Looking for some stay home activities for toddlers? Families in Singapore are staying home this period and some of us are taking our toddlers out of childcare or kindy in view of the coronavirus situation. We know it’s probably not all that fun to be holed up indoors all day, while juggling work from home. So, we’ve some low prep (or even no prep) stay home activity ideas for parents to have fun with young tots from one to three years old! You got this!
Stay home activities for toddlers to beat cabin fever
- Play hide-and-seek at home
A childhood game with little effort involved. Where’s the best hiding spot? - Build a make-believe fortress, castle or tent
Another childhood fun that calls for imagination – and we can hide from monsters, bad guys and dragons! - Play hopscotch
Use coloured tapes, washi tapes or even LEGO Duplo blocks to line up those squares and start hopping! Want to include some learning? Write some numbers or letters on paper, stick them individually into each square and call out the number for your child to step on. - Dance with your kids, and play freeze dance
Turn on catchy nursery rhymes or your favourite tunes and dance freestyle! You can also play freeze dance so little ones have to listen up and stop when you say “Freeze!”
- Do kids yoga or parent-and-child poses together
Does your child like Frozen, robots or love imaginative play? Cosmic Kids Yoga has tons of engaging videos to guide little kids. Just pick kiddo’s favourite and start stretching too! - Work on a puzzle
Train up concentration, observation skills and problem-solving skills with puzzles. Get age-appropriate and ability-appropriate ones ideal for little hands. - Colour together
Buy some colouring books from our local bookstores, or Google for printable colouring pages. They are often available in themes like cartoon characters, transportation or even numbers to incorporate some learning. Little fingers will appreciate chubby markers and dot markers as their finger strength are still developing.
- Read books
Reading helps develop language skills, sets a communication opportunity between parent and child, and is a great bonding idea. Buy toddler board books from bookstores, swop with friends or borrow from our libraries in Singapore.
- Paint with food scraps
Turn food scraps into craft tools and paint with potatoes, carrots, leafy vegetables, and onions. Prepare poster colours and art paper, and, let him explore painting with veggies. This piece can turn into a unique, one-and-only wrapping paper for gifts too!
- Play pretend with toys
Creative play takes little effort and a child’s inquisitive mind is often at work. Let your toddler dream up a scene or story with his toys, pretend that toys can talk and that helps expand his vocabulary too.
- Do DIY craft with toilet paper rolls
Don’t let those toilet rolls go to waste! Transform them into a pair of binoculars, make a rattle snake or add them to a sensory bin for your toddler. Click for more ideas on what to do with toilet rolls.
- Play with open-ended toys like building blocks
Open-ended toys encourage imagination to go wild. With toddlers, they are constantly exploring and discovering so besides stacking blocks (a developmental milestone for toddlers!), they can learn from mummy and daddy when you show them how to put blocks together to create something different.
- Blow bubbles
Cheap, easy and fun. Enough said!
- Walk on coloured tapes
Stick some tapes on the floor to create straight lines, zigzags or spirals and let your little one work her eye-and-body coordination by walking on them.
- Practice fine motor skills using pipe cleaners or pom poms
Have some empty tissue boxes or containers? Upcycle them to convert into colour sorting games for your tots. Make some holes and colour around them in varying colours on these boxes and let her put in different coloured pipe cleaners and pom poms in the right holes.
We know raising children during this pandemic can be pretty different. With safe distancing measures in place, spending time outdoors may be reduced although kids need a healthy dose of Vitamin D for healthy immunity. Travel restrictions mean babies and kids are not likely to play tourists in other countries too. For now, we can go on virtual tours around the world so here are some famous landmarks and popular museums to check out!
What are some fun stay home activities that your toddlers love? Do share them in the comments below! Meanwhile, it’s okay to take a break and have some me-time even if your child is at home with you, mummies! It’s important to put our needs in our daily plans too, and yes, we’re on this life journey together.
