18 Activities & Games To Play With Toddlers Indoors
It’s a big transition when your child goes from a little baby to a busy, on-the-go toddler. It can be super overwhelming thinking of ways to keep them busy! The years are short, but the days can feel looooong. Especially when you have to spend more time indoors! So we put together a list of 18 simple, everyday activities and games to play with toddlers indoors—to help you make it through!
These games are fun, as time-consuming as toddler activities can be, and they’re great for language development. (Especially the ones where they’re interacting with you!) But independent play is also so valuable too, so we recommend aiming for a mix. Like we did with this list!
Whether you’re dealing with wet, rainy winter days like Carly in the Pacific Northwest, or you need to save these ideas for the super-hot summer days, like Katie in Arizona, we hope this list will be one you reach for again and again.
Our Fav Indoor Activities & Games For Toddlers
#1 Flashlight Hide & Seek
If you (or your toddlers!) think hide and seek is awesome, just wait until you try it with the lights off and the flashlights ON! Flashlight hide and seek is sure to get everyone giggling and having fun together. We really love this indoor toddler game for dark, rainy days or winter evenings when the sun sets early. This handcrank flashlight doesn’t need batteries and charging it becomes it’s own activity. Win-win!
#2 Building Forts
Toddlers love a just-for-them play place. Although, you may be “invited” (forced 😂 ) to join in, too. Forts are great because you can stretch this activity out. Talk about building the fort over lunch, round up the materials, build the fort, destroy the fort, rebuild the fort, then play inside the fort! You could even have a family movie inside the fort, if it’s a screentime kinda day.
Intimidated by the idea of building indoor forts? Just throw a sheet over the kitchen table, put blankets and pillows underneath, and call it a day! Want to make it even easier? We love these panels that attach to play couches to create even more opportunities for pretend play.
#3 Kwik Stix & Cardboard Boxes
Love toddler creativity and crafts, but hate the mess? First of all, same. Second of all, you need Kwik Stix! Kwik Stix are quick-drying paint sticks. Toddlers can hold them like markers and paint all they want without the mess that usually accompanies other types of paints. We love pairing Kwik Stix with cardboard boxes and letting our toddlers’ imaginations go wild!
#4 Surprise Puzzles
Surprise puzzles are just like regular puzzles—in fact, they are regular puzzles—just with the pieces wrapped in streamers, painters tape, or paper for an extra level of toddler challenge. (And a few extra minutes of attention spent on one activity! IYKYK) We love chunky puzzles like these!
#5 Animal Rescue with Painters Tape
We love this activity from Busy Toddler because it keeps toddlers occupied for a while! To set it up, take a roll of painter’s tape and tape down some of your toddler’s small animal toys. You could take them to a wall, the floor, or the back of a cookie sheet! Then, let your toddler go to town “saving” them by un-taping the tape. (Bonus: According to Busy Toddler, it’s great for fine motor skill development, too!)
#6 Picnics
Like we always say, kids love the classics! And picnics are definitely classics. Picnics are so easy to set up for parents, but they FEEL so exciting and new for toddlers. A total win-win. In the summer, we love a real, outdoor picnic. But you can just as easily set up a picnic on the kitchen floor when the weather isn’t quite so nice. We love this portable option!
BATH DROPZ // STEPPING STONES // ROAD TAPE // SONGS + STORIES // BATH TOYS // PORTABLE SPEAKER
#7 Fancy Baths
Got some time on your hands? Let your toddler take a fancy bath Busy Toddler style! An extra-long bath can help pass a long afternoon. Especially with a few fun twists, like:
Playing with Duplo
...or even glow sticks!
#8 Obstacle Courses
We love setting up an obstacle course around the house. Especially for days when you’re stuck inside with toddlers whose voices and energy levels are very outside. Use pillows, blankets, toys, or even safe furniture to set up a course your toddlers can “run”! It’s so fun. We love that these stepping stones can be used in a variety of ways and then stacked for easy storage.
Talking Tip: Use your obstacle course to practice verbs and prepositions, like we did in the example above! Movement helps these words come to life. And we all learn best while having fun!
You could also try having them do the course as different animals, like this:
🐧 Waddle like a penguin
🐰 Hop like a bunny
🐻 Crawl like a bear
🦇 Fly like a bat
🦖 Stomp like a dinosaur
🐍 Slither like a snake
🐠 Swim like fish
#9 Cardboard Roads
Do your kids love things that go? Then grab a piece of cardboard, a black marker, and some cars or trucks and create your own road system! They can even colour or decorate the roads, create buildings and parking lots, or lean some cardboard against the couch to make a ramp or two, which extends the activity a bit longer. Make it even easier with this road washi tape.
#10 Songs + Stories
Want to keep your toddler entertained, engaged and learning all day, but need a few minutes to yourself? Or even just a few minutes where you’re not the cruise director? Then check out our Songs + Stories membership! When you join, your family gets access to a full library of storytime, songs, and rhymes videos—all led by speech therapists!—that you can watch together or set up for them as a high-quality screen time option. We think you’ll love it! (And right now, you can try 3 Songs+Stories videos for free)
#11 Water Play
We don’t know what it is, but there is something so mesmerizing about water! When in doubt, put a few big towels down on the floor or set your child up at the sink with little toys and a couple of spoons. Then let them get creative!
#12 Dance Party
There is nothing like a dance party for letting out energy, having fun inside, and getting the endorphins flowing! We love a dance party—especially when we find kid-friendly music that doesn’t make us want to pull our hair out. Like the music on our Wee Talkers Spotify playlists! This portable speaker means we can bring the music with us anywhere.
1. TRIPOD // WATERCOLOR SET // POM POMS // SNEAKY SNACKY SQUIRREL GAME
#13 Facetime with Family
Have you seen that meme that goes, “I’m tired of babysitting my mom’s grandkids! Someone tell her to come get them!” 😂 Well, if your family doesn’t live close by, setting your toddlers up to Facetime with them might be the next best thing.
Pro Tip: To make sure your kids stay engaged without taking over the whole chat, set them up with an activity or two they can do with their family members, over the phone. We love using a tripod when the whole family is involved!
Related: 7 Fun Ways To Engage Toddlers On Video Calls
#14 Watercolor Painting
If you’re nervous to hand over real paint to your toddler, a little watercolor set can be a great starting point. It easily wipes off of things, and it’s a lot less messy than regular paint. Grab a roll of craft paper or even scrap paper from the recycling, and let your little go to town!
#15 Pom Pom Play
There are SO many ways to have fun with pom poms. We have tons of pom pom activity ideas for toddlers like water play, counting, organizing, and more—many of which were crowd-sourced from you, our Wee Talkers audience!
#16 Read Library Books
It can feel boring to read the same books all the time. So hit up the library and try something new! We love that the library is an activity for toddlers in itself, and that you come home with more things to do indoors together!
As pediatric speech therapists and moms (of a combined 6 kids) ourselves, we are obsessed with children’s books. We’d love to share a list of our favorite toddler books with you! It would be a helpful list to take with you to the library.
#17 People Games
“People games” like hide-and-seek, patty cake, and duck duck goose are great for language and entertainment! Want more ideas? Check out our 10 fav communication games for toddlers.
#18 Simple Board Games
If your child is 2.5 and up we also recommend introducing simple board games like this one. We’ve put together a list of what are, in our opinion, the best board games for toddlers and preschoolers.
You can shop more of our favorites linked here!
Indoor Games Tired Parents Can Play With Toddlers 😅
It’s hard to parent well when you’re exhausted. And there are SO many reasons to be exhausted:
You work out of the home
You work inside the home
You have multiple kids
You’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or postpartum
You’re a solo parent
You don’t have family around to help
Some activities and groups are still unavailable
...it’s a lot! So when you’re having one of those days when there isn’t enough coffee in the WORLD to get you building a fort or setting up a craft table, but you don’t want to go full screen time, try out one or two of these fun toddler games you can play lying down:
Do Yourself A Solid: Grab These Indoor Toddler Toys!
Having age-appropriate toddler toys on hand to pass the time indoors can help a lot! For toddlers, we love open-ended toys that can become LOTS of different things. (The way blocks can be used to build a tower, to create the perimeter of a parking lot, or even as ‘food’ in the play kitchen with a little imagination!) Depending on your toddler’s age, these are the toys we recommend:
Grab 3 Free Storytime & Toddler Song Videos
One of our favorite ways to pass the time with our toddlers is to connect over songs, rhymes, and stories. We created our songs and stories membership so you could sit back and enjoy these moments with your toddler, without having to do so much planning!
Our song and story videos are what you’d get if you mixed a library story time with a fun speech therapy session and your child’s fav high-quality screen time option! To check it out for free, click the button below and download 3 free song and storytime videos.