11 Easy Activities and Crafts your Toddler will Love (and engage in)

Having trouble finding a craft or activity your toddler actually engages in? Here are 11 activities and crafts your toddler will love and actually engage in.

Activities and Crafts your Toddler will Love

There is nothing more frustrating then prepping an activity or craft for your toddler and then they absolutely hate it. They won’t engage with you, and they are bored after 2 minutes. This is where you vow to never do a single craft with them again. It’s true, not all toddlers or people love crafts, and that’s okay. But maybe you’re just not doing the right craft or activity.

Sometimes it takes a few tries before you can figure out what your little one likes. Some of my activities and crafts I think my son, the toddler, will hate, but he ends up loving it more than my oldest. Then, there are other times where I am so excited because he will LOVE it, and then he hates it. When this happens, it’s so easy to feel under appreciated. BUT don’t that discourage you.

Once I figured out the type of things my son liked, I did more of those things, and now I know which ones he will engage with, and which ones he won’t.

I picked 11 of the activities and crafts my son and I have done together that he has absolutely loved! He was 2.5-3.5 when we did most of these activities. So, if you have a toddler between those ages, there is a good chance he/she will love these too.

I think he loves them because they are very engaging and super simple. My son does not like too many instructions, he just wants to get right to it. These crafts and activities are also different than the usual crafts.

As a bonus, a few of them are great for motor and sensory skills as well as learning ABCs. You can always do a variation of these activities and crafts to keep the fun going!

11 Activities and Crafts your Toddler will Love

Foaming Bubbles for Toddlers

Foaming bubbles are super cool, even for adults, I think. They entertained both my kids for at least 30 minutes. You could make it last longer by hiding objects in the foam and asking them to find a specific object. You could make it about learning and hide letters. You could also add objects and ask them to feel them under the bubbles and guess what they are. The possibilities are endless.

Rock Painting

I was very skeptical of rock painting at first, but it is so fun and very therapeutic. So, even if you can do it without your kids, that would be nice! If your child doesn’t sit long for painting, they might if it’s painting a rock. There is something different about painting a rock and not paper. These can make great paper weights, or turn it into an activity and place them along a walking trail for others to enjoy.

Straw Painting

Another “different” way of painting is by using straws. What child doesn’t like to blow through a straw. I think ANY TIME my kids have straw they are immediately blowing bubbles into their drink. Now, you are asking them to do that with paint!

Balloon Rockets

My son LOVED balloon rockets. They are super cool. My daughter liked it too, but she thought it got old after about 30 minutes, and my son just wanted to do it again and again. It’s super easy to set up and if you have older kids, it’s a good chance to teach some science.

Skittles Experiment

A super easy science experiment is the Skittles Experiment. It takes like 1 minute to set up, and the kids can help, and the experiment doesn’t last long. I mean, candy is involved, so what toddler won’t love that? You can let the eat it for a treat after, which is good incentive.

Toy Car Painting for Toddlers

This activity could depend on how much your toddler loves cars. My son sleeps with a car every night, so he LOVED this. It’s super simple, just some paper, paint and some toy cars. Let them run the cars through the paint. If you had big roll of paper to just roll onto the floor or even outside, that would make for a fun activity. Maybe I’ll let him do that on his birthday.

Grocery Store

I almost didn’t include this one on the list, but my son really did love it. This one could be hit or miss with your child. We set up a fake grocery store, and then let my kids go “shopping”. I did it mostly for my oldest to teach her about money and math, but my son loved it too. He’d walk around with this little cart and put his items in. I think anything that mimics what we do, our kids love. We had to beg my kids to stop playing.

Balloon toss

This one is a little obvious, but I think we forget about it sometimes. Just blow up a bunch of balloons and then toss them in the air. See how long they can keep it in the air. Honestly you could probably get away with just blowing up a bunch of balloons. If you need some more balloon fun, you can find 10 simple and fun activities to do with balloons here.

Q Tip Painting

This is a really fun painting activity, that is different than just painting paper, and less messy. You use q-tips as your paint brush. It’s a lot more fun and easier if you have some templates. I have a variety Q-tip painting sheets and specific ones like Weather Q-tip Sheets and ABCs Q-tip sheets. So you’re teaching your kids AND doing a fun craft.

Volcano

Who doesn’t like to watch things explode? Setting up a Volcano experiment can be super easy. You do not have to build or buy a volcano. You can just use a vase or pitcher. My kids love watching it bubble, and you can do it over and over and over again.

Clouds and Rain Drops

Another fun toddler activity is to make clouds and rain drops with shaving cream and food coloring. My kids had a lot of fun with this experiment, and then they wanted to do their own experimenting with it.

Bonus:

One craft that is on my list to try with my son is to make torn paper collages. I mean, tearing paper and gluing it down? My son loves to destroy and loves glue. I feel like it can’t go wrong!

Activities and Crafts for Toddlers

I know how frustrating it can be when your toddler doesn’t want to engage in your craft or activity, but maybe, just maybe, some of these activities and crafts your toddler will love.

Another thing you can do, which, again, depends on your child, is cook. My son loves to help me bake in the kitchen. It does take a lot of patience, so I usually only do it on those days I know I won’t bite his head off. 🙂 So, maybe they don’t like crafts, but like to bake.

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