3 Activities That Will Actually Keep Your Toddler Busy For More Than 3 Seconds

Summer is coming which means no school and lots and lots of time trying to figure out what to do with your kids.  I don’t know about anyone else, but when I try to do an activity with Little Lion it’s either a chore trying to convince him to do it or he will do it for about three seconds. Three seconds is not nearly enough time to regain my sanity or enough time to just “be” for a minute. With the plethora of information out there (thank you Pinterest!), there’s so many activities you can try with your kids and some will work and some will not. Here are a few that have worked for us.

Painting

Bring out whatever you can think of. Brushes, q-tips, cotton balls, I’ve even seen apples used as stamps.  We have been using q-tips over here which has kept Little Lion’s interest in painting.  Also, different canvasses work to keep things interesting and different.  Don't be afraid to try anything.  The more interesting the better.  Kids will paint literally anything if you let them. 

Cardboard has been our go-to lately. You can reuse the cardboard from a pizza box or even the circular piece that your frozen pizza rests on or any other piece of cardboard. As you can see above, we also incorporated painting a rock.

Let your kids get creative.  If they don't want to paint on paper, try sticks you picked up while on a walk outside.  Painting rocks is fun for your child and can be quite therapeutic for you if you're painting with them.  Little Lion has even painted his big monster trucks.  He likes to mix the colors and create his own "tie-dye" design.    

Busy Boxes

Thank you Pinterest for this one! I set up a few busy boxes with ideas I found on Pinterest and what I thought Little Lion would actually enjoy doing.  Being that he is 4, I had to really look and find something that was appropriate and would be fun for someone in his age group.

I liked this one that uses clothes pins and note cards. Simple, inexpensive and also helps learn letter recognition as well as sight words. I’m all about incorporating play with learning and this was a great activity for that. Little Lion is a smart kid and I want to encourage ways to keep him learning.  

Another busy box included q-tips, paint (not pictured), stamps, a toilet paper roll (used to dip in paint and/or ink pad) and ink pads. I just let him go crazy and get creative and do whatever he wanted with this one.

Who doesn’t love play-doh?! Even I still enjoy playing with it, sometimes, but I’d rather him play with it and me do something else. Super easy and affordable as well. Everything you see here I bought at Dollar Tree, including the bins.  If you’re into STEM activities, this is a fun one! Play-doh and toothpicks. Super easy. Your kids can be little engineers and construct different structures. This one, however, will require involvement on your part, especially for the younger ones. I personally enjoyed doing this with Little Lion and seeing what he came up with.

Gluing anything you can find...

 As we went on a walk we gathered sticks and some leaves and said we would figure out what to do with them when we got home. Little Lion is currently obsessed with Moana so I thought making a boat would interest him. We are planning to paint an ocean/lake when it dries completely but he seemed to enjoy it for a bit.

Finding things to do with kids can sometimes be a challenge. Some things just won’t work. You have to test a few activities out and see what works for your child.  And if you find activities they like, make sure to have them on hand for those times you feel like you might lose your sh*t if they don’t stop asking five-thousand questions.