Do it yourself games for toddlers

The game is over when they find an egg and receive their prizes. One of the most popular fall festival games is bobbing for apples. However, if having children stick their mouth in a tub of water grosses you out, try this old British take on the game.

Hang the apples from strings instead of using a bucket of water, and only allow one child to try for one apple, so other kids' mouths aren't going for the same apple. Another hygienic option is to catch apples with small nets. Use the bucket of water and stick the apples in for bobbing. Instead of kids using their mouths to get the apples out, they'll have to use a small net instead.

This is perfect for smaller children who are working on their coordination skills. For older children, make it more challenging by blindfolding them. Make your own bean bag toss game, in which a bean bag making it in the hole means the participants win a prize. If you would like to give players more than one shot at winning, add more holes to the boards and paint rings around the different holes to represent prize tiers.

For example, the hole at the top center is the hardest to get the bag through, so paint a red ring that signifies that the winner gets a big prize.

Paint blue rings on the second row to indicate a medium-sized prize and yellow rings on the bottom row, which are the closest and easiest to hit, so the winner gets a small prize. There's something about a spinning wheel that draws a crowd of young and old. Additionally, you can theme the wheel for the festivities—for Halloween, you could put ghost and pumpkins on a wheel and ask the player to choose one. If the wheel lands on the one they've chosen, they win a prize.

Alternatively, if you want players to try for specific prizes, put pictures of the prizes on the wheel. If it's not the number the player has called, that number of candy pieces goes into a pot. The next player then calls a number. Repeat until the wheel finally lands on a player's number and they win the candy loot.

This classic homemade carnival game is one of the simplest on the list. You only need three plastic cups and a small ball to play. Show the ball to your player, then put it under a cup, and switch the cups around. The player tries to follow the cup that has the ball underneath. When you're done moving the cups, the player taps the top of the cup they think the ball is in.

Lift the cup, and if the ball is there, they win a prize. Another option is to use a piece of cardboard to hide all of the cups from your player. Place the ball under any cup and then remove the cardboard. Instead of moving the cups around, the player will guess which cup is hiding the ball.

This version is easier for smaller children, especially if you increase their odds of winning by hiding an extra ball under more than one of the cups. To set up a lollipop pull, buy a large number of lollipops and use markers to color the bottom of the lollipop sticks. You'll also need some hay. Place all of the lollipops into the hay, colored end side down. Participants come up one by one and pull a lollipop. Hand out the prize you've designated for that color lollipop stick.

Make the game hard by only coloring a few lollipop sticks and leaving the rest white. Only players who pull a lollipop with a colored stick will win. For an easier game, color the bottom of every lollipop stick, using different colors to indicate separate prize tiers. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Bean bank. Check your pantry for a bag of dried beans. Then get an empty water bottle or some other container with a small opening. This can also be a great way to teach numbers.

Alphabet fishing. Fill a large bucket with water. Feel free to add a few drops of blue food coloring so it looks like pond water. Then hand your toddler a mini sieve, colander, or slotted spoon, and ask her to fish out the letters into a bowl. As she does, she can name the letters or you could help her spell out some short words like dad or cat. Sink or swim experiments. Fill a large tub with water and add a bit of blue food coloring. It should be a balance between items that have some weight, like toy cars, and others that are quite light, like foam balls.

Before adding each item to the tub of water, ask your toddler to guess whether it will sink to the bottom or swim at the top. This will be a fun learning game that could get quite splashy! Trace various shapes onto felt. To make it easier you can use variously shaped cookie cutters or create your own shapes. Cut the shapes out and then cut each shape in half. Have your toddler match the different halves. Use different colored felt to make the art project even more colorful.

If you need to keep your toddler busy for a short period of time, such as on a day when you happen to be working from home , the following ideas can help occupy his hands and mind for a while:. Sticker art. Give your toddler some construction paper and a sheet of stickers or colored labels and let him go to town creating sticker art.

DIY marble maze. To create a maze for your toddler, glue some paper straws onto a square piece of cardboard that will fit inside a large gallon-size resealable plastic bag. Make sure that you glue the straws in a way that creates a maze.

Then add a marble, seal the bag, and let your toddler practice getting the marble out of the maze. Sorting box. Give the box to your toddler with a bowl of plastic balls in different colors and have him drop and sort the balls by color.

Excavation site. Fill a large tub with sand. Then let your toddler dig around and excavate all the hidden items. Card dealer. Cut a slot into a large canister, like an oatmeal canister. Let your toddler insert playing cards one by one into the slot.

Building block bath. This could be a fun activity for bathtime. Just remember to never leave your child unattended in or near water. Bubble jar. Fill a jar with water, some liquid soap, and a few drops of food coloring. Tighten the lid, and let your toddler have some fun shaking the jar and watching the colorful bubbles form inside. Color sorting. Get a package of colorful pompoms and pour them into a bowl.

Hand your toddler a pair of tongs and have him sort the pompoms by color into an empty egg carton or muffin tin. Stackable cups. Get your toddler a package of paper or plastic cups, the more colorful the better, and ask him to stack up a big tower as high as he can go.

If the cups are different colors, he may even sort them and stack multiple towers separated by color. Gelatin aquarium. Refrigerate over night. The next day, your little one can dig around in his "aquarium," trying to pick out his toys, and he can even eat some of the gelatin. Button art. Regardless of the time of year, kids love games! Below are ten of our favorites. Milk Jug Ball Catcher — Turn empty milk jugs into fun ball catchers that you can use indoors or out.

Travel-Friendly Paper Plate Game — This fun game is designed to be portable enough to play in the car or on a plane. No reading required! Rock Dominoes — Head outside to collect rocks, then use them to make your own set of dominoes. So fun!