Are you a parent looking for indoor activities for 18 months old baby or younger?
We have listed some easy and quick indoor activities for toddlers.
These activities will keep them entertained for a long time, and they can be prepared at home.
At one and a half years old, babies start to crawl, try to walk, and explore things around them. They also tend to put things in their mouth or play with smaller objects. They don’t have a sense of fear or danger.
Hence, it is essential to prepare age-appropriate activities to prevent your babies from harming themselves, especially when you take your eye away from them.
The activities listed below can help toddlers quickly learn new skills and can be a great bonding activity between parents and babies. It is also suitable for their intellectual development.
Fun Indoor Activities for 18 Months Old Baby
Play Dough and Shapes
The 18-month-old toddlers are expected to play with soft toys. The best toy to play with and learn is by making dough pom poms. The dough has beautiful colours and a fantastic smell.
Babies tend to be attracted to the colourful dough. The plastic structure made in the shape of the alphabet is engraved in the dough, giving the baby a sense of pleasure and a fun activity that keeps the baby busy for a long time.
The parents widely accept and encourage the play dough and shapes due to their safety and healthy indoor activities.
These activities enhance the movements and coordination of the babies. Moreover, these activities are learning and fun with the different shapes such as stars, animals, and various exciting shapes.
Here’s an example of amazingly beautiful and colour-enhancing doughs for babies:
Colouring Books
Colouring books are the best way to introduce baby to books and pencils. Babies at the age of 18 months old love colours. The emerging senses and vision are enhanced with different colours.
Colouring books are the best indoor activities. Baby has a wide variety of coloured pencils, which helps baby to differentiate in the visual senses.
It is among the favourite things of toddlers. The grip of the pencils and movements on the pages allow the baby to develop new skills. The Activity helps the baby and parents in their education.
Parents encourage colouring books and pencils as this help develop a sense of education-related stuff and fine motor skills. The colouring book has a variety of stories and characters.
It helps the baby recognise daily life items such as veggies, fruits, flowers, cars, furniture, etc. These are the cheap and safe item that indulge the child in healthy indoor Activity and helps the baby develop newer skills.
On the other hand, it can cause a hazard for parents when a child starts to finger paint or draw on walls and furniture. Once the baby begins drawing, stopping them is a hell of a job.
Sensational learning and colouring for babies. The white and black are turned into magical colours that put life to the pages with the baby’s vision:
No Messy Activities for 18-Month-Old Baby
Soft Balls
Soft balls of various kinds are present in the market. The different sizes, shapes, and colours are current for the entertainment of the 18-month-old baby. Softballs can be played indoors, and it is a strengthening physical activity.
Softballs are less likely to cause any kind of harm either to a baby or the surroundings. Softball can be played without any mess on the floor. It is played by throwing the ball toward the baby or the baby throwing the ball at the wall.
It may need force and Physical Activity of the baby as it is a positive muscle-building exercise for the baby. The softballs should be kept in clean areas as the baby sometimes start chewing softballs.
Softballs can be played in gatherings and with people by creating a ball pit, and It does not extend the burden of cleaning parents. Baby picks the ball and puts in the effort and energy with the ball. Softballs can give babies an exciting feeling that spreads happiness.
Hide and Seek
Hide and seek is a game played between the baby and the parents. It does not require any particular instrument or toy for playing. It is a simple game as the baby tries to hide, and the parents or siblings try to find the baby.
This game makes the toddler happy to see the face of their parents. Mostly, the parents play peek-a-boo by putting a sheet on the baby and surprising them with excitement by saying “Boo!” which makes the baby happy and energised.
Hide and seek does not make such a mess as the baby cannot turn things around or make a mess. The baby hides under prominent places like beds, chairs, curtains, etc. However, the baby may touch and come in contact with certain things, but it does not create a mess.
Baby runs all around the space and lets the parent catch them. The happiness of the baby is unmatchable after being found. The baby runs and tries to escape the room and find a space behind the door.
Sensory Indoor Activities for 18 Months Old Baby
Simon Says
Simon says it is a game that simultaneously makes children obey commands and makes them happy. The baby is asked to touch the body part such nose, ear, lips, etc.
If the baby cannot correctly identify the part of the body, the baby is either taught about the position or rephrased the command. The command is given to the baby as “Simon says touch the nose.”
Simon says she is in the sensory perception game. The parents help the baby learn and improve their sensory perception of the baby. It enables the baby to develop a sense of nouns and a dance party for a baby.
Building Blocks
The building block game is the task of building with the help of colourful blocks. The blocks come in various shapes and colours.
The baby picks up the different leagues and stacks them upon one another. It arranges the unions, which helps them improve the sensory bin of the baby to arrange proper shapes.
It is a sensory activity in which the baby chooses different shapes and different textures of the blocks. It helps the baby develop solid sensory reflexes with little hands or arranging blocks or symmetrical household items.
The beautiful and cute babies pretend to play while they throw, build, and play with the building blocks. The baby’s ambition to build a castle for him and become a king is so strong that they can develop their castle all day without being tired. It is considered one of the best activities!
Mimicking Animal Sounds
This game comprises sounds of different animals, which provoke the baby to recognise different types of animals.
It will play the audio of an animal sound through the musical instrument, for example, a cat meowing, then tell your toddler, ‘ Woah! It’s a cat’. It’s a fun way for kids to recognise and differentiate between different types of animal sounds.
The skill that a child develops through this fun activity is the sound recall and sound-object association. Sensory perception becomes stronger with time, and the child can recognise the object by merely hearing the voice.
Baby’s excitement about listening to the roar of the lion and the meow of the cat is addicting. The baby continuously pushes the button to listen to the sounds of animals, which is much more fun. These are the favourite indoor activities for toddlers.
You can also introduce musical instruments and tell them what each device sounds like.
Family Photo Activity
One of the essential senses of a human is vision, and visual memory reinforcement is significant to be developed in the toddler stage.
For this purpose, there s a great fun activity for kids. That is helping your child to build face recognition and recall old activities by showing him family pictures.
It helps the baby to recognise faces. Every time you point out the face, mention the relationship and ask your toddler to repeat it. These are simple indoor toddler activities.
Easy to prepare indoor activities for an 18-month-old
Fishing Game for Toddler
It is an easy game for a toddler that takes only 5 minutes to create the setup. You need cardboard thread, scissors and a box. Cut the cardboard into fish shapes and of different colours. Attach the line with each fish using a glue stick and throw them all in a box.
Some tanks also add water beads, which appear colourful, attractive, and new to the little kids.
Now command your child to pick one specific coloured fish from the box.
Your toddler is going to love this fishing. Play and enjoy the moment. The colourful fish in the moving tank can be challenging for babies, but they can fish with excellent hand-eye coordination.
Matching Socks
kids love to perform simple activities. So here s a new indoor game idea. Take 5 to 6 pairs of socks and mix them. Now ask your toddler to practice pairing up socks of the same shape and colour.
Colourful cartooned socks work great for kids. They enjoy watching them, and it’s an excellent way to keep them busy for a while. It is a great activity that helps develop cognitive skills.
Build a Fort
Young toddlers love to play with the soft and fluffy pillows in the house. Build a fort of pillows around the baby and let the baby hide and climb on the pads or cardboard box.
The fort can also be built with the sheets. The sheets are arranged mainly in a triangular form. The parents mostly use a torch inside the fortress.
Babies love to hide in the fortress, and most sleep there at night.
Montessori Activity For 18-Month-Old
Practice Climbing
Montessori is a place where the kid’s activities are under the supervision of professionals. Hence activities here are great for developing motor skills in your child.
Just like running or dancing, climbing is a great motor skill for kids. It requires precision and the decision of the kid. It is a great way to help promote coordination and balance.
Starting from climbing small steps, your kid will learn efficiently. Then you just wait and watch him climbing and jumping repeatedly.
Reading Practices
The first words of an 18-month-old baby are unique, and reading is an all-time favourite activity and language skill for young children.
At 18 months, your kid will start showing interest in playing with books and learning new words. In this way, they will build excellent language skills.
Buy them good storybooks and read out loud to them. Ask them about which book they liked or which is their favourite.
This will gradually develop an interest in them to self-read it. Eventually, it will turn into a book-reading habit that is wonderful for your kid’s development.
Read Nursery Rhymes aloud and repeat them in front of your toddler so he can memorise them and read them to you. The reading can start from the big pictures and small words to poems and short stories.
The slow and steady way of learning the alphabet and words can lead to the reading of the stories in just a few months.
Importance of Playing with 18-Month-Old
The developmental age is 15 to 18 months, so many brain changes occur. The ability to learn and memorise and recognise things is brilliant. Therefore, promoting educational and fun learning activities is a good idea for parents.
This is the age when you expect attachment, curiosity, learning new words and sentences, recognise people, independent walking, and spending quality time.
Hence this period requires playing outside with other kids, playing with things, and accepting challenges that keep your baby a “busy toddler.”
Playing has a significant impact on the solid development of a child. It helps in decision-making and solving everyday problems that a kid face. It also improves the physical skills and sensory experience of a toddler.
It is essential to keep toddlers away from small plastic balls and bags, as they can swallow them. Also, keep your shaving cream away from toddlers, as it can be mistakenly considered edible cream by toddlers.
Be there for your child, encourage social play, listen to your child, read with your child and understand the signs your child is going through. That’s what excellent parenting is.
FAQ
Q: How long should I play with an 18-month-old baby?
Answer: Only play with a toddler for a short time. You should play with the 18-month-old baby until your baby gives signs of tiredness. You should know when your child gets irritable and grumpy, leave the Activity and soothe him or make him sleep.