40 Easy DIY Toddler Activities for Busy Parents - How to Keep a Toddler Entertained at Home.

I'm Lily Coco and today I'm going to show you over 40 easy activities you can do at home using regular things you probably already have at your home like boxes, zippers, ribbons, painter's tape, blocks, muffin pans, and more. So there's so much to go over and I'm a mom, I got to get back to my baby and I know you're short on time as well. So let's jump right into it. So the first one is going to be ball pan transfer. All you're going to do is get a box of balls. You can put them in a, you can put these in a basket or some sort of a container and then just grab a regular muffin pan. You're going to ask your little one to just carry the balls and transfer them into the pan. This is so much fun for them because they love anything transferring, any sort of containment and containers. So from the basket or the box into here, you can go for vocabulary colors of, you know, vocabulary of, hey, putting it in, taking it out, or put the green ball in, put the yellow ball in, take it out. This is great for their balance, their dexterity, their grasp, their brain concentrating, this good problem solving. Which ball do I grab? Does it go into an empty hole? Why doesn't it fit? And working on all of that. They're going to have so much fun with this. So this is a great one to keep around. And again, all you need is a muffin pan, some balls, and a big ladle. It's going to be ball ninja. My baby loved this one. So what you're going to do is take painter's tape and put it on the doorways and then just stick the ball to it and do a few of them. And so then your little one is going to be a little ninja coming through and picking these balls off. This is super fun. Again, working on that grasp balance, especially if your baby's starting to walk, the doorways right there, we can hold their hand as they do it, but they'll pick on them. Again, great way to work on vocabulary off in, down, up, uh, colors of the balls. If you want to, you can include, uh, have them pick them off, but also put them back on. Just make sure you're supporting them so they don't fall through. And if they do, you know, it's a great way to learn again, balance. How do we hold ourselves up? How do we pick ourselves up? But this is a great, great, great activity that my daughter absolutely loved and still loves. Third one is going to be ball drop. What you're going to do is get a box and cut out holes. And then inside I built a little ramp. So then as she drops them, they're actually going to slide down and you can see it in the video, but this is a great for object permanence because they can see the ball going in and then they see it rolling out. It's also a great concept to work on gravity of things falling down or calorie dexterity. Uh, also a great way to focus on, you know, if it's a smaller age toddler, you can make them a little bit bigger. So it's easier for them. But for somebody a little bit older towards 16, 18 months, you can make it right. The size of the ball. So they have to make sure they're working on their precision and concentration. Fourth one is going to be pom-pom picking, and you can do this two different ways. You can do it similar as the ninja, uh, picking where you do this on the doorway and then you stick the pom-poms through the tape and then ask your little one to pick them off. And then a second way is if you get a lit roller and then you stick these onto it and then ask them to pick it off. Again, this is great for sensory because you're working with something fuzzy, something sticky. Um, and it's great for them to work on their grasp and their strength of pulling it off because it's going to be a little bit sticky on there. So pulling it off. And again, you can work over the colors or picking it on off. And it's super easy to pick up, especially with the lit roller. Cause once they're on the ground, you just roll the roller on and you got them all picked up. This is also a great one to take when you're traveling. So if you're on the road, just bring a lit roller and some pom-poms with you. And then they'll just sit there picking it as you know, you're talking to them and driving and getting to your destination. Or if you're flying, you can do that as well. Um, is putting these pom-poms on and then they can pick them up. Of course they might land on the floor. So I bring a lot of pom-poms and then maybe some gift cards to the cleanup crew, but, uh, it'll keep them entertained for quite some time. This activity is called sticks in a box and you'll need a box, some sticks, and you can use just from the craft store, some popsicle sticks, and you're going to cut some slits into it. And then you're just going to put them in and you're going to ask them, put it in again, for younger ages, you want to make the hole a little bit bigger. So it's easier for them to put it in. And as they get older, you can use smaller holes. So they're working on their precision and dexterity and concentration and focus. If you're using colored sticks, you can work on colors. Hey, put the orange one in, blue one in, or if you color the opening, so let's say this row is blue, this one's red, this one's yellow. You can use it for color sorting and say, okay, fill all the blue ones, all the purple ones, all the yellow ones. What's great also is that if you use a box like this, it keeps it all clean in here. And these are our sticks from previous play. So it's an easy cleanup, uh, easy to store in your closet. And I mean, they're going to love it. Putting stuff in and taking stuff out is like the jam for toddlers. So they're going to love this game so much. And you can, again, store it, pull it out anytime you want to. Next one's going to be pom-pom drop. And this is a great one to use. Um, if you need to get something done in the kitchen, if you're getting ready or in the bathroom or just in the playroom and what you're going to do is tape these, uh, little cardboard tunnels, cardboard rounds, cardboard. Gosh, I can't think today. These, you're going to take these and you're going to stick it onto the wall and then ask them to drop the pom-poms. And it's so fun to them. Cause again, they love dropping. They love seeing, you know, what happens when they throw stuff, the sound that it makes, you can put a basket on the bottom. So it catches them and they can just take them and put them back in and go again, go over colors. Um, if you're worried about the size of the pom-poms, there are larger ones you can get, or you can use, you know, balls or something bigger or sticks. If you have like stick blocks or, um, you know, if you're doing this stick game, you can use those popsicle sticks and just throw those in and they'll play playing with that gravity again, in out, you can make you go into a shape, you know, so then they watching it travel the whole time and make it really fun. But this is a great and easy one, especially if you have to like go to the bathroom and keep them occupied or getting something done in the kitchen. You know, this will keep them right there. You can keep an eye on them while they're just playing. My toddler absolutely loves this game and we play it constantly. Next one is toy rescue. And this one's really simple. You're going to take some blocks, toys, you can take some ducks, um, and then you're just going to tape them onto a clear wall. Again, you can do this on your counter in the kitchen. If you want to get some work done or in the bathroom or in their playroom, I get painter's tape is my best friend. We use this for everything. Um, and so you're just going to put these on and ask your little one to rescue their friends. It's going to work on their Pinterest graphs because they're going to be pulling off the tape. Again, their strength, their balance, they're going to figure out which one they want to take off first. Did they clear all of it? Super, super fun. Something else to mention that you can just play with painter's tape as its own. You just take it, you stick it on either on their high chair. So then they're peeling it. That's an activity on the wall. So then they're peeling off of that and it works for them on the bounce because they're standing up against the wall, peeling it, working it, concentrating. I know for us, it's like, let me rip it off. It's easy, but for toddlers, it takes a lot of work and for them, like it tires them out because they're mentally putting all of this together. Okay. I have to unstick this. Then the toy falls. Okay. I have to hold the toy and unstick it at the same time. So I have both of them. So there's so much learning within that. Um, they're going to absolutely love it. And this is another great one. Again, for the road in a book, you just put painter's tape on it and then ask them to take it off. So as they're sitting, sitting in their car seat, they'll be working on their little grass, pulling it off and it'll keep them occupied again on the, in the car or on the plane. Another fun game, it's a sensory activity, but playing with rice. And you can do this multiple ways in here. We have little dinos in it. And so we ask her to pick the dinos out. You can use brushes, excuse me, or those spoons to work on motor skills, trying to get them out or little tongs. Um, if you go over to dollar tree, they have a lot of like smaller toddler size utensils, kitchen utensils. So they have wooden ones and plastic ones. So you can just pick up a pair and use it for them to work on. But this rice sensory super great. They're exploring the textures that it falls. Um, cause we deal with a lot of solid things, especially for toys. It's usually wood, plastic, something solid. So to know that something can fall through your fingers. Um, first time we did this with my toddler, she played for, I would say an hour and a half, if not almost two hours. Cause she was just loving going like this and listening to it. And it's really calming because it's, so this is super fun. You can also, um, once they're old enough, if you want to get them started working like on the counter, you can use this as a pouring activity. So set up a bowl of rice here, another bowl there and ask them to pour, you know, from here to over there. They're going to love it. It might get messy, super easy to clean up. So don't worry about that. But another trick I have is if you get an inflatable pool, you can put the activity in the inflatable pool. And so that way it all stays contained in there. You can also take it outside as well. Um, but if you're indoors, that's one of my little tricks is that you can just put it, um, in a little inflatable pool and let them go, let them go bananas, let them go for fun. Next one is pom pom color sorting. And for this again, my lovely muffin pan. Um, and you can see in the video, so you're just going to ask them to put specific colors and sort their colors into a muffin pan. Pom poms are great for this because you can get them in so many different colors. This is like a little ice tray. So similar things, you can use the muffin pan and put those little cupcakes in to show which color to do, but then ask them to put the yellow ones in the white ones in the orange ones, the pink, purple, blue, whatever ones you have, you can get a multi-pack of the, uh, pom poms. And so as I'm just sorted, it's a great way to go over vocabulary. They're going to stay concentrated. They're going to be working on this. And then once they're done sorting that, you can then take it to the pom pom drop and take the whole thing and have them dropping it. I mean, they could be doing these activities literally all day. And something to remember is just because they've done it once, um, they could do it again. Sometimes I'll do an activity. I'm like, oh, okay, great. And I'll move on to the next activity. And then she'll, my daughter will bring it up to me again. And it will bring me like the sticks in box. Like she wants to play it. I'm like, oh my gosh, yeah, of course I forgot. You know, you could literally play these activities daily and then second part of that is if your kid gets frustrated, which they're likely to do, because for us, again, putting this in here so simple, but for them, it takes a lot of work, a lot of concentration. They're thinking about it. Do I drop it? Do I set it in? Oh, it bounced. Why did it do that? You know? And so they can get frustrated, especially with some of the ones to take a lot more precision. So be gentle with your kids, offer them help. And then if they need a break from it, take that break, but offer that activity to them. Again, they learn so, so fast. I've had activities where my daughter doesn't really take to them. And then we try it again a day later and she's like an expert. I'm like, girl, you slept on that. Like, you know how to do it now. And so don't give up on it. Give them breaks, help them out, be patient with them, but definitely try them again. Cause they just learn so fast. I mean, it's silly. Next activity is the pipe cleaner fish activity. So you're just going to take some pipe cleaners, twist them into a little fishy and then drop them into a pan of water and then have them fish them out. They can do it by hand. So they're playing with the water and it's a sensory play. You could do it with these utensils, like the fish or spatulas or tongs. And you can also include some pom-poms because again, these can just dry, but you can put those in there and use those for fishing. But this is a great one for sensory and motor skills. Outdoor pouring activity is fairly simple. You're just going to take a whole bunch of containers, fill it up with water, bring a ladle, some bowls, some cups, and take them outside. Have your little one just pouring it. My daughter absolutely, again, loves this activity. Kiddos love playing in water. So if you can give them a safe space to do so. We often even do just a middle of the day bath where she just splashes around if it's, you know, not good weather outside. But if on good weather, we try to go outside in a sprinkler or again, this pouring activity where she's just taking the ladle and just pouring it out, just pouring it in. If it's full, our dog was drinking from it and she was helping the dog with it. There's so many different things to learn within that and they're staying busy. And so here's a little note, especially first time with activity, help them out. Cause when we just hand them things, like if somebody just hands you this and you've never seen it before, you'd be like, do I wear it on my head? Like, what do you want me to do with this? And so walk them through it. Make sure you demonstrate the activity. We'll do it with them. Okay. I'll put the blue one in, you put this other one in, you know, and do it with them. And after I'd say a second, third time that I've done activity with my, uh, I want to say baby, which is a toddler now. Uh, but with my daughter, she just does it on her own. Now she's like an expert. She will tell me to go and do it, or she'll just busy herself up with it. And you can see her, her independence is really growing. It's really like escalated. And, um, it's kind of sad because I miss, I miss her, but she's so independent and she's so good about, uh, grasping things. She, she knows how to put keys in a lock. Now, like her motor skills are out of this world because she, um, I mean, we're doing these activities daily and there's so many of them to do. So I hope you take the opportunity to do them, but let's move on. Cause I'm not even halfway done, but these activities, flower card is a great activity, especially for outside, which is going to take some cardboard, uh, poke some holes in it again for younger ages, do bigger holes, uh, older ages, you want smaller holes. And then you can do a little vase down here and just pick some dandelions or plants and put them in. You can go explore a park, get some leaves, picnic blanket, and just sit out together. But such a great little card, not only for, not only for them to play with, but also it kind of feels like you're receiving it. So even they're so small, they can make you this really beautiful, like natural card. Um, and they're going to absolutely love picking the flowers. You can, uh, name the plants, the leaves and go through it with them. Um, I've, uh, my daughter just really loves this one. Like she loves picking mint. We have mint in our garden and dandelions and she just goes and picks and it's, it's so sweet. Um, so this is one of our favorites and similar with that, you can do a little tape frame. And so you just cut out a frame out of cardboard, put tape on it, and then ask them to pick dandelions or leaves or sticks and go exploring outside with them, pick them up, put them on. They're going to love playing with it. Again, you get a little like art, um, at the very end. And so this is such a great one to try, highly recommended, especially if you're going outside, going to a park, bringing these two, and then you have these little memories, uh, of them making these little natural craft pieces. So those are awesome, awesome activities. Next one's going to be shape sorting. And this is an activity that we've done from nine months on. We spilled something on it. So happens, but what you're going to do is take a box, cut out some shapes. And then if you don't have any blocks or shapes at home, you can just use the shapes you've cut out for them to put them in. You can also color these if you want to do color sorting with it, but, um, you can use pom-poms to drop them in. If the ball fits, you can drop the ball in it. My daughter absolutely loves this game since nine months old. She's now 17 months. She absolutely loves this game and just ask for it. She says drop. Um, and so shape, shape sorting you can do because we drop the pom-poms and it calls it drop, but then you can go over triangle, circle, put it in the heart and they can drop the shapes in. If you have blocks, you can then utilize blocks and putting them in and easy cleanup stays in, or you can open it and see how they're all together. And again, stores really easily in a closet. And then you're going to go such a fun activity for them. Again, kiddos love dropping stuff. And then they're like, where did it go? Here it is like such a discovery. It's a little treasure for them. They absolutely love it. Shape rescue is similar to that. And the toy rescue, you're going to take shapes. Um, you can do blocks, sticks, hearts. If you have like a shape puzzle, or again, you can cut them out of cardboard and then tape them on and ask your little one to pick them. And then you can go over, Hey, give the triangle, get the square, get the circle, put him back on. Where's the circle. What color is the circle? Um, you don't want them to pick up a quiz of course, but, uh, my daughter absolutely loves answering all the questions and she gets excited. She goes, Hmm. Hmm. So we play again. Hmm. Where is, you know, square? Where is circle? Where is heart? Hmm. Where is your toy? And so she loves finding it. Um, and kids love something that they're familiar with because there's so much that they don't know. And so that's why they love like the nursery songs or they repeat words or they say again, again, again, uh, each time they find something they love, it's like a new favorite song. And so they want to do it again. They want to feel the familiarity. And so similar with, uh, this, they're going to absolutely love it because they understand that they know it's something to grasp, you know, it's a feeling of accomplishment. Uh, and so again, these, these activities might seem really simple, might seem really easy, but to them, they're working on so many things all at the same time. It's problem solving, it's dexterity, it's focus, it's, uh, figuring out like what they're actually capable of. Often it's balanced, uh, cause while they're working on something, they're still working on their strength through it all. And so through all of these, there's so much to learn, but let's keep going cause it keeps going. This is a volcano lentil activity we did. So you can build a little volcano, but you don't have to use a little red lentils as the lava. And then we put dinos in it. And so again, giving them those tools of either the spoon, the tongs, something, the brushes to uncover all of the dinosaurs. And you can name the dinos, you can go over their colors, but they're going to have fun similar, like with the rice, uh, just playing with it, feeling it. Of course, always supervise these activities. Um, but this is another one that my daughter absolutely loves. She really likes this texture of it pouring through her hands. And so, uh, these like sensory activities have been a favorite. Uh, so definitely try those. Along with that is our dino freeze. This is a super fun game. So you take your dinos, you put them in some sort of, you can do a muffin pan, or this is like an ice, uh, little freezer maker, add water, freeze them, and then get a bowl of warm water and have your little one put them in and then defrost the animals. They're going to love playing with the cold, the warm, seeing the ice defrost. There's so much to explore. The dino freeze, you can do a frozen duck rescue. And so you're going to freeze these, put water in, and then put them in a warm, uh, warm bowl of water. You could also play them in the bathtub. So have them frozen. Then when they are, you know, when it's bath time, you could put them in and they'll, uh, defrost and melt in their tub and they'll get to play with their favorite ducky. So that's a really fun activity, not only for motor skills, especially working with like slippery ice, uh, but more so, uh, or even so sensories, because you're working with cold, uh, and then warm and seeing how it melts through the fingers. Uh, and so I have, I have so much fun with that one. That's a, that's a favorite in our house. For the construction site, we just got some construction vehicles and then made a little sign and then put some lentils in a pan and put those in. And then you can use like the diggers, a little scoop to put it up. You can go over warnings and how to stop. Uh, especially when dealing with the construction side, there's so many terms you can use of, okay, now we're going to go, got to be careful. And working those vocabulary, those terms into the conversation through play can really help you along. Cause if you create a little road also, you can say, okay, now we have to stop before this other digger goes and explain you more of like the road rules, uh, construction warnings, uh, through the play. Plus again, it's that sensory that digging through exploring the lentils or you can use the rice. Um, anything that kind of goes, anything that the little diggers trucks can pick up and move. Your little ones really gonna love the pots and pans band is super easy and something that your toddler might already be doing. And all you want to do is just set out some pots and pans. We did it over the carpet. So the sound is absorbed a little bit. You can do it in your kitchen, especially if you're working, um, and cooking, they'll be just entertained with them. But just pull out some pots and pans, give them a spoon, give them a stick, do it with their hands and they can just tap at it. Uh, and I mean, they're going to love the sound, the noise that it makes and it gives you a lot of time, but it's working not only in the motor skills of hitting and drumming on it, but also their sensory. So getting familiar with those sounds, uh, using, you know, the rubber end to hit the pot versus the wooden part. And what sound does that make and getting familiar with those block rescue is super fun. Again, I love the trusted muffin pan. You're going to put some blocks in and use painter's tape to put on top and your little one will have to uncover the blocks and then pick them up. You can go through and talk about the different colors. It's working on their motor skills, the vocabulary. And then once you have them out, you can actually play with the blocks and stack them or go through. If they're colored ones like this, you can do the color sorting of, okay, let's put all the greens, uh, green blocks over here and all the orange blocks over here. And so it's kind of a three in one activity that can go off really well. A muffin pan duck pools. You just want to get a muffin pan and put the ducks in the water. You can use other toys as well. My daughter really loved ducks, uh, and in their little pond. So you just put them in and let them splash around, uh, go through about putting them in and taking them out. You can also utilize a towel just if it's any splashing, but then ask your little one to drive the ducky and get them familiar with, you know, uh, we try after a bath. And so taking care of somebody after they're wet and helping them through kind of working more on the empathy, uh, but mostly it's just fun to splash in the water and with the ducks. The card slot game is another favorite. I feel like these are all favorites. So it's really hard, but, um, you're going to get a box, cut a slot in it. I mean, you want it bigger if it's for the younger ages, uh, smaller and more precise for the older ages. And then you can use regular, whoa, you can use regular playing cards. If you have those at home, you can cut up cardboard or cut up pieces of paper or have these flashcards. You can also put these in, go mouse, mouse going in, mouse out, mouse in or cupcakes, cupcakes going in. And they're going to love putting it in again, easy clean up because it's all contained in here. Another great one to take on the trip, on the plane, on the car ride, because it kind of keeps it all contained and you can actually use one box and put in, you know, put the lint roller in here with the pom poms or also add the pipe cleaners, you know, make them into a fish and bring those in and make that an activity as well. So again, kind of a three in one activity, like five in one on that one. Another easy activity is just grabbing a backpack or a bag that you have and asking them to put either pom poms or toys in. There's something about putting things in and taking them out for toddlers that they absolutely love. Um, plus with these that you carry them, so they feel like it's their own, they pack their own bag and it just feels personal, but any bag, any little container and just grab a basket of stuff or you can even make an exploration, have them help you clean. So have them grab their bag and walk around the house. Okay. Blocks, put them in pom poms. Let's put them in, you know, Oh, uh, a spoon you through, let's put it in. And then you go, maybe go around and pull it out and say, okay, where does this go? And put them in the right places. Not only are you keeping them entertained, but you're also cleaning at the same time and showing them responsibility, accountability, and all of that as well. Laundry pool is another easy game. If you got a laundry basket and some scarves or bandanas, you just stuff those through and let them pull. If you're a little one loves pulling out wipes or pulling out diapers or pulling your laundry out of a basket, they're going to love this activity because you just stuff them up and let them pull. So for a box full, it's similar to the laundry basket. Again, you get a box, you put the bandanas through, you can just cut it a little slit up top and then load them here from the bottom. You can connect them and make it a breathing long thing for them to pull, but just have them pull. They love pulling activities. They're going to absolutely love this. If you need to weigh it down or hold it for them, do that. But the pulling activities, they just love, love, love. The can pull is another, this is kind of like a two-in-one activity. If you've got a can, you can just cut a hole in it. And then if you have beans, ask your little one to drop beans in. We have some in here. And so they can just put them in. It works on their dexterity and focus and precision of getting into that little hole. Plus the sound of it hitting the can is really fun. You can then shake it, roll it around. You can use this for drumming, so sound sensories, regular touching and feel. And here's the fun part. Back to those pulling activities, you can use this. You just load up a roll of toilet paper, put it in, feed this through, and then now they can just pull. They just pull. Especially if they like pulling out wipes, oh, they're going to love this. This is the jam. And so have them try this. Yes, it's going to be a roll of toilet paper, but it is cheaper than a thing of wipes. But it's just super fun. Again, this is a great one to take on the road as well. Pom-pom ice tray is a great activity just for fun or again on the road or on the airplane. And if you get an ice tray like this or the regular ones and just put pom-poms in it, you can use color, color sorting through the activity of saying, you know, put the blue one in, put the yellow one in, or just putting them in and then taking them out. There's something so fun and satisfying about it. You can do designs, you know, maybe all yellow going down in a line or blue, but this is a great one for in home or you can take it on the go again on the airplane or in the car. The pipe cleaner strainer is a wonderful, wonderful activity, great for motor skills and problem solving. You're just going to load up some pipe cleaners through your strainer. Just put a ton of them in and you can kind of curl them so there's a little bit of resistance as they're pulling. But this is a great one. We've taken this on the road with us, but it's great for a home as well. And then you, if you're using different color, this is just red, but if using different color pipe cleaners, you can use color sorting with it as well. You know, like pull all the red ones, pull all the yellow ones, or just working on their motor skills. You can set this in the kitchen while you're getting stuff done and they'll just play with it. Or again, great one to take on the road with you. This is an activity box and it's a three-in-one, it could be four-in-one kind of a thing. So each side could be a separate activity. So this is a zipper board. You just glue on some zippers and let them zip. This is a great one to take along with you because it lays flat if you do it as a board. I put it on a box and made a full activity box that I'll show you. But the zipper board is a great activity for them to just explore, you know, grasping the little zipper with two hands is a good grasp activity. And then just making sure evenly going in, out, hearing the sound of the zipper. They're going to have a ton of fun with it. On this side, and again, so each one could be a separate activity. So zipper board could be one. This side is a ribbon pull and you just thread some ribbon through a cardboard. You just thread some ribbon through and then I tied little knots through it and have them pull on it. This is again great for their, when they're really loving to pull stuff like wipes. Have them pull on this, pull it back and forth. You can use different colors. It's super fun. And if you put on the activity box, we'll have a few different sides to play. I have two sides with the zippers just because they're so fun. And then on this one I did kind of shape sorting together with ball drop. And so they can just take the balls in, drop it in. Or if you're doing shapes, you know, put square and put the ball in. This is a favorite keeps all of our balls in as well, but she loves just putting them in and watching them roll out. And it's just like a self-feeding machine. She just keeps going and going. And so the ball drop or the activity box itself is a favorite in our home. So I highly recommend you try that. Balloon pinata was something that my daughter really loved. You do have to be a little bit careful with it when you're blowing up balloons. Make sure it's not too, uh, like, so they're not too taut, they're not too tight, uh, because then they'll pop if they grab them. And of course they're going to want to. So, uh, make sure there's lots of room and they're kind of flexible. Also cut your kid's nails. And if it seems like they're going to, you know, pop them, um, maybe avoid this activity, but this is one that our daughter really loved. You can also use a pool noodle to maybe make it a full pinata, but you just use a ribbon, painter's tape to secure it onto the ceiling and then have them bat at it, swat at it. It's going to work on their balance while they're trying to walk and figure it out. Uh, and then motor skills of like hand-eye coordination as well, of getting it over in there. And so they're really going to love that. Uh, give it a try, but again, make sure the balloons aren't like blown up all the way. Pom-pom drop through the box. We did a hungry caterpillar and it keeps all of the pom-poms in here. You just cut out some holes and then have your little one feed it. You can do the mouth, so you're just feeding the caterpillar or this one's just like filling it in. And you can use different animals. We have one for like the Easter bunny where she was feeding the Easter bunny. Um, but here you're just putting pom-poms in. It keeps it all in the box. So it's super clean, super safe. That's such a fun little activity. Like even here, I feel like I'm, it's therapeutic because I'm just putting them in and again, clean for you. So it makes it easy. The other fun activity is creating a sensory board. And here, you're just going to put on different textures. You can get them from a craft store, just things from around your house. Maybe a piece of wood, leather, velvet, bubble wrap, felt, pom-pom sticks, a little fuzzy stuff. I cut off the, like these old socks I had, but this is going to give them a great variety of experiencing different textures, which is going to help with their development, not only of their brain, but more so later skills in life. Because once you know how different textures work, you know, rice falls through, wood is hard and makes this sound, bubbles can pop. And so this will help them with their problem solving down the line. But this is a great one for them just to feel and touch if you put it against the wall or to sit on the ground, have them walk on it so they can feel it with their feet and get really familiar with different textures, different sounds. Um, my daughter loves this board and she just pulls it out on her own and just plays with it now. So I'm like, okay, cool girl. You really like it. Some last things to keep in mind is if you just have things around like the pipe cleaners, pom-poms, these little cardboard tubes or painter's tape, you can always create an activity. Keep in mind boxes and baskets and some sort of items or objects, they're going to want to put it in, take it out, um, try to grasp it, try to rescue it with a painter's tape. And so you can always create a different activity. Another thing is try the activities once or twice, give it a third time. Uh, sometimes again, like I said, when we are handed something we're unfamiliar with, we're not really quite sure how to feel about it until we really get a full experience of what, how it works. So work with them, demonstrate things to them. And then you'll be amazed to see how fast they catch on. Maybe not that first time, but the second, third time you give them that activity, they're going to create their own different ways of playing with it. Um, I can see now in my daughter, she's creating her own little game. She has this like stool that she now, uh, is going through and putting the pom-poms through and then picks them up. And she was doing this for like 45 minutes. I'm like, wow, you're creating your own game. Like this is, it gets their imagination going. And especially with things like this, like instead of seeing this as, Oh, this is just a cardboard piece from toilet paper or paper towel. Oh, it could be binoculars. It could be the tube. It could be the submarine thing, you know? So it gets their imagination going and moving. Um, while also working on their motor skills, their sensory skills, their problem solving skills, their hand-eye coordination, their dexterity, their precision, their focus. They're working on all of these things while just playing and getting familiar with different textures, different sounds. And so I can't wait for you to try them. I think this is some of our favorites in our home. Um, make sure to subscribe because we do daily activities. And as my daughter gets older, we're going to do more and more fun activities, uh, and sensory play. So make sure you're subscribed. Please share, uh, send it to your favorite mom, your favorite dad, um, anyone with a kiddo, anyone with grandparents, uh, anyone with grandkids, or babysitters. If anyone looking, if anyone has a kid that, you know, you send this to them because they're going to have so much fun playing with it. Um, of course always supervise the play because you want to make, we want to make sure the kids are being safe, but your kiddo is going to love, love, love these activities. I hope they love them. I hope they love them as much as my daughter loves them. Um, cause she gets so happy about pulling them out again and seeing them and she knows which the box is now. And she goes for the pom poms. And so it's cool to see her brain like working through and understanding all of this. And, um, I mean her motor skills are just out of this world. She's got the precision to put things in really precisely. She opens clothes. Um, and it's really helpful with the responsibilities as well. Cause after a play, we usually clean up together. And since she knows how to put things in, she thinks it's a game. Now cleaning up is so easy because I say, Hey, put it in, let's put it in. Same with chores. Um, we say, grab your shirt, put it in the laundry basket. So everything's almost a game of the cleanup, all of it, even the wiping. Cause we do all the sensories water play. Now there's a mess. She says towel and she goes and gets the towel. And so yes, it's playing, but there are learnings through so much, not only the skills that they need and the brain development, but also the responsibility and accountability when it comes to chores and cleaning up and being self-sufficient. Um, I hope you love this videos. Please share, please like, please comment. I want to hear what you think. I want to hear how they worked out and make sure to come back for more videos and I'll see you then.