Rainy Day Activity Ideas for 12-18 months | Fine Motor and Sensory Activities

Hey everyone! Today I'm going to show you 14 indoor activities for 12 to 18 month olds. This past week was so gloomy and rainy including the two days that we filmed this video. So we decided to get creative. Eliana will be 14 months soon and some of these activities seemed a little bit advanced for her so some of these are definitely for 18 month olds. The first part of this video will show activities for fine motor skill development and the second part of this video will show activities for sensory development. I hope this video will give you ideas of what you can do at home with your little one that they will enjoy and that will keep them occupied. Also as a disclaimer these activities definitely need to be supervised because of the potential choking hazards that some of these activities have. Babies put everything in their mouth literally everything but without further ado let's go ahead and get started. So the first activity that I tried with Eliana was using a paper towel roll and some pom-poms. I tried to get her to put the pom-poms in the paper towel roll and she did a little bit of that but her favorite was taking the pom-poms from one cup and putting them into another container. That kept her pretty busy so I would say probably around her age like the 12 to 14 month range they may enjoy putting the pom-poms in one container or taking them out of one container putting them into another container and then maybe when they're around 18 months they may enjoy putting the pom-poms in the paper towel roll. The next activity that I tried with Eliana was putting pom-poms in a whisk and giving her that whisk and letting her pull those pom-poms out of that whisk. Next I got an empty Kleenex box and I cut some felt cloth and put that felt cloth inside the box and she just pulled that cloth out and loved it. She loves to pull tissue out of tissue boxes. I got this idea from a friend who she I think she cut up an old t-shirt or something and put all this cloth in a empty Kleenex box and her toddler loved to pull that stuff out of the box and I thought that is genius that is brilliant so I tried that and at least Kleenexes were not everywhere. Next I had an empty wipes container and just put big pieces of yarn like I just got thick yarn cut it up put it inside of that wipes container and Eliana loved pulling those pieces out of that wipes container. The next activity was a little bit more challenging for Eliana. I got an egg carton and put slits into where the eggs would normally go and then I gave her some sticks and she tried to put the sticks inside of the slots. I had to make the slits a little bit bigger because I think they were too tight and it was hard for her to put it in and take them out but I cut them a little bit bigger and so it was somewhat easier. This activity really does help with fine motor skill development. The next activity was pretty challenging for Eliana but I thought it was a good idea but I think this is more for 18 month olds or even two-year-olds or three-year-olds. Basically I put play-doh on the bottom of the pan and stuck some straws in that play-doh and then gave Eliana some noodles to try to stick on the straws but she wasn't quite getting how to put the noodles on the straws but she liked to take the straws out of the play-doh and pat the play-doh but I know in the future she'll probably have fun with this activity and I thought it was a great idea so you guys could give it a try if you have some older toddlers. Next I just took a strainer and put some pipe cleaners in that strainer and let Eliana play with that pull the pipe cleaners off and just have fun with it. The next activity I think was Eliana's absolute favorite so I just had some colored cardboard paper and then gave her some water in a cup and some paintbrushes and she put the paintbrush in the water swished it around and then she was painting on the cardboard paper and she absolutely loved it and she just kept going back and forth from the water to the paper water to the paper and when we did take it away from her and put it on the counter to start the next activity she kept looking at that counter wanting the paper and the paintbrush and she wanted to keep doing that activity. The next activity Eliana also had fun with so I took an oatmeal container emptied that and then cut a little rectangle slit in the lid and then gave Eliana a deck of cards and she practiced putting the cards inside the lid into the container and she really enjoyed that. At first she was just laying it on top of the lid the cards and then when she would try to put the cards in the lid sometimes they would get stuck in the lid but then eventually I made the slit a little bit bigger and then she was able to stick the cards in there. This next section are the sensory activities and with these sensory activities they are pretty messy and so I put down a really cheap shower curtain I bought one for like less than a dollar at Walmart and put that on the floor. So let me start off this section by letting you know that when Eliana turned one she did not want her cake she did not want the icing on the cake she touched the icing and then she looked at it and she was like get this off of my hand she looked at us like I don't like this and so some of these sensory activities she kind of had an issue with because she didn't want to touch everything and she she just acted like a very neat and tidy baby but I'm sure a lot of baby and a lot of kids would love these activities and so the first activity that I tried with her I put jello in a pan with a bunch of her toys and then I thought she might go ham and have a bunch of fun with this but yeah she just kind of poked at the jello and just didn't really want much to do with jello didn't want to eat it or anything I think my mom and I had more fun with the jello than Ellie did. The next activity was rainbow spaghetti so I just cooked a bunch of spaghetti put some oil in it and some food coloring and just let her have at it and mainly she just wanted to eat the spaghetti and she didn't really want to touch a lot of it so maybe she's just a little bit young for this or maybe Eliana is just a little different than most kids and babies where a lot of kids and babies might just dig in Eliana just didn't really want to do that so but I thought this was a great idea especially if your baby at one year dug into their cake they would probably love these sensory activities. The next activity is edible homemade sand so I took half a cup of flour half a cup of bread crumbs and then a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of honey just mixed it together and it made a really good consistency that seemed like sand and you could even pack the sand a little bit so if you wanted to pack it in a little cup make a little sand castle you could definitely do that with this sand but it's also grainy enough that you can just sift it play in it and this is a great idea for an indoor sandbox and the last activity we tried is edible finger paint it's just made with yogurt and food coloring so it's super easy to make and super fun for the kids and they can lick their hands and just have fun with it. I hope you enjoyed this video and that you get to try some of these activities with your little one at home. I have some fun video ideas coming up so make sure you stay tuned and subscribe and I will see you next time bye