Easy At Home Activities For Toddlers And Young Kids

It seems that every Friday I am desperately racking my brain trying to think of activities to keep my kids entertained over the weekend! It can be exhausting, but here are some of my go to activities!

1. Board Games-Even my 2.5 year old can get into board games and I find it so much more enjoyable for the parent than pretend play! Also, board games teach kids about taking turns and losing/winning gracefully. Some of our favorites right now are Zingo and First Orchard. Side note: I thought it would be a great idea to get hungry hungry hippo. In reality, I end up chasing those tiny balls all over the house so I wouldn't recommend this one, especially for young kids.

2. Rock Painting-Two of my kids favorite things are rocks and painting so why not combine them? We love to grab our buckets and hunt for rocks and bring them back home to paint.

3. Anything with water- If it involves water my kids are entertained for HOURS. Even something as simple as "making potions." Give them a bucket with water and a stick to stir and they will spend all afternoon collecting leaves, acorns, rocks, etc for their potions. My kids love to add chalk to their potions for color.

4. Wash something- for the summer I took out our water table which was very dirty. I handed them a couple of scrubbers/sponges and soap and they spent an hour cleaning it. It was a win win. I had a fairly clean water table and the kids had fun.
   

5. "Find the letter"-this is great for when you are trying to help with letter recognition. I have a kids floor mat and each square has a letter on it. I ask my
   

kids who can find the letter D? Whoever stands on it first, wins that round. You could also play music and have them walk on the mat. When the music stops they have to stop and yell the letter they are standing on. First one right gets a point.

6. Make a road-Use sidewalk chalk to draw a road and have the kids ride their bicycles on the road. Draw stop signs etc to make it more fun. You can even do this in the garage if the weather is bad.

7. Water the plants- I found some inexpensive kids watering cans and my kids love watering all the flowers and plants in the backyard.

8. "Find the prize"-I once told my toddlers I had hidden a prize in the house. They spent 30 minutes running all over the house hunting their prize until they found an old stuffed animal they hadn't played with in months and were thrilled with their "new" prize." They also had a blast trying to find it.

9. Magnetic Tiles- My kids loves these. It is fun to see them challenge themselves to build more intricate designs. Magnetic tiles can be expensive to buy but we found these on amazon and have loved them-102pcs Frozen Princess Castle Magnetic Tiles Building Blocks - 3D Diamond Blocks. They are much more reasonable than some brands.