Keeping children busy: what can you do with 2 year olds? Game ideas, activities and handicraft suggestions

Many parents find it difficult to keep their children busy at home, especially in times of the Corona. After all, what can you do with 2-year-olds when the zoo and playgrounds are closed? We are happy to help and offer 25 fun game ideas, activities and handicraft suggestions for toddlers between 2 and 3 years of age. They can be achieved with household items and you don’t have to spend anything on them. In this way, you can keep your children busy in an age-appropriate manner if you cannot go out because of curfews. With these tips you will ensure fun and a good mood, encourage creativity and help parents find time for themselves.

Keep 2 year old children busy: Funny handicraft and game ideas

Everyone is at home and the parents are facing a major challenge. When kindergartens are closed and games outside are also canceled, frustration quickly arises, especially with toddlers. Anyone who not only struggles with bad-tempered children, but also has to work from home, quickly feels overwhelmed. A daily plan then comes to the rescue. Plan activities and breaks in between. We’ll show you game ideas for the whole family, but also ideas on how the children can keep themselves busy. As an introduction to the topic of “ideas what to do with children” we offer you an idea for puppet theater. You can make funny dolls out of paper bags and cardboard and play your favorite fairy tales for the children.

Employing a 2-year-old child: a racecourse made of kitchen paper rolls

What else can you do with a 2 year old child? It’s not a baby, but neither is it a toddler. It can understand a lot and now has its own interests and favorite toys, but it cannot yet clearly express its preferences. For 2-year-olds, the games must therefore be uncomplicated and at the same time develop fine motor skills. The next game idea is perfect for toddlers. Empty the toy box, cut paper towels in two and glue them to the edge of the box with glue. The racetrack is ready. Most toddlers love homemade toys and are guaranteed to be happy.

What can you do with a 2 year old child? Play fishing

Do you have scraps of felt in the house? Then you can make a fishing game for your child. The game is ideal for toddlers because it promotes fine motor skills and can be played alone or in groups. Of course, it’s twice as much fun when mom and dad play along too. But it’s just as exciting when older siblings show the toddler how to play the game. For the fishing game you will need the following materials:

• A template for fish that you can download from the web or make yourself.
• Felt fabric, different colors
• Googly eyes (or black and white cardboard)
• scissors
• Glue or hot glue
• Disc magnet (from the craft shop or if you have fridge magnets, then you can use these)
• Metal bottle cap (one piece for each fish)
• Schaschlick skewer made of wood or a stick
• twine

This is how the fishing game is made: Cut out fish of different sizes from the felt material. You need two equally sized pieces for each fish. First place the first fish part on the work surface, then place the magnet on top and the second fish part on top. Glue the fish pieces together so that the magnets stay inside. Then glue on a wiggle eye. Hang the magnet on the end of the sausage skewer (cut off the pointed side to be on the safe side). complete!

Employment for 2-year-olds: game idea that promotes fine motor skills

Help every frog find their way home! You will need the following materials for the game:

• Cardboard, white
• Cardboard in green, orange and yellow
• Perforator
• 3 frog figures, one green, one orange and one yellow.
• 3 house-shaped erasers
• dice

This is how the fun game is made: Use the hole punch to make circles out of the yellow, orange and green cardboard. Glue a circle to each side of the cube and glue the remaining circles to the white cardboard with a distance of 5 cm from each other. All yellow circles form the first, all orange the second and all green the third row. Glue the three erasers at the very top and ask the child to throw the dice. Depending on which side of the cube is facing up, the child has to move the respective frog. For example, if yellow is pointing up, move the yellow frog forward, if green is pointing the green, etc..

Keep 2-year-old children busy: Build a Lego table yourself

Playing with Lego is fun for children of all ages. But so that the individual components are not lost and building is twice as fun, you can build a Lego table yourself. Ikea tables that you just have to give an update are ideal. If you have several children, you can opt for a long table. So every child plays at one end and they don’t keep fighting for more space. Place a Lego base plate on the table. You can put large toy boxes under the table and several Skädis containers with lids can be used to store tiny Lego pieces.

Activities for 2-year-olds: Colorful window pictures or wall decorations with paper tape

Most children have great fun doing handicrafts, as long as the handicraft idea is of course age-appropriate. A cool handicraft suggestion for all children is to make colorful window pictures or wall decorations with paper tape. Simply cut out a fish template from colored cardboard and stick a smaller template made of white cardboard onto it. Cut pieces of tape of different colors and ask the children to use it to decorate the fish. You can also use rhinestones or aluminum foil as decoration. However, it is very important that the children only do handicrafts under parental supervision, otherwise there is a risk that they will swallow rhinestones, aluminum foil or adhesive tape. If you want to be on the safe side, ask the child to paint the fish.

Keeping toddlers busy at home: painting with ice cubes and mega blocks

A fun game idea that requires few materials:

• Food coloring
• Mega blocks
• Ice cube mold

Simply dissolve the food colors in several bowls and pour them into the ice cube mold (try not to mix the individual colors). Put a Lego block in each shape and leave it in the freezer overnight. The next day, place an old white T-shirt on the work surface and take the cubes out of the refrigerator. The Lego blocks serve as handles and prevent children’s hands from freezing. The painting can begin.

What can you do with 2-year-olds: Dealing with self-made puzzles from color samples

Do you have color samples from the last home renovation? Cut the multicolored color cards in half. Have the children put the puzzle back together by finding the matching pieces. Puzzles are a popular activity that develops fine motor skills and memory. With the self-made puzzle you bring variety into everyday life and the child will certainly look forward to it.

Keeping children busy at home: making a pegging game yourself

Plug-in games promote the development of fine motor skills in toddlers. In the first three years of their lives in particular, they learn by trying out what is possible and what is not. If you have pipe insulation or old water pistols at home, you can also make a plug-in game yourself. You need the following materials:

• Pipe insulation or optional kitchen paper rolls
• Drinking straws
• Pipe cleaners
• Wooden clip
• Other items of your choice

Cut the pipe insulation into several pieces and have the children stick the straws, pipe cleaners, and clothespins inside. If you use kitchen paper rolls, you can first make holes of different sizes for the various objects and then ask the child to find the right hole for each object. It’s a fun game idea that can only be played under the supervision of parents.

Games with 2 year old children: make ships out of household items

You will need a deep plastic bowl or saucepan, 3 wine corks, string, bath sponge, construction paper, and toothpicks. Cut out a triangle for the sail from the cardboard. A toothpick serves as a mast. So that the ship really floats in the water, you can glue three wine corks together or tie them together with string. You can also use a dish sponge.

Have the child play with the ships and move them around in the water. But don’t let them play with water, toothpicks and other small objects without supervision. If you wish, you can also use plastic bottle lids as islands. This makes the game more complicated and fine motor skills are encouraged again.

Make a dollhouse for role play with the children

Making a dollhouse yourself is a foolproof task. Two-year-old children are just starting to role-play, and a doll’s house is ideal for this. In this way, everyday situations can be dealt with and social skills can be practiced in a playful way. A self-made doll’s house should therefore ideally have all the rooms in your own home. So you can give the child different tasks, for example: Now all the dolls make breakfast together, now they clean up. The baby goes to sleep after lunch, the parents read a book, etc..

A doll’s house made of cardboard can be painted as desired, decorated with stickers and creatively furnished. And best of all: You can always tinker new rooms together with the child. Let your imagination run wild and create a beautiful and colorful dollhouse for your child.

What can you do with 2 year olds? Actually a lot. If your state has a curfew or you just don’t feel like going out on the weekend, you can keep your child busy at home. In the photo gallery you will find numerous suggestions for games and activities.

Make a dollhouse yourself

Make a throwing game with rings from disposable plates and paint with the children

Employment for 2 year olds: Build a wooden race track yourself

Make stamps from marshmallows and food coloring yourself

Employment for 2-year-olds: tinker with car wash

Game ideas for babies and toddlers: fill golf balls into 5 liter bottles

Game ideas for 2 year olds: grocery store from Ikea shelf 

Game ideas for small children: hide and seek with toys

Activities for 2 year olds: organize a picnic in the living room

What to do with 2-year-olds: Build a tent in the living room

Play ideas for toddlers: crafting with clay