The toddler years are so much fun. They are starting to be able to do more things and those little personalities are growing in a big way. Toddlers are also super active and they always want to be doing something, so how are you supposed to keep them entertained? Not to worry, check out this kid approved bucket list of summer toddler activities to do at home!
Make a Fort
Make a fort out of a big cardboard box. You can cut doors and windows out and then let them decorate it. This simple project can provide days worth of fun!
Ice Cube Painting
Fill your ice cube tray with water and food coloring. Put them in the freezer for 30 minutes and then add a popsicle stick and let the cubes freeze solid. When you are ready, head outside and let your toddler paint with the cubes.
Drive Cars through Paint
Grab some paper or cardboard and some washable paint. Let your toddler take their favorite toy cars and dip them in the paint and roll them on the paper to leave car tracks. It’s one of the easiest toddler activities to do at home!
Have a Car Wash with Toy Cars
You can do this activity indoors or outdoors. Indoors just fill your kitchen sink with soapy water to wash your toy cars. Then have a bucket of clean water to rinse the cars off. If you would prefer to do this activity outdoors you will need two buckets, one with soapy water and one with clean water to rinse. This activity can also be done with action figures, dolls, or plastic animals.
Glow in the Dark Bath
Make bath time more fun by adding some glow sticks to the water and turning off the lights. If your toddler is still in the “put everything in my mouth” phase you may want to hold off on this activity a little while longer. An alternative to glow sticks is to add a 2 liter of tonic water to your bath water and turn on a blacklight to see the water glow. You can also plan this activity on a warm summer night in your yard: just set up a kiddie pool with some glow sticks! It’s one of the best summer toddler activities to do at home.
Make Playdough
Toddlers love playing with their hands and it is important to the development of their fine and gross motor skills. There are lots of playdough recipes available online and you probably have everything you need in your pantry. Playdough can keep your little one entertained for quite a while.
Play with Bubbles
Head out to the yard and blow some bubbles together. Is there anything more fun than chasing bubbles? If you are a toddler that is! Do yourself a favor and pick up a battery-operated bubble gun too in case you get tired of blowing bubbles.
Make a Bird Feeder Together
Take an empty toilet paper or paper towel tube, poke a couple of holes on each side so that you can tie a string to hang your feeder up with. Spread peanut butter on the outside of the tube and then roll it in birdseed. Make sure that you hang the feeder somewhere you can watch the birds eat from a window.
Make Slime
There are dozens of way to make a decorate slime! It’s a great activity to involve toddlers in the preparation. Choose a theme for your slime and add some slime charms or glitter! Slime is a fun toddler activity to do at home all year round.
Sidewalk Chalk
Break out the sidewalk chalk and go draw pictures together on the driveway. You need a house to play with chalk of course but it’s one of the easiest summer toddler activities to do at home!
Build with Blocks
Sit down with your toddler and build a tower then watch as they knock it down and start over again.
Contact Paper Art
Take a piece of contact paper peel off the back and leave the sticky side up. Tape down the edges so it will stay in place on the table. Now have your little one place googly eyes, beads, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, buttons, and glitter. When they are done with their creation place another piece of contact paper, sticky side down this time over the top. Find tons of ideas for contact paper arts and crafts!
Cereal Necklaces
Toddlers like to snack, especially if it is something that they helped to make themselves. Pick your child’s favorite cereal with holes (Cheerios, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, etc.) and give them a piece of string to place their cereal on. When they are done tie it off into a necklace and they can snack all day!
Make Handprint Art
There are so many animals, flowers, and more that you can make using your toddler’s handprints. Not only will you and your toddler have a blast creating them you will treasure them forever as a memory of when they were small.
Drip Drop Painting
This activity is best done outside, simply take a plastic lid and poke some holes in it. Take a sheet pan with a piece of paper and place it on the ground. Put some water with food coloring mixed in in the plastic lid and let your toddler drip and drop the water down onto the paper.
Make a Discovery Bottle Together
For this activity, you will need an empty plastic bottle, water, glitter, food coloring, confetti, beads, or other small objects to place inside the bottle. Dye the water the color of your choice with the food coloring and pour it into the bottle, add your glitter and other items to the bottle. Take a drop of hot glue and place it on the lid before screwing it on the bottle to make sure that it is secure. Your toddler will love shaking the bottle to see what they can discover and there are many different variations of discovery bottles that you can make together.
Make a Sensory Bin
Making sensory bins is a perfect quick and easy sensory activity for your toddler. You can pick any theme to make a sensory bin but our favorite one to make in the summer is this Ocean Sensory Bin! You obviously need to adapt your sensory bin to your toddler’s age as some elements would be dangerous to a younger tot. A sensory bin is one of the most educative summer toddler activities to do at home
Make Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag
What toddler doesn’t enjoy ice cream, especially if they get to help make it themselves? You will need a one-gallon zip-top bag and one quart-sized zip-top bag. In the quart-sized bag add one cup of half and half, one and ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract, and one tablespoon of sugar. Remove any excess air and seal the bag tightly. Fill your gallon bag halfway full of ice and ¼ cup of salt and place the smaller bag inside, then put some more ice on top and seal the gallon bag.
Give your toddler some oven mitts, because the salt will make the ice especially cold, and get to shaking! You will need to shake the bag for 6 to 10 minutes to make your ice cream. Take the quart bag out of the gallon bag and rinse with cold water to remove any salt that may be stuck to the bag. Serve up your ice cream and ad your favorite toppings for a sweet treat your toddler helped to make!
Play in the Water
It’s hot outside so break out the sprinkler, kiddie pool, or slip and slide and let them have a blast. Don’t have a sprinkler? You can make one with a garden hose, empty water bottle, and some tape! Just poke holes in the water bottle, screw the hose to the bottle, and tape it into place. Voila, a super simple sprinkler your toddler will love!
There are so many great indoor and outdoor summer toddler activities to do at home to help them learn and explore their world while they are having fun! Which of these activities are you going to try first with your toddler?
