20 Stay-At-Home Activities for Babies & Toddlers
With all of us self-quarantined for at least 14 days, I know many of us moms are struggling to find indoor and stay-at-home activities to do with your baby & toddler to help stimulate them and keep them from getting bored playing with the same toys all day. This change has been hard for me being a stay at home mom because I thrive off of social interaction with others— taking Joanie to the library, music class, swim class, play dates, Target, etc. With all of that on pause, I’m digging into my teacher background to come up with some fun ideas to help pass the time. Hopefully these ideas help make your days a little brighter as well! Spring time is around the corner and this too shall pass!
I feel like most of these activities would work well from about 6 months-2 years. Joanie is almost 1 year old and I can’t wait to try some these out with her. I found most of my inspiration from Baby Play Hacks- she has incredibly easy to do and well-thought out ideas for babies from birth-18 months. Here are some of my favorite ideas and check out her site for many more! I will update this blog post with more pictures of each activity once Joanie and I get around to doing them all.
1) Water Table: We just got our water table, and it is the best! When it’s nice outside, I put this outside and let Joanie splash around and play with it. Since we can’t go to swim class, this is the next best thing! It keeps her occupied for SO long and she has a blast.
2) Bubble Machine: This is another great idea for getting energy out and some fresh air. We’ve let Joanie see the bubbles with this machine, and she isn’t so sure about them yet, but I can see older toddlers loving this!
3) Dance Party: Nothing can put you in a good mood faster than blasting some music and dancing around the kitchen!
4) Magnets: Joanie has been loving magnets recently. She loves taking them on and off the dishwasher or stick them on a cookie sheet to play with. We have these farm animal magnets.
5) Whipped Cream in High Chair: Mix some whipped cream and food coloring together and let your baby play with it in their high chair. Messy and fun!
6) No Mess Painting: Give your child a paintbrush, water, and cardboard to let them explore using a paintbrush and making art.
7) Play with Playdough: This is a great activity to help them work on fine motor skills. Be careful they don’t eat it.
8) Imitate cleaning: All of us have been cleaning more often with everything going on, so why not let your little one help you?! Joanie loves the vacuum and I’ve been thinking of getting her this play vacuum so she can practice helping. Give them a pile of laundry to “help fold” while you’re folding your own pile.
9) Have your own music class: Since we’re not able to go to our own music class, I’m also thinking of getting this musical instrument set for Joanie to play with at home. I have the songs from class downloaded on my phone and we can hold our own class! You can also get pots and pans and let them bang on them with a wooden spoon.
10) Animal/Ball Rescue: Put some animal figurines, bath toys, or balls in a muffin tin. Take some washi tape and trap the animals inside. Allow your baby to explore how to get the animals out. Another idea I found was to place toys in a large container and place rubber bands over the container to trap them inside. Use more or less rubber bands depending on the difficulty level you want and let your baby try to get them out.
11) Washi Tape Rip: Take a roll of washi tap and place it on the high chair in various sized strips or even along hardwood floors. Joanie is obsessed with tape and this keeps her occupied for so long!
12) Yogurt Paint: This activity is good for babies 8 months plus- click here to check out the directions for some good, messy fun! Here is the paint that I bought.
13) Sensory Bags: You can make a really simple set up using vegetable oil and food coloring or paint. Seal down the edges with masking tape and use extra durable bags to prevent the contents from spilling. This will keep your baby/toddler occupied for quite a while!
14) Ribbon Pull: Take an old cardboard box, cut some holes in it, and stick ribbons through it. This is guaranteed to keep your older baby entertained trying to pull them out.
15) Chickpea Foam: It only takes 5 minutes to make and was so much fun! Directions can be found here. I halved the recipe and only used 1 can of chickpea liquid, 6 drops of red and 2 drops of blue food coloring to make pink, and 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar.
16. Rainbow Noodles: I bought things to do this with Joanie sometime over the next few weeks. It looks like a lot of fun and will keep her entertained! Directions to make it can be found here.
17. Letter Bath: Have some bath time fun with these foam letters that stick to the bathtub walls when wet. Such a great way to expose your little one to letters at a very young age and these are less than $5. I bought them for Joanie and she has had so much fun playing with them in the tub.
18. Pipe Cleaner Pull: Place some inexpensive pipe cleaners through the holes in a colander. I tied knots on both ends so she couldn’t pull them all the way through, but that would be fun for younger babies who are learning how to grasp. Joanie loved this so much and kept her occupied for a while.
19. Spoon/Smoothie Straw & Egg Carton: Take an egg carton and cut holes in the bottom of it. Take plastic spoons or smoothie straws (I got this pack on Amazon) to have your baby practice putting them in and out of the egg carton.
20. Taste Safe Sand: This activity looks really easy to make with things you should have already in your house, and you don’t have to worry about your baby eating it. Such a fun sensory activity! Directions can be found here.
Other great resources for baby/toddler at home activities:
I hope this post has given you some great ideas for ways to have fun and make memories with your little one while at home. Try to make the most of this time together and count your blessings each day!
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