Indoor Activities for 12-18 months

We are just thirty days away from Baby #2 arriving! This time around, nesting mode is including a little more than just cleaning and preparing a nursery. I want to be sure we have plenty of fun and educational activities on hand for Emmy to do in the first few weeks that her new sister is home. We know it will be a difficult time with wacky sleep schedules and lots of other changes, so I want to make sure she has a variety of activities on hand to keep her entertained and happy! Here are a few we have tested out so far that have been a HUGE hit! Be sure to check out our daily activity box set up as well!

See an activity you love? Be sure to click the “pin it” button on the left side of your screen to save it!

Flash Cards

We have seen such an improvement in our toddlers vocabulary after using our set of Fundamental Flashcards. They cover colors, shapes, and 50+ first words. I chose to laminate and hole punch our flashcards to add them onto a binder ring (it helps keep them from being thrown around the room by an energetic toddler!).

You can download the flashcards in our printable shop.

Painting with Water

This activity is listed as #1 because it was by far the biggest hit out of all activities! All you need is construction paper, a small bowl of water and a paint brush. I had the sponge brushed lying around but would recommend using something that doesn’t absorb quite as much water. We went through the paper pretty quickly because it got SO wet. A small little brush (like this set, designed for small hands!)  with small bristles would do just fine! Clean up is super easy too!

Magnetic Letters on Cooking Sheet

Even though these letters had been displayed on our fridge for some time, there was something really interesting to having them all within her grasp! She really loved this one! Who knew that items we already had in our kitchen would be such a hit?

If you don’t have a set of magnetic letters yet, let me tell you, they can provide great kitchen entertainment while you are trying to cook! You can get a bucket of them here on Amazon. 

Noodles & Straws

By far the most fine motor skill intensive activity of them all! We used play-doh, noodles and straws to make this activity. While this activity lasted the longest, it wasn’t ALL spent stringing the noodles on. Eventually we got ahold of the pay-doh, then we started playing cooking with the noodles in a cup and spoon… it went on for a while! But she had a blast and we have enjoyed this activity many times since discovering it.

Card Drop

I would say this activity ranked #2 in popularity. All you need is a deck of cards and an old oatmeal container with a slit cut in the top. After a few minutes of dropping the cards in, Emmy liked to take the top off to reach in and retrieve her cards. This was a great activity for her fine motor skills as well!

Pop-Pom Drop

We’ve been working a lot on learning our colors and this activity helped a lot! We would tell Emmy “let’s do the red one next” and we would search for the red pom-pom to drop down! We used both toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls for this activity. You can also use any type of tape that won’t harm you walls or painting.

You can purchase a variety pack on pom-poms here. 

We recently did this activity with our 13 month old daughter, Nora, and the video is HILARIOUS and SO cute! You can see the video here on our Instagram!

Pipe Cleaners + Colander

More activities for your Toddler: