pretend Play

To boost social skills and nurture creativity in little ones, have your tots engaged in imaginative play. A wide arsenal of tools can be used in the process. For instance, wooden toys for toddlers, such as play kitchen sets, let them ‘cook’ and serve food just like you do in the kitchen. Or, as an alternative, get a dollhouse with some figures to encourage role-playing. The latter includes manipulating different characters, tiny pieces of furniture, creating plots, etc. Finally, add some dress-up elements, like outfits of superheroes, doctors, firefighters, and other characters, to let a special game story come alive.

Games That Educate

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The best toys to keep toddlers busy are the ones that also educate. After all, learning through play is the best! Provide them with good old building blocks that are classy for little learners. It can be either a classy wooden block or LEGO Duplo that helps in problem-solving and promotes spatial awareness. Don’t forget about puzzles! Not only young at heart but little ones too are huge fans of simple jigsaws with huge pieces that take cognitive skills to the next level. Shape sorters, in turn, teach rug rats about colors, shapes, and sizes, keeping players busy for hours.

Adventures Under the Sun

How to keep toddlers busy and offscreen? Get outside to enjoy some fresh air and sun! After all, both nature and its freshness offer endless opportunities for entertainment. Use good old bubbles that tots love chasing and popping. It’s a simple way to hone their coordination. Add some sandbox fun with the instruments like molds, shovels, and buckets for building and digging. When they’re done making mud cakes in the mud kitchen, you can go on a short walk. Encourage little explorers to collect flowers, rocks, leaves, and other elements of nature to learn their textures, colors, shapes, etc.

Age-Based Activities to Keep Kids Entertained

When you’re looking for more ideas on how to keep toddler entertained, always keep their interests, tastes, and age in mind.

• 12-18 months – the time of sensory play with sand, water, and soft textures. Choose simple toys like stackable rings or cups, softballs, and push-and-pull playthings to encourage kids to walk and boost coordination.

• 18-24 months – the age when dancing and singing to nursery rhymes kick in. Munchkins are fans of jumbo crayons, ride-on toys, shape sorters, musical instruments, and toy phones.

• 2-3 years come with active pretend play with dollhouses and kitchens. Building blocks, art supplies like stamps and markers, and books with interactive flaps are integral parts of this age category.

• 3-4 years is the timeframe for beginner-level crafts like gluing and cutting paper shapes. Encourage role-playing, simple board games, dress-up fun, and basic puzzles (10-20 fragments).  

If you’re in need of more variants on how to keep a toddler busy, you’ll keep them happily entertained and engaged if you browse more recommendations at our СhildUniverse Blog. But the good news for parents is that toddlers are great at playing without parental involvement. And the older they are, the more creative they get.