I’m absolutely thrilled to be sharing one of Miss G’s all-time favourite games over at I Can Teach My Child today {one of the very first blogs I ever followed!} We’ve made and played these super simple homemade matching games since Gracen was around 2, and they never get old. Over time, we’ve varied them according to the season and Gracen’s interests and abilities, which makes them perfect for all kinds of munchkins. Pop on over and see the full post here. ☺
Tag Archives: simple games for toddlers
Indoor Balloon Badminton
This may very well be the easiest activity to throw together ever, but Gracen thoroughly enjoyed it. All you need is a couple of paper plates (ours are made of styrofoam, which I absolutely despise, but they, along with many other party supplies, were in the cupboard when we moved into this house, so I don’t feel quite as badly about using them), 2 large popsicle sticks, some masking tape, and a balloon. To create simple racquets, all you have to do is tape popsicle stick handles onto the bottom sides of the plates… Then you’re ready to play! Partner pass, keep it up, and distance contests are all fun.
This is a perfect activity for a rainy day and great for helping your toddler burn off some energy if getting outside isn’t an option. The other perk is that it is relatively quiet (especially when played independently), so it could make a good quiet activity for an older sibling whose little brother or sister is napping.
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Simple Play: Pillow Pass
This is the SIMPLEST little game ever, but Miss G loves it. And we’re talking loves it so much that she squeals and shrieks the entire time we play and shouts “More pillow pass, Mama!” whenever she thinks the game is going to end.
Basically, all we do is toss a pillow back and forth. Seriously, that’s it. A pillow is easier to catch than a ball, it’s as soft as can be (even when you get whacked in the head repeatedly), and apparently throwing a pillow around is hilarious.
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Water Pouring Station
After our most recent tea party with a pot filled with “tea”, I realized that I haven’t really given Gracen many opportunities to practice her pouring skills (with the exception of cooking and sensory bin/bath tub play, I guess). So tonight, just before I began making dinner, I set up a little water pouring station for her. All it took was a towel on the floor, a plastic serving tray, some measuring cups/jars/pitchers, and some coloured water. Gracen was thrilled, of course.
She transferred water from one container to another, watching the colours change and muddle for the better part of an hour, which was the perfect amount of time for me to prep dinner, clean the kitchen and wash a big load of dishes. Doesn’t get much better than that. Afterwards, clean up was a breeze. The towel went into the wash, the dishes got rinsed, and that was that… Another ‘Mama needs to make dinner’ activity to add to my {mental} list. ☺
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If you don’t feel comfortable letting your little one handle glass jars and measuring cups, you could always replace them with plastic ones instead. Switching out the water for dry goods like lentils, beans, and popping corn would be fun too!
Egg Carton Button Sorting
Matching is HUGE in our house right now. Coordinating is simply not good enough for Miss G anymore. Everything. must. match. To the point where she will pick a treat (organic fruit leather) with a blue package while grocery shopping because she is wearing blue pants, cutting her carrots requires an orange knife, and wearing white socks isn’t happening if there is no other white in the outfit. So when I came across an empty egg carton during my usual nap time house cleaning, I decided to use it to put together a little matching game rather than recycling it.
I had everything else I needed on hand… Acrylic paints in primary colours, plus white and black, a paintbrush, an old rag, and some water.
I simply painted each egg spot by swirling the paint up from the base to the top edge.
I made sure to include the basic rainbow colours, plus black, white, and grey, and of course aqua because, well… it’s the best colour ever.
Afterwards, I gave the inside of the lid a quick coat of white paint.
Now if I’m being honest, Gracen awoke from her nap before the paint was fully dry and she was so excited to play her new game that we took it to the bathroom and used the blowdryer on it.
When it was fully dry, I poured a bunch of buttons in the lid, removed the clear ones, and asked, “Do you want to play?”
With a prompt “Yes!” and zero direction, she got busy matching the buttons to the colours painted in the cups.
Grae loves playing and the nice thing about this little game is that when she’s finished, she just closes it up and everything is contained and ready for next time.
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DIY Velcro Building Sticks
The three of us were sitting down together today and I yanked out these two supplies for a little activity I’ve had in mind for a long while now.
I originally saw these velcro building sticks at Tot Treasures and loved the simplicity of them.
With our sticky velcro dots attached to each side and firmly pressed down, we were ready to try them out.
We begun attaching them to one another and quickly realized that they would be 10 times more fun with velcro dots on both sides of the sticks (more dots on our list for next shopping trip!), but Grae didn’t seem to mind.
Her favourite? Making ‘snakes’ and ‘zigzags’.
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Homemade Household Objects Puzzle
After nap time today, Grae actually came up to me and said, “Do fun ac-ti-vi-tee?” Funny little duck. Yes, baby girl, we can always do a fun ac-ti-vi-tee. In fact, that’s why I’m constantly adding to my Toddler Activities Pinterest board. For moments just like these.
I love the idea behind this simple sun bleached puzzle, but because the sun wasn’t shining all that much in our neck of the woods today (and because it takes a couple days time to create), we decided to make our own ready-in-an-instant version, sans the sun. ☺
First up, Gracen helped me collect our materials… A piece of large black card stock, a silver sharpie (a white/yellow/silver/gold crayon or pencil crayon would work too), and an assortment of flatish objects from around the house.
Next, we traced the objects onto the card stock. Grae helped with tracing a couple of the objects, but for the most part, she was very content with watching me trace and announcing the names of the objects and the shapes they left on the paper.
Here’s what our household objects puzzle looked like when we’d traced all of the objects.
Miss G got busy matching right away. I swear she lives for stuff like this. In between shape and object names, she kept repeating “Fun game. Mama (and) Grae Grae make FUN game”.
Finished! (I spy toes.)
Celebration dance in order.
Here’s a little video of her being silly on her second time through…
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