Activities for toddlers at home
Activities for toddlers and 3 year olds
| Activity | What kind | What a child does | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rainy Day Box | Make | Cards of forts, crafts, games and experiments with things most homes have, each saying how long, how messy and what a grown-up does. | 3 and up |
| Dot-to-dot | Puzzle | Join the numbers and a picture appears. Counting practice with a pencil. | 3 to 8 |
| Shadow match | Puzzle | Match each picture to its shadow: looking closely, with no reading needed. | 3 to 6 |
| Odd one out | Puzzle | Find the one that does not belong, and say why. | 3 to 6 |
| Coloring pages | Make | Pictures to color on screen or print for the table. | 3 to 10 |
| Trace letters | Make | Trace capital letters, starting with the first letter of your name. | 3 to 5 |
| The Art Studio | Make | Crayons, paint and coloring on the screen. | 3 to 10 |
| No-bake recipes | Cook | Food small hands can make with no oven: mix, spread, stack and eat. | 3 to 8 |
| The library | Read | Free stories by reading level, to read together or alone, with no account. | 3 and up |
| Short bedtime stories | Read | Stories short enough for one more before lights out. | 3 to 8 |
| Peabody TV | Read | The library's books as read-along shows. | 3 to 7 |
| Preschool learning games | Play | Tap-to-play games where every question is said aloud, so no reading is needed. | 3 to 5 |
Ideas that need nothing at all
- A shape hunt: one circle, one square and one triangle in the room you are in.
- Rhyming pairs: say "cat" and wait for hat, bat or a made-up one.
- Counting the stairs on the way up to bed, and the grapes on the plate.
- Copy me: clap a pattern, stamp a pattern, and swap who leads.
- Read the same book again. A toddler loves the same story twenty times, and every time is practice.
Screens and toddlers
The World Health Organization advises no sedentary screen time for 1-year-olds, and no more than an hour for 2-year-olds, less being better. So this page leads with things off the screen: cooking, coloring, stories read aloud, songs and the Rainy Day cards. When a screen does come on for a 3 year old, the preschool learning games say every question aloud and need only a tap, and a grown-up beside them makes it a shared thing. More in screen time that teaches.
Safety with little ones
The Rainy Day Box marks the cards with small parts (marbles, rice and beans, acorns, coins, googly eyes) for homes with children under 3, and food cards say to cut grapes small for under-4s. Scissors, the oven and anything hot are always a grown-up's job.
Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
Questions parents ask
What can I do with my toddler at home today?
A no-bake snack together, a coloring page, a shape hunt round the room, a song, and a short story read aloud. None of those needs a screen or anything you would have to buy.
What age is this page for?
Toddlers with a grown-up, and 3 year olds. From about 3 most of the rows work with a little help, and activities for 3 year olds and 4 year olds go on from here.
Can a toddler use the games?
Peabody's games start at about 3, and only with a grown-up. Under 3, the screen-free rows above suit far better.
Are these toddler activities free?
Yes. Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
Teacher? Share this page to Google Classroom. Children open it with no sign-up.
Checked against how Peabody works on 6 November 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher. How Peabody's pages are made.