I have been preparing for the coming homeschool year, and it dawned on me that I will have a one year old to keep busy during homeschool hours! He is a busy guy too – always into everything. I went on the hunt for some activities that will be safe for him to do without supervision. I’m hoping these will be exciting enough to him that he will keep himself occupied for a while. If the pictures are not self-explanatory, you can check out the link under each one to find tutorials on how to make these activities.
| Make your own texture book |
| Peek-a-boo tray from shoebox lid |
| Baby Play Bottle |
| Buckle clipping toy |
| Treasure baskets |
| Tissue box stuffed with fabric squares |
| Nesting bowls |
| Muffin tin sorting |
| Putting balls through a tissue box |
| Velcro board |
| Tearing Paper |
| Playing with magnets |
| Placing objects in a large container |
| Tactile exploration cards |
| Pipe cleaners in a bottle |
If you have any more great ideas for activities that would fit this age group, please let us know in the comments! Be sure you’re subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to keep up with more posts like this one!
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I am a Montessori teacher and I have to say that these are BRILLIANT ideas!! Love every one of them!
i teach 2 yr olds and i have to say that a lot of these will be great for my kids too! another great one with the pipe cleaners is using a colander and having the child put the pipe cleaners through the holes
Love the pipe cleaner idea – thanks !
These are great! Thanks!
Another good one is clothes pins and a milk jug. Let them drop them in and dump them out again.
Or clothes pins and an egg carton. Poke holes in the bottom and and let them put the clothes pins in the holes.
My daughter loved those 2 games at 12-18 mths.
Thank you so much for this post. I did my own variation today with my 14 month old and it was a huge hit! Check it out. Thanks so much. Meri Cherry
http://mericherry.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/one-year-old-play-station-numero-uno/
When I need to keep my toddler busy, I have him do paper towel painting. Just draw shapes or simple pictures on a paper towel with a Sharpie and then give him a paintbrush and a small bowl with minimal water. He paints over what I have drawn and the Sharpie bleeds slightly creating a cool effect. I tape the towel to his high chair tray to help hold it in place.
Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
washable markers work better than sharpies b/c the color bleeds better. We do this on on coffee filters, my 5yr old still likes it!
I have seen some use pipe cleaners with a cheese shakers (lid has holes in it). I would look for some stacking blocks, empty baby food jars, etc. Remember that he will take out or apart or knock down before putting back in, stack, or build. Hopefully he is moving in to that stage. For a little older you could put socks in the Kleenex box, pull out, or match. Wooden spoons with pots or inexpensive aluminum pans. Things hidden in small boxes (watch out for choking hazards) pudding or colored yogurt in a ziplock (tape it up) provides a neat texture. Bubble machine. Scarfs-textures, colors. Mirror on wall where he can see himself.
Lots of neat ideas here! Thanks for sharing!
Why would you teach them to un-do buckles? I have kids that have to be buckeled into their highchair or they will climb out… if they learned how to unbuckle themselves, that would defeat the purpose of the buckle…
True, Kae. That didn’t cross my mind – our little one doesn’t eat in a high chair because he is a gymnast and can wriggle out of a buckle anyway. I think some kids are just determined to get out of their high chair, buckle or not! Of course I don’t recommend using this activity if you’re uncomfortable with it, but it is super for developing their coordination.
I feel like the purpose is more getting them to do up the buckles and not so much undo them….
my highchair hooks to the counter. no getting off of that!
If you supervise them and don’t walk off and leave them nothing will happen, so the buckle being undone shouldn’t matter. its not a stand-in parent feature….
I just have to say that some children are really fast (not to metion stealthy) and in a house with more than one child and more than one thing going on, sometimes they move faster than you can catch them. While other children never even consider the possibility of getting down. Sometimes you just have to know your child.
We’ve put a small hole in the top of a yogurt tub and my son loves to poke macaroni through.
We also have knob puzzles and shape sorters (but this might be a bit advanced for some 1yr olds?) that he can spend a fair bit of time at.
He loves finger painting – food colouring in water on his high chair table gives me a good 15 minutes
Helping to sweep up, moving the clothes washing from one place to another piece by piece (helping/hindering!), playing with socks and shoes.
Duplo/mega blocks, wooden blocks, stacking cups, kitchen utensils, stacking rings etc
Putting things in a paper or fabric bag and letting them pull them out/explore them
Sorting basket/box and a big box of objects so they can sort or place in boxes/dump out and repeat
‘writing’ with crayons or chalk (Tape the paper to the table top so it stays, or use a spiral bound book so they can turn the pages and draw all through the book)
Small musical instruments in a basket so they can explore the noises (any noise items)
Shallow tray of water will give you AGES of free time (keep an eye out etc)
Great ideas!
Muffin tins work great for shape/color sorting!
Just found you via Pinterest – love these ideas! Something I recently discovered is to take one of the small, 8 oz bottles of water and poke a few holes in the top with a safety pin (leaving the lid sealed). DD loves to drink & squirt the water! She plays with this in her high chair, though, so it may not be great for your little gymnast. The holes are so tiny that it really isn’t all that messy, IMHO.
Thanks for the idea, Lauren!
You have some wonderful ideas! I will sure use some, if not all of them. Two additional things I though of is to let them poke straws cut in half into the top of a large cold Starbucks drink cup then dump out and start again, surprising how fun this is for kids this age. Another thing we do in warm weather is to let them “paint” the side of the house with water and big paintbrushes.
I like your idea of the ball and tissue box! I had my son do something similar with paint samples and a box I cut a slit in. Since the samples were different widths and lengths he had to figure out which way to turn them to get them in the box. Playing cards also worked well.
Thanks for the fabulous collection of ideas!
Hi! These are awesome ideas!! I found you via Pinterest. I was just curious – Are these activities that you give to your child when you need him/her to be independent for a few minutes (ex. to tend to another child/cook dinner/etc) or do you have these accessible to him/her all the time?
I have a very curious 16 month old and am always looking for ideas to keep her busy but I’m never sure if I should leave these kinds of activities accessible to her all the time or just when I need her to be independent for a few minutes. Thanks!! Keep posting!!!
Yes, these are mainly ideas to use when I need my little guy to play by himself. I wouldn’t want to use these all the time lest he become disinterested in them when I’m really needing to get something done.
Good advice. When my kids were young, we had a special canvas bag for occassions such as doctor visits/waiting rooms. We would only use the toys in there on those occassions, and that would keep them occupied while waiting. We had a different bag of quiet activities/books for church.
Great Ideas!! I’m posting this right now on my blog’s facebook page!!!
Wow, thanks, I needed a little inspiration since my one year old is bored of her toys…
She also enjoys putting anything she finds in the trash cans!
Yes, I know how the trash can thing goes! I usually find my socks in there!
My nearly 18 month old has me running and I found handing him a flashlight works wonders. We go through a few batteries, but sometimes it works when nothing else will.
Thanks for the ideas. They are added to the arsenal.
Great idea, Laurie!
My 21 month old has loved this for a couple of months now…recycle one of your wipes tubs, fill it with the caps/tops to the squeezable fruit and yogurt meals for toddlers/babies, milk caps, any cap that won’t fit into a mouth and down their throat. She’s spends hours putting them in, opening the big lid, taking them out….since all the caps are different colors, we learn those too as we go along.
Great idea, Lissa!
These are great! I’m a toddler teacher, and it’s always good to keep them busy. I made a clothespin game for my kids recently. Similar to the pipe cleaner idea, but a little bigger for them. You just have to get one of those liquid tupperware containers. They LOVE that kind of stuff.