Activities For 1 Year Olds

Your 1 year old is just learning to walk and discovering their world around them. They are playful and love touching and grabbing things. Spend time with your little one doing fun activities for 1 year olds that’ll boost their brain development. These activities for kids at home expose your little one to age-appropriate experiences through games. 

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of the best activities for 1 year olds. These activities for 1 year olds are a great way to stimulate them and teach them new things. It also encourages your baby to explore and interact. 

20 Best Activities for 1 Year Olds 

Here is a list of activities that your 1 year olds will surely love. 

1. Play music: Playing music is one of the best sensory activities for 1 year olds. Sit along with your little one and play various instruments like keyboards, violin or any other form of soothing music. Allow them to pay attention to the different sounds each instrument makes. Make them touch the musical instruments or allow them to concentrate on listening to different types of sounds around them. Not only is it fun and calming, but this activity improves your toddler’s listening skills.
2. Play in a tent: One of the best learning activities for 1 year olds is playing in a tent. You can make a tent with bed sheets or cardboard boxes. Add a few of their favorite toys and your little one might never want to come out of their tent. This is the best activity for 1 year olds to do at home. 
3. Make conversation: Have a conversation with your child, make it as animated as possible by using silly voices and names of comical characters. These speech-related activities for one year olds are a great way to develop their language and social skills. 
4. Touch Water and Sand:  One of the best sensory activities for 1 year olds is playing with water and sand. Fill a tub with water and another with sand and have your child touch and feel them. You can also give them some beach toys to make the activity more fun. But ensure that you watch them carefully and prevent them from putting the sand in their mouth.
5. Engage them in activities: Throw a ball to your child and have them bring it back to you, or even have them carry out simple errands like bringing you a cup, or a pair of shoes. These games for one year olds are a good way to help your child feel independent and accomplished.
6. Count Fingers & Toes: One of the most common activities for 1 year olds is finger and toe counting. Sit with them and touch and count their fingers and toes loudly. You can also sing a silly song to make the activity more fun. Activities like these help children learn to interact and also help them learn language skills.
7. Building blocks: One of the best activities for 1 year olds is playing with building blocks. Place a few blocks in front of your little one and have them build whatever they want. This gives them the opportunity to identify shapes and colors and also improves their motor skills, visual skills and hand-eye coordination. Check out colors for toddlers to help your little one learn about colors.
8. Play Peek-a-Boo: Another of the best games for 1 year olds is the famous Hide and Seek/Peek-a-boo game for kids. You can hide behind a chair or a table and have your child find you. You could even take turns hiding to make this game more fun. This game is not only fun but also improves your child’s observation and visual skills.
9. Molding Play Dough: This is one of the best learning activities for 1 year olds. Whether you buy it or make it, molding playdough is a great way to exercise the muscles in your child’s hands and improve their grip. You could also help them practice the shape of letters and numbers. 
10. Osmo Tangram: Osmo’s Tangram is one of the best games for kids to learn shapes and colors. In this interactive game, kids get to connect physical tiles to match the shapes on screen. While they might not understand it at first, they’ll slowly get the hang of it.
11.  Drawing: Hand over crayons to your child and have them scribble whatever they please. Not only will this gradually develop their cognitive skills, but it will also help spark their creativity and imagination. It’s also a great way to increase the strength of the muscles in their hand and grip writing instruments. Check out these fun drawing games for kids.
12. Pick up things: Make kids pick up their toys and other items and keep them in the basket. This helps boost their movement making way for better muscle development. Additionally, it also teaches them to be more responsible and clean up after themselves.
13. Swimming: Take kids to the pool or set up a kiddie pool for kids to play in water and learn to swim. Not only will the kids enjoy themselves, but it is also a great way to get kids to exercise. This improves the child’s fine and gross motor skills.
14. Read bedtime stories: Kids love to listen to stories, especially at night. This is one of the best activities for 1 year olds to develop their listening and understanding skills. Additionally, it helps them learn new words and enhances their language skills. Reading stories is also a great way to enhance the child’s imagination. Check out these moral stories for kids, which are a great way to teach important life lessons to kids.
15. Take them for a walk: This is a fun thing to do with 1 year olds. It helps them explore and discover things around them. You can take them for a walk around the neighborhood or to the park. This helps them connect with the real world where they can touch plants, play with other kids, play with sand etc. 
16. Coloring: Little kids are fascinated by color and love coloring. So, encourage your little artist by giving them a sheet of paper and some crayons or child-safe paint. This is a great activity to enhance your child’s fine motor skills like hand-eye coordination, grabbing etc. Check out these animal coloring pages for kids.
17. Play with dishes and utensils: Most little kids love to play with kitchen utensils. Give your little one spoons and plates and other kitchen utensils to play with. This activity encourages pretend play, which enhances their imagination and creativity. Additionally, it also enhances their fine motor skills.
18. Water plants: Help your child learn the importance of plants in our lives by teaching them to care for them. Watering plants is a great activity to teach kids about plants. Additionally, they get to play with water, which they really enjoy.
19. Dancing: Who doesn’t enjoy dancing? Kids especially are fond of dancing to music. Put on some peppy, child-friendly tunes and encourage them to dance. This enhances a child’s fine and gross motor skills. This is one of the best activities for 1 year olds to boost their physical and mental growth and development. 
20. Crawl tunnel: A great way to pique your curious little bundle’s interest is with a crawl tunnel. Your little one will have great fun exploring the inside of the tunnel and coming out the other side. Additionally, it helps the child exercise as they crawl from one end to the other. This is a great game that enhances their curiosity and gross and fine motor skills.

Osmo offers a great selection of games and activities to instill a love of learning in your child. Beyond teaching them core skills through play, we’re also developing their creativity, curiosity, and imagination. The more kids play, the more they learn! Try to incorporate all our activities into your child’s daily routine and tell us what you think. For more activities, games and worksheets that make learning fun, check our kids learning section.

Frequently Asked Questions on Activities for 1-Year-Olds