With April showers here in Upstate NY it can be challenging to keep your toddlers occupied without leaning too much on technology. Now, I have nothing against screen time or technology for children; but I like to limit their screen time on a rainy day if I can!
- Indoor Treasure Hunt: Create a simple treasure hunt around your home. Hide small toys or treats in various rooms and give your toddler clues or hints to find them. You can make it more exciting by drawing a treasure map together, or even hiding them in containers similar to an easter egg hunt.
- DIY Sensory Bins: Set up a sensory bin using items you have at home. Fill a large container with materials like dried beans, rice, pasta, or water (if you don’t mind a little mess). Add toys, measuring cups, spoons, and let your toddler explore the different textures and objects. You can make them themed or let your toddler choose their favorite sensory materials to fill it up.
- Obstacle Course: Set up a mini obstacle course using pillows, cushions, chairs, and blankets. Create tunnels to crawl through, balance beams using cushions, and stepping stones with pillows. We love to use our nugget couch, tunnels, and ball pit for this. We will even incorporate our wobble board and balance bike to cover the whole living room!
- Story time for Stuffies: Have your toddlers choose a few of their favorite books and stuffed animals. Using social stories for this allows your toddler to be creative and tell the story in their own words to their stuffies.
- Arts and Crafts: This is pretty self-explanatory. Right now we are really enjoying practicing cutting with scissors (my 3 1/2 year old), finger painting, bubble painting, and making play dough molds.
Remember, you can always adapt these to your toddler or child’s developmental abilities. Make sure to supervise all of these activities!
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