See how many ways you can use cotton balls to entertain your kids!
Sometimes you just don’t have time for fancy equipment and complicated set-ups when you just need to entertain your toddler.
Why not entertain your tots with something you have just lying around the house collecting dust?
Why I Came Up with This Challenge
I find myself pinning all these cute indoor activities and crafts on Pinterest and getting so excited to try them, only to realize…
I’m missing over half the items needed to do the activity.
Or sometimes I run to the craft store and stock up on random stuff to do this one activity. Then when I try the activity with my toddler, she likes it for a couple of minutes, and then I’m then stuck with a huge bottle of ModPodge or a billion sequins with no real use for it.
Is there a secondary market for partially used, bulk craft supplies?!
At one time we had an entire closet full of orphaned craft supplies. Every time I would walk past, I could hear their tiny voices calling out, “Play with me!”
Does anyone else have this problem? (The orphaned craft supplies, not the voices in your head, I mean…)
Somewhere along the way, I decided that I don’t want to run out and get a ton of random, single-use craft supplies just to do indoor activities with my toddler.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
So I got creative and challenged myself to pick a common household item and see how many different indoor activities we could make out of it.
Cotton balls.
Yup. You read that right.
What’s so great about cotton balls?
I’m glad you asked!
1. You already have a full bag in your bathroom. I have no idea why they sell such huge bags of the stuff, but it takes me YEARS to go through all the cotton balls. Why are there so many cotton balls?
2. Cotton balls are CHEAP.
3. Cotton balls are sold everywhere. Let’s face it. If I only have the time and energy to go to one store for the day, it’s not going to be an out-of-the-way specialty craft store.
(If you wanna get all fancy, you could absolutely do these activities with pom poms instead. And if you DO have pom poms, why not also try a pom pom color sorting bin? Another great indoor activity that also teaches colors!)
10 Quick and Easy Ways to Entertain Your Toddler Using Cotton Balls
Here are 10 easy, entertaining indoor activities to do with your toddler using a common household item: cotton balls.
1. Cotton ball snowballs
Grab a handful of cotton balls and throw these snowballs at each other! This is a great one for burning off that legendary toddler energy.
Or if you prefer calmer snowball activity, try our magic snowballs experiment!
2. Cotton ball blowing
Put a cotton ball on the coffee table and use a straw to blow it off the table. Try not to pass out 🙂
3. Cotton ball stick-ons
On a sheet of paper, make a shape or letter using glue or double-sided tape, and have your kiddo stick cotton balls on it. Fine motor + learning!
We did a spin-off of this activity using pom poms and contact paper to make letters.
4. Cotton ball arts and crafts
Make sheep, clouds, snowmen, poodles, unicorns, bunnies, or any other fluffy white thing by gluing cotton balls on construction paper. Here’s one of our cotton ball sheep crafts below!
(Tip: googly eyes will take your cotton ball animal to the next level! Plus, you’ll be able to use up some more of those random art supplies!)
5. Cotton ball hide-and-seek
Play the classic cup and ball shuffle game using a cotton ball and two or three opaque cups. Or turn it into a scavenger hunt by hiding cotton balls around the house.
Make sure to count how many you’ve hidden so you can be sure to find them all. 😉
6. Cotton ball sensory bin
Fill a sensory bin with cotton balls and hide interesting objects in it, such as buttons, small toys, or foam letters.
You could also make a snowplow small world by adding a few toy construction trucks and small trees.
7. Cotton ball sniff and sort
Lightly spray perfume (or air freshener! Or essential oil!) on a few cotton balls and mix them up with unscented cotton balls. Have your kid sort the cotton balls by scented and unscented.
Bonus version: Identify the scents.
8. Cotton ball spider web catch
Put masking tape around a hula-hoop like a spiderweb. Hang the hoop and throw cotton balls to try to get them stuck on the web. Instructions here.
9. Cotton ball counting
Draw different amounts of quarter-sized circles on several sheets of paper. Ask your toddler to place a cotton ball on each circle and count the cotton balls. Hooray for simple math!
10. Cotton ball drop
Tape a few paper towel rolls or gift wrapping rolls in a maze on the wall. Let your toddler drop cotton balls into the rolls and watch them fall.
Now you have several boredom busters and don’t need any fancy shmancy supplies to pull them off!
Your Turn! Cotton Ball Challenge
Are ready to take on the cotton ball challenge?
Grab a bag of cotton balls and see how many activities you can do with your kids throughout the week using cotton balls.
Use the ten ideas above as a springboard, then get creative and do your own thing!
Comment below with your favorite cotton ball activities! Did you make up your own?
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!