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Putting together this list brought back so many memories for me! Memories of the days when I had a baby & a toddler to keep occupied for hours & hours at a time :) While my boys are a bit older now, they still would love a lot of these activities (I even stopped putting together this list to go create the baby oil + food coloring one right then & there!)

Hope that these ideas help your days go by a little more smoothly & bring fun to everyone involved. I tried to pick things that are easy to set up & clean up, & if I missed any of your favorites, let me know! Reach out any time on social media with your own tips: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Also, be sure to share this list with fellow toddler mamas who could use it!

1. Paint in ziploc bags (put paint in ziploc bags & tape to table for clean finger painting)
2. Sticker sorting (different colors of construction paper with matching colors of stickers)
3. Watch YouTube channels that get kids moving (check out our recommendations here)
4. Animal rescue (put animal toys in a bucket of water & scoop them out with a large, slatted spoon)
5. Pipe cleaners & colander (toddlers can loop pipe cleaners through the holes in the colander)
6. Pretend mailbox (cut a slit in a shoe box & color letters to pretend to send)
7. Car wash (get the toy trucks & cars, brushes, & some soapy water)
8. Fine motor sorting (have toddler use tweezers to pick up small toys & organize them by shape, size, color, type, etc)
9. Balloon tennis (all you need is fly swatters & balloons)
10. Pasta threading (stick straws into a pile of play doh, & then have toddler put rigatoni on the straws)
11. Pouring station (get a large bin, fill it with water, put cups, spoons, & other kitchen supplies in for your toddler to play with)
12. Glitter bottles (there are a lot of recipes out there to make these - but the easiest way seems to be water, baby oil, glitter, & food coloring)
13. Cutting practice (purchase dull play doh scissors & let your toddler practice cutting play doh creations)
14. Painter’s tape roads (put down painter’s tape to create roads, parking lots, rivers, etc)
15. Toilet paper fun (give your toddler a roll of toilet paper & let them go to town unraveling it, creating mazes, etc)
16. Color sorting (assign a color & have your toddler run around the house finding things that are that color)
17. Stacking cups (grab a large pack of plastic cups at the dollar store & let your toddler get creative with them)
18. Cardboard car ramps (cut up a cardboard box to create ramps for matchbox cars to race from the couch to the floor)
19. Marble runs (you can create your own or buy one from the store, but either way they are usually a hit! Just be careful that your toddler doesn’t put the marbles in their mouth!)
20. Rice bin (fill a pan or bin with rice - put in toys, spoons, bowls, etc)
21. Baby oil & food coloring in a ziploc bag
22. Chalkboard & chalk (purchase this affordable chalkboard decal for your wall)
23. Magnets (magnets provide so much entertainment! Place them on a metal baking sheet or play with them on the fridge)
24. Velcro felt puzzles (draw shapes on a piece of cardboard, cut the same shapes out of felt, place velcro stickers to the shapes on the cardboard, voila! Easy toddler friendly shape puzzle)
25. Rock box (collect pebbles & put them in a bin with digger trucks)
26. Cardboard boxes (give your toddler cardboard boxes & markers & let them go to town)
27. Watercolors in the tub (toddler can paint all over the tub, & it easily washes clean)
28. Pool ball bit (grab the kiddie pool & fill it with whatever balls you have around the house)
29. Paper towel tubes (tape paper towel tubes to the wall & let your toddler drop pom poms through it)
30. Water bead window (purchase water beads put them in a ziploc bag & use painter’s tape to attach it to a window for your toddler to play with)
31. Happy/Sad sorting (print out a whole bunch of pictures of happy & sad people & have your toddler sort them)
32. Corn bin (dry corn kernels are another great sensory bin item)
33. DIY binoculars (tape two toilet paper rolls together & attach some string for pretend binoculars)
34. Decorate the tree (draw a tree on the non-stick side of contact paper, collect leaves - or get fake ones, tape up the contact paper to a wall or window, let toddler stick leaves onto the sticky side of the contact paper)
35. Sticker names (write your child’s name in big letters & have them cover the letters with stickers)
36. Tub fishing (put magnets in the tub, tie a magnet on a string, tie the string on a stick… tub fishing!)
37. Bubble wrap run (place bubble wrap in a line down a hallway & let your toddler run back & forth)
38. Light forts (get the Christmas lights back out of storage & set them up in a DIY fort)
39. Q Tip fun (rinse out a parmesan cheese bottle, hand over some q tips, & watch your toddler spend forever putting the q tips through the small shaker holes)
40. Sticky mural (tape contact paper to the wall & cut out paper shapes for your toddler to stick to it to create their own mural)
41. Velcro sticks (buy a pack of popsicle sticks & some velcro stickers & place velcro on either end of the sticks so that your toddler can create things out of the sticks)
42. Object hide & seek (there might be a limited amount of places where you can hide, but there are tons of places to hide a stuffed animal!)
43. Bowling with bottles (save your recycling for a little while & use them to go bowling instead)
44. Play charades (have your toddler act out different animals & see if you can guess what they are)
45. Baking soda & colored vinegar (mix small amounts of food dye & vinegar, & then have your toddler use a dropper to drop the colored vinegar into a pan of baking soda. Watch it bubble!)
46. Ribbon stick (tying a ribbon to the end of a stick can be surprisingly entertaining!)
47. Shaving cream (spread shaving cream on the tub wall & let your toddler have fun)
48. Float or sink (collect objects & make guesses as to whether you think they will sink or float in a tub of water)
49. Draw on the table (cover your table completely with paper - be sure to tape it down - & let your toddler go to town!)
50. Paper plate puzzles (cut paper plates into a few different shapes & have your toddler piece them back together)