Here's a simple activity that will utilize the contents of your recycling bin. Poke holes in egg carton cups, then let your little one string them on a pipe cleaner to make a little train. For extra fun, they can add a little paint and some sparkles.
You toddler will be delighted by this rainbow soap foam. Put the foam in a bin and let them go to town, then pop 'em in the shower for a quick clean-up.
Is there a budding carpenter in your home? A cardboard box, a screwdriver, some screws and anchors will enable them to experiment with building and develop fine motor skills.
This non-messy, creative activity takes place on a glass patio door. Toddlers dip colourful foam pieces in water, then stick them on the glass. The possibilities are endless...
If you have a magnetic easel at home (a great investment, by the way), draw shapes on the easel and instruct your toddler to fill them with a particular letter. Eg. "Put a B in the circle." Good practice for letters, shapes, following instructions, and good fun too.
If your toddler loves to mix colours but you're not in the mood for the mess, try this clever trick. Kids can swirl and blend to their hearts content without getting paint on your sofa.
Sandpaper and crayons plus a swipe from an iron will create an awesome printed T-shirt -- who knew? Let your toddler scribble a masterpiece on the sandpaper, and she'll be thrilled to see it turn up on her clothes.
This mom found a neat way to introduce colour names to her daughter. She created paper "houses" in different colours, then wrote the colours on sticks. Her daughter found the right house for every colour colour, saying the colour and reading the letters aloud while she was doing it.
This mom came up with a bunch of fun activities for her daughter based on these cut-out shapes, taped to the wall. Toddlers love sorting tasks, which they can do by colour or shape.
The game takes a bit of time for mom or dad to make the pinwheel and coloured clothespins, but once it's done, your toddler will love sorting and matching the colours. And you can bring it out again and again whenever your toddler needs something fun to do.
We all know toddlers love to paint. To jazz things up a bit, break out the kitchen utensils for your budding Picasso. Potato mashers, slotted spoons and whisks all rock.
Rip up coloured paper and let your toddler match the pieces to the appropriate page with a glue stick. Great for learning colours and practising fine motor skills.
Sometimes it's about just putting out a boatload of cool stuff and letting your toddler run wild. Paper scraps, fabric, colourful glue, magazine clippings -- let your child create an anything-goes collage.
Make homemade white playdough and bring out your child's favourite animal toys. Show her how to make tracks with the animals and then let her create her own woodland winter scene.
Instead of recycling them, collect your bottle-tops to create a bundle of cute stamps to bring out on a rainy day. Buy a whack of dollar-store foam stickers to stick to the bottle-tops, and voila! Instand stamp collection.
Toddlers love sensory bins, and this one has a fun gardening theme. Dye the rice (see how below), then add buckets, shovels, plastic flowers and gardening gloves so your little nature-lover can grow some fun, even when it's raining outside.
Later on in life, your child will likely try the baking soda and vinegar volcano trick. But right now, he can experiment with the bubbling chemical reaction by dropping coloured vinegar onto a cookie sheet of baking soda.
This little guy is SERIOUSLY enjoying his finger-painting. But don't worry, it's edible! (Recipe below.) To create the art, mom or dad makes a tape initial and applies it to the paper before the painting starts. Then once it dries, remove the tape to see the letter.
This clever mom created a bunch of Duplo "masterpieces" and photographed them. She then printed out the photos, laminated 'em (perhaps an extra step you can skip!) and challenged her toddler to try and replicate them. Great for major construction fans.
Here's another great pom pom idea -- put them on the floor and let your toddler blow them with a straw. Play, "knock down the snowman" or see how fast they can get their pom pom from one end of the kitchen to the other.