These Indoor Activities For Toddlers are perfect for winter or a rainy spring or summer day and many will help develop fine motor skills. Plus tips to make them harder for preschoolers.
{Originally published Jan 2017. Updated Jan 2025}
Hi Friends!
If you’re looking for some fun new indoor activities for toddlers, this post is for you! It’s hard to believe it’s been so long since I first published this post. The little boy in the pictures is now 10 years old!
Easy Toddler Activities Inside
Whether you’re inside because it’s too cold, too hot, too rainy etc, these activities are helpful for entertaining little ones.
These activities have stood the test of time and I’ve enjoyed them right along with all three of my kids.
Indoor Toddler Activities
While this post was originally geared toward toddler activities, I’ve also included some ways to make them harder. As kids get older, some of the things they could do six months ago are getting too easy….but there are ways to add a bit of a challenge to most of them, to make them more developmentally appropriate for older toddlers and even preschoolers!
I have even more toddler activity ideas in this post: Cheap Toddler Activities. Even though some of the pictures are outdoors, most of them can be done inside!
Indoor Activities For Families
If you need activities for slightly older kids – those in preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, etc….or you have multiple kids of different ages to entertain, check out these posts:
Indoor Activities for Toddlers
Fun Games To Play With Toddlers Indoors
Balloon Hockey
I blow up a couple of balloons, we each grab a fly swatter and go to town hitting them around the room. I let him hit it around for a while and then we also work on hitting it to keep it up in the air.
Make it harder:
- Set up a goal and let them try to score.
- Have a contest to see how long they can keep it from touching the ground.
- Let them try to keep two balloons in the air at once!
Indoor Fine Motor Activities For Preschoolers
Pom Pom Push
Take a plastic container and cut holes in the top and let them push the pom poms through the holes.
Make it harder:
- Draw circles around the holes with a marker and let them push the blue pom poms through the blue hole, the green ones through the green holes, etc.
- Set a timer and see how many they can get in the container in 30 seconds or a minute.
- Give them tongs or tweezers and have them use those to pick up the pom poms
- Have them sort the pom poms into different containers by size, color etc.
Simple Toddler Activities
Pom Pom Drop
Save your toilet paper or paper towel rolls. Tape them to a door or wall and let them drop the pom poms through.
Make it harder:
- Give them tongs or a clothespin to make picking up the pom poms more challenging.
- Let them tape the tubes up and see if they can get the angles right so the pom poms go through all the tubes on the way down.
- You drop the pom poms from the top and see if they can catch them in the bottom in a small bowl.
DIY Toddler Activities
Straw Threading
Cut plastic straws into pieces. Let them thread the straw pieces onto the pipe cleaners.
Make it harder:
- Have them thread the pieces on in a pattern of colors.
Indoor Winter Activities For Toddlers
Ring Toss
Twist some pipe cleaners together to make rings and toss them into bowls or buckets.
Make it harder:
- Have them stand farther away.
- Set up multiple buckets and tell them to throw them into a specific one.
- See how many they can get in a row.
- Use something like bean bags and make the hole they’re throwing into smaller
Indoor Physical Activities for 2-3 Year Olds
Golf Tee Hammering
Poke golf tees into a cardboard box and let them hammer them in.
Make it harder:
- Give them a smaller hammer.
- Tell them which color nails to hammer.
- Let them practice pulling them out and setting them back up again.
Fun Daycare Activities
Ziploc Bag Fingerpainting
Put a few blogs of paint into Ziploc bags. Seal them tightly and tape to a window or table. Let them fingerpaint just like they would on a piece of paper.
Make it harder:
- Ask them to draw specific shapes or objects.
- Talk about what colors mix together to make new colors.
No Prep Indoor Activities For Toddlers
Card Slot Drop
Cut a slot in the lid of a container and have them drop the cards in.
Make it harder:
- Cut some holes as well and have them put q tips in.
- See how fast they can get them all in.
- Have them put them in by color or number.
Easy Games For Preschoolers
Cheerio Threading
Cut pipe cleaners in half and let them push them through the holes of a colander.
Make it harder:
- Give them the pipe cleanr to hold and have them thread the Cheerios while holding it.
Car Ramp
Draw lanes on a cardboard box to make a car ramp. Let them race their cars down it.
Try making the ramps longer or building ramps out of blocks, magnatiles, hot wheels tracks or any combination of the three!
Creative Activities For Toddlers
Fun with Cans
See how high they can stack them up. Set them up like bowling pins and let them bowl with a wiffle ball or tennis ball.
Things To Do With Toddlers at Home
One of my favorite things to do with my kids is get them in the kitchen with me. If you’re not sure how to start, check out these posts:
Toddler Meal Ideas
If your kiddos are hungry after all these activities, check out these posts for meal ideas:
How To Build A Mud Kitchen
And when the weather gets nicer and you can go outside again, try your hand at building a mud kitchen for the backyard with these simple instructions:
How To Build A DIY Mud Kitchen
Rainy Day Activities For Toddlers
Let’s chat:
What’s your favorite indoor activity for the kiddos? I’m always looking for new ideas!
Need more ideas? Check out some of my favorite blogs:
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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You are seriously SO creative, Lindsay! Love all these ideas 🙂
We play balloon volleyball all the time, never thought about balloon hockey, need to pick up some fly swatters! What a great idea!
Love this post and great ideas! I really like that they are inexpensive and super kid friendly. I agree with you on the “new toys” thing, my daughter could have the same toy at home but when she plays with it at a friends house it’s like the best thing ever!
Love all of these!!Thanks for sharing, I have been looking up ideas for my toddler and these are perfect!!
I love these ideas, especially the Pom poms activities. And they’re budget proof!
wow just loved these amazing ideas!!!! Thanks for sharing
AllThatsMom
Such great ideas with stuff we have around the house! And thank you for testing them out and sharing without a million other links to follow! 🙂
hurray!!
I am so happy and excited I came across this it’s going to be triple digits this weekend and I’ve got my granddaughter. Can’t wait to do these. Thanks for sharing.
you’re welcome!
These are great ideas! And wonderful for building fine motor skills! It is always nice to have something for our little ones to do on those rainy days and even better when the materials are everyday household items!!
A word of caution – be careful when allowing little ones to play with aluminum cans. Empty cans pose a risk with their sharp edges around the opening. Curious toddlers just love poking their fingers inside holes. They can cut their fingers on the edges, get them stuck inside between the tab and the opening and hurt themselves trying to get their fingers back out. If they manage to get the tab off, they can also swallow it/choke. My own little one one got an aluminum can out of our recycling bin once and got her finger stuck in the opening. Luckily, I was right beside her and was able to get it out slowly and carefully with no injury. Probably best to use something like empty boxes for stacking.
We tape the tops of the cans so no one can poke their fingers inside
Great ideas. I’m always looking for new things to do with my 2 year old. We are going to have to try some of these now that the weather is getting colder.
hope you enjoy!
Defiantly going to use some of these…especially the ziplock bag finger painting!! Thanks
Yes, I like that one too!
amazing!!! Thanks for taking the time to share!
These are AWESOME ideas to keep the little ones busy during this frigid weather.
Amazing ideas! Thank you!!
I’m a nanny for a living for playing cards, I have older kids(age 3) match them by color, then for age 5 we play like war, which card is higher? whatever card we draw that is higher we keep those cards, whoever has the most cards at the end wins 🙂