Best Toddler Activities for 16 to 18-Month-Olds

Best 16 to 18-Month-Old Toddler Activities for All SeasonHere are some of the best activities to support a toddler’s development from 16 to 18 months old. Many of these activities will continue to be engaging for months and even years to come! If you are looking for a great way to engage your toddler in sensory activities or develop fine motor skills then you are in the right place. I’ve broken these activities down into seasonal groupings to help inspire new ways to embrace the season you are in with your toddler. 

Spring and Summer Activities

Water Sensory Table

Water play is a perfect spring and summer toddler activitiy. It is a great sensory activity and a perfect way to cool off on a warm day without being able to be near a larger body of water. There are many water tables you can purchase, but you can also make one yourself as a simple DIY project. Plastic cups, smaller cups, bath toys, or sponges make great additions to a water play area. Since we set up our water table, I  have observed my twin boys (17 months old) exploring in so many ways. They are practicing pouring from different vessels, scooping up, dumping out, experiencing the sensation of being wet, and so many other ways their water table leads them to explore new things.

Sidewalk Chalk 

Around this age your toddler will likely start to mouth objects a little bit less and be more curious in using it as it is intended. But just to be sure, make sure to get a non-toxic chalk. Model how to use the chalk on the sidewalk and watch those little hands create some of their first outdoor creations. 

Digging in a Sandbox 

Offering sand is another way to introduce different textures to your child. Playing in the sand will be a new and exciting sensory experience for your toddler. Offer some sand toys like shovels and buckets. There are so many different ways to play in the sand, but I have seen my boys be most interested in scooping with a shovel or just enjoying the sensory experience of running their hands and toes through the sand. If you don’t have access to a sandbox, playing in the dirt is another fun way to engage your toddler outside! We were building a garden fence as a family and one of my boys sat in the dirt and dug for almost an hour. The world around us offers the best engaging activities. 

Filling a Bird Feeder

A fun practical life activity for the spring and summer is filling up a bird feeder. Put some bird feed into a smaller bucket, add some small scoops and show your toddler how to scoop into the bird feeder. This may get a little messy, but it is outside, so that is just fine!

Visit a Splash Pad

A splash pad is a perfect outing for your mobile toddler who loves to splash in water and run around. Splash pads offer an exciting aquatic expereince without the risk of drowning. You will likely find a splash pad in a local public park. We took our twins on a trip to a splash pad when we were vacationing in Texas and it was lots of fun for them to walk around and explore all the different interactive water fountains. If you are hoping to find safe ways to incorporate water activities into your summer schedule, consider finding a local splash pad. 

Visit the Zoo

A visit to a local zoo will offer many new experiences for your toddler. With all of the animals, there are many new opportunities for language development and learning new words. Consider a petting zoo or offer times out of the stroller when your child can move and explore more independently, with supervision of course. Allowing our child to explore at their own pace will give us more information about what their interests are. They will notice the crack in the sidewalk or the ant hill by the side of the bench. 

Bubbles

A bubble wand or an automatic bubble blower at this young age are great additions to your outdoor toddler activities. Bubbles are a simple yet exciting thing that will offer opportunities for observation as well as running around trying to pop or touch the bubbles. 

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Splashing in Rain Puddles

A need for exploration is what drives toddlers. They want to know and understand everything in the world around them. Playing out in the rain is an easy activity for 16-month-old toddlers and beyond! We were coming home from the grocery store while it was raining one day and my son discovered the gutter spout. He squatted down and put his hand in the water stream. I could see his gears turning wondering why there was water pouring out of this large metal straw that was attached to our house.

Children naturally want to explore and discover. They will do this all on their own if and when they are given the chance to. Allowing these experiences often requires me to check my attitude. It is easy to say no to something like playing in the rain. But it is important to look at why we are saying no. Maybe it is for safety reasons because there is a thunderstorm with lightning and we can’t stay outside. Then “no” is the right thing to say. But if “no” is our response because it is more inconvenient for us to have to change our toddler’s wet clothes maybe we need to reconsider every once in awhile.

The developing mind of a toddler loves to experience cause-and-effect relationships. Playing in the rain is a great example of cause and effect. When it rains, we get wet. When our clothes are wet we may feel uncomfortable and cold. We will need to change our clothes. This one activity of playing in the rain comes with so many possible learning experiences. The only thing we have to do to make it happen is to be open to the inconvenience of wet clothes.

Outdoor Snack 

Being outside seems to make any activity just that much more interesting. Consider having a snack outside. Prepare a blanket or picnic table to accommodate outdoor snacks. Enjoy observing the world around you while nourishing your body. You could allow your toddler opportunities to prepare the snack with you. They could pour their water into a cup or chop their fruit or veggie into smaller pieces with a wooden or wavy cutter. Use it as an opportunity to listen to different sounds and name those sounds. If you are lucky, maybe the mailman or garbage truck will drive by while you are outside!

Autumn and Winter Activities 

Depending on where you live, the wintertime will likely mean more time indoors. Continue to spend as much time outside as possible while you can. Here is a collection of activities that you can have for the fall and winter days as well as time spent indoors any time of the year!

Leaf Activities

Where we live in the Midwest, we get a beautiful autumn of yellows, reds, and oranges on our trees. These leaves fall to the ground and offer so many opportunities for play and work. First, your toddler may enjoy using a child’s rake to rake the leaves or attempt to. Additionally, you could use a small tray and collect leaves and then offer a leaf-tearing activity. Set this activity up on a tray with a small vessel to put the torn pieces of leaves into. Expect to have a bit of a mess to clean up after this activitiy. 

Snow Play

Depending on where you live, if you get snow, your child may enjoy playing in the snow. If they are stable enough on their feet with their snow gear on, offer a small child’s snow shovel. Even a small sand shovel would be fun for them. A natural part of where we live is dressing for the snow and colder weather. This creates many opportunities for practical life tasks of getting dressed to go outside. Offer a small bench or entryway suited to your toddlers’ size and needs. 

Water Jug with Ping-Pong Balls

A simple DIY activity is getting a large 5-gallon water jug and a pack of ping-pong balls. Get a pail or bin that you can invert the jug into for the balls to come out. Your toddler will enjoy dropping the ping-pong balls into this jug and dumping them out. You could also offer large pom poms for them to drop in, but that definately doesn’t have as fun of a sound. This jug has offered lots of additional gross motor activity. My boys love to carry it around the house.

Playdough 

One of my favorite ways to offer a sensory expereince for my boys is with homemade playdough. Even in the stages of putting some things in their mouth, they very quickly learned that they do not like the taste of salty homemade playdough. It is a great activity for sensory play and you can make it in all sorts of different colors. Take the time to model how to manipulate the play dough to your toddler. This can be a great way for family members to connect with your toddler in a meaningful way. I found them to mimic the actions I was doing. I was surprised at what a great learning expereince it turned out to be. This is a great way to support the development of hand-eye coordination.  

Food Preparation

Practical life activities, like helping to prepare food, are some of the most enjoyable things my children do. It immediately gets them engaged in something purposeful and helps develop so many skills. At first, expect it to be very clumsy. They will spend most of the time exploring and making connections with what they are doing. Some simple food preparations that we have worked on during these months are: peeling a banana, cutting a banana, spreading butter or peanut butter on toast, pouring water from a pitcher, and cutting a cucumber with a crinkle cutter.

Offering a variety of activities in the kitchen will help develop different movements for a child and refine their skills further. Consider investing in a toddler tower to help support independence and bring your child up to counter height. Check out this blog post for the best learning towers and to find one that meets your needs perfectly.

Drawing

At this stage, taping a piece of paper to a low weaning table or at their high chair with one or two crayons is the perfect introduction to drawing. We have been loving these non-toxic natural beeswax crayons. They give me peace of mind while my boys are still transitioning from putting things into their mouths. You can tape the paper to the table, which is a great way to avoid any unnecessary frustration with the paper sliding around. Especially when we introduce a new skill or activity like coloring, we can keep it very simple and basic. Bring out just one piece of paper and one crayon. Over time, we can offer more variety of colors, but in the beginning, one is just enough. 

Encouragement and Support

To say that 16 to 18 month toddlers are busy may be an understatement! They are in full-on explorer mode. We can support them with a prepared environment that has open shelving allowing them to see and choose from a variety of cause-and-effect toys, musical instruments, puzzles, books, and balls. The first step to helping keep our toddlers engaged is to prepare the environment around them in a way that supports their developmental skills, cognitive skills,  language skills, and physical development. For more information and ways to do this, download my free guide on how to create a Montessori home in 5 easy steps! I hope these fun toddler activities have given you some new ideas on ways to engage all the curiosity your toddler has.