Winter Fun: Indoor Activities, Games and Toys for Toddlers

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Fun indoor activities for toddlers
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The cold season usually comes with shorter days, snow and very low temperatures. If the puffy white snow is a great opportunity to spend time with your toddler sleighing or making snowmen and angels in the snow, freezing temperatures, frost and blizzard are a very good reason to stay inside. However this doesnโ€™t mean you will get bored and you wonโ€™t be able to spend quality time with your toddler, maybe watching movies or listening music with this wireless headphone guide or some quality loudspeakers perfect for this kind of activities.

Because we are experiencing this situation at the moment (we cannot stay outside for more than an hour a day, being a very cold winter, with temperatures going as low as 5F/-15 C during the day), I decided to share with you some ideas of indoor activities and games which we really like and play. I guarantee that these will keep your little one happy, interested and active. All you have to do is to be present and willing to spend amazing time with your toddler.

Below are our favorite indoor activities for toddlers

(we practice these indoor activities with our 1 year and 8 months old daughter).

Lego Duplo

Because of its infinite building possibilities, Lego for toddlers is a must-have. Your toddler will rapidly develop a wide variety of abilities, like fine motor skills, he will learn colors, sizes and shapes. Our daughter plays with Lego daily, for hours. She started making tall towers with square shapes a few months ago and now she can build various structures. She also enjoys playing with Lego figures (people and animals) inside the structures we build together. We recently bought this winter themed combo for her: Lego Duplo-Arktis & LegoVille Zoo Friends 10501. It is one of her favorite sets as she loves snow and penguins.

Play Doh

Play Doh is a great choice when it comes to sensorial play – toddlers love to press, smoosh, squish, roll, squeeze and shape. It is an open-ended toy that can become anything – imagination is the limit. It helps toddlers strengthen their fingers, hands and wrists and it improves their arm movements and coordination. Play Doh comes in small recipients with a large variety of colors modeling compound to play with: Play Doh 36-Can Mega Pack. And, with the right set of tools, your toddler will be engaged in a really pleasant and constructive activity. However, it is not recommended for toddlers younger than 2 years old for safety reasons (increased chance of oral exposure and allergies). This is not necessarily a problem because there are a lot of homemade play dough recipes on the internet.

Board books

Board Books are durable books printed on thick paperboard. They are specifically made for toddlers, who usually tend to be less gentle with books. Our daughter enjoys playing with them: either she points out the objects and we have to name them for her, or we show her the images and she is the one naming them or, depending on the situation,  making animal sounds. She especially likes board books with animals, these two being, by far, her favorite ones: Baby Touch and Feel: Animals and My Big Animal Book.

Hide-and-Seek

This classic fun game contributes to your childโ€™s both cognitive and physical development. Toddlers learn object permanence, they have the chance to use their imagination and strategic thinking when looking for places to hide and they have the chance to improve their problem-solving skills when they go seeking. Hide-and-Seek develops coordination, agility and balance.

Hand painting and coloring

Toddlers are very attracted to activities like hands or finger painting, coloring or pasting. Although these kind of activities are usually messy, you should encourage your toddler to practice them. Painting and coloring represent an opportunity to develop some of your toddlerโ€™s skills: they improve control of the handโ€™s small muscles and help develop fine motor control that toddler need later for writing. Painting and coloring also encourage creativity and self-expression. There are a lot of painting or coloring materials and resources for toddlers to use from Washable Finger Paints to Organic Beeswax Crayons, or Washable Markers.

What are your toddlerโ€™s favorite fun indoor activities for toddlers? What other indoor activities for toddlers do you prefer?

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