The most challenging part is to channelize their energies effectively in a positive and constructive way. It is, therefore, quite a creative task for parents to take care of their children and keeping them engaged in productive activities at home. Although it sounds challenging, but that doesn’t mean you cannot have fun with your toddler. For this reason, we’ve come up with a list of creative and fun-filled educational indoor activities for kids that’ll keep you free of worries and will keep your kids entertained and engaged during lockdown. We have listed a few learning activities and divided them into domains like Fine motor and Gross motor activities, sensory activities, Life skills, paintings, craft activities, etc.

Fun Sensory Activities

 Sensory play is hugely beneficial for helping children make connections and understanding their world. It is a great way to introduce new vocabulary related to sensory experiences. Sensory Mat:- Activities related to sensory stimulation should be numerous and repetitive for toddlers as it is linked to emotional, cognitive and physical development of the child. A sensory walk is a great way to explore the sense of touch. Hence, a sensory mat can be created for the little ones using different materials like cotton, sponge, straw, egg tray, sand paper, pipe cleaners, etc. Children can walk on the mats to feel various textures like soft, hard, rough, smooth, spongy etc. Sense of Taste:- Make your child taste different food items like sweets, bitter, spicy, salty etc. to develop their sense of taste and learn to differentiate. Sensory Bottle:- It is a fun way to calm down your toddlers and help them developing their fine motor skills as well. Bubble science activities:- Bubbles are a magical thing for toddlers. They are shiny and sparkly, and they float. Playing with bubbles can be a calming sensory activity too. You can either make bubbles with some soap and water to explore with hands or can create amazing art work with it.

Fine Motor Activities

Water Scooping and Transferring- Toddlers loves to play with water. So, organise a fun and easy water scooping and transferring activity with some sponge, objects and water in a bowl. Let them transfer the water from one bowl to another with the help of the sponge and the objects with a ladle which will improve their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, gripping skills etc. Pouring Station- Create a pouring station with a basket full of rice or chickpeas, or any pulses, provide your child empty containers and ask to pour the rice or pulses with the help of a spoon or a ladle. For fine motor development, there are immense scope you have to work on like

• Tearing Pasting activity
• Lacing activity
• Making objects with play dough
• Poking straws into holes
• Peeling fruits and vegetables
• Removing tapes from the floor etc.

Vegetable Printing:- How about vegetable painting for children? Sounds enjoyable right! All your toddler requires for this activity are some veggies from your kitchen and some kid-safe paint. It will permit your child to embrace their creativity and hone his artistic abilities. You can also try flowers and leaves printing as well. Painting with Ice:- On a summer day kids will love to make art with ice cube paint. Freeze some coloured water with Popsicle sticks and let your child create his own artwork with the ice cubes. Colour and Shape Hunts:- Colour and shape hunts can be fun indoor activities. This is a great way to teach toddlers colours and shapes, and help them to match the colour with the corresponding coloured shapes. Soon, they will learn them all. Number Hunts:- Number hunts are a great way to teach toddlers the names of the numbers as well as work on counting and grouping items. Kids can begin to explore simple one-to-one correspondence. Craft Activities:- Craft is always a good idea if you want to keep your toddler busy at home. Talk to your child about waste materials, i.e. why we should not throw items like Tissue rolls, tetra packs, egg cartons, used plastic bottles etc. and help them to create amazing craft activities with them like a pen stand, bird feeder, wall hangings etc.

Teaching Life Skills to Your Toddler

Laundry day:- Enjoy a fun laundry day activity with your toddler. Let them practice washing clothes and hanging them up to dry, fold them with laundry day pretend play set up. This activity is great for life skills and fine motor development. Indoor gardening:- Gardening can help your child learn about where food comes from and how things grow. You can start with growing vegetables like tomato, coriander, spinach etc. Bird Feeder:- As its summer, we need to take extra care of animals and birds. So teach your toddler about life skills by hanging a bird feeder in the balcony and let them check every day. Gross Motor Activity:- There are several amazing gross motor activities you can arrange for your toddlers at home like different games, yoga practice, moving like animals, indoor hopscotch etc. Written By:- Ms. Suparna Ghosh, Pre-Primary Teacher, MRIS, Noida