Last Updated: May 30, 2024 | Mama’s Shell
Recently, my firstborn hit the one-year mark. Her first lapse into toddlerhood gave me overwhelming joy and a headache. As a fully activity-loving toddler, she needs new things every moment to explore. A bunch of toys can’t entertain her throughout the day. It gives me a real pain in the neck when she gets bored of her toys and starts exploring the house randomly filled with pieces of stuff she shouldn’t touch. To prevent her from doing so, I planned many engaging activities that would keep her busy for a long time.
I crawled the web and researched all the developmental milestones and activities of a 12-month-old toddler. Then, I improvised some activity ideas that helped my toddler practice her milestones properly. When I planned some activities for my 12-month-old, I kept five criteria in mind. These are:
- Simplified Setup: Planning all activities around a single object to avoid the hassle of rearranging play setups with new materials when my baby becomes bored with one activity.
- Developmentally-Aligned Engagement: All activities should be aligned with my 12-month-old’s milestones.
- Prolonged Toddler Entertainment: Activities should engage my toddler for an extended period of time. (at least 45 to 60 minutes altogether)
- Economical Activity Materials: The stuff used to execute the activities should be budget-friendly.
- Efficient Prep Time Approach: The prep time should be minimal.
According to the criteria, I planned ten activities using paper as the main ingredient. Single-item play relieves mom’s trouble setting different arrangements simultaneously with multiple objects. In addition, playing with the same object in various ways encourages a toddler to be innovative.
Let’s begin.
Painting on paper
This is the most traditional activity for any age of toddlers. 12-month-old babies are fascinated by activities that show cause-and-effect situations. Painting promotes that situation expressively.
Ingredients: Paper, color, Brush (I used my expired lipstick instead of colour and brush)
Prep time: 0 minutes. (Manage the colour and paper beforehand.)
Playtime: at least 10 minutes (If you want it to be mess-free)
Observance: Supervision is a must. (As a 12-month-old baby, she still loves everything to put in her mouth.)
Milestones: picking coloured brushes and using them helps to practice a 12-month-old’s pincer grasp.
Playing with Crumpled Paper Balls
This is one of the super easy activities. Just take a piece of paper of any size and wind it up into your handful. Make as many as your toddler wants. Your toddler will throw these new balls in front of the wall or over the floor.
Ingredients: Paper only.
Prep time: 2 seconds per ball.
Playtime: 5 to 6 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This simple activity will allow them to work on their gross motor skills, like crawling and moving their arms and legs.
Fetching Paper Balls by Crawling
When my toddler was 12 months old, she still hadn’t gathered the courage to take independent steps. Instead of working on walking, she seemed more active in crawling. If your toddler is like mine, this activity would be a great physical activity that would tire your toddler, burn their calorie, and grow craving for food. Just throw the previously-made paper balls around themselves and instruct them to fetch them. You can show them how to fetch those balls by crawling if they ignore your instructions.
Ingredients: Paper only.
Prep time: 2 seconds per ball. (you may need some more time if you prepare DIY paper stars.)
Playtime: 8–10 minutes.
Observance: As an interactive play, a caregiver’s involvement is necessary.
Milestones: This simple yet effective activity helps the 12-month-olds to achieve and practice their
- Movement milestones through crawling
- Hand and finger skill milestones through picking balls
- language milestones by paying increasing attention to the given instruction and responding to it accordingly.
- cognitive milestones by exploring and fetching the balls from different spots.
Finding Objects Inside Paper Balls
Wait a minute. Don’t throw those paper balls after your toddler plays with them. You can still use them by introducing a new kind of activity. Just grab some lightweight, harmless small objects like caps of bottles, blocks, pasta, erasers, caps of pens, etc., and wrap them with paper, just like chocolate. Your toddler will enjoy discovering different kinds after unfolding the wrap.
Ingredients: Paper, different-shaped, small, smooth-edged, lightweight objects
Prep time: 5 minutes.
Playtime: 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the number of wraps.)
Observance: supervision is a must.
Milestones: This activity will help them work on their hand and finger skills milestones. In addition, the exploration of different objects by unwrapping them also promotes their cognitive milestones.
Pulling out Paper Ribbons
This is the most thriving activity for your toddler. However, this activity needs a little more prep time.
Check out here to arrange this activity for your little one.
Ingredients: paper, cardboard, and a paper cutter.
Prep time: 10 to 15 minutes.
Playtime: 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the number of ribbon cards).
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: promotes their milestones in hand and finger skills, especially pincer grasp. Also, they responded according to the instructions for pulling out the ribbons.
Tearing the pages
Most simple activity that needs no prep time at all. Just hand over the paper to your little one, and the rest of the duty is his to tear the pages apart. This will allow you to breathe, and your toddler will enjoy all that rustling sound of tearing pages.
Ingredients: Papers only.
Prep time: 0 minutes.
Playtime: 5–7 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: promotes their milestones in hand and finger skills.
Floating Paper Boats on Water
Now is the time to replace all those regular bathing toys with DIY paper boats to level up your toddler’s joy while bathing. This activity is fun and engaging if your toddler loves to be in the water for longer.
Check out here how to make a simple paper boat.
Ingredients: Paper only.
Prep time: 2 minutes for each paper-boat
Playtime: could be 30 minutes
Observance: supervision is a must. (as it’s a water-based activity).
Milestones: promotes their milestones in hand, finger, and cognitive skills as your toddler is introduced to a new object (a boat).
Playing with Paper Roll Tunnel
Roll a piece of paper and stick it to the wall with double-sided scotch tape. Instead of a wall, you can stick the paper roll similar to the wall where your toddler can reach. I stuck the roll on my wooden cupboard. Make small paper balls or stars that can easily roll inside the hole. That’s it. Now it’s your toddler’s turn to enjoy this activity to her heart’s content.
Ingredients: paper and double-sided scotch tape.
Prep time: 5 minutes. (You may need some more time if you prepare DIY paper stars).
Playtime: 10 to 15 minutes
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: encourage your 12-month-old to stand with support (especially beneficial for those early toddlers still practicing walking and standing up) and use their hand and finger skills.
Pulling out Objects
If your toddler gets exhausted and bored from the previous activity, you can pull another fascinating activity from your arsenal. Use the paper balls again and stick them on cardboard with scotch tape. Then, the rest of the duty is for your kiddo to pull them out.
Ingredients: paper, cardboard, and scotch tape.
Prep time: 5 minutes.
Playtime: around 10 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This activity encourages your new toddler to use their fingers more eagerly to pull out sticking objects.
Playing with the Jumping Frog
These DIY origami frogs need some time to prepare. However, this time would be worth it. When the frogs jumped in front of my toddler, she found it exhilarating and laughed a lot.
Check out here how to make a DIY jumping frog.
Ingredients: Paper and markers are used to draw the eyes of the frogs (optional).
Prep time: 5 minutes per frog.
Playtime: 10–15 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This activity promotes their hand, finger, milestones, and cognitive skills as your toddler is introduced to a new animal (a frog).
Putting Balls in the Container
Grab a container and twist off the lid of the container. Then, seal the jar with paper after cutting a circle out. Then get those paper balls again. Now, it’s your toddler’s time to put the balls into the container through the hole. You can give them different solid objects to put into the container, as the thudding sound of dropping objects will interest them more in the play.
Ingredients: paper, thin rope/ribbon, cardboard, and different small solid objects (optional).
Prep time: 5 minutes.
Playtime: 10–15 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This activity promotes their milestones in fine motor skills.
Putting on Paper Cones on Finger Tip
My little one helped me improvise this activity. A couple of days ago, when I was working with a cake nozzle with my 12-month-old, she was trying to put it on her fingertip and remove it. Then, I made some nozzle-like paper cones to put on the fingertips. We played a lot with those cones.
Ingredients: paper, scissors/paper cutters, scotch tape.
Prep time: 10–12 minutes.
Playtime: 15-20 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This activity promotes their milestones in fine motor skills.
Scrap Paper Cuts
If you tried all the activities mentioned with your toddler, you would generate a lot of paper scraps. Could you not throw them out in the dustbin? Those scraps could still entertain your toddler with great sensory play. Just produce a few more thin paper cuts and make a sensory bin. Hide small toys under the scraps. Your toddler would love to play this activity, too.
Ingredients: paper cuts, a paper cutter, a wide open container, and small toys.
Prep time: 10–15 minutes.
Playtime: 20–25 minutes.
Observance: supervision is necessary.
Milestones: This activity involves,
- Using your toddler’s senses, like sight, the sound of papers, and touch,.
- In addition, finding hidden objects will also help them work on their fine motor and cognitive skills.
That’s it. Here is the disclaimer: the playtime of each activity varies from toddler to toddler, depending on how suitable the playing arrangement is. I wrote it from my toddler’s perspective. However, if you can arrange all the setups and play with your toddler, you and your toddler will have a long enough engagement time. These activities will help your toddler’s milestone growth and strengthen your bond with them. I designed the setup so that even a busy mother can get effortless, less prep-time-based activity ideas for a 12-month-old baby so that both can spend quality time with each other.
