45 Awesome Activities You Can Do with Your Three Years Old Toddler
On a peaceful afternoon, you are sitting with a cup of tea on your table and enjoying your book. Then, you hear a loud scream. You put your book down and ran to the living room, and there was a mess everywhere you looked. Suddenly, reality hits, and you woke up from your dream of a peaceful afternoon. You remember that your three years old just decided to skip the day nap. Sound familiar? Welcome to the mom of a toddler life.
It is hard to wrap our heads around the idea that our sweet little cutie pie is no longer a baby. We officially have a threenager in the family who seems to have an endless amount of energy and throws tantrums unpredictably. With his little brain growing fast, he wants to explore and try new things everyday. It is very hard to keep him occupied and entertained throughout the day.
We did some research on what activities we could do with our three years old to help him develop creativity and independence. Below are 45 awesome activities I want to share with you, so you can start enjoying them with your toddlers.
Activities you can do to keep your three years old entertained
Since many toddlers are transitioning to “no nap” days, you now have an extra hour or two to keep them busy and entertained. That sounds like a lot of work because the average attention span for a toddler at three years old is about 6-8 minutes. That translates to 20 activities in 2 hours. Don’t worry! It is not as scary as you might think. Let’s look at different activities you can do with your three years old together.
Physical Activities
Physical activity is important for the development of your child, and it will help set a foundation for the healthy lifestyle. An article from CDC discussed about all the health benefits physical activity can bring for your children. Physical activities include:
- Running
- Walking to park
- Playing catch
- Jumping
- Dancing
- Climbing
- Kicking balls
- Freeze dancing
- Slides and swings
Creative Activities
Similar to physical activity, creative activity helps your toddler grow in a healthy manner. These activities help young kids explore their senses, learn new skills, build memory and expand imagination. Creative activities involve:
- Playdoh
- Building blocks
- Magnetic tiles
- Chalk drawing
- Painting
- Pretend play
- Sticker art collage
- Tear and stick
- Coloring sheets
Fun and Involved Activities
Fun activities are great ways to get your three years old toddlers involved in different family activities. These activities also promote quality time with your little kids. These activities include:
- Bake together
- Create and play obstacle games
- Tell stories
- Craft together
- Cook together
- Create and play tape games
- Target practice
- Treasure hunt
- Scavenger hunt
Development Activities
Development activities are activities that support the development of skills like problem-solving, linguistic and cognitive thinking. These activities include:
- Identifying objects
- Naming animals
- Matching objects
- Matching shadows
- Big or small games
- Back or front games
- Matching colors to everyday objects
- Naming body part game
Independency Activities
As the name suggests, independency activities promote independence for your three years old. They will learn to do things alone and develop different life-skills at young age. These activities include:
- Put away toys
- Organize bookshelves
- Make beds
- Fold clothes
- Put away dirty plates and cups
- Pick up trash
- Help to put away groceries
- Quiet play time
- Pick out clothes and packing
Pick the right activities for your three years old
While there are many great activities, not all of them will work for you and your toddlers. Below are a few tips to help you pick the right activities that will best suit your family.
- Your toddler’s interest: we must understand our kids’ desires and interests because it will help inspire them to learn independently. Practice makes perfect, so if your toddler loves to do certain activities, let them do it over and over again. You will be amazed at how good they will become. Most importantly, none of us like to be forced into doing things we hate. So do our children. Let their imagination grows wild.
- Budget: only some activities are budget friendly for everyone. The goal is not to go broke trying to create an activity you see on the internet. Your toddler loves to play with you, so super expensive toys and activity kits are unnecessary. It is highly suggested that you work with what you already have at home.
- Space and area: some physical activities require lots of space. If you are limited in space, find a creative way around it. Also, you would not want to encourage running and jumping if you were living on the top floor. It is important to consider others while trying to enjoy fun activities with your kids. This will be a valuable lesson for them as well.
Keys Take Away
- It is not easy to be parents of an energetic three years old, but it doesn’t have to be painful. There are many fun and easy activities to do with your toddlers and create stronger bonds with them.
- Choosing suitable activities for your kids is very important because it will spark their creativity and boost development.
Happy parenting! Comment your favorite activities you do with your toddlers, and share this article with whom you think might be benefited.
