Toddler Tuesday- 5 Activities for a Rainy Day

As I have mentioned before, this winter…especially the last month…has been sooooo boring. Staying inside all day with a toddler leaves you trying to figure out fun things to keep them busy.  I know I am stir crazy so I can only imagine Ellie is too.  This mama can resort to exercise/reality tv/reading a good book/blogging/wine…but poor little gal can’t really get into much of that. 

I came up with a few activities for Ellie to keep busy and I thought I would share them with you.

1// Pom Poms:  My parents got Ellie a sand table for her birthday and it has obviously been waaaaay too cold to play outside…and I am not even about to put sand in that thing in my living room…sooooo, enter pom poms.  I filled the table up with these fun, brightly colored balls and added in some play bugs and other little toys and Ellie LOVES it (as does my dog and cats…so random) This was such an easy thing, mess free and super inexpensive (assuming you already have a sand table…you could use a plastic under-the-bed storage container too). I just bought the bags of pom poms at Hobby Lobby for like $3 a bag, the sand toys came with the table. The bugs are Melissa and Doug, and I threw in a paper towel cardboard thingy too.

2// Plastic stacking cups: I totally realize I am not even cool or unique for coming up with this idea…millions of people use these things…but just in case you forgot about them, they are a fun toy to keep the kiddos busy for a bit.  For some reason Ellie cannot stand for these things to be stacked…she literally will knock them down in two seconds if she sees that you stacked them…weird, but I just go with it.  She also likes putting things into the cups and dumping them out, i.e. play bugs again.

3// Scarves and Ribbons:  For whatever reason this kid loves herself some scarves and making ribbons into scarves.  I finally gave in to this new love of hers and filled a plastic bin with different scarves and ribbons and she goes to town pulling them out and playing with them. Such a random but easy and cheap thing to keep her busy!

4// Magazines: So, I have a slight obsession with magazines..no big deal…but now this said obsession is actually good for something other then letting me know what the Kardashians are up to every week. Ellie LOVES ripping apart the stupid things.  She could sit there for a good while just ripping and ripping.  It does make a mess, but nothing terrible or hard to clean up.  I give her a few and let her go to town. Just make sure they don’t start eating the paper, little monkey has definitely done that a time or two so watch for that. 

5// Blankets: Ok, so this one is a little random and requires more parent involvement, but  Ellie loves playing with blankets. The fluffier the better. She thinks it is so funny to play peek-a-boo…or just hide under the blanket…or cover mommy with the blanket…or get wrapped up in the blanket…or take a second and cuddle the blanket. 

So there you have it…five things you can do with your toddler while stuck inside during the cold/rainy days.

I am linking up with Ashley today for her Toddler Tuesday series…check her out as well for more great ideas in regards to toddlers. (She has an Ellie too!)