21 activities for one year olds
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Today I present you with my darling angel and 21 of her favorite activities for one year olds. I am reminiscing about my sweet daughter’s second year of life. Her year as a one year old. She is excited to be a big girl and join in with my son’s preschool time, so I always make sure to get an age appropriate activity out for her. My daughter is very different from my son. She enjoys these little time-busting activities and gets very intense and excited about them.
Almost all of these activities for one year olds can use items that you already have in your home! Most of them are completely free and absolutely easy!!
Some activities may include small pieces — as with any activity with your children, please ensure your child is supervised at all times!!
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Have many books available for reading and chewing.
Playing with yogurt.
Make a treasure bin full of themed or various items for your baby. We just had ribbons in this one. (Here are 14 more treasure basket ideas.)
Playing with rice.
Fitting poms in a cut out container.
Painting with water.
Tearing out the wipes.
Putting paper pieces, yarn, or poms onto sticky contact paper.
Stacking shapes (this is a Lauri shape sorter).

Rings in water (supervision required!)
Sticking pom magnets to a tin cup. (These are homemade.)
Placing rocks into a cupcake tin.
Letter magnets on a cookie sheet.
Sticking foam hearts onto the window. (See how at Fun at Home with Kids.)
Fitting little washcloths into a wipe container and taking them out again.

Edible paint for baby.
Tonging poms into an ice tray.

Stacking shapes (this is a Melissa & Doug shape sorter).

Noodles into a colander.
Do a Dot markers on paper.
Fitting bottle tops and caps into a cut cereal box.
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I LOVE this post. Gives me so many ideas for my 10.5 month old. I’m going to do the water painting tomorrow!
I hope your child loves it :) We should do it again soon too !!
Great post! My one year old loves the noodles + colander idea and spent about an hour doing it today. Fun!
Thanks, Laura, how fun!!! Sometimes they just love the simplest activities :)
use pipe cleaners instead of noodles, easier to clean up
This is the best post for one year old activities that I’ve seen! Incredible job! Thank you!
Thank you Theresa :) :)
It’s getting ready to down-pour tomorrow, so I was searching for play ideas. These are so cute! Can’t wait to try them. Thank you!
so colorful and creative…especially water painting…just wonder if baby will be chewing the pom pom….anyway….this was fun, i was looking for ideas too!
So glad I found your printables on pinterest! My 10 month old is quickly approaching one year old energy. I scrolled through this post and some of things she already does. Great, cute ideas to keep babies busy.
Great ideas, I have been struggling to find things to do with my 13 month old. She is also still a big fan of putting things in her mouth…I’m going to try some of these ideas this week!
It is so do-able.. Absolutely loved each and every idea!
Thanks so much!
Super creative and I love how its all stuff from around the house.
Great ideas! Do want to mention this:
BE SUPER CAUTIONS WITH MAGNETS AND POM POMS
Swallowed magnet is instant trip to the emergency room. Pom poms are massive choking hazards.
Specifically when you have younger babies that still eat things.
Yes I have mentioned that supervision is always required for these activities.