I love looking at all the great ideas for fun activities to do with my toddler on Pinterest. I often look at night after he falls asleep.
As a working mom though, often that’s as far as it gets.
Its not that I don’t want to fill my son’s time with fun learning activities, its just that I don’t have the time or honestly the energy.
The activities themselves usually look like a lot of fun but what I struggle with it the planning, shopping and prepping ahead of time.
After work, I come home and cook dinner, do laundry, clean the kitchen, talk to my husband and spend as much time with my son as possible.
The idea of finding time to do extra shopping, or a lot of planning and prepping is just overwhelming.
Here are a 20 of my favorite activities that only take a couple of household object and very little preparation.
Cereal – Give them cereal (I like to give him several different kinds) in a container and some pots and pans, cups and spoons. They can transfer the cereal from the container to the pots and stir.
Jello – Make jello and put into fun shaped molds that he can either play with or try to get out of the molds.
Pasta – Put spaghetti in a giant bowl and let your little one play. I put the baby and the bowl in a his baby bath to help with the mess.
Bird Seed – Pour a bag of wild bird seed in a tub with buckets and scoopers.
Shaving Cream Color – Put paint in a plastic bag. Fill the bag with shaving cream. As your little one rubs, rolls and lays on the bad the shaving cream will start to change to the color of the paint. If you put in two colors of paint, your child can see how the shaving cream changes into a new color. (You may want to tape the bag closed to contain the mess.)
Clean Mud - Tear toilet paper into strips, grate some soap on a grater and then pour warm water over the mixture. Give them some cookie cutters and let them play with this clean smelling mud.
Goop – Mix cornflour and water in a bowl until you get your desired consistency. Toss in small letters, numbers or shapes for a quick I Spy game.
Jelly Beans – Add some plastic eggs and cups and let your little ones explore.
Snow – Bring the snow inside and add some sand toys and let him dig and play.
Pom Poms – Give your little one a plastic bottle and a bunch of pom poms and let fill the bottle up with the pom poms.
Water Beads – Water beads can put into a tub with containers and scoops or they can be used to fill up a plastic bottle.
Rice and Lentils – Mix rice and lentils in a tub. You can add a few spoonfuls of spices and a cup of water to let them explore how thy mix.
Nuts, Bolts and Washers – Let them play with the same materials they see their dad working with.
Pipe Cleaner Fishing – Bend one pipe cleaner into the shape of a fish and put it in a cup or glass. Bend another pipe cleaner into the shape of a hook. Let your little one fish using pipe cleaners.
Oats – Oats mixed with water makes a great squishy fun material.
Melted Chocolate – Poured melted chocolate looks like a giant mud puddle. I allow my son to play with his cars or his dinosaurs in the mud puddle.
Colored Water Transfer – Fill two small tubs with water and a couple drops of food coloring. Put a bigger container between the two smaller containers and give them scoops, strainers or larger mug to transfer the water.
Nuts – Fill a bottle with nuts to make a fun shaker.
Squeezing Water – Give them mini basters and a few containers and water. Let them practice pouring the water from one container to another and squeezing the mini basters to transfer water from one container to another.
