Toys for Toddlers During School Lessons

As soon as we went into “quarantine” mode I quickly went to Amazon to gear us up for this “homeschooling” or “crisis schooling” as some call it. I ordered various things (mostly for Easter baskets) and made sure we had some things on hand to assist with schooling my preschooler AND occupying our toddler.

As someone who has followed many homeschooling mamas on Instagram, some of the things I love to see are the wonderful, educational toys they have; or just simply the play/learning space they have setup or how they homeschool with little ones present. Homeschooling with little ones isn’t quite easy, I am sure most of us have learned by now!

First off, if you’re homeschooling your children with babies and toddlers present then I am right there with you! It’s not always easy for sure, but we try our best to do so without having to rely on electronics to occupy a 3 year old during that time (I rather save screen time for other things). So when I went to order some extra goodies for our family, I included lots of fun things to occupy my toddler. In addition to this, we have also pulled certain toys from his room and established boxes that are pulled out only during school time. I love this tip as it eliminated toys from his room and makes old toys seem more exciting when they are pulled back out. Consider it a good toy rotation that is used for school time in the home.

Toys for Tots During School Lessons

Bristle Blocks: An old classic! Who remembers playing with these in school? My children are loving them! It’s a great thing to pull out for little ones when you need their busy bodies to stay focused and quiet. I almost wish I had purchased a larger set.

Egg Shapes: This will be in our Easter basket this year for the little one and I think it’s going to be a great addition to our shelf of goodies. Little hands and minds can benefit from this fun toy!

Dinosaur Friends: This is a bit more challenging for a toddler to do, especially alone, but my two youngest ones enjoyed this while we finished our oldest child’s math lessons. Pull them out occasionally and let them work at matching the Dinos!

Art Supplies: Majority of the time our toddler is right at the table coloring with us. He has a jar of markers and enjoys coloring in his coloring books. He also LOVES to paint, so let them get messy with some paint is always fun. Play dough and markers are HUGE! As he gets too loud though, I will pull a toy box or one of these fun activities for him to do in his own room.

Number Puzzle Board: This is fun! There are many out there and pictured is the one we have. You can set the pegs up for them to count the rings and add them on and more. The littlest one has enjoyed playing with the puzzle while my four year old enjoys counting out the rings.

Kinetic Sand: We haven’t opened this yet, but what a fun way to play mess free! Set it up in a big tray or baking sheet and let them go to town!

Puzzle Boards: While regular puzzles are fun, I love the idea of ones that create pictures and can also be used to create pictures outside of the board itself. Leave it to the little ones to discover how to create their favorite animals.

Melissa and Doug letter matching: This toy definitely depends on the age. Smaller toddlers will not understand this, but it’s a good one to have for them to grow into.

Counting Cubes: This is another versatile toy because smaller toddlers can just build or even sort colors while older toddlers can actually work with these for counting and easy math lessons. We even used them one day for our first grader during her math lesson.

Animals: Get a jug or box of animals, dinosaurs or whatever your child may be into and keep it stashed away for school time. We have a box of animals that he gets while the older ones do school. Other boxes we have include Potato Heads, a wooden farm and wooden trains to build together.

Alphabet Popsicle Matching: Just search “Learning Resources for toddlers” on Amazon and this brand of toys will pull up with some fun and creative ways to teach and entertain little ones.

Matching Dinosaurs: I love these cute little friends. Click them together for easy color matching.

Dot Paint/Markers: This fun set of paint is next on our list! I can’t wait to add these in for some fun and to occupy the little one with some art projects.

Some easy and quick ways to find creative learning toys is to search for Stem toys, Montessori Toys, or search for the brand Learning Resources on Amazon. There are countless ways to help engage and entertain a little one during school lessons and sometimes all it takes is to search through what you have and get a little creative! Don’t feel like you have to spend a ton of money, most of these items are under $10-15 and most of the time, we probably have plenty of things laying around our home that we can organize and put into a toy rotation specifically set for “school time.”

I hope you enjoyed some of these ideas for your little one. Share in the comments what you have found works for you while you compete school work with your older ones!