Toddler activities during holiday are not only about entertainment but a great possibility to make memorable experiences together and help your little one feel supported and inspired. Enjoyable and educative during the festivals and holidays, these activities give the best balance of both learning and humor to the whole family. Pursuits such as involving toddlers in Mini Golf or participating in activities in indoor play centres or hands-on activities build curiosities in these children, and family bonds.
With a school break and the holiday season, there are infinite possibilities in terms of spending time with your little ones. The following are just some of the advantages to seasonal activities on your toddler: fine motor skills building craft activities and social skills building through family friendly experiences. So, how to make the most of the holiday season with your children? Let us discuss creative ways to actually embrace the holiday spirit and create made-to-last memories.
Holiday Season and Engaging School Break Activities for Toddlers
1. Autumn Activities
Autumn is as bright and lively as it can get with a burst of colours, smells and sounds that help bring pleasure to the toddlers and fully utilize all the possible activities found in this season. These kid-friendly activities and sensory activities will keep your child busy and allow them to build important skills and enjoy the holiday vibe.
Leaf-Based Crafts
Crafts with leaves are a great means of studying nature and working with crafts spirit. Here are some ideas on what you can do with toddlers:
- Leaf rubbings: Select large leaves of different shapes. Place a leaf under a piece of paper and have your toddler make an outline the paper with a crayon to reveal some pattern developed or a design made by the leaf.
- Leaf Collages: Pick up some leaves and create some leaf collages. Give your child glue and a big piece of paper on which to sort and paste the leaves into patterns or pictures.
- Leaf stamping: This is a fun activity and it is what involves the dipping of leaves in non-toxic paints after which one presses them onto a piece of paper after which they print unique designs. There is also a science lesson of taking a look at the various shapes and textures of leaves.
Harvest-Themed Activities
To use this harvest season to its fullest, we have prepared some of the best harvest activities not only to celebrate the magic of autumn but to give your children immense learning experiences as well:
- Apple Stamping: Cut apples in half and dab paint onto it and stamp them on paper. The teaching prints are entertaining and also educational.
- Carecrow Crafting: Carefully crafted scarecrows using recycled, old material such as old clothes, straw and fabric. Toddlers can provide assistance when it comes to stuffing the scarecrow or decorating the scarecrow with markers.
- Corn Sensory Play: Put a bin full of dried corn kernels, some scoops and other containers so that children can poke around with corn. It is a multisensory activity stimulating the development of fine motor skill
2. Winter Activities
Winter is also synonymous with snow play which need not be done outside. Take a look at the activities below which can make your snow experience less chilly without the fun.
- Sensory Indoor “Snow” Bin: Place cotton balls or fake snow in a bin. Put little figures and scoops to allow children some sensory exploration that resembles playing with snow.
- Snowmen: You could of course use real snow but have alternatives such as cotton batting or foam balls and make little snowmen. This is simply so much fun. Add buttons, little scarves and hats to add character.
3. Spring Activities
Easter-Themed Fun
The Easter egg hunt can be a magical process to plan which is age suitable. Here are some ideas that you can implement on a fun Easter egg hunt:
- Place easter eggs at toddler height
- Use plastic eggs that pop like bunches in various colours
- To the toddler friendly fun stuff cavity fill eggs
Nature Exploration
Spring is the best time to practice outdoor activities and nature. You can experiment with different flower pressing methods so as to preserve the colorfulness of spring blossoms. Here are a few tips which can help make this a lively activity:
- Go flower picking in a day outing
- Put them in between pieces of parchment.
- Press them in a heavy book a week.
Other outdoors activities may be involving toddlers in different butterfly life cycle activities- these can be craft activities or story activities or when visiting a butterfly house during school holidays. Components of storytelling can be incorporated through reading about the transformation of butterflies to caterpillars, besides linking this phenomenon with hands-on crafting so that there is topsy-turvy enjoyable learning. Such actions may allow fostering curiosity and learning in your child. A simple butterfly craft can be made by you.>>
- Paper plates
- Pipe cleaners
- Children colouring books with question marks with butterflies on them
Halloween Fun
Halloween provides a perfect host of possibilities for immersive entertainment gigs that toddlers will get to adore till their hearts content:
- Pumpkin Painting: Your toddler would love painting a small pumpkin, rather than carving it. Make use of non-toxic colors and brushes to be used in making colourful designs.
- Sensory Bins: Put bins filled with Halloween items such as plastic spiders, rubber bats and orange rice to explore the texture visually.
- Costume Dress-Up Play: You can lead to imaginative play by making simple costumes out of things around your house or even making fairy gardens. Toddlers are able to dress up as their favourite movie characters and their imaginations soar.
4. Summer Activities
Outdoor Adventures
Summer is the best time of the year to get toddlers out of the house and spending all their energy through outdoor activity. Plan a family picnic in a nearby park or garden, taking stuff that toddlers can snack on and a lot of water to drink. To take your smaller ones off your hands, the following child-friendly activities are available:
- Scavenger Hunts: This is a game in which you prepare a simple list of items to be located by the toddlers, whether it is certain leaves, rocks or flowers.
- Nature Walks: Follow the hiking trails and allow toddlers to see birds, insects, plants. Take a magnifying glass with you to have even more fun.
- Outdoor Games: Create mini obstacle courses with cones, hula hoops and jump ropes. Other games such as Simon Says, or Duck Duck Goose are entertaining as well.
Water Play Games
As the weather warms up, some of the best water play games are an awesome way to keep that toddler occupied. The following are some tips on how to make water play more enjoyable as you have a fun time beating the heat in extremely hot days:
- Water Balloons: Fill the balloons with water then use to play gentle game of toss. Toddlers will not get canges of the splash and thrill.
- Splash Pads: Splash pads are very common in several parks and there is an area filled with water with adequate depth that is enough to play with children especially the young ones.
- DIY Water Table: Fill a shallow plastic tub with water and some toys such as cups and sponges or small boats or your toddler favourite animals and explore them through their senses.
5. Year Round Holiday Activities
Birthday Celebrations
Enhance a fun-filled holiday spirit throughout the entire year by turning birthdays into a special occasion to toddlers. Here is a list of some ideas that will entertain young ones and the whole family:
- Play dough cake decorating: Use colourful play dough to make pretend cakes. Toddlers can mould, demonstrate, and garnish their workings with play dough candles, sprinkles and a lot more.
- Creating birthday crowns: It can be an enhancing experience to make paper crowns. Make sure to furnish stickers, glitter, and markers so that the toddlers can customise their birthday crowns.
- Age-appropriate children party games: Easy games, like pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, or bubble blowing contest are great ways to keep them occupied.
6. Cultural Celebrations
Toddlers can be learning about various traditions and customs with the help of cultural celebrations, which are great opportunities. This is the time when these activities can be used to create cultural awareness and appreciation:
- Easy cooking activities of other cultures: Cooking with the others can be a rich experience. Recreate easy dishes to great tasting foods such as tortillas, sushi rolls or pasta. Make sure that all the ingredients are toddler friendly.
- Multicultural music and dance: Play different music genres and songs and expose toddlers to some dance. Tell them to dance to some traditional music of other cultures. You can also go to family attractions or interactive displays so that you have a complete experience as an element of the school holidays you take your toddler.
- Labelling and Colouring the Flags: Download printable flags of the world to be coloured by your toddler. It can be combined with some basic information of each of the countries to make this activity knowledgeable.
Soak up All The Celebratory Moments with Your Little One
Holidays are a suitable period to spend the time and strengthen family ties and development of the learning and creativity of your toddler. These activities have limitless potential and fun, because they include rainy day activities, interactive activities, seasonal crafts, cultural celebrations, and more. It is important to tailor such activities to the needs of individuals. Approach things as an exploration and creation more than an end product. At home you will have everything you need to get the family involved in a craft area in a busy toddler corner and a playground, which is fenced so that you can be outdoors.
It is not about a perfect finish product but part of the pleasure to do something and discover things together. Always be open and ready to change and try new things to ensure that every holiday period is worth celebrating.Enroll to Okinja ELC
Want to ensure every season is a place of magical learning experiences to your toddler? To generate creativity, cognitive development and cultural understanding, we feel that activities should be designed in a manner that is enjoyable during holidays.
- Highly developed programmes targeted at nurturing your child.
- Safe and stimulating atmosphere in which exploration and play is encouraged.
- All-inclusive actions that will embrace diversity and personal development.
