If you have toddlers, preschoolers or kindergarteners at home, this list will absolutely have activities that you can throw together (with what you have!) to burn the minutes until nap time.
I’ve got you covered with everything from indoor chores to educational activities and outside splash time!
1. Bike Wash
3. ABC Mouse
4. Kid’s Story Podcasts
There are actually a ton of podcasts where authors and actors read story books, but be sure that you don’t end up on a podcast that actually interviews children’s authors.
My five year old loves, loves, loves this one – we started with the space episode and moved onto the dino series.
It’s available on Spotfiy and Apple podcasts.
5. Bounce House
If we hit a patch of rainy weather, I will absolutely bring it indoors and into our playroom, just to spice things up!
6. Sidewalk Chalk ABC’s
Depending on the age of your kids, you can rock this two ways:
If you’re babe is a bit younger, you could write the ABC’s in small groups around your yard/driveway and have the kids “hunt” for them in order.
7. Tailgate Lunch
This is our current fave: my husband brings home local take out and we spread out a blanket in the trunk of my car for a tailgate meal.
It also gets us outside and marks a major change of pace from “school” mornings, perfectly breaking up the pace until Quiet Rest time.
8. Picnic Dinner
My children also love a picnic. We’ve taken to having picnic dinners and snacks whenever we can. They seem to eat more, I’m less concerned with wiggly table manners and they spend those last minutes in the evening get out the last of their energy just by being outdoors.
We’ve also had indoor picnics on the floor of our playroom when the weather was gross and love a screen porch picnic for a change of pace.
9. Draw Me
Unroll a giant piece of craft paper, have the kids lay down on it, trace them with a marker and let them decorate “themselves”!
10. Printable Rainbow Learning Activity
I love this rainbow learning activity from my friend Arin.
If you’re all out of ideas and need a few more minutes of screen free time during the day, this is definitely worth printing out!
11. Find The Patterns
We like to do this on our walks, you know, instead of bickering with each other.
I ask the kids to look out for something that creates a pattern – sometimes we spot them in the cracks on the sidewalk or the bark on the trees and usually we spot them in the bricks on houses
12. Group It
I needed a few minutes to unload the dishwasher so I asked my five year old to run to his room and group together 5 things that were soft and 4 things that were hard.
He loved it so much he made his own groupings by color and I was able to finish a chore or two.
13. Laundry Game (sort the laundry)
Georgia, who is two and a half, is a big fan of helping with the laundry. I ask my five year old to bring in both their laundry baskets and she loads the laundry and helps to start the wash.
Once it’s ready to fold, she helps me make piles of her clothes versus his and also is in charge of putting away things that aren’t folded (mainly, undies!).
14. Counting Wiggles
We needed to get the wiggles out so we went outside and I drew a line up of fun exercises and the number of time to do each one.
We’ve done things like 10 frog jumps, 15 dance moves, 5 jumping jacks and 10 solider walks.
We change it up regularly and it’s a great way to change the scenery and our energy.
15. Bubble Machine
Bubbles for life. We have this one, just make sure you stock up on batteries and a giant jug of bubbles because the bubble machines use them up at an alarming rate.
16. Baking
Nothing fancy, but box mix brownies, bread and cinnamon coffee cake have been in rotation around here. The kids help with cracking eggs, pouring ingredient, watching the contents of the oven and sampling.
17. Fairy Gardens
My mom loves to set up Fairy Gardens with the kids.
The concept is to turn a small space like an empty flower planter, spot at the base of the tree or a sandbox to create a small world for woodland fairies.
You can use your imagination and things found in the yard (like flowers, gumballs, sticks etc) or Amazon has great miniatures.
18. Dress Up Tea Party
Seeing as my two year old is always in costume, it feels like I should take advantage and set up a tea party. You can either participate or tell your little to set on up for her dolls and babies.
19. Chalk Track
Gray created a “road” out of chalk and then rode his bike and scooter on it. His sister followed on her trike and they worked hard together adding on to the road, decorating it and then riding the new routes they made.
You could also set up a chalk track yourself out of chalk and challenge your kids to drive their matchbox cars on it without going “off course”.
20. Ice Shuffle
We came up with this one on accident but my kids did this for what felt like hours. We put ice into a large plastic bowl and they loaded and unloaded the ice into a small cooler.
You could use two plastic bowls, a bowl and bucket, an empty water table and bucket – hell, you could get wild and throw in some plastic spoons and tongs to keep things interesting.
21. Play Doh Kits
22. Glow Stick Bath
As simple as it sounds, toss a few glow stick bracelets into a bath and watch the mini rave unfold in front of you!
23. Goggle Bath
Hold the bubbles, toss in a few fish pool toys and let your swimmers “dive” for the fish! Goggles and swimsuits are a must!
24. Grandparent Story Time
When things have really gone off the rails – or I need the toddler distracted for like five minutes – I ask my mom to read a book to my daughter via FaceTime.
Any special friend who doesn’t have littles at home can hop on this one for you, they can even download a story book if they don’t have one at home.
25. Indoor Camping
26. Book Sorting
The baby books went to his sister room and he was amazed and the books that were in the big boy pile. He literally forgot so many of them existed, it was like he’d hit the jackpot.
He was entertained for the rest of the day with the books we found *in his own room*. As a bonus, his sister was entertained with her new hand me down books!
27. Breakfast Date
Another great activity for the grandparents, schedule a FaceTime breakfast date for your kids! My Dad particularly likes this one and will chat with the kids while they sit at the breakfast table and start their morning.
It gives me a minute to get my mind right for the day and the kids like to pretend to “share” their breakfast through the video screen with their grandfather.
28. “Fashion Show”
Otherwise known as try on all the clothes from last season to see if they fit! A task I normally avoid, we’ve made an event out of it this year! The kids try on the warm weather stuff from last year to see if it still fits – if it doesn’t, I make a fuss over how strong they’ve gotten, how much they’ve grown and how exciting it is that they’re getting so big.
Clothes go in the “donate” or “keep” pile and we know where we stand for this Spring and Summer
29. Toy Bath
ve them a good washing (bath soap can be used for plastic or rubber toys and plain water for the rest). You can toss the kiddos into the tub or let them lean over the side.
30. Cardboard City
Put all of those Amazon shipping boxes to good use. I handed my 5 year old a roll of painter’s tape (less adhesive/more gentle, in case it gets stuck to him, the dog, the walls, etc) and a handful of boxes and told him to see if he could build a skyscraper.
He ended up building and re-building with those boxes for the entire afternoon.
31. Stuffed Animal Houses
Another used for the cardboard boxes – build and decorate houses for their favorite stuffed animals!
They can decorate with stickers, crayons, washi tape, colored paper, whatever they think their stuffed animal would love as home decor.
32. Flashlight Reading
It’s amazing how small simple changes can really engage and entertain little kids. Try a little flashlight reading – we hide out in our tent, in our room with the shutters closed or under the covers.
33. Hopscotch Races
As simple as it sounds, each member of our family creates their own super charged hopscotch course and we teach each other how to use it.
Leave a comment