When You Need Toddler Activities on a Budget

When I was pregnant I spent an embarrassing amount of time reading through endless baby product reviews to find the best, most educational, highest rated, eco-friendly, organic toddler activities, you get the picture. I’m not saying I don’t still want my kid to have the best and safest things to play with but let’s be honest, things are no longer in your control once they start moving! They learn to hold their head up, roll over, sit up, crawl, walk and then completely ignore your attempts to fill their day with mindful activities. I think the fact that their attention span runs for about 1-3 minutes probably fuels this madness. So instead of playing with all of my meticulously chosen A+ rated toys, she has found her own toddler activities.  Mamas, I bring you …

Balloons – we have had the same Mylar balloon in my living room since Mother’s Day, they last FOREVER, and to kids, they are the greatest.  They can pull them around by the string, bop them so they bounce up and down, and show it off repeatedly to the poor (immensely patient) dog. I think my husband told me the balloon was less than $10 – money well spent my friends. We’re going on almost two months!

Coloring in an empty shoe box – for whatever reason, my daughter thinks this is the best thing ever, and what’s really awesome, is that it usually keeps her from coloring on the floor, table, chair, dog, and everything else she’s NOT supposed to color on!  Added bonus – you can just shut the lid and easily stow it away once their short attention span moves them onto their next destination, which means no loose crayons laying around!

Old purses/totes/lunch bags – oh my word, if I had known the hilariously good time my daughter would have carrying these around I would have gotten them out a long time ago. Something about a tiny toddler confidently flinging a huge purse over her shoulder and strutting around the house makes me double over in laughter every time. And don’t even get me started on how much fun she has putting things in and taking things out of these purses… honestly this activity probably takes up most of our weekend days.

Shoes – okay, before you go all germaphobe on me, hear me out. This kid loves shoes more than I love wine and let’s just say that’s more than a little. She cannot be near shoes without trying to put them on or trying to put them on me, her dad, grandma, even her stuffed animals. Any size or style of shoe is fair game. It’s an all out shoe obsession. To combat the obvious grossness of shoes, we just have her wash her hands. a lot. Which brings me to…

Washing hands/feet – honestly, whenever I am simply running out of ideas to keep our toddler tornado under control, I just ask her if she wants to wash her hands. She LOVES it. She gets to help get the soap and rub her hands together while we sing “this is the way we wash our hands…” Its adorable and clean, so win win!

Do you have any go-to toddler activities that you’d add to this list?  Let’s face it mamas – we need all the help we can get!